Mother Nature's Children

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Friends,

I have no intention to impress you with this image, for it is not my best... I just want to move you:w3

I took this frame in a hurry and without giving much thought to camera settings... This young Chachma Baboon ran towards his mother as the entire troop decided to move on and she stood up to go...He immediately latched onto her nipple and for a few brief moments looked straight into my lens... I saw this opportunity and did not waste any time checking the histogram...

Kindly give me your thoughts, what do you think?

Nikon D4
Nikon 500 F4
ISO 800
F6.3
1/1250s

Kind regards,

[Katie Rupp]

Gabriela,

Moved indeed! Immediately grabs the heart. The intimate pov, direct eye contact and the position/hanging-on action of the hand and foot all come together to tell the story.

Thanks for sharing this one, I love it.

Cheers

Katie

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - Definitely a moving image! The eye contact is great and I like the way the mom frames the youngster. I took the liberty of playing a little and taking it into NIK where I used control points to darken the frame around the baby as well as apply negative structure there. I was trying to draw the eye to the baby. Not sure whether it is an improvement over the op but wanted to give it a shot. WDYT?

TFS,
Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Gabriela, this is a lovely image! Great interaction, nice comp and that stare to the cam all make this image a wonderful one. The intimacy conveyed is terrific. Nice timing and you certainly made the most of the opportunity. Just a tad more room below would have been nice. TFS .

[haseeb badar]

Hi Gabriela -- this is a very engaging image . Loved the eye contact and that firm hold of the baby. A bit too bright though and lacks that punch hence i would prefer Rachel's RP on this also i feel sharpness can be added to this . TFS !

[Morkel Erasmus]

Very cute, Gabriela.
I like Rachel's RP - I do wish those bits of fur weren't blocking my view to the little one's eye.
I've captured a similar perspective albeit in a slow shutter technique.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Katie, Rachel, Sanjeev, Haseeb, and welcome back Morkel!

Thank you all for looking and kind comments:)

Rachel - you are absolutely spot-on here, and this is precisely the effect I was looking for! I love it, thank you my friend! :5

Sanjeev, I too wish for more space at the bottom, but there is none, I am afraid :2eyes2: But there's good news, I found another frame with more space at the bottom, just the face of the little one is a tad darker so I would have to lift some shadows there.

And I agree with you too Haseeb, I absolutely love Rachel's version and will rework this as per her RP. Regarding sharpening, I am afraid the image won't take it. I did try but it becomes kind of crunchy. Interesting about the IQ not being so good, I just checked and FP is on the chin of the baby Baboon, SS looks ok, I might have shot this as Andre started the vehicle to change position and movement might be the culprit. A few frames later the images are sharp, I have another few I would like to show you over time but for now just randomly choosing a few because I would like to at least show you some of the moments from this trip.

Morkel, I feel like to move those hairs, or clone them out, LOL! But I won't do it:) I don't feel too bad though, just grateful I got a few frames... this Mother was running and the little chap barely managed to catch up with her, Andre has an awesome sequence as Mom refuses to let him jump on her back and he screams like crazy and clings on to her while she pushes him away, hope he'll share those in Story Sequences Forum soon.

So let us see what I can find to share tonight...appreciate your comments and help and grateful as always:)

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela what a wonderful intimate moment captured when just looking at the face of the youngster , very cute . Also a very tricky image to make it pleasing to me :2eyes2:, for two reasons . One is the tonal " problems " due to the main interest ( the face with the eyes ) is lying in the shadow area , second will be the odd looking crop with the main interest point lying very close to the frame border .
I do not mind the hairs partly covering the eyes / face of the youngster , adds a bit of hide and seek effect to me .

Sadly i have to say none of the two versions are grabbing me :e3, your version is overall a bit flat ( might work better in color like your recent hyena ) and Rachel ´s version the eyes and face are even more hidden as they have less contrast / tone than the surroundings , well this is my humble opinion not saying i am right just my view .
In Rachel´s version the shoulder and the mouth / nose is way too bright and grabbing my attention and it is not about the shoulder / nose/ mouth , for me it is about those innocent eyes , innocent as long as these eyes are not trying to steal your bread from the camping table or entering your car when not locked ........ LOL and leaving a mess behind .... LOL.

The only solution for me would be a " real Processed or over processed " frame where the little guys face/eyes jump into my face and not that i have to look for the place of interest , cause i think this is not a frame to wonder around , as i think a frame to wonder around needs to be a bit wider with the content .

Honestly i have no idea how to manage my idea :bg3: it is just an idea and not my image ..... otherwise i would have already started , maybe an image for 2016 september :wave:

Cheers my little sister and TFS

you might try to post a colored version ..... edited for sure :w3

[Gabriela Plesea]

Andreas, I do understand what you mean. But Rachel has done a much better job than me, and I like where she is going with her RP.

I sent you the RAW via WETransfer. Do go a bit "wild" and try an over-processed version, will you? And let me see what I can do on my side. Let's play, Boetie, we have nothing to lose:5

[Rachel Hollander]

I didn't touch the youngster in my rp. Perhaps I should have.

Cheers,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

I have no intention to impress you with this image, for it is not my best... I just want to move you

Great Gabriela, good for you in doing so, it may also inspire the regular lurkers to perhaps post too????
For me it's more about the moment and not the techs in this image, love it!!!! :cheers:

If you had a burst of images say seven, then yes there is a way you could create the image in PS, but you are allowing PS to be in control, but now we are getting away from why you posted it. Perhaps we should have this as a Theme, - 'Moments'???

Very pleased you posted this, big congrats.

Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you dear Steve,

I do hope to inspire others who have not posted much, or have not posted yet:)

I am indeed disappointed with the quality of some of my images from this trip, at the same time quite excited to have captured something special from time to time, and to have made that extra effort to grab "the moment", despite the circumstances. The skies were unforgiving for most of the time, so I pushed my equipment to the limits. Not used to be stuck in "traffic" at a sighting, but I made the best of it - what a challenge that was! I intend to share with you those images, especially when I feel the content is there and it's worth posting.

Thank you from the heart for your encouragement and understanding, it means so much to me. I love the idea of a new Theme entitled 'Moments", and I look forward to contributing as much as I can:)

Warmest regards,