Slippin' and Slidin'

[Gabriela Plesea]

May was "High ISO" month for me, for the majority of opportunities presented themselves in low light, be it early morning or late afternoon. This rather brief sighting occurred last Sunday on a short trip to one of the local Game Reserves, and we were busy watching a herd of elephants when this young female decided to go down to the river on her own to drink and have a splash... not much water and the descent was a bit steep, so our dear ellie girl here almost landed on her back side:bg3: Managed a few frames in-between all the laughter in the car, both myself and Andre were very amused to notice the grimace on her face as she tries to regain composure...

Nikon D4S (not my own, a loan from uncle Nikon)
Nikon 500 F4
ISO 6400
F5.6
1/1600s

This is certainly not near as exciting as Marc's recent Sequence, nevertheless I thought it might bring a smile on your face:w3

Kind regards,

[Marc Mol]

First of all let me say how envious I (and likely most other forum members) am that you both can make these short trips down to your local GR, to capture these well timed and opportunistic
moments. :5

Good to see you exploring the full capabilities of the D4/s high ISO range :w3, and yes this brings a smile to my face on seeing mum slip & slid her way down this embankment, was there
a young one close by?

TFS

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great series and nothing wrong with using high ISO. But you should know what I think of that now anyways right?
Made me smile too. I am sure elephants are way smarter than what one may think.
Wish I had stuff like this close to home. Oh well, owls and other BOP will have to do. :t3

[Diane Miller]

What fun!! The lumbering beast meets its match in a muddy bank... Excellent shots!

Come to think of it, I've seen photographers in a similar situation.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much Marc, Akos and Diane!

I so appreciate the privilege of having a Big 5 Game Park on my door step, literally 10 minutes' drive from our gate...although I am frustrated at times because I work Monday to Saturday... believe it or not, the whole week we have awesome sunny weather and Sundays it is often overcast - not fair!!!

Last Sunday myself and Andre found ourselves surrounded by over 200 buffalo on our way out from the Park, also elephants in great numbers and really peppered all over the place, but not a lot of water in the area due to draught so we cannot enjoy the proximity we are used to...Ellies are super intelligent and we hear so many stories about them from our local game rangers, the most interesting one being about this one old ellie who picks up stones with this trunk and throws them at game viewing vehicles...the old rangers know this chap so well, they don't completely give in to his demands but ever so slightly reverse to show him some good will. He is then happy and lets them pass, after just minutes of throwing twigs about and showing everyone who is boss:)

Once again thank you for taking the time to view, I am really happy to share :S3:

[Rachel Hollander]

Gabriela - I'm moving inm though on second thought I don't think I could deal with all the power outages and rural living. A fun sequence. I think she was embarrassed that you captured it.

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Rachel, this ellie girl seemed indeed embarrassed about the "landing"...Don't know about the rural living - I used to think it was awesome, but things have changed lately...The only good thing remaining is...a Big 5 on our doorstep... soon to be a " Big 4", unless we do something about it - we are trying our best though...

Warmest regards,

[Marina Scarr]

I could practically taste the dust when viewing this series, Gabriela. Your high ISO didn't effect your quality at all from the looks of it. The last image is my fav, esp with seeing her tail flipping behind her.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Marina,

It was such a pleasure sharing those fun moments! There was really no time to compose here, all happened so fast! Priceless expression from the ellie and for that reason I thought it was worth sharing - glad you enjoyed this, thank you so much for taking the time to view and comment:)

Warmest regards,