Mother..

[Andre Pretorius]

To me a very emotional and disturbing scene...This frame was captured as part of a series, the setting - a heavy forested area next to the Shingwedzi river in Northern Kruger.

Our attention was drawn by the screams of a baby while we were busy capturing some Baboon youngsters free falling from trees nearby (see Gabriela's recent post in Story Sequences Forum).
The desperate youngster tried to climb on his mother's back as she was foraging. Well, she wanted none of this...Perhaps she was just tired of him and his demands?
He kept trying to get on her back, she kept pushing him down. She never made eye-contact with her child...the feeling we perceived was "leave me alone, go away now..."
The screaming was almost ear-shattering, he aired his pain and rejection for everyone to hear... but she kept pushing him down, regardless.
She moved forward, still scratching the earth for food, the little one dangling and again screaming, holding onto her leg in despair as she chewed away and showed no empathy...

Eventually she reached some aunts who they took the baby from her, cuddling and comforting the very distraught little one.
She continued foraging and appeared relieved of her burden...

Never seen this behaviour before in a troop of Baboons although I spent many, many hours in their presence.

The rest of the series was between smaller trees and foliage, very difficult to get a clean shot.

Please excuse IQ, shot @ 8000 ISO, even the D3S struggled in this "choppy waters".
There is NO halo around mom- I checked mask- it was there in the RAW due to light coming in from upper LHC..(back/side/rim-lighting)

This encounter affected us to a great extent and we were speechless as we started the car. The thought that crossed my mind was " primates are a lot like some humans..."


Techs:
Nikon D3S with 500f4
1/1250@ f7.1
ISO 8000
0EV

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andre, great capture, the narrative dovetails oh so well with the scene and good to see you pushing that ISO, it obviously didn't melt your camera then :bg3:.

Easy to say with hindsight, but having a bit more rear leg to convey that striding step may have helped, the truncated feet I think is OK because your eyes are looking at the baby cling on for dear life and 'mum's face. BTW is that a tumour on the jaw?

You did well in this overall capture with everything going on!

TFS
Steve

[haseeb badar]

Hi Andre -- Very nicely taken ! You done well in this low light situation and nice choice of dof also . Your narrative goes well with the image and you have managed to compose it well . It appears to me some blues are creeping in on the muzzle of the adult and the BKG also looks cool in tones , though it depicts the light scenario but i prefer some warmish tones , personal preference i guess .
TFS !

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andre - A great story-telling image. You can hear the baby's screams just by seeing the image. Nice sharpness and detail and I like the sense of movement as well. It might have taken it up a notch to shoot a little wider but difficult to make those decisions when the action is happening.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andre Pretorius]

Thank you Steve and Haseeb

Steve, the camera was feeling hot...:2eyes2:
I decided to crop the way I did not to have half a leg on bottom and half of the tail on top...
The lump is just some food stored in her cheek to munch on later...
Thank you Haseeb for comment!
Did reduce blues with Sat layer before saving as PSD and then again after resizing.
Did darken some BG, checked again for blues...almost had the Blues or Pink Floyd..

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Rachel

@ work, took me more than hour to write the reply with the constant patients, missed your comment...sorry.

Was trying to follow her while panning on the gimbal- she was moving between trees, lens was bumping against side mirror--typical chaos when
trying to shoot action from the drivers seat in a closed 4x4. Did manage a few images, was a mission to find one with a dramatic pose with the little one,
with no sticks in FG covering her body...
This one not the best in comp, but probably tick some of the other boxes...