Desert elephant reaching a branch

[Anette Mossbacher]

This bull was feeding on this tree in the ... dry river bed.
Was a bliss to follow some bulls around in quite a distance, never make them nervous nor me!!
Most I did in LR, Graduate for the mountain in the BG. Left and right side as well. Same for the FG. WB adjustments.
Brought to PS CS6 WB adjustment again, fine tune! Mid-tone contrast, Levels and output sharpening / selective.
No saturation added.
This is FF, no crop. I personally would go to 8.5 x 11, but wanted to know what you all think about a crop. Thanks a lot

MKIV
70-200mm & 1.4x at 98mm ( yes, could have left out the 1.4x but needed it for other images, as well to keep the eles in peace. Changing lenses there, is not quite advisable! To much dust )
f/8 1/1000 ISO 640 -0.33
Time: 4pm

PS Just saw I should have taken out the blue in the rocks on the RHS!!!

[Loi Nguyen]

Annette, love the pose. I'd go for a crop taking off some from the top and right. The elephant's trunk was in the shade and a bit dark, so I'd suggest to use Curves to lift the shadow a little. Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Anette, reminds me of Morkels images where the elephant was standing on the back legs feeding. I like the more wider shot, plus the inclusion of the habitat. Techs looks good and I appreciate your dilemma about the 1.4, however the 200-400 would come in handy with something like this. The blue doesn't worry me, but you could move the white slider in Levels to around 235. There are some very small hotspots, however around 235 is where it just starts to clip, but brightens the overall image IMHO.

TFS
Steve

[Anette Mossbacher]

Thank you very much Loi and Steve.
I will have a try with the Level slider Steve to see what you mean.
The 200-400mm is a Fiat 500 for me with about 180 Horse Power...wuuuuusssshhhh
Driving that one in Rom must be a bliss
Fall in Love with the 200-400mm at first sight. That is me, but my wallet I cannot convince at all that one is very very stubborn That is the wallet!

Enjoy your weekend

Ciao

Anette

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Anette - saw lots of this behavior with the desert elephants. I too like the inclusion of habitat. The blue doesn't bother me either. Only thing I'm not sure about is the angle. I wonder if moving to the right would have improved the image but understand the concern with keeping your distance.

TFS,
Rachel

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Rachel,

thanks a lot for your time & comment. Moving to the right was not an option there. Another bull was right in front of the Jeep, much closer. Those few bulls haven't been the kind of coffee drinking type. They are more the aggressive type towards vehicles when you get to close. But when standing, engine switched off, they came close on their own without any aggressive behavior... sometimes!!

Enjoy your weekend

Ciao
Anette

[dankearl]

I like the wide view, I think it could go a bit brighter on top, the Elephant looks good.
I would not have noticed the Blue unless you mentioned it.

[Nancy Bell]

I, too, like the habitat in the image. The greens of the bushes adds some necessary brightness to the image and also draws your eye to the elephant. Of course, the pose of the elephant is just what you wanted.

[John Ippolito]

Hi Anette,

Very nice conposition, and the pose is just superb. I like the crop as presented - blue is not an issue for me, but Steve's idea to brighten it a tad has merit. Skin texture looks great. Looks like you had a great trip. TFS

[Stan Cunningham]

Very nice image, moving the right would have improved but rarely do we get everything we want. Your desire to crop a bit wouldn't bother it to me but I really like the inclusion of the habitat.
Would have loved to have been there, nice moments I'm sure.

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely image, great pose and composition. Colours look good to me as well. I may play with the levels a tad just to add a little more punch.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Dan, Nancy, John,Stan and Brendon,

thanks so much for all your suggestions. I highly appreciate them.
Brendon, I played with the Levels a bit. It does a difference, thanks so much.
Here a RP, WDYT?

[Girish Prahalad]

the OP works very well for the the action captured. like the comp & the surroundings

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Anette, when I suggested the Levels adjustment you needed to be selective in your application of it. To me you have just done a 'Global' adjustment and in doing so, lightened everything, and so the bright green vegetation looks a little too bright, likewise the FG. By adding a mask you can be selective in your choice, likewise I would drop the exposure a fraction in the FG to bring a bit more depth & tone to it. Hope this helps.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Anette, I like this pose and the setting. OP looks a bit better for me (as per Steve's comments). Would love to see them one day.
Oh, and it seems to me that if these eles just learn the Mana tricks there will be much more food for them (quite a high tree).

[edwardselfe]

Think somewhere between the two would be good. I like the slightly more saturated elephant, but I don't like the green foliage behind. I wonder if you could work on the detail in the Winterthorn at the top left, as there's such nice detail in the cliff that the Winterthorn tree is slightly dull in comparison.
Nice pose of the elephant and nice background composition with lots of interest.
Ed