Silhouette w/water drops

Gallery: WildlifePosted March 5, 201174 views10 comments

Young elephant silhouette in Chobe National Park - Botswana. The river is a good place to wait for animals; while an elephant was quenching his thirst, I caught his silhouette and the falling water drops against the light.

Nikon D40x
Nikkor 70-300mm VR @ 300 mm
ISO 200
f/8,0
1/1600

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 5, 2011 at 8:09 AM

Beautifully executed Ingrid :^) I love lighting on the hairs of the Elephant and water droplets are perfect! I'd be interested to know whether you used aperture or shutter priority or fully manual for this shot?

Kind regards,

Ashley

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Ingrid Vekemans on March 5, 2011 at 8:30 AM

Registered on August 2, 2010, 138 Posts, 780 Comments

Comment posted by Ingrid Vekemans on March 5, 2011 at 8:31 AM

Hi Ashley,
Thanks for your comment - I used aperture priority on this one.

Registered on August 2, 2010, 138 Posts, 780 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on March 5, 2011 at 9:54 AM

The backlighting is effective and the water drops delightful. Did you try a b&w conversion. Might be even more effective since the elephant is so black against the bright blue water.

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on March 5, 2011 at 1:20 PM

Great concept behind this capture Ingrid. There is something wonderful about the falling droplets of water that you have photographed perfectly, so sharp.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on March 6, 2011 at 12:13 PM

Ingrid, I really love the concept here, but something about this just isn't working for me. I feel like the shot is crammed into the frame. I think because of the water droplets showing all the way at the very bottom of the frame. I don't know if this is a large crop, but if you have more room underneath the droplets, I think it would make a much bigger impact...just my opinion

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on March 6, 2011 at 1:56 PM

Creative capture! I like the detail that invites the eye to linger. If it were mine, I would crop away about half the water beneath the elephant to change the composition/balance. I think giving up the bottom portion of water redirects the eye to the main subject, retains the interest of falling drops and allows the shape of the silhouetted head to partition the frame. Hope that makes sense!

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Johan Malmros on March 6, 2011 at 3:04 PM

Nice shot and a good idea behind it. I like the light on the hair, and the droplets are great.
Longing for a trip to Botswana.

I agree with Kurt and Lon that there might be other compositions that would be worth trying, so play around with their suggestions.

There is something about the water I find too demanding, but that might just be my screen so if it's fine on yours disregard the comment. Can't decide if its the tone or the color intensity but I think I would bring it a bit towards the blue spectrum, darken or desaturate a tad.

Registered on January 6, 2011, 20 Posts, 154 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on March 7, 2011 at 11:37 AM

Very unique shot, I like the silhouette placement and the water drops really add to the image. Well done and well seen.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on March 9, 2011 at 8:04 AM

Nice concept n treatment here. If this image was mine, I would have taken it bit early, when the trail of water was dripping into the water.
Jagdeep Rajput

Registered on April 29, 2008, 686 Posts, 2857 Comments