Little and Large.

[Stu Bowie]

I am fortunate to have a nature reserve close to my house. Due to the spate of Rhino poaching, three of the nature's rhino's were killed last year. To save the remaining rhino's, they decided to dehorn them. I waited a while for this egret to fly onto the back of this rhino, but all he did was follow close by. This angle shows the difference in size between the egret and rhino. There were three rhino's browsing, and each had its own egret in attendance. Taken two weeks ago.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 260mm
1/1600
F/8.0
ISO 640

Manual exposure.
Hand held from the car.

[Grace Scalzo]

Stuart, I just love this. Light is sweet and your story is well told. I personally like a crop from the bottom eliminating most of the oof grass.

[Ken Watkins]

Stuart,

I wondered what a de-horned Rhino would look like, it is not as awful as I would have imagined. The Egret adds greatly to this, it seems that they want to get into lots of images.

I will not comment on the merits of dehorning as a conservtion tool as I do not want to get into another debate.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent Stu, love the details, does it need some cw rot?

[Stu Bowie]

excellent Stu, love the details, does it need some cw rot?

Thanks Arash. I agree it does need a touch CW rotation. However the area was sloping - maybe I should have mentioned that.

Grace, Ken, thanks for your feedback too.

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Stuart,

I really like the the comparison of size that the image conveys. Good exposure and sharpness. I like what the yellow flower adds to the image.


I am sure that you evaluated different compositions and think this is the best presentation. I do like this presentation but, was wondering about an alternative. Since the rhino was already cut that perhaps cutting part of the rhino's head would frame the egret with the rhino's body and eliminate the empty space in front of the rhino. I also cropped a little off the left side (our left) to place the egret's head in the rule of thirds. I also cropped out most of the out of focus foreground and applied some clockwise rotation.


Again I think your composition works nicely. I thought perhaps that this presentation might further enhance the size difference? It also eliminates the cut horn which bothers some. Of course if you were wanting to have the cut horn as part of the story then obviously my crop doesn't work.


Nicely seen and captured. Thanks for sharing.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Phil, thanks for your input. Whilst I dont disagree with your crop, I feel you have cut off a touch too much on the right, and bottom. Yes, maybe the space on the outside of the rhino can be brought in, and a little cropped up from the bottom. ( The egret still needs a bit of space below his feet )

After your suggestion, it will be interesting how others see this. Cheers.

[Humberto Ramos]

I like Phil's version...

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

I like the juxtaposition of the small delicate egret and the bulky rhino, lighting and exposure.

I like both crops. I might try a version of your original, but leveled and then tightened up a bit more, but I suspect just leveling will crop it somewhat for you.


It always make me sad to hear of slaughter of the animals for a horn. If you were starving to death, and ate the animal, at least I could somewhat understand that. I know it is easy to take this stand from where most of us are in regards to having enough food and essentials, but there has to be a better way.

Randy

[dankearl]

I like Phils version also.
Very cool shot though Stuart.
A bummer about the horns, what a shame that this is what they have to do to save them.
The Egret has really nice colors, what kind?
Not a variety in my part of the world.

[Humberto Ramos]

The Egret has really nice colors, what kind?
Not a variety in my part of the world.

It looks the same species we have in Portugal, Bubulcus ibis

[Stu Bowie]

The Egret has really nice colors, what kind?

Thanks Dan. This is a cattle egret. They like to follow animals to clean them of their ticks and parasites.

Thanks to everyone else. Much appreciated.

[Dave Barnes]

Stu I prefer Phil's crop, it highlights the story that you are telling and emphasises the egret. It also places the eye of the Rhino closer to the rule of thirds.
I like the framing of the bird by the rhino in Phils,s crop and the fact that the cut off horn is not shown.
I think that the focus point should be on the bird as it is infront of the rhino.
Humberto the egret is the Western Cattle Egret. (bulbulus ibis)

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dave, good point about the rhino's eye in the ROT's - makes sense, along with the rest of your feedback. Thanks a stack for popping in. Cheers.