Trails & shadows

[Marc Mol]

Have just returned from another fabulous suicide month in the Luangwa Valley/Zambia and have much editing & processing to get through.

Thought I would contribute to this months theme before the month is over.

Here we have an ele herd traversing the many hippo trails of the dry Luangwa River floodplain, captured from a microlight. The textures of these hippo trails really standout adding dramatic contrast in the early dawn light.

Nikon D3s 70-200 f/2.8VRII f/4 1/5000s ISO1600@ 170mm.

C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

[Neil Burton]

I nearly wrote something negative about the direction of the sun until I noticed the shadows, which replace the less noticable elephants in the scene. My only nit might be too much top, would prefer the top ellie to be closer to the top. But I am often wrong ;)

[Morkel Erasmus]

Loving the shadows and game-path lines here, Marc. I do wish there was a sliver more space on the RHS of the frame.
As posted I think it can stand a slight crop from top and bottom to have the ellies walking the line from corner to corner...

[Nancy Bell]

I had no idea what to expect from the small thumbnail. Wonderful big-picture graphic patterns in this! I am assuming you were up in the micro light photographing? ! Way too much dedication (and too high) for me! I would also suggest a bit of cropping from the top. It is lightest there with less detail. With all that light space on the top it tends to pull the eye away from the elephant shadows.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Marc - Another nice shot from the micro light. I like the hippo trails. Good suggestions regarding alternative crops above.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Canuel]

Looks like a busy place for animal traffic. This one is all about leading lines and I'd only crop off about a quarter of the space between the last ele and the top of the frame. The lines in the open space grab my attention and lead straight down to the subject of the photo.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Marc another very good aerial shot . I like the crop as is and the BLUES , not too dominant . I just feel the contrast is a wee bit heavy as presented , you have blown on both ends . I think easy fix for you if you wish .

TFS Andreas

[Marc Mol]

Thanks everyone

I just feel the contrast is a wee bit heavy as presented , you have blown on both ends . I think easy fix for you if you wish .

TFS Andreas

Thanks Andreas
I understand the blown S/H and that was deliberate, to overstate the contextual effect I was trying to achieve, sometimes it's OK to step outside the "rules" and I think it works in this case.