Waterbuck

[Hilary Hann]

I know that antelopes don't have the wow factor of the predators but they are favourites of mine so thought I would post this waterbuck. Just a portrait, nothing exciting. It may be a defassa or it may be a hybrid defassa/common. Not sure.
7D; 100-400; ISO800; f5.6; 1/1600. Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Full frame

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Hilary, a nice looking specimen, set in some good light allowing the detail to come through. I like the stance and alert position, but personally I might be tempted to just move the whole crop a fraction to the left, losing a tad off the top too, you will know what I mean. Also you might think about applying some NR to the BG, just to smooth things out a bit, not much. Also, just a thought, but if you were to drop the exposure & gamma a fraction the the BG, it might just 'pop' the subject a bit more?

Not sure how much you would loose in SS, but could you have dropped to ISO400, I am sure someone would know the figure. :S3:

TFS
Steve

[Dumay de Boulle]

Again a subject I am struggling to get a good image of...Finally got the chance a few weeks ago and blew it with too slow SS...The light pose and BG were perfect..Snapped off a few and when I realized the fault the animal moved off:e3. Great sidelight and like the pose...Like Steve's suggestion re NR on the BG:S3:

[Grant Atkinson]

Like the pose and the detail, and image quality looks good for hi iso. I find the two or three brightly lit branches behind this fine specimens horns take away from the shot a bit..maybe if you toned those down to match the rest
Nice to see something different here..
cheers
Grant

[Grant Atkinson]

Hilary, hopefully I am not going off topic here, but I have given some thought as to why I end up with more shots of large predators than animals like this waterbuck, and certainly one reason is that they very seldom stand still for long, nor do they easily let you photograph them face on, as you have done here...if they would stand in one place for more than a moment I would happily snap away. I find it like that with most antelope species, they are definitely a challenge for me to photograph well.
cheers
Grant

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hilary, a very nice specimen here! Don't think it will be possible to distinguish the subspecies without seeing the "rear end"...as I do know our southern variety is the one with the white circle on that part of the anatomy...:c3::w3

Great light and I agree on both doing some NR on the BG and toning down BG brightness a tad to place the emphasis more on the buck.

Grant, I agree getting a good antelope shot is a challenge...that being said when predators are stationary (particularly lions) they tend to be lying down :e3:w3

[Robert Amoruso]

Hilary,

I agree with Grant's and Morkel's comments. Also, at ISO 800 ad 1/1600 sec. you probably could have gotten this at ISO 400 and 1/800 sec.

[Hilary Hann]

Thank you everyone for some great, constructive ideas for me to try. It is one of the best waterbuck I've managed so I will try to do it justice. Toning down the bright branches should be easy Grant, and improving the background as suggested by Steve may work depending on my pp skills! :e3
Robert, it is a developing skill to make quick changes to ss in these circumstances, one which I hope is improving.
Finally, Morkel, the confusion with this particular water buck sub species is because Lewa had both common and defassa and some interbreeding occured. This definitely has the defassa light patch (not the common ring marking), but the hybrids have this as well as some characteristic of the common buck which I can't remember without going to my notes. May be to do with the necklace. So I didn't want to mislead anyone by saying it was a defassa when it may indeed by a hybrid! :2

[Harshad Barve]

they are good looking animals and I liked what you have posted
TFS

PS , This time I bothered to photograph them :bg3::bg3:

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Hillary, I never get tired of seeing these. Light and detail captured is great. TFS.

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Harshad, look forward to seeing some of yours.

Thanks Pieter, appreciate the comment.

[Sid Garige]

Very nice pose Hilary.

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Sid.

[Russell Johnson]

All looks good, Hilary.

Think the improvements to the BG will really help the image pop.