Elephant Herd in Waterhole

[Rachel Hollander]

Another image taken at the same waterhole where my recent post of the zebras was taken in South Luangwa N.P., Zambia. This time it was a herd of elephants that passed through having a drink and a very quick bit of play. I do wish I had just a sliver more room below and have other images with it but I liked the playful spray here and position of the youngster too.

Canon 5D3
100-400 II @ 400mm
1/500
f6.7
ISO 800
HH from safari vehicle, ff, levels, curves, selective sharpening in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel like the scene as presented .
Very often difficult to get a decent shot of a elephant herd drinking at the waterhole , specially when they are placed in all directions . I think you did well and you have the bonus of the spraying water from one of them.
I like the placement of them in the FG and the wider view into the landscape . Good overall tonal range and natural looking colors . Lovely details and sharpness in their hides !!!!!!
I just feel it does need a slight rotation , might be just me.

TFS Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andreas. I actually wondered about rotation too but kept coming back to that eles look straight, it's the waterhole's edge in the bg that looks off. Still not sure.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

here you go

[haseeb badar]

Hi Rachel -- Very nicely done , and agree with Andreas on framing an elephant herd and for the matter of fact any group of animals, always difficult to time something when so many individuals are there. Timing the spray alongwith the gazing youngster makes this on work for me. Nice details and sharpness in the image with nice colours throughout. Lovely image !

TFS !

[Rachel Hollander]

Andreas -straightening looks good. Thanks Haseeb.

[gail bisson]

Very nice Rachel.
I like the spraying from Mom.
I agree with you that a bit more room at the bottom would have been nice.
Light was lovely and really shows off the wrinkles in the skin perfectly.
Centering the littlest elephant is the way to go but my eye keeps drifting to the baby on the LHS that has been cropped. Any chance you can include the baby's head?
As a bird person I like the bird in the FG. ? oxpecker
Gail

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Gail. This is ff so no way to include the full youngster on the left that is leaving the frame (except if I had pulled back on the zoom in the field). I do think the bird is an oxpecker.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice shot indeed Rachel, there is good separation between the elephants and the trees and the hide details are good without going OTT. The image rotation is minimal, I can only just perceive the difference.

[Steve Kaluski]

Agree with Andreas here Rachel, always hard to avoid clipping subjects in a busy scene like this.

Rotation I think is optional, but would crop the left more, so it's tight to the baby elephant - echoing the RHS and so loosing that raised leg. Colour looks better, but for me, a tad more SS and so the water trail is frozen, again echoing the sharpness of the rest of the image, it just jars a little, but others may like it, just personal choice. Would like to see a tad more below, it's perhaps a wee bit tight, as moving the whole crop down would still retain the nice 'forest' environment. Like the light on this one.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Jon and Steve, much appreciated.

[keith mitchell]

Rachel a lovely image and as already mentioned the fun water spray really adds to the image,can understand why it would be hard to crop this but what you have done looks perfectly good to me.

Keith.