Dance like there's no tomorrow

[Hilary Hann]

We were off in search of a leopard and her two cubs when we came across two kongoni (Coke's hartebeest) fighting. Suddenly they broke apart and the whole herd of animals starting running around in circles leaping and cavorting. A few Grant's gazelle became caught up in the frivolity much to their shock. We ended up spending quite a bit of time with them as it was the funniest time we'd had to date. We did end up finding the leopards, thank goodness.
Kept some space on the rhs because that's the way the kongoni was turning.
I think the IQ isn't as good as I'd like but I went to ISO800 to keep the ss high because of the kongoni's leaping about. Think I went a bit too overboard, but as others were posting these kinds of antelope thought I'd join in.

7D; 100-400 @ 400; ISO 800; 1/2500; f7.1 Handheld; Manual exposure

[Russell Johnson]

IQ looks good at this level and you have captured some interesting behaviour

I am caught in two minds Hilary, as I feel there is too much space on the RHS, though the slight head turn does add to the composition.

If you have the IQ, a vertical crop could accentuate the behaviour more.

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Russell, my first inclination was a vertical crop but the IQ worried me a bit. Maybe I'll try it again and see how it ends up.

[Ken Watkins]

What we call "mad half hours" seem to enjoyed by all antelope.

I would leave the crop as is, perhaps a little boost in contrast.

All 4 feet off the ground can't be bad.

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Hilary, this is a nice action shot. I think I am with Russell on a vertical crop ,that will show off the feet in the air a little more strongly and maybe a tiny bit more space below if you have it.
TFS
Grant

[Robert Amoruso]

Hilary,

Feet off the ground very cool. I agree with the vertical crop suggestions - was the first thing I thought when I saw the image.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Hilary, I'm with the vertical crop too, the space to the RHS isn't working for me either and it needs more space top & bottom. IQ looks good along with the capture.

Nice to see you didn't wait till the weekend to post again.

TFS
Steve

[Todd Frost]

IQ looks good at this size Hilary. Comp wise I like it as is but agree with it making a strong vert as well. Nice moment captured. Well done.
TFS
Todd

[Hilary Hann]

I've re-cropped to a vertical although I do have some extra room below I had cropped my original prior to post production (cocky, I know! ) so to crop vertically with some extra space meant going through the production again so I'll take that advice on notice for when I prepare the file for stock. Thanks for all the feedback, much appreciated.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Hilary, I feel this format of crop works better.

Personally and others may wish to add there thoughts too, but I tend to work on the whole file as a 16bit tiff layered file, flatten, then crop and save as. Thus retaining your hard work and you can always revisit your image at a later date without having to remember every step you took to achieve your final file.

Steve

[Hilary Hann]

Of course Steve you are quite right and with many of the images I leave the crop until last. Having said that, there are some images where I just can't get a sense of what I'm trying to portray so I need to crop first to understand what post production I need to do. I find that hard to explain, but the method which works for me is very emotive and if the crop isn't right, I just can't seem to get the pp right. Consequently, although this crop is fine (and I said at the beginning that it was one of the options I looked at) I'm not at all happy with the final IQ so would really need to start again.
My work flow is normally as follows:
1 I always work in DNG so process the raw neg as lightly as possible
2 Work the image in 16 bit layers, but sometimes in psd, sometimes in tiff depending on whether I think that it is a keeper or not (can't explain that one)
3 Save on every step but if I'm working in textures, which I don't do for images posted in the wildlife forum, I then save a second working file which is a flattened version of my initial layered file.
The crop will either come in after the raw conversion at step 1 but before step 2 or after step 2. For the advanced texture work I do, the crop always has to come first. But by then I'm pretty sure of what I am going to end up with and it has been many months since I've had to start again with one of those because of the choice of crop.
With some, like this, I'm ambivalent but with many of the images I post here it is a sounding board to select suitable subjects for further work.
Now I've confused everyone!! :2

[Ken Watkins]

Hilary,
IMHO the OP is much better, it has an element of surprise in that it is not in a "standardised" format, have you done a little work on the haartebeest?

[Hilary Hann]

Ken, nothing apart from levels, curves and USM on the hartebeest. I did one round of NR on the background. Between the OP and the repost I've only cropped, no additional pp work.

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice moment here Hilary - I'm also going to vote for the OP...somehow the "dead space" just works better for me :)

might lighten the hartebeest some?

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Morkel

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

Thanks, nice to not be alone

[Hilary Hann]

Ken, I don't see it as being alone, more that the 'art' of photography relies very much on the connection between viewer and photographer. We are all seeing the image differently and I guess all we can hope is that there is someone out there who sees it like we do.