Red-billed Oxpecker

[Dorian Anderson]

This giraffe crossed the road right in front of our car at Kruger. I was shooting it with my 100-400
but reached for my 600 when I saw the oxpecker on the animal's flank. Giraffes tolerate these
freeloaders because the birds keep the beasts tick-free.

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS R5
1/400 at f/5.6, ISO 1600
Processed in LR CC and Topaz

194089

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Dorian ... glad you took the opportunity !!!
Almost a piece of art with the BG , well done .
Parts of the fur look blown ??? !!
I might try to make the fur darker and the subject a tad lighter .... to make the OP pop more .

Nice one and TFS Andreas

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Dorian, your image made me smile and remember Stu Bowie, very much like one of his images. I really like the uniqueness of the bird on Giraffe. Bird looks good, as Andreas mentioned there appears to be a few clipped areas in the light pattern on the Giraffe. I think you can fix those in Photoshop using the Patch Tool. Neat image, thank you for sharing.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Good shot Dorian, the Giraffe hide makes for a super background. The Oxpeckers do have the beneficial effect, but they can also be parasitic in that they like open wounds and will visit them and even reopen them in order to drink the blood.

[Dorian Anderson]

Tank you for the kind words. Andreas and Joe - I agree the highlights could use a bit of work. Thanks for that suggestion. Will work on a revision when I'm done leading my current birding tour!

[Brian Sump]

Dorian, I absolutely love the composition. It is so unique and different - A++ on that front.

Everything seems pretty well processed to me and I don't have any qualms with highlights; that is to admit that I did not check the values but they don't jump out at me.

One thing that does stand out is how yellow the image is. Perhaps you already have played with it (and maybe it exactly represents how you saw it), but try pulling back the yellows and maybe see what you think. My memories of the pattern on giraffes is that they are more cream than yellow, but I cannot comment as to this particular species/subject other than sharing it feels over-saturared in the yellow channel.

Thank you so much for sharing, and looking forward to more!!