Itchy

Gallery: WildlifePosted May 3, 2013134 views9 comments

This young Elephant is giving himself a good scratch near to Ngweshla waterhole, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.

Taken from a camping chair whilst having our afternoon tea and cake, we have a good guide

EOS 1D MkIV
70-200mm F2.8 MkII @200mm
F5.6
ISO 800
1/640

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Claude Dagenais on May 3, 2013 at 7:15 AM

A funny moment captured here. I hope the cake was good. You are making a lot of photographers envious Ken.

Registered on April 10, 2013, 56 Posts, 571 Comments

Comment posted by Don Westbrook on May 3, 2013 at 11:11 AM

Great behavior capture and taken with a cup of tea in one hand! What a nice story too.

Registered on January 4, 2013, 11 Posts, 332 Comments

Comment posted by Martin Dunn on May 3, 2013 at 12:12 PM

Nice capture Ken. Great to have entertainment while you feast on tea and cake.

Registered on February 20, 2013, 198 Posts, 1011 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on May 3, 2013 at 2:50 PM

Lovely image Ken. The great light, beautiful textures and nice DOF help a lot. I just wish the entire base of the tree was in the frame;somehow that would have perfected the composition IMO.

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

Comment posted by Steven Svalina on May 3, 2013 at 7:35 PM

I wonder if elephants say "ah-h-h-h that feels so good". Really nice capture. The light illuminates that side so well. Kudos to you and to your guide as well.

Registered on March 19, 2013, 5 Posts, 23 Comments

Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on May 3, 2013 at 9:04 PM

I like the angle the foreground makes, and especially, the wet, dark brown parchment-like skin of the wet elephant. The raised right front foot animates this very well.

Registered on December 19, 2008, 302 Posts, 2055 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on May 4, 2013 at 12:54 AM

Well done capturing some lesser documented behavior. Image quality is top notch as well, nice light. I agree with Vincent, would like to see the base of the tree. This situation might work quite well in the horizontal format, eliminating the sky would give more attention to the subject and action in my opinion.

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

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on May 4, 2013 at 2:34 AM

Thanks everybody for your comments which are much appreciated, Elephants can always be relied on to provide great poses and in my experience Hwange is the best place to see them.

Vincent and Gary,
I have taken a look at your suggestion regarding the base of the tree and I agree this would be much better also conversion to landscape works very well, thanks very much for the suggestions

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on May 4, 2013 at 3:23 AM

Following the comments of Vincent and Gary here is a re-post in Landscape, I think it improves the image considerably, many thanks for the suggestions

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments