Elephant Calves

[Rachel Hollander]

These two youngsters were extremely cute and playful whenever I saw them on my recent trip. They were easily identifiable because they both lost their tails to a hyena supposedly in the first few weeks of their young lives. The wounds had mostly healed.

Canon 5D3
100-400 II @ 371mm
1/1000
f8
ISO 800
HH from vehicle, ff, curves, color adjustments and sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[haseeb badar]

Hi Rachel -- What cute little elephants ! so adorable. I liked the light,the tones and the details here , also the raised foot of the little one. Not so sure on the framing looks like it was difficult to get them isolated (normally the young ones are very skittish). The FG area on the lhs with the vegetation is a distraction for me . Also i am not sure whether including the adult helps here , its not adding anything to the frame IMO. Lets see what others have to say.

TFS !

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Haseeb. No way to avoid the adult here. In front of us was a waterhole and also would put a tree in the way of the image, if we moved back then more of the adult would be in the image. If I crop the adult out then the right edge is too close so I decided to leave the bit of adult in.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Jay Shah]

Hi Rachel, Haseeb has said it all for me. As here cloning is allowed, IMO cropping and cloning out adult would life this image quite a bit. Really love these cutie pies. I also would have reduced the shadow in front of the first baby and opened up the shadow on the leg. Of course , you must have made a coscious decision to leave them as such. Overall, I do like the frame. TFS.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Jay but as a rule I never clone natural elements except if I am doing a more fine art image that is a substantial departure from what I actually saw at the time of capture. For the majority of my images I try to keep it as close to natural as I can which includes all elements that were there whether it be a blade of grass, a bright rock or another animal.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Rachel a very tender frame, with the two youngsters (sans tails) playing around. Nice light and pose (though I would have liked a bit more of them angled towards us). Agree on the comp, a bit awkward with that adult creeping in the frame.

[John Mack]

Light looks really nice. And the little ones are pretty cute. Too bad about the adult on the right.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Sanjeev and John

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, agree with the others that having the trunk in, is distracting and moving back a meter or just zooming a fraction more in I am sure will have avoided the trunk and not include the waterhole either. In just a slight role back, it may have helped the darker shadows covering the trunk. Alternatively you could have shot much tighter and gone for the furthest baby elephant and capture a head shot with his playful trunk and leg lifted which I feel would have more impact nd character.

TFS
Steve