Down to Drink

[Andre Pretorius]

We returned from our trip in Kruger without any Lion/Cheetah/ Leopard images, despite doing more than 2500km in the park.
Kruger is as beautiful as it always been.
One of my first memories of the Park was of a 5 year old boy in Skukuza, asking mom to cut the sides of a sugar sachet with the Custos Nature emblem on it- I wanted to slide it over the epaulets of my Khaki shirt to look like a Ranger!:t3

SanParks have increased the accommodation so much to satisfy the demand, that it is now almost impossible to have peace for your soul at any sighting.

We have encountered much more people than even Impalas!

I did manage to get some video capture on the camera trap of 3 Honey Badgers visiting/re-arranging our Kitchen area at Maroela Tented camp, middle of the night!

Admitting that we have chosen our reservations and routes to be away from the crowds (that is where the sightings are), it was still a bit disappointing.

February we are back in the Kalahari (do not know how long it is going to last before it is completely commercialised?) and September Moremi/Savuti/Chobe with our German Buthi (aka Mr BE!)

The Image- We returned back to Punda Maria camp when the light left, decided to check out the hide close to fence. Had this Elephant coming down to quench his thirst.

Had to push gear to limits..
D3S with 300f2,8
1/640@ F5
ISO 9000
-2/3 EV
50% crop
Bean Bag with VR on from hide.

The sides of half empty waterhole was collapsing under his weight and he was sinking in the wet sand in front of him..

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andre, just a couple of things:

- Can you post the FF image please, wonder if there is another crop option?
- Have you adjusted any of the shadow areas?
- Based on the techs & distance, would shooting wide open helped?

Cheers
Steve

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Steve

Attached is the FF Raw-jpeged.
Did Curves with diff blending modes with mask, some channel blending, TK midtones with mask on ellie and signed my name.
Shooting @ f2,8..very afraid of DOF drop off, rarely shoot below F4 unless far off with busy BG..?
WDYT?
PS Going to bed now, dreaming of Africa with Big Bears..:S3:

[Steve Kaluski]

Andre I prefer the uncropped version, likewise the shadow depth too, but just my take. Going f/4 may have added to add a fraction more SS and I doubt too much loss on the DoF. If you had a far distance between subject & BKG I think you would have been fine.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andre - I think I agree with Steve and prefer the wider version. Those water levels are really low (as you and Gab keep telling me). I hope there are rains this summer. The bent leg and digging trunk add to the image's interest. I think you handled the low light well. Yes, you could have opened up and perhaps dropped the ISO slightly but it looks good for ISO 9000.

TFS,
Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Very nice pose and behaviour with good IQ despite the high ISO. I like the wider view too. TFS.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Andre -- at first sight I liked the OP but after seeing the wider view , I am more inclined towards that and a lovely result for Iso 9000. TFS !!!

[Andre Pretorius]

Thank you all for comments and suggestions!:S3:

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Andre ..... you have stolen my crop :bg3: and received bad comments , LOL . And you have also stolen the shadows from me , i think you went a bit overboard with the channel blending and the soft light tricky greenie channelie ........ i have to laugh out loud my Buthi.

From my POV you did extremely well , just for the reason i do find there is so much useless stuff that did not add anything to the image :w3 :wave:. As Steve is sometimes asking .... does it help the image ? Well in this case for me not , so again i think you did well with the crop . But hey all is personal view and feeling !!
I like the overall tone and color , i think it reflects the time of day quite well , but i repeat that i think you went a bit too strong with the soft light blending in the deep shadows . Have you used a mask ? i mean a lumo mask , or have you painted in the soft light ? I would have excluded the BG from the effect for more subtle tonality and more separation from the main subject , just my thoughts , Buthi .
Oops i forgot that i like the come down to drink pose of the Elie and that you handled the HIGH ISO very nice with this shot !!!

Thanks for sharing this again !!!! :t3

TFS Mr B.E.

[Andre Pretorius]

Thank you Andreas for comments and suggestions!

Attached is my original version- I did not like the square crop, and reduced the famous Nikon Blues in low light- image was a bit green for my eyes.
Andreas, did curves with painted mask and with different blending modes with various opacity.
Wasn't happy with result, decided to play a bit with channels.....
Steve, I want detail in lights and darks-(always shooting ETTR), lifting darks to the point that there is detail there. Histogram MUST be from 0 to 255 (or as close to that)
Agree, should have tried F4 or even lower..