Always Look Behind You

[Ken Watkins]

Whilst sat on my camping chair at Ngweshla, I now and again looked behind me, this lot were a bit of a surprise:bg3:

Taken at Ngweshla Waterhole, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe 3rd September 2011

EOS 1D MkIII

70-200mm MkII at 142mm

F8, ISO 400, 1/1250

[Tom Graham]

Ok, post been up almost 10 hours, I'll go first.
The elephants were on their tippy-toes, sneaking up on you were they? :S3:
Techs and such look spot on to me - except I think I see that wide faint sky halo back around the tree?
Only other thing (I find distracting) are the old termite mounds, especially one on left. (I know - it's Africa:S3: )
Tom

[Marc Mol]

One fine sight to witness from a comfy chair Ken :bg3:, very nice, agree on the slight tree S/H halo.
TFS

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent scene here , well seen and captured
TFS

[Ken Watkins]

Tom,
I will deal with your "comment" first, if you refuse to believe the circumstances of this shot that is up to you, clearly you are very knowledgeable about Elephants who are well known for the extremely noisy way they walk. I should also apologise for the behaviour of the termites, fancy putting their mounds in the way of the Elephants.

As for the halo you see I have just looked for it in levels and a extremely slight amount is visible, if this disturbs you I can only think your eyes are extremely sensitive, I will repeat for almost the hundreth time that I do not use Shadows and Highlight.

Marc and Harshad,

Thanks:w3

[Morkel Erasmus]

Interesting back-story Ken...I hope they didn't come right at you? :Whoa!:

I like it. The termite mounds don't bother me that much.
I felt it could use some "punch" so I toned down overall highlights here and did some saturation - perhaps a bit too much but just an idea?

[gail bisson]

This is one of those shots that is almost superb but for that termite mound on the left. I know nature is nature but that mound is sooo...distracting. I like the pano crop and the story behind the shot,
Gail

[Russell Johnson]

Well captured, Ken, and I like the crop.

Having spent a lot of time around this area of Hwange, the large herds and numerous termite mounds do not always work well together.

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

Thanks for the repost, very nice

Gail,

I am bemused by your comment, I actually like having both termite mounds in the image as "bookends", for me at least they are not as distracting as baiting.

Russelll

Thanks perhaps we should say "pesky" termite mounds:bg3:

[Ofer Levy]

Very nice image and the repost is an improvement. I like the composition and the scene. I also feel the termite mound on the left weakens the image and I see the halo that looks to me very similar to the halo created when using S/H. It is a good idea if you find out what in your work-flow creates this halo as it appears in many of your images which is a pity.