Elephantine Dawn

Gallery: WildlifePosted September 11, 201692 views5 comments

This elephant was photographed at sunrise on our last morning in Mana Pools this past July. The sunrise was hazy and moody, more so compared to our other mornings.
I tried to capture a frame with both elephant and the sun, something which is hard at the best of times in terms of exposure given the dark undertones of the albida forest I was in.
The whole thinking process is described on my blog - in short, trust your histogram and not your LCD display as such...
Read it here: http://blog.morkelerasmus.com/2016/0...histogram.html

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 300mm f2.8 VR-II
f5.6 | 1/1000 SS | ISO-250
EV -0.7

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on September 12, 2016 at 9:41 AM

Very well executed frame, love the placement of sun against the elephant !
Jagdeep Rajput

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

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on September 15, 2016 at 3:00 PM

I believe you did a fine job of capturing the scene to include the sun, a real exposure difficulty, for sure. That said, when I first look at the image my eye automatically goes to the sun before the elephant. If I scroll the image to cut off the sun, but leave its bright sky, I find I examine the elephant more thoroughly. So I think you succeeded in your efforts, but a less challenging composition would have better general appeal.

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

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on September 16, 2016 at 3:29 PM

It works for me really well as posted Morkel, great comp with the sun in the upper left and the ele in the lower right. devil

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on September 20, 2016 at 4:51 PM

Morkel, nice job on this tough the exposure. At first glance (thumb) the foreground seemed too dark, but this really works and helps preserve that great sunrise as well as possible.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on February 18, 2017 at 2:12 PM

Thank you, guys. You made some good points.

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments