African Elephants

[Geoffrey Montagu]

When we took off last month from the airport in southern Botswana, one of the first animal sightings was an extended family of elephants. Then another, and another. Pretty emotional experience for me to see them in the wild. Not long after we arrived we would start experiencing many more encounters, some of them extremely close. There really is no other way say this, but trying to explain the emotion in words, for example, while numerous families passing by our vehicle 6 or so feet from us, is difficult. Those of you that have had this experience can relate. How great also to see them throughout the day. C&C welcome.

D4S, Nikon 24-120mm @ 75mm, 1/2500s, f 8.0, HH, ISO 640


Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

I can almost hear the silence as I look at this scene Geoff. The sky seems to be going a little off-color just above the trees but a nice serene scene all around.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Geoffrey, Botswana is certainly the 'Jewel' in Africa's crown for sure, but at a price, however having been there many times like you, you understand why it is.

A very 'iconic' image of these wonderful animals drinking, nice to have various sizes too. Techs look ok, perhaps 1/1600 may have been slightly better, just dropping the ISO, but it hasn't hurt the image. I thought about going a tad lower, ie just shooting whilst standing next to the vehicle, but then I doubt you would have got the nice water. Colour looks good although if you haven't applied a CPL then the Blues may be, just a fraction pushed, but certainly backing off on Contrast/Clarity, Blacks and a wee bit on the Shadows opens up both the bush in the BKG but also the elephants too. If you are after depth in the bush you can do this with colour.

Duma Tu is a camp I have not been to so be interested to see what else you have from your adventures.

TFS
Steve

[John Mack]

Very cool. This reminds me of one of those scenes from a nature documentary about Africa or elephants. Well done.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A really eye catching scene, very nice indeed, I too had a couple of close encounters with families one of which was more than 40 in number, it really is quite an experience! I agree regards a slight lifting of the shadows.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

A beautiful scene with classic Botswana eles drinking to their hearts content. Nice composition.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks everyone. Toby, that off-color area was the way it looked and I'm not sure if matching the upper blues would look better. Maybe a tad darker blue in that area would help. Steve, I did not use my CPL. I'll take another look at the original file with your suggestions applied.

More to come.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)