Chobe Bulls

Incredible!!!!!!

Out of the world image ...beautifully crafted...well done ..the BW had made it even more effective..

Balan Vinod

Haha what? Thats quite a small boat! Some more info on the technique would be much appreciated! Very cool shot, but it just leaves me scratching my head
-Cam

What a great perspective, Vincent, I really like the feeling of being dwarfed by these magnificent creatures..

Wow. I would definitely like to know more about how this image was taken. Were you even able to look through the viewfinder when you took the shot or were you shooting blind?

I like the image as is. Might be interesting to experiment with a slight bit of CCW rotation so the front elephant doesn't look like he's falling backwards but I wouldn't want to give up to much canvas. Cropping the water in front would make the image much less 3 dimensional. and I like the reflections. Doesn't bother me at all that the elephants are centered. I think B&W was a nice choice here. This shot is about textures - ripples on the water, wrinkles on the elephant's skin, clouds. Looks great.

Clinton

This is pretty special Vincent. Clinton makes a good point about the CW rotation. Worth a look into.

Well done and I only wish there was more space all around. Did you have a polarizer? would have been nice to have seen some of the clouds in the reflection. Small nits and I'll stop now. This is too good to nit pick :)

Thanks for the comments folks. I will look into doing a small rotation correction or a distortion correction to achieve the same.
As for more details on technique; shot hanging over the side of the small boat with the camera almost touching the water (in fact it even got wet and at one stage I feared it would be affected). Shot blind at high frame rate (well as high as the 5D2 goes 3-4 fps), manual focus. Maybe I used a CP as I used it on and off this shoot. All combined with a bit of guts to get close under a big ellie .

Stunning black and white. Low pov is an added touch to masterpiece.

Very nicely done! Works great as B&W.
If I press myself hard for improving this image, I would have preferred more clouds n less reflections !
Jagdeep Rajput

An incredible B&W elephant image Vincent. I really like the texture visible in the skin. And I think this composition is very strong.

Ken Archer

Exquisite, Vincent! Just an incredible, powerful image that is pure wildlife art. Great comp and conversion. There's just so much that makes this exceptional. Thanks for both impacting and inspiring us!

Amazing result Vincent. What a unique perspective. Love the B&W conversion - it creates a focus on textures and reflections - and this image has a wonderful assortment of both.

This is fabulous, Vincent! Reminds me of Nick Brandt's similar work in b&w!

I love the metallic tonal quality here and of course the wide angle low angle POV, Vincent. I am hitting Chobe in January and cannot wait after seeing this image
I don't mind the levelling given the direction/depth of the shoreline.

Very powerful image. Love the reflections, those clouds and the way the perspective makes the elephants appear even larger. Black and white looks great. I might back off a little on the sharpening of the elephants. Amazing shot!

Awesome perspective. I like the choice for BW, the conversion itself not so much - imho there is too much tonal contrast in the elephants, and I don't like the dark (masking?) outline in some areas, most noticeably the head and ear of the front one - makes it look too processed. Worth giving a second try.

I come in peace.

I like this one quite a bit Vincent. I am fine with the conversion personally and am also fine with the leveling of the shot. I'm not sure I would change anything and just print it very large.

Hi Marsel, thanks for your honest and helpful feedback. I agree the conversion was a little overdone in terms of detail/tonal contrast in the elephants. It took me a while to find out what caused the dark outline that you referred to as the original colour version did show some 'natural' darkish outlines but not near as pronounced. It appeared that it was the Silver Efex preset I used as a starting point for the conversion had exaggerated the outline contrast drastically. This is another try with a less 'processed' look

The second one is a big improvement, IMO. Thanks for including the larger version. When I look at the smaller version, the main elephant's eye looks abnormally large, so I was relieved to see it was simply my imagination playing tricks on me.

Max

Wonderful B&W image Vincent. I really like everything about this. For someone who is not all that familiar with elephants this looks great as posted to me. The larger image was a pleasure to view, one of the most artistic animal images I have seen, well done.

A very strong image that makes one want to look again and again - congrats!

Outstanding image !!! with an excellent POV

Awesome shot, Vincent...in fact very jealous indeed
Oh yes, and I also prefer the second version
Grt, Ingrid.