Hippo Huddle

[Rachel Hollander]

I thought I would post another theme image before the end of the month though this would also qualify for next month's theme of water in any form in the image. Another image of the 3 young hippos on the sandbar rather than in the deeper water of the Luangwa River. Here, they had moved a little bit allowing me to get more below than above. Again, I liked the pink feet. Taken from the top of the steep riverbank.

Canon 5D3
100-400 II @ 400mm
1/750
f5.6
ISO 800
HH, cropped to about 75% of ff, levels, curves, luminosity mask, sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[haseeb badar]

Hi Rachel -- A very nice frame and indeed those pink feet looks lovely. Yes more space at the bottom is fine but here i think a more centered framing by providing some more space to the right would have nicely balanced the frame IMO. Rest all works for me .
TFS !

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel lovely little groupies ........sorry group of hippos .
I like the formation of them and the overall color and tone combo in this frame , does look well processed with lovely details .I would have loved to see lower shooting angle , but understand it is not always possible .
The crop is not really working for me with too much dead space in the FG for my liking , i see you already cropped a lot for your circumstances . I do not know how the FF looks like , but you may crop a pano ?
Really love the pastel colors here .

TFS Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

A very cute group here, Rachel! With nice light lifting them from the brown surrounds (the pink flesh also helps!)
Could you shave some more off the bottom? I know you prefer to crop as little as possible.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, the capture isn't really grabbing me, it a nice record shot, but for me it just just lacks that impact.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks all for the comments and suggestions, much appreciated as always. I'll take a look at the crop.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dearest Rachel,

I admit I am a bit jealous of your Timbavati sightings:)

Lovely frame and I particularly like the mood/tranquility you have captured here. I too suggest a pano crop as I would like to get closer to the subjects, love the pink feet but I like the orange tinge even more - the light was beautiful.

Is that a terrapin sticking out of the water? Believe it or not I recently saw one in the Kalahari, still wondering how it got there:)

Cannot wait to share my recent sightings with you, been missing BPN Wildlife...

Warmest regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Gabriela and welcome back! This one was in South Luangwa N.P. in Zambia. I have seen very few hippos in the Timbavati and only in the permanent dams from what I recall.

Thanks again,
Rachel

P.S. I think it is just a rock though I did see terrapins on the back of hippo in the Timbavati.