Low Down Rhino

[Ken Watkins]

Taken kneeling down on the floor in Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe (vehicle 200 metres away), an activity not for the feint hearted:bg3:

EOS 1D MkIII

28-300mm at 300mm

F8, ISO 800, 1/40

[Rachel Hollander]

Ken - The low pov works well. Your straying from the vehicle paid off. I've noticed that you seem to have gotten out of the vehicle in a couple of Zimbabwe parks. Do they all allow this?

TFS,
Rachel

[Ken Watkins]

Rachel,

Thanks for your comment, much appreciated.

In answer to your question anybody can walk in Mana Pools, in other parks you are usually required to have a qualified guide with a rifle. Jolly good fun it is as well, most things run away including Lions:w3

[Steve Canuel]

Like this one Ken. The way he fills the side of the frame gives a good sense of size. Might add a touch more contrast and sharpening.

[Mark Wiseman]

Hi Ken,
I like the low POV of for image. I would have given the rhino maybe a little bit more space at the bottom, but away from your vehicle is a risk with these boys as they can move very quickly, as I have found out in the past. i agree with Steve about a little more sharpening to the head of the rhino. Thanks for sharing and regards,
Mark.

[Jamie Douglas]

Hi Ken,

Brave man. I am not sure if I would stray 200m from the vehicle around these guys.

I find the head is angle is turned towards you a little too much drawing attention to the horn more than the eye IMO. I might try and reduce the red cast a tad and apply some additonal sharpening and contrast boost as suggested by Steve.

TFS

Jamie

[peter delaney]

Lovely image Ken,

My first impression was to see a separation of the horn from the ear.. Love the perspective ,The crop is perfect , love the muted colors of the surrounding bush. Agree about a little more sharpening ...

Surprised you have not converted this a black and white , you being a big fan of this medium:S3:

I have a few close encounters on foot with white rhinos they are lot more approachable than the black rhino....

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks everybody for your comments they are much appreciated.
The lack of sharpness is mainly down to slow shutter speed and probably a little shakiness,

Peter,

I must agree with your comments on Black Rhino, I have done it but my closest was with the nearby protection of the lodge toilet on Rhino Island:bg3:

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice low perspective here Ken
I have recently done the same thing around rhinos and it's quite intimidating but makes for excellent photography.
Their eyesight is quite bad so as long as you stay still or move very slowly they shouldn't blindly charge at you.

I agree with most of the critique above. Maybe try opening up some shadow detail as well as it looks a tad dark?
I am sure with that lens you could have had sufficient sharpness at f5.6? :t3

[Ken Watkins]

I am sure with that lens you could have had sufficient sharpness at f5.6? :t3

At 1/40th?

[Morkel Erasmus]

At 1/40th?

Perhaps I should've been clearer.
I meant - could you not have opened up to f5.6, thereby giving better SS and perhaps getting enough sharpness?
:t3

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,
OK I understand now, remembering to check the settings us always difficult when you are a little nervous:w3

[Roger Clark]

Rachel,

Thanks for your comment, much appreciated.

In answer to your question anybody can walk in Mana Pools, in other parks you are usually required to have a qualified guide with a rifle. Jolly good fun it is as well, most things run away including Lions:w3

Hi Ken,
I agree with the comments here. My experience walking in the Serengeti is similar: most wildlife runs away and one can't get as close as in a vehicle.

I like the image as is, but I would brighten the areas around the eye as it is a little dark. This is an image that would be ideal for Richardson-Lucy image deconvolution that would provide true sharpening. Well done for being so close.

Roger

[Ken Watkins]

Hi Ken,

This is an image that would be ideal for Richardson-Lucy image deconvolution that would provide true sharpening.
Roger

Roger,

One day I must try to find out how this works, the last time I looked it seemed very complicated:bg3:

[Roger Clark]

Roger,

One day I must try to find out how this works, the last time I looked it seemed very complicated:bg3:

It is actually very simple in ImagesPlus. Load the image (16-bit tiff), zoom in to 100%, start the Richardson-Lucy tool. Often the 5x5 default works well, with about 30 iterations (takes maybe a minute of computation on a DSLR image on a decent machine). Save and read back into your other editor and run some noise filtering on the background. One can experiment with the cell size and the number of iterations.

Roger