Watering Hole

[Tom Graham]

This taken in Feb of 2011 in northern Tanzania near the Nudtu Safri Lodge. A small swamp draws herds of zebra and wildebeest in for a drink. They pretty much line up and file in and out of the water. More impressive to be there with all the braying and grunting. Motion and sounds makes for good video scene.
Not convinced the composition here is so good, the zebras lined up nice but everyone of the 20 or so wildebeest are turned away!!! This image a crop some from all sides of original. Nikon D40x, 18-200 lens at 200, f8, 1/1000 and ISO 360. Image has lots of detail which requires a larger file size than the 250K limit here, so IQ suffers a bit from that compression.
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Tom

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Tom, in your recent posting you have questioned/commented, made reference to, light, angles (shooting), eye contact, format/cropping etc, etc, therefore could you please expand on what you are looking for in terms of feedback here, as it would be helpful and so we can hopefully respond back with what you are looking for. :S3:

cheers
Steve

[Tom Graham]

Yes, that and everything that is photography.
Tom

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Hi Tom, it's always great to see big heards especially at a waterhole. You did well with the light, well taken shot.

[Rachel Hollander]

Tom - nice light. Was it possible to move left and avoid the clump of grass in the water?

TFS,
Rachel

[Tom Graham]

HI Rachel. Thanks, I'll look at more of these images from that morning, the critters were also coming in from the other side (left of here) of the open pond area, lot of possibilities. The clump of grass doesn't bother me much. In fact, I thought about -not- cropping the bit of grass in front foreground. Here is original no crop framing -
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It's all those silly WB looking back that bother me the most :S3:

Tom
ps - Rachel I replied to you PM about safari, assuming you got it?

[Nancy Bell]

For me the image is all about the zebras lined up drinking and they look good. The wildebeest really just round out the mob scene with lines and color. I would consider cropping a bit from the bottom up to that grass clump and create more of a pano look.

[Tom Graham]

OK, how about some from bottom and top??

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Tom

[Steve Kaluski]

As an image Tom, Nancy hit the nail on the head - 'For me the image is all about the zebras lined up drinking'. That being the case, I would have gone for a much lower POV, almost at the waters edge, to be at eye level with them. By doing so you would get a more intermit look, feel & perspective. It would also give you the added bonus of the Wildebeest as a solid backdrop, conveying much more the mass heard feel, and would eliminate the grass in the OP, the angle just it's that appealing as presented. Having mass heards like this, also brings issues with cropping, trying to avoid cut heads, bodies etc, so I think the OP is perhaps the best. I took a pop at an alternative, however...

In addition it looks like you have applied Velvia again, I think it needs to be careful in it's application, as it changes some of the more natural colours and pushes them in parts, obviously it can be controlled, but I guess it's how we wish to portray & present the image. This is just my take on the app, it's good when applied with the right image. :w3

TFS
Steve

[Gerald Kelberg]

For me a key part of the story is the one alert zebra looking out at the camera, so I would be tempted to try a crop that puts that animal on the ROT power point. So many crop alternatives on a shot like this!

Thanks,

Gerald

[Tom Graham]

Gerald - I also like that one zebra facing camera. But don't think I have a "closer" shot of it to make a decent IQ image.
Steve - I like your crop lot. And very good composition analysis, thanks. Mass herds never seem to add up to what you want. I agree image would have more impact if camera were about ear/head level with zebra. Don't think I have any that low. Try to remember that, perhaps lie down on vehicle floor.
Yeah, that Velvia action strikes again :S3: .
I'll try to post another photo thread looking at other side of pond but it most likely will be from similar POV.
Tom

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Tom, I've tried to as object as I can, obviously as a one 2 one, dialog would be a lot more and more would come out, but hopefully there was something in there. I trust that over the past few months it has given you pointers in both techs & what to look for in comp/angles in the hope that your up and coming trip is more lucrative.

cheers
Steve

[Grady Weed]

Tom,

I think pane #7 is a winner. Sorry to be late to the party.