JADUPONT
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A Serengeti Elephant in its mud bath apparel.
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Contest Finalist in Colossal Wildlife Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Discover Africa Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Black And White Wow Factor Photo Contest
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hiyahercfarm
November 18, 2018
I love the black and white composition on this photo. Nicely done and great capture!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken during the summer of 2015 during my first photo expedition in Africa. This partucular image was taken in the amazing Serenegti National Park.Time
It was mid-day, when usually light is not to good. But I was lucky that there was a lot of clouds, like if a storm was approaching our location.Lighting
We did not get any rain, but those beautiful clouds helped achieve a pleasing light with even a bit of drama in the image.Equipment
For this photo, the elephant walked towards us right after it took a mud bath. So I used my Canon 5D mark III with my very reliable Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens. So a handheld shot at wide angle just when the gentle giant past just a few feet away from from us!Inspiration
When you are in Tanzania, you see thousands of animals... And frankly at a certain stage you need to stop shooting and enjoy nature and the animals around. So at that moment I was just doing this. And then I saw this elephant walking towards us. It was a beautiful animal, but what made this image more interesting for me was that it just came out from the mud and was almost black and very shiny. And the light was amazing. At the same moment my guide started to be nervous because the animal was walking right towards us. And it did not look like it was going to divert or stop. So my guide had to back up the truck very quickly. He made the right move as the elephant never stoped and passed right where we were. My guide said that he had seen in the past an elephant that was blind. And that this might be the case. Well I will never knwo but I got this great image to remember this great moment.Editing
I used nik software to make a black&white version of the original frame. Both versions are interesting, but I prefer the B&W.In my camera bag
As a wildlife photographer I travel with 3 Canon bodies (1D Mark II, 7D Mark II (for the reach) and 5D mark III (mostly for landscape). In a safari mode I will keep the 3 bodies out and will fit them with the 3 following lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens for the 5D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM for the 1DX Mark II and Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens for the 7D Mark II. I also use Canon teleconverters (mostly 1.4X).Feedback
One advise that helped me a lot was to simply remember to breath while you are photographing. You would be surprised to see how much photographers will stop breathing while photographing in the field... And if you do not breath, you will be less steady and that could make the difference between a very sharp image and a lost shot, expecially in low light conditions.