Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
Any reactions?
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
I was thrilled when I saw the biggest of Amboseli’s tuskers, Craig, start moving toward a position in front of Mount Kilimanjaro. I calmly moved forward to get closer to this habituated animal and waited for just the right moment when he approached the peak in the background and took my image.
Technical Details
Sony a1, Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, manual exposure, f/8 at 1/250th, Iso 800. The mountain was heavily shrouded in haze but some work in Camera Raw with dehaze and other touches brought it out.
Iconic photo of a big tusker with Mt Kilimanjaro in the background. Congrats! I have a similar photo with a baby elephant with Mt Kenya in the background. This could be a travel photo. Takes me back to Amboseli.
My gut reaction is that I wish the light and sky had been doing something more special than it is–sunrise or sunset, clouds, etc. But you get what you get with wildlife and Mother Nature.
I think your composition is perfect with the Mountain centered in the background and the elephant walking into the scene. I just wish the ellie was doing something more interesting. But again, you work with what is given to you.
I’m with Janis on this one Charles. It’s a really nice shot of a timeless scene.
Elephants and snow capped mountains bring home the true diversity of Africa.
Congrats, you managed to get two icons in one image !
Your choice of lens, a 27-70 suggests that you were quite close to Craig. I believe a lower POV , if possible, could have simplified the foreground and elephant would have appeared more dominant.
A nice, iconic pairing, and I think the pose gives you about as much as you could hope for in this scene. The elephant is also sufficiently displaced from the background enough to stand out.
I would prefer a slightly tighter crop, on the bottom at least. It would be nice to see the elephant firmly rooted along the base of the image, and I think about 5% taken off the bottom would help in this regard. Right now, it appears that elephant and mountain are both floating a bit due to the extra empty space along the top and bottom.
Though I don’t think the light helped a great deal here, I’d be curious how the scene looked in a monochrome interpretation. You have two big bold graphic elements, and the lines and shadows on the elephant are bold enough in this light that I could see potential in black and white.
Thanks, Max. I didn’t do this in monochrome as I had so many other images of this big guy with my IR camera that I wanted something that shows the blue of the East African sky.
