Resting Kudu Bull

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Without doubt my favourite antelope of them all. Its grace not surpassed by any. Photographed in the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

D600, f/8, 1/500s, ISO 400, 500mm. Sigma 150-500mm. Shadows raised a bit in LR.

[Jamie Douglas]

Hi Tobie, it is unfortunate that your favourite antelope couldn't have come of the bush for you. Nice job focussing though the vegetation though and I am no expert but I can see more post processing potential from this and I am sure others can elaborate on. I had a quick look in PS and you have room to further boost the shadow areas without noise creeping in.

Not an easy setting to work in but nice to see you weren't deterred by the bush and got a few images.

Hopefully you get more encounters.

Jamie

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Hi Tobie, it is unfortunate that your favourite antelope couldn't have come of the bush for you. Nice job focussing though the vegetation though and I am no expert but I can see more post processing potential from this and I am sure others can elaborate on. I had a quick look in PS and you have room to further boost the shadow areas without noise creeping in.

Not an easy setting to work in but nice to see you weren't deterred by the bush and got a few images.

Hopefully you get more encounters.

Jamie

Much appreciated, Jamie! I'll just hang on to see if I get another comment or two and then get back to the drawing board. PS: I've got full body shots but this particular one serves well under this month's theme ('head shots'). BTW it's perhaps not that obvious but it's lying down here...

[Loi Nguyen]

Tobie, I think this is a tough image to present. Sicne you got full body shot, perhaps you could post the FF and see what folks can come up with. Loi

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Loi, thanks for your comment. As mentioned to Jamie, this bull was lying down with just its head & neck visible. That's why I'm placing it under this month's theme of 'head shot'. I might place some of my other photo's of full kudu body shots at a later stage, but that will be within a totally different context and with a different purpose. Thanks for looking!

[Morkel Erasmus]

I agree Tobie - the most graceful of Africa's antelopes.
Some good points were raised above - the scene didn't lend itself to great photographic opportunities, but you did well all things considering.
Could you perhaps crop closer to get rid of the trees and foliage around the buck some more?

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Thanks for the advice, guys! Cropped in order to get rid of fiolage (Morkel) and shadows raised (Jamie). I'm not too fond of the crop as I like more open space in the direction the animal is looking, but I guess the options are limited in this particular case.

[Morkel Erasmus]

The closer crop works better for this particular image, but as a whole I think this one needs to be put aside until you get a better one. There will indeed always be a "better one", something to keep in mind in any event.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Thanks for your reply Morkel. I knew it was not perfect but placed it regardless, because at this stage I'm interested in much more than 'Is this pic OK?'. There are top class wildlife photographers on this forum and I'm gathering info on the good and bad behind wildlife photography from their viewpoint. I may thus follow up with one or two more in the same category and learn from it. No better place than here...

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for your reply Morkel. I knew it was not perfect but placed it regardless, because at this stage I'm interested in much more than 'Is this pic OK?'. There are top class wildlife photographers on this forum and I'm gathering info on the good and bad behind wildlife photography from their viewpoint. I may thus follow up with one or two more in the same category and learn from it. No better place than here...

For sure, this is IMHO the best and most straight-shooting forum around for learning and developing. Sometimes we also need to hear that some pics are not going to get included in our portfolio years from now, I know I still do . That being said - you are right to post any pic you feel like, cause there is always something to learn about it (whether that is about processing or something you could have done differently in the moment), and that's the right way to go about this forum. Another thing I might point out, looking above again, you should see the loss of sharpness that comes from photographing in the hot hours of the day in our beloved African bush...the heat haze affects the camera's ability to focus and render crisp closeup detail.