Crossing the Savuti

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 5Dmk2, Canon 16-35mm f2.8 II lens, handheld from a vehicle. S/s 1/320 at f/9, iso 250. Evaluative metering, + 0.33 exp comp. Focal length 33mm. Cropped from 21mp to 16mp. Processed in ACR6 and CS5. Location Savuti Bush camp, 11 Dec 2010, 18h05pm.
Managed to get these elephants crossing the Savuti in very nice light. On hot clear days they like coming to the river in the midday and afternoons. This is the same area that around a year and a half ago was just a dry grassland, but now since the Savuti began flowing again is a permanent water source for the wildlife. As the water is still new, the banks aren't too closed up with vegetation, and it makes for good opportunities.
All C and C welcome

cheers
Grant

www.grantatkinson.com (http://www.grantatkinson.com)

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image Grant with nice wide perspective , Lovely light & techs :cheers::cheers::cheers:
TFS

[Billy White]

Grant
beautiful wide angle - we hope to get animal/water shots when we visit Savuti in September

Bill White

[Robert Amoruso]

From the landscape perspective I like that you did not cut off the tree reflection. But from the wildlife perspective I think the elephants would be more prominent in the image if the bottom was cropped up above your signature.

I like the even light and you did well on the left and right sides cutting the image in clean areas w/o edge distractions.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grant, I've viewed this a few times and I think Roberts suggested will enhance it. I was going to suggest taking out the grasses to the right of .com purely from a distracting POV and perhaps beef up the saturation a little more. Like the water marks on the elephants. BTW are the trees in the BG where the baboon troop used to live?

TFS
Steve

[Tom Redd]

Grant, first off, beautiful! I would crop some both off the top as well as the bottom of the image. With or without a tighter crop, this is a very nice image.

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for the comments, I will have a look at cropping it a bit tighter, but will probably only get to it tomorrow
thanks again for looking
cheers for now
Grant

[Todd Frost]

Well done with this Grant. Techs look good. For me this shot says pano format with a crop both above and below.
TFS
Todd

[Steve Canuel]

I like the scene, makes me wish I could be there in person. Although I'm not against the suggested pano crop of previous posters, I kind of like it as presented. When I look at it I see a sideways wine glass, with the elles as the stem dividing the water and sky into equal elements.

[Hilary Hann]

I don't think I can add anything to other comments here. I really love the composition, the shapes within that composition and the purpose of the elephants crossing. It is another image which could be played with regarding cropping, but I quite like it as presented.

[Morkel Erasmus]

love the clarity, light and perspective here Grant! cannot fault Robert's critique...
I might do a safari in the Savuti later in 2011 and hope the water is still there and the banks are still relatively uncluttered :)

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - beautiful scene, well captured. I like the OP but it would be interesting to play around with the crop as suggested by Robert. There's a nice tranquil feel to the shot.

TFS,
Rachel

[Grant Atkinson]

thanks for the comments everyone. Steve, I never thought about the wine glass...thanks for that input:)Rachel, I have been trying to shoot elephant 'scapes with lots of space and tranquilitiy, so glad to hear you see it that way. I dont usually use the pano crop but I guess this image might benefit from it. Will play around later when I am not guiding..which seems to be never these days:)
Morkel, I think it will still be quite open, and I think that if there are good rains, there will be more areas that get inundated, and hence, more new water with open banks....2011 should be good..What time of year are you planning to visit
cheers
Grant

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Hi Grant,
I like Robert's suggestion regarding cropping from the bottom. Wish the grass at the bottom edge of the frame were not there. Overall a lovely image.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Hendri Venter]

Wow, would love to see this on a large print. Beautiful African scene and excellent IQ.