The grazing Rhino

[RakeshDhareshwar]

One of the 3 Rhinos which approached us in Lake Nakuru . Had gone there expecting the flamigoes , but was plesantly surprised to see and shoot some mammals too . The contrast of the Rhino in front of the flamingoes made it look lovely . Had a lovely trip to Kenya .....so different than shooting here in India :w3.
Camera : Canon 1D Mk III
Lens : Canon 600mm f4 IS
Aperture : f7.1
Shutters : 1/320
Speed : ISO 200

Cheers,
Rakesh

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Rakesh, very nice work here with this image. Good strong detail and textures on the rhino set off well against the green grass, and then that interesting line of flamingoes in the BG. You have taken two images here, one as posted and it would also work well as a pano. There is a calm feeling to this shot. Good work.

[Hilary Hann]

Glad you went to Lake Nakuru Rakesh, lovely spot for rhino. This is a very 'Nakuru' landscape but I think that the water and hills are unnecessary here. I would try Grant's suggestion for a pano crop which would direct more attention on the beautiful rhino. I like the detail in the grass with all the flower/seed heads developing.

[Rachel Hollander]

Rakesh - nicely composed. I agree that this will also work well as a pano. Good job on getting an angle that separates the line of flamingos from the rhino.

TFS,
Rachel

[Robert Amoruso]

I feel a pano crop with only a small strip of the darker BG remaining will be the visually stronger presentation. Rhino is wonderfully sharp and the BG pleasing and unobtrusive. I would have preferred not to have the green/blue water line coincident with the rhino's back. To correct that you have had to gotten higher in elevation - perhaps not possible.

[Ishmeet Sahni]

Rakesh, a beauty of an image. The texture on the Rihno and the grass around it. The Flamingos add
their own flavor. The only thing that I felt was that the hills are distracting. The water I don't have an
issue with.

[Shrikant Ranade]

I like the compo. To me if you had cropped the hills then it would look flat and usual like. Hills and water combination make it look different, and I like that.

[Tom Graham]

Agree with Robert, the rhino's back is too close to merging with the water line and flamingoes.
Other than that, I would have tried this shot but also at a smaller f stop (f16?) to try and bring the flamingoes more in focus (or depth of field).
But to begin with that 600mm DOF likes to be shallow :S3:. So maybe shoot it with 300mm lens which will for same f stop give 4 times more DOF. A 600mm lens focused at 100m at f8 has a DOF of 9m. A 300mm lens focused at 100m at f8 has a DOF of 36m. Good DOF calculator at - http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm
And then crop that larger 300mm image for composition like it were a 600mm??

Just another parameter to consider sometimes.

Tom
ps - yeah I know a lot of pixels are lost when cropping like that, 300 to 600.
And FWIW, for the 600mm to have same DOF of the 300mm (at f8) f32 is required on the 600.

[Steve Canuel]

Great detail in the rhino and I like the profile pose. Image is fine as posted for me but could also see a more pano crop equally splitting the darker band at top.

[Harshad Barve]

Hope to see them in Oct RD ,
One excellent image , liked the pink patch too
TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

Awesome image here Rakesh, love the crisp clarity and soft light/hues.
I strongly support Robert's crop suggestion and feel this will lift the image to another level. We are lucky to still be able to view these animals in the wild for now with the huge surge in poaching of rhino throughout Africa these past 2 years...