I thought this would fit in well with both this month's theme and Marc's recent post of the hyena and wild dogs. I think Steve and I have told of this sighting before but just in case. We had spent most of the afternoon drive at the wild dog den watching the puppies and their babysitter. Having enjoyed a more than satisfying afternoon drive, we decided to head down to the river for sundowners. Just as our ranger and tracker were setting up the table there was a flash of action on the opposite riverbank. We shouted wild dogs just as we saw one of the dogs take down the impala he or she was chasing right at the water's edge. We left everything on the riverbank and took off toward the kill as soon as everyone was back in the vehicle, crossing the river. Once there we watched as the dogs devoured the impala. During the process an inquisitive hyena drawn by the commotion appeared on the opposite bank near where our sundowners remained. The dogs in an instant dropped the impala and ran across the river chasing the hyena away. The sounds from this chase were absolutely amazing and we could only imagine what was happening because most of the action was out of our sight though it certainly sounded like the dogs were nipping at the hyena and that seemed to be what was happening whenever they crossed into view. Having chased the hyena off, the dogs crossed the river again, this time heading toward us and the rest of the impala kill and to chase the vultures away. By this time it was pretty dark but I took a few images as they ran through the water. You can see the blood from the kill on the face of the one on the right.
Btw when we crossed the river again to pick up the sundowner supplies and head back to camp, we encountered the hyena and the rest of his clan. I think we counted at least nine. With the spot we could clearly see that one was dragging its rear a little and had been bitten. We watched as the hyenas jumped in the water and crossed to the kill site to see if there were any scraps. It was while the hyenas were crossing that our tracker shined the spot about 50 feet down river on the crocodile slowly swimming towards the commotion.
Canon 5D3
300 II
1/1250
f5.6 (don't know why I didn't open it up more given the distance to the subjects and lack of light. Probably just the excitement of the moment.)
ISO 6400
HH from safari vehicle, small crop to remove some oof grasses in lrc, levels, curves, NR to bg, sharpened in CCPS.
C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,
Rachel
Last edited by Rachel Hollander; 11-27-2015 at 07:40 PM.
Hi Rachel, what a cool story, and I can imagine how impatient you would have been wanting to get to the sighting, and having all the sundowner snacks/drinks spread across the vehicle. Good running angle of the dogs towards you, and love the bloodied face of the one nearest you. Im fine with the comp and space as posted.
Hi Rachel very exciting story around the image , which i quite like . I think i should ask my tour operator next year in Bots for a sundowner every night , hopefully he will listen , LOL !
Like the wider view and the overall " dull " tones and colors ,i think it does reflect the conditions well .
I am bit surprised about the very strong noise appearance in ULC .I thought the 5D performs better at high Iso .
I would loose the rocks on top of the frame if this was mine .I can also see a crop with less at the foot to avoid the rivers edge going through the center of the frame , but this is just all my view .
Hi Rachel, good documentation of events and a great encounter, just wished I had good my act together and quietly thought, lost a lot from this through stupid errors, but learn from it, so not all lost.
The wider aspects gives context, should have the 'sound bite' Alison has on video to accompany the posting.
And thank you for giving us the story behind the image, I read it with so much interest. And envy, LOL
Things are never easy in low light, knowing the difficult conditions at the time I think you have done very well to capture this, techs are great and enough SS to freeze the action.
The amount of noise (including ULC) is acceptable to me, although I feel the dogs could benefit from a bit more pop. I do realise in doing so you would perhaps sacrifice some of that nice detail.
Love the splash, there's visible excitement and joy from the dogs after a successful hunt, the blood on their faces tells the story. I can almost hear the sounds !
Love it, superb action captured, thank you so much for sharing, dearest Rachel
Hi Rachel -- Lovely sighting and that splashing water is adding so much to the image , i liked this framing but would also like to see a tighter crop . nonetheless i always enjoy viewing these beautiful creatures .
TFS !