Sharpe's Grysbok

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Friends,

Tonight I thought I'd share with you an image of a Sharpe's Grysbok. This is a tiny antelope that weighs about 7-8 kg and stands about 500 mm at the shoulder. They are very shy so I was very lucky to spot a few during my recent Kruger Park trip

Techs:

Nikon D5
Nikon 500mm F4
ISO 1250
F7.1
1/1600s

Image processed in LR and PSCC. Cropped about 50% of the frame and removed a few leaves in the spot where my signature is ( top right corner). I think I have more images of this elusive little bokkie, hope to share more in the future. They are really cute

Warmest regards,

[Morkel Erasmus]

Gabriela, this is one of the nicest grysbok images I have ever seen. Love the pose and the isolation you managed, since they love hanging around in dense foliage.
You must have ventured north into my stomping grounds of Shingwedzi-PundaMaria to see so many?
Exposure expertly controlled as well.

[John Mack]

What a sweet looking little antelope. Looks like a mini me antelope. The feeding pose is nice and i like the vertical comp. Always love images with bright backgrounds with the subject in the shade.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - A very sweet looking small antelope. I am not sure if I have seen this in the wild. It reminds me of both steenboks and klipspringer. The comp, detail and sharpness are nice. If it were mine I would reduce the blues/cyans in the whites of the ear and around the eye. I also might darken the bg slightly. Nice one.

TFS,
Rachel

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

I love the detail of the animal and the catch-light in its eyes Gabriela. Nice shot expressing the vulnerability and cuteness of these little creatures!

[greg cowle]

Very artsy, very nice.

[Steve Kaluski]

Now that is one 'awesome' capture Gabriela.

I love the pose/posture, the sympathetic colour palette and just that minimal vegetation. Having an uncluttered backdrop just isolates the whole subject extremely well, however... Like Wills image, I find the Blacks & Contrast a wee bit heavy and you need to control that, inherent in LR and I would guess ACR too. Adding some colour in the leaves helps define them I think. In doing so it just opens up the image. Great detail!

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for all your comments and suggestions, I really appreciate it

Morkel, I spotted about seven grysbokkies during this trip but did not have as many photographic opportunities - as I said before, the Shingwedzi area was so dry one could see far away through the mopani trees but too many sticks and twigs in the way:)

And John, this is indeed the "mini me" of antelopes around here. Except for the Suni which is even smaller Never seen a baby Grysbok but I can just image how pretty they must be.

I wanted to say I will look into your suggestions Rachel, but I think Steve fixed it all for me. So thank you Steve Err...I checked...I have forgotten to change to "flat" in LR...It would have helped a lot...Been doing this lately, always in too much of a hurry to process. I must write it down from now on, step 1, step 2, step 3

Hope you all have a great rest of the week,

Warmest regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

I checked...I have forgotten to change to "flat" in LR...It would have helped a lot...Been doing this lately, always in too much of a hurry to process. I must write it down from now on, step 1, step 2, step 3

Save it as a 'Pre set' in LR, job done.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela ...a killer shot .
Works so well , love it .
Good call from Steve on the contrast / blacks . So easy fix if you like !!!
Yes please show more , have not seen or heard of them .
Nice one .... very very nice Gabriela
TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Steve I will figure out how to save it as a preset, should be easy. I remember struggling a bit to lift shadows. I do my PP work late at night, that's my only excuse

Thank you Boetie Andreas, easy fix indeed. Went back to LR and saw where the problem lies. Talking about Grysboks, you must try go to Kruger sometime but choose the dates carefully, during school holidays it is very busy. I do have a few more images of this species but not as nice, they were so well camouflaged against the dry mopani leaves. Struggling to make them stand out a little

Warmest regards,

[Mike Poole]

A lovely portrait Gabriela, a nice choice of techs giving all the details where they matter.

My first thoughts were the changes made by Steve, albeit some of the greens look a bit un-natural now, but I think some of the brightest parts of the BG could take some more taming - I tried it with a luminosity mask and for me at least, it helps a little.

Mike

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you very much Mike:)

I did wonder whether the BG was too bright at the time I processed the image. Did tame it, but just a little. I think it was my memory of what I had seen that made me want to retain that light behind this little one. The Grysbok was - just like Morkel said - browsing under some foliage and those bright spots behind him made for an interesting, more unusual capture. Looking at the image now I think I should do a bit more work on the BG, will have to look at the blacks as well so an RP is due soon

Kind regards,

[Dumay de Boulle]

I like this a lot, but I prefer yours to Steves. The original image is stronger I thought.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you kindly Dumay, and so glad you are back and posting again, we missed you here

Have a super week-end!

Warmest regards,

[Basil Dardagan]

A stunning image of a hard photograph species !!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you kindly Basil, much appreciated