Savanna Kudu

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi to all

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, looking forward to the New Year!
Some have to work tomorrow, my sincere regrets..(note to ourselves..)

Kudu is a browser, not a grass eater.. On the flat savannah with few trees they have to wander great distances to find the leaves to sustain them.
It was interesting to see him scouring the grass plains looking for some foliage.

Struggled a bit with this image, although I loved the capture/scene- looked for an image with impact where the BG does not intersect with head on BG- but I needed the BG for the "vast" feeling I wanted to portray. (alone/lost..almost)
Tried to have the BG have minimal impact..
Do I flip this image?
The eye...tried to lighten up slightly, without being obvious..
Tried to get more MT- boost on hide with Local enhancement using TK MT3 and USM.
The dried branches on RHS of image, I think they must stay... add to environment.
Reduced yellows a bit on subject.

Techs
Nikon D3S with 300f2,8
1/1000 @ f5,6
ISO 200
0 EV
Centre Weighted Average
Manuel exp, auto ISO

[Daniel Cadieux]

Merry Christmas to you too Andre.

I like the image a lot, superb sense of savannah habitat. I love the wind swept neck hairs, really cool. Just enough separation between the two antlers. I would have preferred no BG bushes touching the nose tip. As posted I'd be tempted to crop off some off of below to minimize the bright area along the bottom. I agree the dry branches in RHS must stay.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andre, I think Dan has summed up a lot of my thoughts, the wind swept mane as he faces into the breeze is really nice and the overall light conveys well, that dry heat. Don't flip it, works well.
All in all very nice Andre, come on, lets see more. :cheers:

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice open setting for this one, Andre.
Agree - it works well as presented.
A sidenote - I have seen them graze on grass quite a couple of times. When times are tough, hunger is hunger eh :Whoa!:

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andre - I agree with the others, this works extremely well. It shows off those fabulous horns as well as the open savannah habitat. Nice tones and colors too. I would not flip it either.

TFS,
Rachel

[keith mitchell]

When I first looked I thought the Kudu was testing the scents on the air, it all looks very good as posted and would not flip it and certainly would not remove those twigs.

Keith.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Buthi i would not change a thing ....
Works so well on all counts :5 :cheers:

TFS Andreas

[Andre Pretorius]

Thank everyone for the kind Comments!
:bg3:

[Mark Needham]

Hi Andre -- Very rare for me to see a kudu out in the open like this; for me, they tend to be in the open and just as I raise my camera / lens, they sneak behind a tree :2eyes2:. I think you handled the processing very well in this. I agree with Daniel's ideas to take this up a notch. Happy New Year! :cheers:

[Marc Mol]

Love the inclusion of habitat here Andre, with the swept back mane really enhancing here, defintely NO to flipping as well for me.

Have also seen them many times grazing and out in the open, so not that unusual, especially in Ruaha.:w3

TFS

[haseeb badar]

Merry Christmas Andre -- lovley image with good overall framing and the light is also nicely handled . a bit of midtones boost might rev it up . TFS !