Savuti Elephant Sunset

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 5Dmk2, 16-35mm f2.8 lens, S/s 1/40 at f4.0, Eval metering, +1 Exp comp, iso 1250, handheld from the ground, focal length 16mm, cropped from 21 to 17.4mp, Processed in ACR6 and CS5. Location Savuti Bush Camp, Botswana. 15 Dec 2010, 19h08pm. We were on the grassy edges of the Savuti Channel with this herd of elephants, and after the sun set they moved out to graze on the channel grasses. I was able to position ahead of them and the sky did the rest.
All C and C welcome
Cheers
Grant

www.grantatkinson.com

[Marc Mol]

Beautiful! What a stunning backdrop and low perspective here Grant.
You must have been very close to this big fella, all the better!
One very small nit is a slight magenta cast on the ele.
TFS

[ken dyball]

Grant, good to see a nice wide angle of some Ellie's, we all should practice this more often, well done

Cheers, Ken

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Marc and Ken, thanks for the comments. Ken, the hard part is getting them in the open with the right kind of sky. Marc, I have reprocessed and it seems that i may have removed some of the magenta from the ele, I will wait before reposting to see if there are more suggestions. I work on an uncalibrated laptop in the bush, and am usually in a hurry with processing and posting, so thanks for pointing out these things, much appreciated
cheers
Grant

[Hilary Hann]

I'm impressed! That sky is beautiful as is the positioning of the nearest elephant. The clouds all seem to be leading to this elephant. Quite wonderful to see a different perspective which you've achieved with the low pov and wide angle. Agree with slight cast.

[Harshad Barve]

Stunning colors Grant , I guess that magenta cast is because of sunset , One of the best ele image of BPN , Big congrats
TFS

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Harshad, I borrowed your shutter speed trick (1/40sec) :). Glad you liked it Hilary..I have done a repost which is attached to this.
I have done slight rotation correction in ACR, also tried to remove magenta from ele, and reworked slightly the contrast.
Cheers
Grant

[Harshad Barve]

Re-post stuns me once again :)

[Steve Kaluski]

Grant, a little cracker and great timing in both taking the shot and posting, nice to see we have such a variety of wildlife here. Like Marcs image, I really do like seeing the rich colours you two have captured in your images. The vast expanse of sky gives that wide open space feeling, juxtapose to these gentle 'Goliath' of these animals. :cool:

The repost is better, but guess Marcs magic software would be the ideal product to use. You could try Colour balance and using a mask, or Selective colour perhaps?

Grant is there anymore to the right, as I just wondered if you had the ele as far left, walking into frame and cropped pano for an altrnative POV? But then you lose the expanse.

TFS
Steve

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Steve, i have nothing more on the right, I only cropped a little off the left. By reference to your comment about Colour balance or Selective colour, are you still referring to removing purplish cast from the repost? If so is the cast appearing to be throughout the image or just in the ele?
Thanks for looking and commenting
Cheers
Grant

[Lorant Voros]

Wow. You are really close to them and not in the car for having this low perspective. Colors are stunning; love the re-post. Cropping more off would take some of the nice sky away and I really like the effect you managed to show here. Well done.

Lorant

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grant, if you look at the image in PS you really do get a wonderful feel to the image, however I would suggest you try using Selective color and work your way through adjusting each color as I think you will be amazed in the little tweaks you can do to add to this already good image, just spend a bit more time playing, and yes although there seems also to be a yellow patch in the main body too?

Steve

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Lorant, I was right next to the open door of my vehicle, but on my haunches. I didn't shoot from any lower as there was quite a bit of tall grass about and that would have gotten into the pic. I jumped back into the vehicle just moments after taking this shot.
Steve, thanks for the tips, I will play around with Selective colour and see what I can do..
cheers
Grant

[Robert Amoruso]

Grant, If you mess around with Selective Color, adding or subtracting black from any color will either dull it down or intensify it

I like how this is composed, low perspective / good placement of main subject of interest / relation of elephant to clouds. The clouds especially as they seem to radiate out from the elephant as well as act as a leading line drawing the eye to the elephant. Without such careful placement of the elephant to the clouds this image would not be nearly as strong as it is. Well done.

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - beautiful scene, beautifully captured. This all works for me, the sliver of waterhole, the ears extended, the low POV, the comp and the fabulous sky. The repost is better.

TFS,
Rachel

[DanWalters]

Love the wide angle veiw and clouds really make for a dramatic image!

[Steve Canuel]

Excellent composition and what a great angle. I really like how the clouds seem to be radiating out from the featured ele.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Grant, opening the forum page tonight after returning from a short trip, I am faced with this image...amazing, my kind of shot and I love the colours, perspective and story here. Your repost has touched all the nits I would have had. Superb!

[Danny J Brown]

Hi Grant,

By far the most interesting elephant shot I've see here. The lens choice and point of view made for such a compelling image and the background elephants kill. Sky is sublime and everything else is sweet as well. Great shot.

DB

[Sid Garige]

Love it Grant. Just Love it. One of the best imgaes I have seen in a while.

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Rachel, Danny, Morkel, Sid and Steve, and thanks for your comments. The sky really made the shot worth pursuing, and when that single elephant changed his course to come toward me I was lucky to be able to place him against the sky...
Thanks for commenting.
Cheers
Grant

[Hendri Venter]

My kind of image. Absolutely stunning.!!

[Andrew Aveley]

great work ( including the foot work :p ) elements all together make this a powerful image.

[Austin Thomas]

Great image Grant.

IOTW for certain. Well done.

Austin

[Todd Frost]

Love the image Grant. Good advice given above re: color tweaking, will put this over the top.
TFS
Todd

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Fantastic image. Love the clouds, position of the elephant and the low angle capture.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi