Little Tuskers

Last week-end we had some fun sightings during a visit to an Elephant Park only two hours' away from home. Would like to share with you a few images, it was interesting to see how elephants interact and just awesome to spend almost two days in their company.

Myself, Andre and Carl sat quite comfortably in a hide situated at some distance from the water hole; from there we observed an incredible number of adult male ellies and some youngsters coming to drink, the "kids" were well tolerated by the elders and taught how to behave in "ellie society". We saw no aggression whatsoever between them, a nudge here and there and the younger ones always gave way to the bigger tuskers as soon as they saw them approach.

The "kids" were rather playful and we managed a number of frames while they were interacting, all in-between so much laughter! Here are just a few images, difficult to choose which to share because there are so many...the first image shows an older male and two young boys playing under the shade of trees near the waterhole;in the second the older male went to drink, third and fourth image show the youngsters follow him to the water constantly playing, and finally, after lots of play and games the two oversized mice decide to go and have a drink themselves, trunks stretched towards the water... And yes the old chap did not mind them one bit, I think he thought they were funny too...

Have you noticed in the first image how one of the ellies is holding the tail of the other in its mouth?:bg3:

Images taken with Nikon D4, Nikon 500mm F4, ISO 1000 and F 5.6, 1/2500s.

Settings might vary slightly from image to image, it was overcast for most of the time and our cute subjects moved from the shade of the tree to open ground. At times the sun peeped through the clouds and the lighting conditions changed, easier to show you a single image rather than a sequence because conditions changed constantly, but I hope you enjoy viewing nevertheless...

Warmest regards,

Hi Gabriela - Looks like a fun outing and a fun series of images that you came away with.

TFS,
Rachel

Hi Gabriela, this is such a nice series! Thanks for sharing. It does tell a story and a sneak-peak into the lives of these magnificent gentle creatures! Wonderful interaction and well captured. I like no 2 & 4 the best in this but all are very nice. Well done.
Cheers,
Sanjeev

Thank you Rachel and Sanjeev, really appreciate you taking the time to view and comment:cheers:

Have a fabulous evening,

Great set Gabriela. Love the interaction of the wee ones. You have such great subject material, I am jealous:c3:

Thank you so much Jackie!

I really appreciate that you took an interest in this Forum and really happy to read your comments :w3

Indeed lots of photographic opportunities in Africa...we are very fortunate to live in this little village surrounded by wildlife and game reserves.

Wishing you a lovely week-end,

Hi Gabriela , you make the forum interesting with your stores and sequences.I wish others would participate more for a even bigger variety .
Love the ellie series and the story, well done Gabriela.
All images do look very well processed ,i am looking on my Mac Book so cannot really comment on color .

TFS Andreas

Dear Andreas,

I am enjoying posting here as much as I do in Wildlife, and recently I decided to try be more versatile so will participate in other forums too. My guess is, having to process a number of images might seem like a lot of work, so it might take a while to see other members posting, I personally would love to see more macro and avian sequences here.

Regarding ellies - you might find some variation in terms of colour/ warmth in the sequence, we had overcast weather but from time to time the sun came through. I did my editing in the best way I could - although we are not picky about techs and PP work here, I still process my images in the same way I would for any other forum.

Will be in touch Andreas, so kind of you to view and give feedback - really appreciated:5