I like this month's theme so much, I thought I'd show you another youngster
At the time we spotted this bokkie he was pronking all over the place (boing, boing, boing), but as soon as we got closer he stood still as if embarrassed for being caught behaving in such childish manner:)
It was nearly 8 am and still cool by Kalahari standards, this time of the morning there is a lot of activity going on in the river beds and one often sees springboks display their agility, performing amazing vertical jumps of almost 2m, backs arched and feet held together. Those white long hairs on the rump are known as "pronk hairs" and they spread when the springbok contracts its skin muscles in that particular area - this happens usually before pronking or when a youngster is excited. I have noticed the pronking behaviour occurring also in a situation that is life threatening, and here I refer to my recent sequence entitled "Jackal...The Need to Kill" in Story Sequences forum.
Nikon D4
Nikon 500mm
ISO 250
F6.3
1/2500s
Hope you all have a wonderful Friday, as well as a great week-end!
We are off to Tembe Elephant Park for the week-end, and happy to say our dear friend Carl Walker is joining us
Last edited by Gabriela Plesea; 03-19-2015 at 03:45 PM.
Hi Gabriela this is one stunning piece image from the technical POV , this sooooooo nicely processed .
Again very simple but effective clean image , nothing is disturbing. As mentioned to the WB , i feel you are really making progress .Love the tones ,colors and the detail/sharpness you produced .
HipHip Hooray , well done Gab ........ Kaktus your MrB.E.
No , the image is even better processed and i am the Nit Picker as you know and i really love this from the technical POV .
The Bokkie is somehow nicer and sweeter than the WB , but you should know how much i like the WB , they always give more options for photography because they are more aggressive an more active around waterholes . And i love to shoot action !!!
Having better light here helped a lot: 8 am Bokkie, versus 10 am Wildebeest. Not to mention direction where light is coming from. Here I did not have to enhance the eye, the catchlight was there. In the previous image I had to do a bit of work to make the eye visible.
And now, having posted some antelope, can I bring back my lions? Busy working on a lioness with cub, harsh light again but the cub is oh-so-cute...
Thanks again Andreas, I really appreciate your feedback, very much!
Last edited by Gabriela Plesea; 03-19-2015 at 04:45 PM.
Hi Gabriela - I agree with Andreas. This is a very well processed image. Simple with a bit of elegance and very natural looking. Nice tones and detail. Placement in frame works well. Interesting about the pronk hairs.
What a pleasing little image. The pose is nice, the detail superb, and the subject is interesting. The head and ears almost look like they came from a kangaroo.
Hi Gabriela your reply to my last comment made me think ..........if this was taken earlier by 2 hours , why do the colors have an overall cooler look compared to the WB image ?
Different location, sun from another direction, reflection from dunes, dust, overcast or slightly overcast, a patch of cloud...will check on Sunday night, Mr NP:) I am off to visit lions and elephants tomorrow...
Well that could be the different coloration of sand patches in the KTP , but the sun angle seems to be the same just higher .
Wish you guys to have lots of sightings and tons of fun , give the two boys a big hug from man to man . And tell them they should keep an eye on my little sister that she will not be ran over by a big elephant .
Hi Gabriela, a lot has been said above, so I will not rehash the positives, but well done on this one.
If you have it, then I think a bit more image content below would be good, also, if you have added it, the I might back off the NR. The 500 does provided a lovely compressed BKG, I just think it looks just a little too smooth, but then it could well be the DoF and environment.
Thank you so much for your comments and suggestions!
Andreas, I think there are various reasons why those two images you are referring to differ in terms of colour: time of the day, BG (colour of dunes), and maybe the operator behind the computer too. Will check, if only for interest' sake, and let you know:) I have just looked at the bokkie image quickly and the light/ colours look the same as in the RAW file.
Steve - no space below, unfortunately. No NR either. I think someone asked me before if I did NR on my images - which I find quite interesting , since I do not have any actions or software to do NR and I did not use the blur tool since I joined BPN. If the BG is too noisy I just don't work on that particular image:) Oh, and Tembe Elephant Park was a wonderful experience, we spent hours watching elephants interacting and saw an incredible number of nyala and other antelope (kudu, waterbuck, wildebeest). Also had a brief sighting of a lioness! We certainly plan to go there again, the Park is only 2 hrs away from home...Some awesome elephants in Tembe, big tuskers like I've never seen before!!!