On golden pond

[Dave Kettles]

My first post in this wildlife forum.
Pilanesberg, SA, 1D4 and 200-400 at 560, 1/640 @5.6, iso 640, beanbag from hide, Mankwe.

[Nancy Bell]

Welcome to BPN!! Super golden lighting and wonderful water spray & reflection! Very nice angle on the ellie, plus the lifted hind leg & the ears back to reveal the face. Also well done to have the eye in the sunny part of the face. I really like the reflection and wonder if your name could be placed elsewhere. And do you have a bit more of the reflection so the entire reflected elephant can be shown? All that gold coloring is just beautiful.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Dave. Welcome aboard. Great first post with lovely light, nice behaviour and reflection. I like the low angle and that ?croc on the bank.
TFS.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi David and a very warm welcome to the Wildlife Forum, great opening image.

Really like the warm, golden light here, it really sets the image off a treat and the playful nature of the Elephant with the arching stream of water. Some nice tonal quality too which has created some good 'form' which has defined the subject nicely. If this is a crop then I might suggest a slight CCW rotation, if it's FF then you start to eat into the image with the rotation sadly. Perhaps in this instance, the white reflection is a little distraction, but knotting you could have done. Knowing the MKIV I would have gone to 800 and skipped the mid ISO, just be mindful of retaining a good SS.

TFS
Steve

[Dave Kettles]

thanks to you all for your kind and valuable inputs, appreciated. FF, but you are spot on about the rotation, and I think it looks better! Embarrassing to miss the level! Minor changes, repost. At time of shooting had the option to zoom back, but in the moment missed getting the full spray!
Dave.

[Steve Kaluski]

Dave, it's always easy to spot things when you are divorced from the image and or with hindsight. If in the heat of the moment next time you can remember, then a valuable lesson learnt :S3:. If you give yourself a little bit of latitude when framing the composition it will allow you to do the final edit and hone at the PP stage. Although subtle it is better, the issue is that it's now quite tight on the RHS, but still a nice image and it contains some fun/playfulness which is great.

Cheers
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Dave - Another warm welcome to BPN and the Wildlife Forum in particular. Great first post. Beautiful golden light and the water stream takes this up a notch. The rp is an improvement. Looking forward to more wildlife images from you.

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

And another warm welcome to BPN Wildlife, Dave:wave:

Lovely ellie in golden light, well seen and captured and nice PP work:w3

Has anyone noticed the croc in the BG?!?

I love the water splash, ellie nice and sharp and some wonderful detail, a pleasure to view and will certainly look out for your future posts, keep them coming please!

Kind regards,

[Nancy Bell]

I like the repost!

[Mike Poole]

Go on - another warm welcome! :wave:

Beautiful light and a great spray from the ellie - I really like the way the shadow has just missed the eye, and the detail brought out by that light is sublime

Mike

[haseeb badar]

Hi Dave -- welcome to BPN ! lovely image here, loved the light , spray and the croc in the BKG ! TFS

[Dave Kettles]

Thanks to all for your input, and your welcome! I think I may just keep at this for a while, there is clearly lots to learn from the group wisdom!
Dave.

[Morkel Erasmus]

A belated welcome from me too, David! Love the light here, of course the spray, and the croc in the BG is a nice touch.
Though most people go to Mankwe hide for the birds, one can get some great images of mammals there, this being one of them. Agree on leveling...
Looking forward to more of your photography... :cheers:

[Dave Kettles]

Thanks Morkel, appreciated.
D