Hippo Foursome

[Morkel Erasmus]

As we were cruising along the Chobe river that straddles the Chobe National Park in Botswana and the Caprivi strip in Namibia, we came across a pod of Hippopotamus who were out of the river quite late in the morning. Hippo usually come out to graze at night and return to the water as the day breaks.


My guests and I were able to capture a couple of lovely photos of these youngsters lazily standing on the riverbank, not entirely committed to getting wet just yet. Some of them looked like they were standing up sleeping, in fact. We were able to maneuver nicely with our specialised photographic boat for lovely photographic opportunities, even as they eventually stepped into the water.


Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
1.4x teleconverter
f8.0 | 1/1250 SS | ISO-2500

[Loi Nguyen]

Morkel, this is a lovely family portrait of a difficult to photograph species. The light was still pretty good and the shadow was not so strong. They were posing for you against a nice morning background. Well done. Loi

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Baeutiful, Morkel - it looks like you've made them pose in an 'orderly fashion'!

Nice colors & clarity.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - This works really well. It's a great grouping and the one second from the right seems to be looking right at you. The layers of color work well too. I keep looking and thinking it needs just the slightest amount of ccw rotation.

TFS,
Rachel

[Russell Johnson]

This is an less than usual sighting. Personally I would to see if you could extract any more detail from the hippo skins.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel , what are they thinking………. should i stay or should i go……. specially the two on the left are not looking very excited.
Good capture with nice tones and color layers. Well done . But would agree with Russell about more detail in the main subjects.

TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Morkel,

Looked at this image and absolutely loved it, now this dilemma keeps me from switching off the computer and doing whatever evening chores I am supposed to do in the evening (like posting a new image), as something really bugs me: do I want more detail here, or do I want to see what Morkel saw at the time he took this image? Can I rely on my cameras and lenses, or should I always try to extract more detail where there isn't, lighten up dark areas, darken the bright ones, etc? How far should I go with processing? I often go too far with my PP work, trying to extract as much detail as I possibly can...I am glad you know where to stop and I am watching your posts with a great deal of interest. I agree this image might need just a tad of rotation, looking at the water line in the FG. Otherwise I am happy with everything and I just love those four musketeers, well captured and overall the image hardly shows any signs of processing, well done Morkel!!!

Warmest regards,

[Neil Burton]

Looks good as it is, which I am sure you are aware of :) Of course maybe some Northern Lights above would be good! Top stuff!

[edwardselfe]

Very nice sighting - I remember similar from my time along the Zambezi but they were rarely so accommodating. This is beautiful with nicely arranged subjects. I also agree on CCW rotation and I think it just looks slightly thin to me - perhaps a contrast boost in the mid-tones that doesn't affect the overall whites and blacks.
Ed

[Thinus Schoeman]

Hi Morkel, the hippos certainly arranged themselves for this family portrait. I love the light and the contrast in this image, with beautiful natural colours. Well captured, congratulations!

[Marc Mol]

Nice 2 up, 2 down bankside comp, with good overall colour here Morkel,
just wondered why you needed the 1.4 tc on the 500, being that the photog boat would get in fairly close from my experience here?

Typing as we sit waiting in the lounge in Orlando/FL for our flight home.

TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks all!

just wondered why you needed the 1.4 tc on the 500, being that the photog boat would get in fairly close from my experience here?

We were working some Bee-eaters before this, plus there were quite a few of them already in the water and moving in our direction - decided to play it safe for this one

[Marc Mol]

Thanks all!



We were working some Bee-eaters before this, plus there were quite a few of them already in the water and moving in our direction - decided to play it safe for this one

Gottcha

[Steve Canuel]

Nice grouping here Morkel. First thing I thought upon viewing was that these guys look sleepy, then I read your comments. Maybe they had a rough night out on the town. As usual, top notch processing and IQ.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks Steve - good to see you around