Making good use of that trunk

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

An elephant twirls the grass around the trunk ready to pop it in his/her mouth. Its amazing how they use the trunk for various purposes & how sensitive yet agile and powerful it is.
7D
70mm
1/320
f/4
ISO 400

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice balance of sharpness and trunk motion here Sanjeev.
Typically busy bushveld/lowveld surroundings (presume Timbavati or Sabi Sands?), not much you can do about that.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Sanjeev -- Nice timing here , and sharpness and details look good too . I would have liked to see more separation from the BKG especially the area where the tusk is visible but you had these settings at your disposal , nicely done .

TFS !

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks Morkel and Haseeb. This was Timbavati indeed!

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev - A simple portrait that works with nice detail brought out on the hide and the bit of movement in the trunk. Perhaps just a sliver more room below if you have it.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Sanjeev

Like the slight blur of the grass with the slow SS- was that the intention?
Was there any EV applied?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, for me the image appears a bit thin and lacks that depth. I don't think having the slight movement in the trunk was intentional, but more the the initial techs 1/320 and the 7D, not wishing to push the ISO here? If you were more to your right then it may have addressed Haseeb's view on having the trunk & grass with greater separation. Having a bit more below would have been better from a composition POV.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Sanjeev,

I like the sense of movement here and slightly OOF grass as opposed to the trunk, which is nice and sharp. A lovely image showing behaviour of the species, I gather not everyone has seen how deft those creatures can be when it comes to selecting the best and most nutritious bits, wrapping their trunk around them and shaking them rapidly to get rid of unwanted dust and soil. Just like in your image above:)

Been reading some of the comments above and thought of something: how about you "box" the ellie a bit by cropping from the top, eliminating those branches and bright sky? You could perhaps give him more space at the bottom instead if available, to avoid a square format - WDYT? I also feel this could do with a bit of warmth, especially in those places where the sun touches the ellie.

What a pity their environment is shrinking, humans constantly complain that ellies cause damage to plants and trees, forgetting the species move around quite a lot and thus allow for vegetation to recover. That is, if we give them enough space:)

Thank you for this post Sanjeev, I enjoyed viewing. Steve is right about the techs but I guess this frame was taken some time ago, nowadays you surely choose your camera settings more carefully:w3

Warmest regards,