Equus Burchelli - Burchell's Zebra

[Morkel Erasmus]

I took this photo of a Burchell's Zebra earlier this year at a local wildlife reserve. I quite like the composition with the clouds at the back and the purple flowers in the foreground.

This was when I really just started dabbling in DSLR photography.

All comments welcome.

Canon 1000D with Tamron 70-300 Di Tele-Macro @ 218mm
f5.0 @ 1/3200 SS @ ISO 400

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Morkel,

I like the contrast between the black & white zebra and the colourful flowers - really makes it special. There is one head of grass that comes a little high towards the face - maybe you could loose that. My personal preference would be for a little less tight, but it is a very pleasing image.

Regards,

Gerald

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Gerald. I have removed the long blade of grass. I will play around with a wider comp sometime, but for now I will leave it as is, since I don't have the original nearby to crop from scratch.

[Robert Amoruso]

Morkel,

I can see why you like this as a lot of elements came together in the composition to make it work as mentioned. I like the second post with the grass removed and a bit wider crop would benefit the image especially at the top, bottom and right. Nice work.

[Stu Bowie]

Rietvlei Morkel? There's always a toss up with zebbie images whether to leave them in technicolour, or convert them to B&W. I like the angle in this, as if you were sitting on the ground, looking up to him. The clouds and flowers add big time to the image, and I agree a little more space, top, bottom, and right will work.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Morkel Just the mentioned space !! One impressive image Love the low angle perspective and the flowers take it over the top !!! Big Congrats !!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks Robert, Stu & Alfred. Stu - yeah @ Rietvlei :).

How about this? Had to rework from scratch because the crop was made early in the PP process. Colour came out differently but I still like it. There wasn't any more room at the bottom to add. This is full frame.

This was shot in JPEG before I learnt the wisdom of shooting in RAW :( so my PP is limited.

[peter delaney]

lovely image..morkel.... no 2 i like best. wud just rotate BG...

peter

[Arthur Morris]

Better, but a bit wider top and bottom would have been better. Love the flower/animal juxtaposition.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Peter and Artie! like I said this was one of the first photos I took with my DSLR when I got it in January so I knew pretty much one 100th of what I know now thanks to forums like this. I've got one from a wider focal length - will fiddle with it some more sometime.

[Steve Canuel]

This is a nice one Morkel. Pose, grasses (and flowers), and the BG clouds all add up to a nice image. Like the room on the repost. The darker purple flowers seem a little oversharpened to me compared to the pinker ones (probably more due to their contrast than actual sharpening) and I might consider blurring them if this were mine.

[Fabs Forns]

I like prefer the original, especially because of the color cast in the repost. I don't mind the tightness the way you presented it.
Of course, we all have different tastes :)

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for commenting Steve & Fabs...

here I tried to remove the colour cast:

[Fabs Forns]

Morkel, as far as color goes, the original is about right, in my opinion, of course :)

[Morkel Erasmus]

I actually also like the original post the most - but wanted to see what the extra space brought. The fact that it's a JPG has caught up with me now as I did considerable work on the original to get the colour the way it is and I couldn't replicate that as of yet :)

[Fabs Forns]

I hope you saved a TIFF with the original adjustments :eek:

[Morkel Erasmus]

haha I've got a TIFF file with the adjustments but I had already made the crop so I can't get the space back (so we learn from our mistakes!) :)

[Fabs Forns]

haha I've got a TIFF file with the adjustments but I had already made the crop so I can't get the space back (so we learn from our mistakes!) :)

Big lesson here: Do not crop your master file ;)

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Peter.
Fabs - jip. Will learn from this!

[Chris Kotze]

2nd post looks best for me Morkel well captured

[David Fletcher]

Hi Morkel. To my eyes, the color was about right in the original, but like the amendments.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for your inputs Chris & Dave :)