I like this image, the hippos looks great. i wonder if a hint of detail/expression could be obtained from the sky and possibly a little more in the water?? Probably not much with the sky but lowering the highlights helps I think. The water - perhaps a little Dehaze WDYT?
Certainly a different take on photographing a hippo Haseeb, with it being out of the water and I like the open mouth posture. I don't like the horizon cutting through the hippo, perhaps softening it and as Jon said try to see if there is anything in the sky, but I doubt it. As it was more backlit I might have change the Mode here. Looks sharp and with detail.
I really liked the Hippo in the open and with its big mouth open , I do have a frame with a full yawn as well but the Hippo is slightly angled towards me so I will post that one also.
Nothing I could do with the sky its plain white and can't extract anything from it.
Yes, the horizon is there intersecting but on a positive side the mouth is above it so I am fine with it and also in the Mara horizon is always there in the bkg , one has to be quite mindful of it.
Hi Steve -- Nice alternative, didn't tried in this direction while processing. But appears quite dark to me , I more inclined towards the OP but nonetheless I can explore in this line as well.
Thank you for your suggestions and an alternate version of the image.