(c) Newborn Curiosity

Gallery: WildlifePosted November 9, 2009118 views6 comments

Hi all,

Here you'll find my first image from my trip to Spain (with Marsel). This image and the images that follow have been shot at a wildlife park there. This wildlife park is one of the biggest in Europe, and one of the most succesfull in Europe. Key to this is the fact that most animals have very large natural enclosures where they can exhibit their natural behaviour. Elephants for instance have several acres to roam (truly the most gigantic enclosure I've ever seen anywhere) and as a result there are lots of newborn calfs and young in the park. The park is home to the most succesfull African elephant population outside of Africa, and as you can see in this image not only Elephants are succesfull here.

On our trip we saw 2!! newborns (with newborn I mean hours old, still carrying their umbilical cord). In contrary to most parks, calfs are actually born outside here, with the herd and mother to watch over them from the moment they emerge, and apprently this is very succesfull. Of course this is still not as good as truly wild, but this is probably as good as it gets!

On the image: A newborn Gaur calf peeks out behind his mothers legs to watch strange people with big white lenses. Must be scary to see if you're just in this world. (Mom was fine with it though).

Sony a700, minolta 300mm f2.8 with 2.0 teleconverter (35mm focallentgh= 900mm) no cropping.

F/8, iso 800 & 1/160 (used a fence as support)

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on November 9, 2009 at 9:23 AM

HI Jorne,

An interesting image - I particularly like the detail and lighting on the head of the young Gaur. I'm particularly impressed with the clarity and detail given that a 2x TC was used. The dark framing provided by the mother works well for me. I'm left wondering if a crop from the top - cutting a slight amount of the back of the calf off and flattening out the slanted green line formed by the grass meeting the darker background - might improve the image slightly? I'm not sure this would work - but it would leave the calf's face closer to dead centre vertically, which in this case I think would work. Just a thought - and my suggestion definitely falls into the category of personal preference.

Cheers...thanks for sharing this image...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Jorne de Bruin on November 9, 2009 at 9:39 AM

Hi Brad,

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been experimenting with different crops here, but in the end I chose this one because none seemded to work for me. (this one is not perfect either, but I liked it best).

I'm also very pleased with the 2.0 teleconverter I must say, I've shot about 40% of the images in Spain with this combination and most look great! I almost stayed with Sony for it, but in the end you need the camera to support it.

Cheers

Registered on June 26, 2008, 178 Posts, 2136 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on November 9, 2009 at 1:25 PM

Sounds like an interesting park Jorne, but are you sure this was not shot on a farm in Holland?

Just kidding! I like what you have done here and the sharpness and clarity are indeed excellent. I understand where Brad is coming from with his crop suggestion, but I am not too sure it would work either. I am looking forward to seeing more of your images from Spain.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by kiran khanzode on November 9, 2009 at 6:48 PM

Jorne, this is a 3D image, the Gaur calf is literally peeking out of the frame...great clarity/sharpness.

Registered on February 21, 2009, 83 Posts, 428 Comments

Comment posted by Marsel van Oosten on November 10, 2009 at 8:49 AM

Good natural framing here Jorne. Although I understand Brad's suggestion - I like the fact that it would get the calf's head higher in the frame - I feel it'd be a pity to lose the frame at the top. Perhaps if there were a bit more of the mum's legs on the right, I'd have less problems cropping it like that. As it is, I'd crop half of the top off - a compromise (typical Dutch).

Registered on March 9, 2004, 285 Posts, 2277 Comments

Comment posted by Cliff Forrest on November 14, 2009 at 12:36 PM

Mom Guar should be thrilled with the first photo of her newborn. I love how the picture gives the feeling of caution by the calf.

-Cliff

Registered on March 3, 2009, 51 Posts, 78 Comments