Giraffe and 5 friends

[Hilary Hann]

A reticulated giraffe at Lewa WC with a badly swollen cheek and 5 red billed ox peckers.

7D; 100-400 @ 400; ISO 1600; f13; 1/640

I ran Nik dfine once but I feel that it could do with some more (when I look really closely) but then I lose a lot of detail. This is a bit of a compromise. I thought about leaving a bit more room at the top, but then I felt the image looked off balance so have left it like this. I have also cropped it vertically and will post that later if asked as it may work better (but it crops out the 5th bird by the shoulder which would mean changing the title! )

[Ken Watkins]

Hilary,

A good puzzle image it took me a little time to find the 5th

Noise does not look to bad to me.

[Jay Gould]

Hi, I wouldn't add any canvass at the top. The fact that it is tight translates to the giraffe looking down instead of looking out.

Golden light.

Like it!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Hilary, I like the image, but to have the Ox Peckers just adds to it nicely, a bit of personal grooming hey. Looks like you had some nice light, but obviously not enough based on ISO1600. Can I ask, was it that you wanted everything in focus that you chose f/13? Also, is this FF or a crop and if so, by how much?

Regarding the 'format/crop' I can see why you have had thoughts about adding some canvas above, as personally, I don't think the balance is there as presented, but again this is my 'personally' POV. Therefore, if you want to play can I suggest adding more above, but cropping to a square format. In doing so, it retains all the elements you want to, that strong diagonal element, plus gives more of an equal balance. Again just my take on this.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hilary - I like the comp and it's a fun image. The oxpickers add tremendously to the image. Looks like nice golden light and blue sky. Looks like you've dealt with the noise well.

TFS,
Rachel

[Charles Glatzer]

Hillary,

A nice image, captured in sweet colored light. I think your choice of f/stop affords sharpness from tip of nose to the neck. Balance is a bit off as presented.

Chas

[Stu Bowie]

Love the light here Hilary, and the five oxpeckers add a lot to the image. Good eye contact from the giraffe, and the noise looks fine from here.

[Robert Amoruso]

Hilary,

I posted a version cropped using RoT with the upper left power point right between the eyes. This required an extension of canvas above the head. I did it quickly so might be some artifacting.

Good way to judge the balance of the image is to place a RoT grid on the image an play with it. In this case I used the PSCS5 crop tool with a RoT grid the recrop extending the top above the existing frame and clicking created the extended canvas that I then filled with sky.

[Morkel Erasmus]

good light, pose and title here Hilary :)

nice techs too...I hear what others are saying regarding "compositional balance" and think Robert's repost sorts that out...do you know what was wrong with the cheek?

I also had to hunt for that elusive "5th" friend...

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I like the repost Robert, which addresses the balance nicely and echoes Steve's thoughts. So I'll go with that I think. Giraffe are very tricky beasts to balance nicely, in my view.

I kept the ISO high so that I could use a smaller aperture to increase the dof. After the problems I had in Lake Nakuru with the zebra and yellow billed oxpeckers, I really wanted to get more in focus and couldn't afford less SS.

I never did get the exact oxpecker and giraffe photo that I had in mind but 'next time'!

Morkel, I never found out what happened to the face but on my close ups you can see puckering just above the mouth. The animal looked healthy at this stage so hopefully it was something which would heal by itself in time.

Again, thanks for taking the time to comment. All opinions are always taken on board!

[Steve Canuel]

Robert's repost finishes this off for me. I like the light and how the bird's are peeking over the mane. Noise doesn't look bad to me.

[Harshad Barve]

Nice pose and light here , Ox-pecks adds , Agreed with Chas
TFS