Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus)

[Jonathan Ashton]

The gharial is critically endangered and many of the ones we saw were a consequence of the reintroduction of juveniles raised in captivity in years gone by. It was really something to see them in their natural surroundings. The Chambal River is pretty clean and this stretch was unpolluted..... until the last few days when the monsoons had been rather spectacular so some plastic waste ended up in this otherwise pristine stretch of river. The guides picked up bits of netting and various plastic buckets as we went along the river.
More to follow, this is not a large one, probably a couple of meters in length. There was a rather unusual looking dominant male a little further on .....

Image input equipment model : Olympus E-M1X
Lens focal length : 420 mm
Focal length in 35 mm film : 841.0mm
Exposure mode : Manual exposure
Photographic Sensitivity : 4000
Exposure bias : +1 EV
Exposure time : 1/1600 sec
F number : F13
Flash : OFF

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Jon,

This is the first time I see an image of this species, thank you for sharing:S3:

Interesting how long and thin the snout is, and the amount of fine teeth, they look very sharp - he must have about a hundred of them! I gather this species eats tiny fish, given the shape and size of the snout?

What I like about this frame - apart from the gharial itself of course - is that you managed to include the water and thus show the environment. Reflection is also nice. Good pose with the snout off the ground and visible eye, was the subject moving?

Not sure I should comment on colour, having seen this character for the first time. What I can say is that he blends very well with the environment :w3

You could perhaps extract more detail in PP and give those scales more prominence, but I do realise this is no ordinary crocodile and the scales look rather flat, in comparison to our African chaps.

Once again thank you so much for sharing, and let's see the dominant male, please! Hope you have a lovely rest of the evening, Jon:tinysmile_shy_t:

Warmest regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon .... you had a real good sighting with this species , i think .
Lovely low POV and i do like the framing from left to right , just think this image is crying for a more pano crop .
I do like the tones and the overall colors .
I might work a bit on the croc to separate it more from the BG and FG .

TFS Andreas

[John Mack]

Never hear or seen one of this neat looking creatures before. Nice view of all those teeth. Nice and sharp and the detail looks quite nice. Framing works well.

[Mike Poole]

just about perfect positioning here to get the POV and body angle Jon. Sharpness looks spot on.

I've never seen one of these in the flesh, but other shots I've see have all tended to be a little darker, I don't know if this is just a pale individual but he looks a little washed out. Maybe lose the 3 white rocks above the snout?

Mike

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jon, well going against the feedback, I find it a bit 'thin' with too much negative space above, which takes the viewers eye away from the subject. Getting more Tonal range in, will add to the 'layering' effect and add depth to the 2D image. The white and black blobs in the BKG need evicting, again additional distracting elements. F/13 may have been a bit more than you needed, especially if you convert it into old money. You needed the perspective here Jon and got it.

I'll ping something over.

TFS
Steve

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Jon, a good shot of the Gharial with nice inclusion of the water habitat. Yes the croc can be worked upon to improve the tonal range but yet the large eye, the thin snout does capture interest.