fernandob
FollowA wild Elephant appears!
A wild Elephant appears!
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Creative Winter Award
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Contest Finalist in Monochrome Rule Of Thirds Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Black Out Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Animal Faces In Black And White Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Large Mammals Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Negative Space Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in a small village in Ubon Ratchathani, in Thailand. People would pay 100 baht (~3 dollars) to have the elephant "bless" their homes with good luck by spraying water (from a bucket) at the entrance.Time
It was about 5:30pm, and the sky was cloudy.Lighting
Just natural lighting, since the day was overcast my position wouldn't matter much. Since I took the photo with a wide angle lens, it would have been very hard to lit the elephant evenly with a flash.Equipment
Canon 7D Mark II and a 10-22mm (at 18mm) lens.Inspiration
Most people take photos of elephants using long range lens, I wondered how it would look like when shot up close with a wide angle. I was very, very close.Editing
A lot of post processing was made. The original photo had lots of electric wires from the houses on the background, a distracting guy with a bucket, overexposed sky. First of all I made the photo black and white (an elephant is not very colorful, I wasn't missing much), and using Photoshop I carefully deleted all the background and replaced by black color. I applied some shadows on the edges to avoid anything too harsh. Also added some clarity for a more dramatic effect.In my camera bag
I have no vehicle, so in my bag there are only things I can actually carry around without compromising my mobility too much. Usually it's a camera body (7D Mark II or more recently 5D Mark III), a medium sized lens (24-70mm for example), a smaller prime (50mm or 85mm), a flash (430 EXII) with Yongnuo wireless transceivers and a Lightsphere. Also some other items, such as extra batteries, an Ipad mini for showing photos to people, it's way better than showing on a phone. All these items fit in a Lowepro shoulder bag, a bit tight but still manageable.Feedback
Some very ordinary shots can become quite amazing if you get rid of the background. Distractions in the background can ruin your photo, but most of the time they're manageable and with some post processing you can "save" your shot.