Hey everyone,
This is my first post in this forum. The picture is a bit ordinary but I thought I should share this giant I had the privilege to see in East Africa. He looks a bit prehistoric to me. I hope he’s still roaming the savannah.
Hi Kalin - Welcome to the Wildlife Forum. It's always great to see a big tusker and this is no exception. Nice view of the open savannah of East Africa too. The pp looks good too. The light must have been pretty harsh judging by the techs. You handled it well. I would prefer just a little more room to the left. It just feels tight there. My biggest issue with the image is that the ele is slightly past and angled away from you. It would be preferable to have the elephant parallel to the sensor or even better angled slightly towards you. The tree line intersecting with the head isn't ideal but there often isn't much you can do about it shooting from a vehicle.
It would be great to get your comments on other people's images. We recommend commenting on at least 3-5 other wildlife images each time you post one of your own. It is the best way to get the most out of BPN, allows us to all learn from each other and the quickest way to become a part of the community. Your critiques do not have to be technical in nature. Just tell us what you like and don't like about an image.
Hi Rachel,
Thanks a lot for your comments. I have the ele in slightly different position and may be with a little bit more space to the left. Unfortunately, this is the full frame and I have no spare space in this picture.
I’ll try to comment and share ideas about other members’ pictures. I just don’t feel I know enough to be able to give good advices. But I’ll do my best.
Thanks again,
Kalin
Hi Kalin - You don't have to give advice. Start out by telling us what you like about an image. Learning the critique process is a great way to improve your own photography by spotting potential flaws/problems in the field and correcting them in camera.
Welcome to the Wild life forum Kalin,I like you sometimes don't feel qualified enough to comment especially on the technical aspects of an image, so I just give my thoughts on how I see the image and just my personal view of course.
I like the Elephant and also showing the landscape where it lives, magnificent tusks.
Hi Kalin -- A Big welcome ! You have managed to capture a lovely specimen here , i must agree it does look prehistoric and you have done very well to capture it in the open environment . I agree with what Rachel has to say especially with the angle and tightness on the left hand side of the frame . This happens when shooting big subjects like elephants , but overall i really enjoyed viewing this image . Hope to see more from east africa .
Welcome, Kalin! What a magnificent tusker here - look at those tusks! Rachel has provided some great advice here. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Another warm welcome from me, Kalin!
I love this elephant, I've yet to see one of these uber-tuskers in East Africa.
Rachel summed up my thoughts nicely. I do hope you have some of him angled more towards the focal plane?
Looking forward to seeing and critiquing more of your work
Thank you all for the warm welcome, it really feels like great community here! I will do my best to contribute both with comments and images.
@Morkel – seeing the elephant was a real privilege. You could have easily been on the same vehicle with me. Gerry was there and Penny was in another vehicle near by. You should switch with Gerry next time J
Actually this was my first real trip to Africa and I did not quite understand how special this ele was. If it was not Gerry I wouldn’t have paid it much attention. Gerry saw the tusker in the distance and suggested that we should wait for him to come close. It was quite an experience and I hope it won’t be once in a lifetime.
Ah Kalin, glad you got to experience going on safari with Gerry!
This destination is high on my bucket list but I don't think I will make it there soon - my time for hosting safaris is limited to 3 times per year.
Good to have you on board on BPN!
Hi Kalin another warm welcome to this section of BPN , a nice place to show your work and receive thoughtful critique , always part of the learning curve if one wish .For both capture and PP work.
An impressive elephant in your first post , agree with the other comments above me regarding the shooting angle .
Your thoughts to other images are appreciated , don´t be shy .
Hi Kalin, all been said about a warm welcome in the above, so just to say, welcome aboard.
In the heat of the moment it can be hard to make certain judgement calls, but for me I would have liked if you had got ahead of him and shot more head on, or at least been parallel so you don't have the subject moving away from you. However, judging on the content of the image, he was a Bull on a mission.
So glad to see you post here I am a bit late with comments, so sorry. Just wanted to add a few tiny thoughts...
You have captured a wonderful scene and the landscape is just lovely, the ellie does stand out nicely, colours natural, such a pleasing image overall. Well exposed and nice techs indeed, just wondering why -0.3, do you think that was necessary, and why?
I personally do not mind the ellie moving slightly away, especially after my experience last Sunday - had one of those prehistoric looking and very large tuskers hovering his trunk and flapping his ears over my car window, LOL. If you are on FB do check the 2 minute video I uploaded yesterday:)
Love the environment here, very much. Those trees in the BG are superb, the hills in the distance almost melt into the sky, very well seen and captured. Just a small thing, I am not sure how you feel about cloning, but if this was mine I might have considered removing the green roof between the trees on the LHS - not an issue, just my thoughts right now. I like this a lot, Kalin. December is a busy month for everyone so not as much feedback as you might expect, come January we are all back with images and lots of comments. I cannot wait to see more from you
Hi Marc, Andreas, Steve and Gabriela,
Thanks for the welcome! It is highly appreciated.
Some thoughts on your comments – I tried to find some more images with a better view angle but most of them are kind of the same or the ele is partly behind a bush or it is not alone and I don’t like the composition. We waited for him to come to us and I have some pictures of his approach but it is with other elephants and not that much of environment. And this is another reason to go back to Africa J.
@Gabriela – I underexposed because the elephant was dark and all the rest was bright. The picture was shot at about 2pm so we had lots of sun. Underexposing helped me to have the tusks relatively dark otherwise they were too bright. If I exposed on the tusks, the skin got too dark. So I chose to expose on the animal and to compensate by -0.3.
I am not much into cloning stuff so I decided to keep the rooftop. It was there anyways so it would not have been the same place. We have become part of the environment no matter if it’s good or bad.
Thanks again guys, looking forward for your pictures here. Not much suitable for this forum where I live so I will be enjoying your work most of the time and hope to get a chance to visit a place with more not-just-birds J.
Kalin