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Image Description
This giraffe was walking towards us on the road in Tsavo West, Kenya.
Critique Template
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This is striking - love seeing large animals small in frame.
My initial reaction is…RICH and complex! A frame worth studying. The warm colors of the animal and the path combined with the cool greens in the foreground and the relatively light value of the giraffe and the dirt under its feet draw me straight to it.
Seeing a giraffe in this “tunnel” is very interesting. It’s an unusual setting in my (limited) experience, and the composition illustrates the sometimes solitary life of wild animals, enhanced by the depth of the trees behind. I really like this very much, Ingrid.
Ingrid, a wonderful and unique scene of this solitary giraffe in a somewhat out of the normal looking Serengeti ecosystem. Hard to judge the exact size or age from this perspective, but does appear to be younger overall. Would love to see a larger version of this one…
lI hope this giraffe knows its way because " if you don’t know where you are going you’ll end up in the direction in which you are headed " (Confucius.) The image has got the element of surprise as giraffes generally don’t stroll in the woods. Wonderful composition - I am asking “what’s down there?” The tree canopy and curve at the end, background, add mystery to the image too. Technically the image is right on to me. Nice sharp giraffe. The square aspect ratio is most effective as well.
Love seeing the giraffe in the greater context of its environment and that it is a different environment than one normally sees. It’s a beautiful image and I like the square format. There’s a moodiness to the image with the muted colors that is very pleasing to look at. I played with the image a bit in LR. I straightened and brightened the giraffe a bit and did a closer crop to delete some green from the top left that was distracting to me and put the giraffe a little off center. I encourage you to try different editing techniques in whatever post processing system you use.
Thanks so much Debbie for taking the time and the effort to post process this image. Always nice to see what other people would do. I would appreciate to hear other photographer’s comments about both your and my composition.
Thanks again!
This is wonderful. My initial reaction was “oh my goodness!”. I think the only thing I could think of that I may have done if I am ever fortunate to be in a place like this is to get right down on the ground to show more of the underside of that magnificent tunnel of trees, and to try to include a bit more of the trunk of the tree on the right. Plus, my personal preference is to minimize the appearance of manmade structures like roads or buildings. That said, I love the sense of scale here. We all know how tall a Giraffe is, but without the animal, we’d never know how tall those trees are.
This made me stop, Ingrid. Fantastic image. I like how the sheer size of the trees tells a great story. Personally, I wonder what the image would look like with a little more foreground, giving the giraffe room to walk into. Yes, the giraffe would look a bit smaller, but to me, it is the contrast of the huge trees surrounding it that make this image. Wirklich ganz toll!!
Hi Paul, thanks for your appreciation and taking the time to comment so elaborately. I absolutely agree that a lower angle would have been even better, but getting on the ground is not an option in national parks in Kenya. You have to remain in your vehicle at all times, and that’s as much for your own good as for the protection of the animals and their environment
Also, this happened all of a sudden and immediate reaction was required otherwise the moment would have been over. So we got the vehicle as low as we could do in the seconds that we had… Moments later, it had walked off to its right into the bush. Thanks again!
Danke schön Fritz! In truth, I haven’t got more foreground in the photo, so I cannot show you what it would look like. I’m hoping for another giraffe in the same spot this August coming
