Photo of the Week - #35 - 5/16/22

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Where one elephant goes, others will follow. To me, this image is as close to being flawless as is possible. I especially was enchanted by the lighting that gently presents the elephant; the backlighting works.. Edited May 16, 2022 by michaellinder

Excellent illustration of contrast creating overall drama and drawing the eye to the subject. Especially the chroma contrast between the blue tone of the elephant vs the golden background. Framing in the composition also.

The monkey is not getting enough spotlight here. Great shot.

Excellent photo! The lighting and composition are spot on. Is the small monkey or the large elephant the main subject? - they draw my attention about equally. A photograph that I wish I had taken, even though I have never been to Africa.

Yes, lovely photo, what makes it so to me? The quality of the light, especially the handling of the back light creates a quiet mood. Also, there's a little monkey to its left, which is really cool. Nice photo and well done!

+1 for all the above comments. Nothing to add.

This is fabulous on so many levels… so lovely. A photograph which, almost every photographer who ever sees it, will wish they’d shot it. I know I wish I could capture light like that.

 

One thing I like about is there’s a bit of surreality of scale here. The massive trees almost diminish the elephant; make it seem not so huge after all.

 

And then there’s the monkey.

Did you mean "Minkey?" (Inspired by Clouseau)

Upon repeat viewing, I'm beginning to get suspicious that this is indeed a fantasy. If not a composite, then an experiment in heavy manipulation. perhaps discovery of color grading in lightroom.

My money is on the composite option ???

Well, I didn't mention it when I first looked at it, but I noticed an oddness in the dark underside of the elephant and it looks like a mask went awry or the Elephant had just come out wading in some water we don't see in the pic. That could be from raising the foreground values due to the backlighting.. Also maybe some over sharpening or the result of masking to bring up the foreground values up as you can see the halos at the Elephants hind end and on some of the trees. It doesn't look like a composite, but who know? It looks like maybe some aggressive work with the sliders in PS or Light room. in an attempt to balance the lighting. But if you back out to normal viewing distance it still looks great to me and I like the way the photographer was thinking about the lighting in post. It may have just been a difficult photo to work on due to the backlighting, but I like the sensibilities of the photographer in going for this look.

 

. . . and then there's the monkey!

Passing this on from the photographer …

 

“This is not a composite and nothing is artificial other than than some slight work on exposure (light and shadow sliders) and perhaps some clarity? - can't remember. Yes, there is a lake and the elephant did wade in water. :)“

Passing this on from the photographer …

 

“This is not a composite and nothing is artificial other than than some slight work on exposure (light and shadow sliders) and perhaps some clarity? - can't remember. Yes, there is a lake and the elephant did wade in water. :)“

....I was wrong...

....I was wrong...

Ditto......

Nice, Sam, thanks for that. It remains a bad @$$ photo and I still love that light!