Hippo in the Marsh

[Austin Thomas]

Hi all,

Continuing with the theme of head and shoulder portraits, here is the head of a Hippo, mid yawn.

Take in the Mara using a Canon 1DMk3, 500mm at f9, 1/800, ISO500. ( A strange combination now I look back at them !)

I wasn't able to get any lower down on this one unfortunately as the marsh pond was well below the height of the surrounding land.

C&C welcome.

Cheers

Austin

[Sid Garige]

Great timing Austin. Well done image considering the shooting angle.

[Paul Taylor]

I like it - the background is interesting without really distracting and there's fantastic detail to look at.

You might have lost the tusks if you'd had a lower angle, anyway.

[Danny Laredo]

Sweet moment you captured here. Love the habitat.

[Marc Mol]

It's that lovely green weed BG that makes this fine portrait here Austin, nice light with good detail in that yawn. Plus you've done quite well with the difficult perspective.
TFS

[Ken Watkins]

I once sat at a "waterhole" in Mana Pools with a Hippo in the same situation waiting for it to move, we gave up after 1 1/2 hours.
I think that this makes this an exceptional shot, I love the weeds (looks like Water Lettuce)

[Stu Bowie]

This works for me Austin. Its different to all the other hippo images, as the surrounding weed makes him pop nicely. Good eye contact too.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice yawn. I like the depth of field here. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Morkel Erasmus]

it works well despite the angle. these plants often invade a waterhole and cover the entire surface. great action captured!

[Nate Chappell]

This works really well for me Austin, the contrast of colors and the action is very appealing.:cool: