Impalas dodging the storm

[Hilary Hann]

Image taken in the Mara North Conservancy, January this year. It may be hard to see the impalas under the tree. We had been avoiding this storm all day and we did manage to miss the worst.
Image taken at 5.30pm so the light was changing and a bit later we had some glorious colours light up the clouds.
40D
EF 70-200mm @ 70mm
f9.5
ISO 200
1/250s
manual exposure, handheld

I increased the saturation of the sky somewhat, although the tone of the image was sepia like this at the time.

Post production in photoshop using 3 layers of the same image at different exposures from the raw capture. Blended together manually to highlight the sky. I have left the dark rain clouds at the right hand side because I want the second tree included to provide added depth.

Would be happy for any suggestions for improvement.

[Kobus Tollig]

I like this Loads well done. This talks about BIG open space for me. This has such a awesome story to it. Well exposed and great comp. Well done.
Have you maybe tried cropping a bit closer?

[DanielTMiller]

Really like this, the mood is great and the impalas are a nice suprise when your eyes are wandering around the photo.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Hilary, dramatic lighting along with angry clouds give this image impact.The impalas are almost not noticeable in the image and would have only known what they were by the title. I would crop or preferably clone out the tree on the far right since it's not adding much to the image because I like the dominance of the lone tree. I also like how you minamalised the ground silouette. Well done!!

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll try some different crops on the weekend when I have time to play with it.

[Hilary Hann]

This is the same image cropped in slightly to remove the right hand side tree.

[Dave Mills]

Very nice Hilary...strong image!

[Hilary Hann]

Thank you for the suggestions. Appreciated. :)

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Both images are good but I will stay with the original, I don't know why but my brain likes the large picture and small tree. BTW, love the light in this one. :)

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Juan. I'm undecided on which I prefer but am glad to have all opinions.

[Paul Taylor]

I like both but prefer the original crop with almost a third of rain and blackness on the right. I also prefer slightly more of a black base that in the repost, although if it were to be mounted on a black background, might change my mind.

[Glenn Nevill]

Or perhaps clone in some more black ground along the bottom. It looks too close to the edge in the second version.

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Glenn, I have plenty of foreground available so will go back to the original post for the amount of foreground. I have printed both the first and the re-post and keep looking at them to see which I prefer. :confused:

[Hilary Hann]

I entered this in the Australian Professional Print Awards and it was judged today gaining a Silver. Thank you for all the C & C, much appreciated.

I'm not feeling at all cocky though as my other 3 prints didn't quite make it. Oh well, next year.