Pilanesberg Giraffe

Gallery: WildlifePosted July 2, 201066 views6 comments

Finally getting around to posting another shot from my trip to Pilanesberg NP in South Africa. Not a terribly exciting shot but this Giraffe kept stretching his neck all the way out and pointing his nose high in the air. We never did figure out what he was doing but it was interesting to watch. Comments and suggestions are always appreciated and thanks for looking.

Canon EOS 40D
Canon 100-400L IS @ 400mm
F13, 1/640 sec, ISO 500

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by John W Lee on July 4, 2010 at 7:33 AM

Looks a bit of a moth-eaten individual!

I understand the behaviour is one of dominance/aggression. I know males will display this behaviour trying to establish which is the tallest/biggest in order to avoid a fight which can result in serious/fatal injury.

John

Registered on February 17, 2006, 24 Posts, 129 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on July 4, 2010 at 8:21 AM

Interesting photo. IMHO the head is abit soft. the exposure is good and I like the composition, but feel it needs the head sharper to make the image more effective. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Sally King on July 4, 2010 at 12:55 PM

I really like the unusual pose and those whiskers on its chin and nose.

Registered on December 2, 2008, 416 Posts, 4450 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on July 4, 2010 at 2:16 PM

Hi Joe, great to see something posted from my 'backyard'

I quite like the pose here and your composition is solid. The DOF is also quite appealing with that crater 'wall' in the BG. What surprises me though is the noise in this image and that at ISO500! I know the 40D well and have never had noise issues this serious at this iso. My guess is that you either underexposed and had to compensate in PP or something did not go right during the resizing and jpeg conversion?
Regarding the behaviour I can only add that John's observation is in principle right, but looking at the tufts on the ossicles, this Giraffe seems to be a female and not a male. She might have been smelling something that caught her attention and used her vomeronasal organ to analyse the scent.

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

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on July 4, 2010 at 10:54 PM

Hmm, regarding the noise, is this a large crop?

I like the comp and the mood. Thanks for sharing.

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

Comment posted by Joe James on July 5, 2010 at 7:44 PM

Thanks to John and Vincent regarding the behavior. There were no other Giraffe around (that we could see) so maybe he just smelled something he didn't like. Regarding the noise, I re-checked the original and it does seem something went wrong when I resized it to load on PN as the original doesn't have as much noise. I have noticed that I don't get as many sharp images as a get closer to the high end of the zoom but I understand that this one of the trade offs of using it. The crop was minimal (maybe 10% or so) so that couldn't have been the issue. Thanks again for the information and recommendations.

Registered on November 20, 2009, 89 Posts, 808 Comments