White Rhino Bull

[Morkel Erasmus]

This big white rhino bull was very docile and quite close to my car in a local wildlife reserve near Pretoria, South Africa. Got quite a few shots of the herd but the grass was very long and not many had clear views of the faces. Desaturated for effect. The cattle egrets roamed with them and snatched any insects that flew up as the rhinos grazed by. I like that they give context to the size of the rhino in the picture.

Your C&C most welcome.

Equipment:
Canon 1000D with Tamron 70-300 Di Tele-Macro @ 88mm!
f5.6 @ 1/640 SS @ ISO 400

[Fabs Forns]

Nice head on portrait, with the Egrets adding to the feeling of place. IMO, a bit over-sharpened, especially the middle part of the image. I like your B&W conversion.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Fabs - only saw the oversharpening myself now.

here is a better version...

[Fabs Forns]

Much better :)

[Harshad Barve]

My vote for repost
Harshad

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Repost is better Morkel. :) I also vote thumbs up for the B&W conversion and love the egrets. :)

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Morkel,
Good to see a b&w image after sometime. I too agree with others that the repost is much better. I would have tried a few at f8 and higher as well. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Harshad, Akos & Sabya. I should've stopped down to f8.0 but at that stage I was still very new to all these settings, and I used my lens' lowest aperture. I know better now :)

[Stu Bowie]

Better you than me close to those rhino's at Rietvlei. One of them charged Anton, he drove forward, I reversed. I like the grass in the mouth, and your repost works much better Mork.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Way to go Morkel!

Yes, the second repost is better. Very nice perspective.

[Robert Amoruso]

I would go with the second repost too.

[Steve Canuel]

Another vote for the repost. Gives a nicer feel to the BW treatment.

[Kartikeya Puri]

I like the repost better as well. I did not know one could get a good Rhino B&W. I do now. Thanks for sharing. :-)

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks a lot for your comments guys!

[Jorge Rodrigues]

Hi Morkel,

Good shot! Like the repost as well.
For me the photo would work a bit better of the shooting angle was a bit lower to enhance the power of the Rhino's head (however this was probably not possible since you don't get out of the car with a big beast like this close by :-)

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Jorge - jip, no chance of a sneaky exit from my vehicle on this occasion ;)

[Billy Steenkamp]

The B and W works well on the contrasting colours of the birds and the rhino ,just watch the background level if not out of focus completely;)

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Billy!