NEXT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER COVER

I'm speachless with your feedback. Many thanks for your comments and your support. I'm proud, happy and grateful!

This image has it all.Outstanding

Your great talent has been rewarded !

Cheers

 

Fab

Hola Marina,

 Most beautiful work and congratulations on the cover it is well deserved.

Abrazos,

Larry

Congratulations Marina! All best to You!

Excellent work Marina!  Bravo!

Molto bella!

I think clouds are disturbing, but anyway excellent shot. DDD

Congratulations Marina! I can't think of anyone who deserves this honor more! A remarkable image, impeccably composed, an expertly photographed. The lighting is simply perfect!

All the best,
Neil

Perfect composition and colours. The elephant coming out of the trees. Perfect timing.

Cheers!

congratulations Marina and yes, you definitely must be proud of yourself and your ability to take such stunning pictures!! great stuff indeed!!

rgds

Domenico

Way to go. As good as it gets.

Please note the following:

• This image has been selected for discussion. It is not necessarily the "best" picture the Elves have seen this week, nor is it a contest.
• Discussion of photo.net policy, including the choice of Photograph of the Week should not take place here, but in the Help & Questions Forum.
• The About Photograph of the Week page tells you more about this feature of photo.net.
• Before writing a contribution to this thread, please consider our reason for having this forum: to help people learn about photography. Visitors have browsed the gallery, found a few striking images and want to know things like why is it a good picture, why does it work? Or, indeed, why doesn't it work, or how could it be improved? Try to answer such questions with your contribution.

Thanks Elves, You have chose exceptional work from exceptional photographer.

Yeah, yeah. Golden hour light, African steppes, yet another elephant, naturally sculpted canopy of trees, pink-lit mountain and has-a-mind-of-its-own cloud bank. You've seen one of these you've seen them all. I'm so glad that turns out to be not true.

Marina, this is delightful. I woke up feeling jaded this morning, and you fixed me. Thanks. Having watched your work for years now, I think that one of the things I like most about this is the fact that someone we "know" was there to see it and make a photograph of it. That's very gratifying, and adds to the enjoyment. I'm now walking my way through the rest of your African stuff, and glad for it.

Marina... First NATGEO cover, now POW... Wow, next thing you know the 3er's won't even look at your work! Nah, but two out of three is superlative. Seriously, I have no recommendations for improvement for this image, just admiration. Congratulations and best wishes... Mike

Very simply an excellent choice

Very well done photo.
I like this photo because it simply captures a beautiful moment. Beautifully exposed.
I appreciate the fact that that it appears to have minimal tampering with color and is a fairly accurate depiction of the scene without the gimmicks and trends - most recently being strange color balancing and over vignetting.
Bravo.

Hi Marina. I think most people have said it already...WOW! A superb image. The light is beautiful, and the composition outstanding. Congratulations on your image making it to the National Geographic cover!

Doesn't get much better than this!

Wonderful photo, colors are so beautiful.

Interesting title!?! Normally, I don't pay much attention to titles but here the designation does raise some interesting questions for me. While I do think this is a well done shot, I wonder, given the format of the magazine, how this will end up being cropped. This image is a bit unusual in its structure anyway with it being essentially divided in two equal parts by the tree tops. What makes the background relevant, and less a nebulous form, is the slope at the very left of the image. Without this, I find the area above the tree tops to be less defined and identifiable and I think the division of space would become more problematic. That said, I certainly can't see the magazine cropping out the elephant. There might be just enough room to keep the slope and not crowd the elephant otherwise I do think it will be interesting to see how it is handled by the magazine.

As I said above, I think this image is well done. That said, I do think the division of space certainly teeters on being awkward. In fact, it sort of set me back initially and I had to think about it a bit, something that for me does suggest something might be amiss. Although I discuss these sorts of things in this setting, I rarely consider compositional issues as my first response to an image unless something feels off. I have no problem with images that are split down the middle and often don't think about it when such an image flows organically. I also can see such a division working as a device to make us consider an image in a different way. So, while I like the context the mountain delivers, this does seems a more forced relationship of foreground and background than I have seen with other of Marina's works. In fact, I came across another shot done at this same location, probably just minutes before this one, where these elements are more organically combined. It appears at 3:20 in the you tube video linked here:

We have very similar content in the two images and although the structure/format is different, the image in the video has a much more organic and integrated presentation of the contextual relationships of this place. Of course, the image in the video would be totally unsuitable for a cover of a magazine where a fixed vertical format has been established.

I should be clear that I do think this image ends up working for me, I do feel it is a bit forced (wonder about what was cropped out as well) but the more I have looked the more unified it has become for me.

happy for this choice, marina. pn and n.g., i mean

Okay a question.  Is that title for real or is that tongue-in-cheek?  If it is real, congratulations.  If it is tongue-in-check, it's not funny and I hope it gets into N.G. 
 
There is little to say about this photograph.  It is stunningly beautiful.  I would put it up in my living room.  Maybe even in my bedroom.  If I had insomnia I'd look at it and count elephants.
 
Let me say it again.  This photograph is stunningly beautiful.  It makes me happy that there are beautiful places like this in the world.  I am happy this is in Africa.  I hope the elephants are not poached into extinction and this beautiful Eden of a place is not destroyed by factories or shopping malls.  
 
What is most stunningly beautiful about this stunningly beautiful photograph is that there is this feeling in it that you are the first person in the world to see this pristine scene.  Everything in this photograph shines of purity and freshness.  
 
It is not, however, an exciting photograph nor is the point of view particularly original.  I've seen perhaps thousands of photographs like this one.  Only I cannot think of any that are better than this one.  None stick in my memory.  This one will.
 
 

Excelente Marina...Enhorabuena!!!