Dumbo's Ears

[Morkel Erasmus]

We got very close to this herd of ellies in the Sabi-Sands last year. This young bull shook his head with vigour, but not out of aggression.

Techs:
Nikon D3s with 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 78mm
f2.8 @ 1/640 SS @ ISO-400
This was my first time shooting with a 2.8 max aperture lens so I wasn't aware the DOF would be THIS shallow...although I kind of like how it came out.

[Gen Benjamin]

Love the ears.
Gen

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Morkel,
The ear makes it pretty interesting and elevates the image. You captured it in the right moment. Also, the ear flap helps in covering a major part of the tree in the background. The spread out ear requires a higher depth of field. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image , liked it as posted
TFS

[Hilary Hann]

Morkel, a fine image. Elephants are always good for some interesting interactions. I'm envious of your shallow dof, gives a greater variety to the images. TFS.

[Steve Kaluski]

Saw this last night Morkel, glad you posted it.

I like the character of the image and interesting to see the detail from 2.8 DOF, colour looks bang on. Can I ask, the tree trunk below the mouth looks a little odd, as if that section has some 'opacity' dropped & slightly blurred compared to the trunk above? Any ideas, just caught my eye.

TFS
Steve

[Jay Gould]

While the ears are the subject, the eye looking down and back, and the "smile" puts it over the top. Love it!

[Rachel Hollander]

Morkel - this is a fun shot with the ears going in both directions. I wonder if you have a little more room on the rhs as the right ear is a little close to the edge.

TFS.
Rachel

[Grant Atkinson]

Morkel, an interesting shot, shows off the shape of the elephants ear quite well. Nice textures and liek the background. About Steve's question, I am guessing that there is dust created by the elephant's actions, and it is showing up in front of the tree trunk lower down. Dust might be from the trunk, or shaken off the ears, or from the ground.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the comments folks!

I'm not sure if the "blurry" patch is dust...it might be that the base of the tree was "deeper" into the scene than the top due to its curvature, thus making it appear more OOF? I certainly applied no additional blurring...

[Robert Amoruso]

Love the ear, love the tight crop, love the vertical crop. Don't like the tree Morkel.

[Marc Mol]

The ears look like the leaves from a common vegetable,...... enhancing the term cauliflower ears here Morkel
Shame about that BG tree, these things happen.
Nice detail in this youngster.
TFS

[Dumay de Boulle]

lovely IQ and flap of the ears...Pity about the OOF Marula tree in the BG....but what can you do its nature after all. I like the fact you can see the color of the eye.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Dumay, Robert & Marc for your comments...