Hippo Love!

[Craig Markham]

MK3L7354
12/15/08 11:00:17 AM
Serengeti
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x @ 700.0mm
1/320, f/8.0, ISO 800
Manual Exposure
Evaluative Metering
White Balance Shade
One-Shot AF

We found this bull hippo having his way in a backwater of the Serengeti River. He finally let her up for air, while a nonchalant cattle egret rode shotgun looking for insects. He seems to have the blush of passion, and that does look like a smile.

[David Thomasson]

We found this bull hippo having his way in a backwater of the Serengeti River. He finally let her up for air, while a nonchalant cattle egret rode shotgun looking for insects. He seems to have the blush of passion, and that does look like a smile.


Wonderful capture! A smile indeed. "Oh, baby, come to Papa!" :D

Footnote in light of subsequent comments: I like the partly submerged hippos in the foreground. They add to the (to us) strange circumstances of this tender moment: Hippos in front of us, hippos in back of us, and a white bird perched on my back. And still I soldier on!

[John Lowin]

MK3L7354
12/15/08 11:00:17 AM
Serengeti
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x @ 700.0mm
1/320, f/8.0, ISO 800
Manual Exposure
Evaluative Metering
White Balance Shade
One-Shot AF

We found this bull hippo having his way in a backwater of the Serengeti River. He finally let her up for air, while a nonchalant cattle egret rode shotgun looking for insects. He seems to have the blush of passion, and that does look like a smile.

Great smile. I envy you this image. I never gotten a chance to photograph mating hippos.

I hope you aren't offended. I straightened the "horizon" line, sharpened the image a bit and eliminated the two bodies in the foreground and cropped some top and bottom. I felt there was more emphasis on the principal animals in the more pano view. - John

[Fabs Forns]

Great moment captured. I like what John did, the original had a bit of clutter in the foreground with all the bodies.

[Craig Markham]

Thanks, John, nice crop, and good catch on the horizon line. I usually lean toward keeping some context with my critters, and a hippo pool usually looks like a log jam. I wanted to capture a "moment in the life of...", and felt that zooming the crop in too close would actually overemphasize the "act" instead of conveying a broader sense of the moment. Hippos don't seem to do anything in private -- and I don't think the big bad bull cares! So I was OK with the foreground "extras".

The added sharpening brings out some concentric artifacts, particularly around the egret. I checked my original RAW file, and can't find them there. The additional sharpening also makes the skin pores and the area around the female's eye look a bit flakey, on my screen anyway. I think the artifacts were somehow generated during the conversion to JPG from RAW (I see them faintly in my original post). The female is slightly OOF because the focus is centered on the bull's nose. There's no real substitute for sharp focus, is there! I think I pushed the sharpening about as far as it should go at the RAW level (I usually sharpen past the acceptable point, and then back it off a click or two. Same with noise reduction.).

You envy me the image? Well, I've certainly been enjoying your wonderful Masa Maasai predator-prey series! I think I have a distance to go before I catch up with you! Thank you for the suggestions and illustration -- always welcome!
-- Craig

[Nate Chappell]

Great moment you captured well here Craig, I was going to suggest the crop that John made even before I saw it, congrats for getting this shot.

[Robert Amoruso]

Craig,

Nice work on creating this image and capturing the moment. John's crop works great and retains the feel the you mention of a logjam.

[Arthur Morris]

Well done as above. I wish only that the river were a lot, lot wider and the intersection of the far bank with the bird and the mmale hippo's back is problematic.