Baby Hippo ( Kruger National Park)

[Gabriela Plesea]

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5
• 500.0 mm f/4.0
• ƒ/6.3
• 500mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 1000
• GABRIELA PLESEA
• Sun, 17 October 2021 12:40 PM
• GABRIELA PLESEA
• NIKON D5 Ver.1.30

Dear Friends,

This baby hippo was exploring its surroundings while mom was resting nearby. Image captured in the Kruger National Park a few weeks back.

I do realise it is not a very exciting frame but decided to share because it is a little different. I quite liked the subject small in the frame and the simplicity of the scene. Not a lot of colour, it was overcast and light a bit flat.

Let me know what you think, I look forward to your comments and suggestions. Should I crop more from the bottom?

Processed in LR and PSCC, cropped a tad from the top and removed a small water bird in the upper left corner of the image.

Hope you all have a wonderful week-end, techs to follow :S3:

Nikon D5
Nikon 500mm F4
ISO 1000
F6.3
1 1/3 EV
1/2000s


1/2000s

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Gabriela, I think I quite like this image though I am a little torn. I like the small/baby hippo in landscape aspect, my first reaction was the base, i.e. is there too much? Looking again I think it is OK, maybe it's the fact that the hippos is gazing into nowhere in particular, possibly that's it - if there was a little eye contact it may have been stronger. If I had been there I am sure I too would have taken the image - in fact I have a sneaky recollection I do have a similar one somewhere. You seem to have rendered the hippo hide rather well.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, I like this a lot, small in frame and just on the point of the land. I think the crop works as presented, but not sure on the soft parts of the land at the foot and also is it light hitting the lens at the top? Hard to tell on the laptop, but option of adding a little Vib/Sat, DH/CL, with a few curve adjustments, then a Lum Levels adjustment for the water?????

Techs look good, no need for truck loads of DoF here.

TFS
Steve

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Many thanks to you both, Jon and Steve.

I too feel the land at the foot of the image is somewhat detrimental to the overall look of the frame. I have a few options though, one of them would be to crop at the bottom and leave more at the top, will see what it looks like. The current version seemed ok until I uploaded it:tinysmile_shy_t:

Steve, I will go back and implement your suggestions. Initially the image was a bit warmer - not sure what made me back off on saturation and vibrance before posting:S3:

Waremest regards,

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Keep the crop the same, just crop a little more perhaps????

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Will do :bg3: I tried everything... now back to original version, just taking a tad off the bottom to make that OOF land less obvious :w3

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela .... this " little critter " does look lost and sad as presented , without your intro I would have thought this .
I quite like the overall concept ... as presented it does have a very realistic or documentary character , if you now what I mean ???!!!

AS everything is somehow flat ... I would try to go overboard with tone and color , maybe even try a experimental route to make it " hopefully " more attractive .... if you like .
Maybe you can try going B&W for more aesthetics .... just a thought .

TFS Andreas

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much Andreas:w3

Had precisely your thoughts and tried to go B&W but found that tonal rage wasn't quite 'there'... so I will go for the 'oomph' instead. Will post when ready, got a bit distracted while searching for the image in LR and started PP on other images :bg3:

Just found another frame with the little one sleeping...at the same spot:S3: Rather cute, so I will see what I can do.

Have a wonderful rest of the week-end Boetie, and if you have the time... post something cute please! Maybe go back to 2014 and find me some little foxies :tinysmile_shy_t:

Kind regards,

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5
• 500.0 mm f/4.0
• ƒ/6.3
• 500mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 1000
• GABRIELA PLESEA
• Sun, 17 October 2021 12:40 PM
• GABRIELA PLESEA
• NIKON D5 Ver.1.30

Hello everyone,

Hope you are enjoying the weekend, here's an RP from me... hopefully with a few noticeable improvements :S3:

Kind regards,

 

[John Mack]

I like it. Nice leading line up to the little hippo. The "S" curve the shoreline makes is nice as well. Good thinking on framing this one.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

I think it's going in the right direction Gabriela.

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you John and Steve, very much:w3