wild nature

In spite the fact a lot of people may like these over-saturated colors in the sky, I am sure that most are not aware that the sky does not belong to the foreground in this image (no reflection in the water and very different light conditions). I think this kind of gross digital manipulation and composition is becoming more of a trend, specially when one's lack talent and originality as a photographer.

As "digital art", or digital composition I can not comment since I lack knowledge in that field.

Lets get some reality back.

I particularly do not like "Digital Compositions". A photograph is what it is...... otherwise, anything you create in the computer by adding elements to it is just a digital composition and not a photograph. The original photograph without the gull is a very nice image by itself simply on the basis of the great light and elements in it. Lets keep it real !.

Grey Crowned Cranes of the Serengeti plane. This is a pair (adult male and female).

Both look very similar, except by the fact that females are usually smaller than the

male.

Young Female leopard, Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana.

Comments and critiques appreciated.

Young Vervet Monkey mother with her newborn. I followed this young mother and

her newborn for over an hour hoping to capture some source of interesting

interaction. After birth, the first 8 to 12 hours are the most critical for mother and

young since this is the time when "bonding" occurs. This is how mothers and their

young learn how to recognize each other. In this picture, I managed to capture a

time in which the mother paused her frantic feeding activity and glanced at her

newborn. When I reviewed my images in the computer (in Bridge) it turned out that

this moment actually lasted less than one second! The image before and after did

not have them looking straight at each other, so the composition didn't work! THat

goes to show why Nature and Wildlife photography can be so much fun and

challenging. You have to work hard to get does good images. You have to get out

there and get them....they do not come to you. You have to remain extremely alert

and ready at all time, and ultimately, wish this is your lucky day! Any coments and

critiques appreciated. Thanks, Cesar

Hola Jordi,

 

Que belleza de foto. El contraste de tonos y colores es impresionante, y sobre todo, los detalles del glacial son espectaculares.

No te imaginas el alivio que me dio al leer tu comentario cuando dices que no eres partidario de copiar cielos de una foto y ponerlos en otra, .............ahhhhggrrrrrrrr!

Con todo respeto a aquello que acostumbran a hacer eso....eso no es fotografia pura y simple, sino mas bien "composicion digital", lo cual puede tener sus meritos tecnicos, artisticos, etc., pero en este caso estamos hablando de fotografia.

 

Te felicito y continua con tu hermoso trabajo,

 

 

Cesar Fernandez.

Wanted to share this image with every one here on photo.net and would appreciate all

your comments and critiques.

Thanks,

 

Cesar.

Adult male lion resting in the dry tall grasses of the Masai Mara sabana, still, he was

very attentive on a group of zebras which were grazing a few hundred yards away,

unaware of his presence. Every few minutes, the zebras moved closer toward the

lion, until the zebras were able to pick up his cense, apparently by a change in wind

direction, and they were able to detect his presence nearby and eliminated the only

chance for this male lion to hunt by himself, without the assistance of a female

group: the element of surprise!. He certainly looks majestic and powerful, however,

such bulk and weight makes him heavy and slow, making him a lousy predator,

mostly relying on the females to provide him with food so he can defend the family

group against other males and hyenas, as well as passing his genes and look good.

This is exactly why most of the web photo community galleries are loosing their reputation and not atracting many of the profesionals or serious amateurs.

With some exceptions, most of the popular galleries are plagued by grossly altered and manipulated images that may atract a lot of votes by their "cartoonish" appearance, but have no photographic merit whatsoever; not to mention what we are seeing in this case (which happens a lot more than we think!), which is the classic example of a cleverly done "digital image or composition" (not a real photograph), and

an inexcusable copyright violation.

It just so happens that this is not the only time this person has done this, and who knows how many more out there!

In my opinion, this type of violation merits permanent banning from this web site.

The previous member made a comment about removing several "key" elements from this picture.

Clone here..., clone there, and you end up with "digital art" and not a true photograph.

I do not have any problems with cropping since it is mostly a limitation by the format of the camera, but removing several elements from a photograph takes away the true virtue of it.

In fact, if one removes the poles and hose, the image looses its identity. Those are the elements that "cleverly" tell us that there is a pool in the image.

 

Regards,

 

Cesar Fernandez

The oldest tree and one of the oldest living organisms known to man. This specie of pine

is found in the white mountains of California, and some of them are as old as 4600 years

old!. The oldest tree of all have never been revealed by scientists by the fear that

insensible people with no common sense would come in and damage it by writting names,

cutting pieces of bark as souveniers, Even curiosity would bring so many people around

the tree that it could damage the soil and its roots causing the tree to perish.

The tree in this picture appears to be a dry, death tree, except for a small remaining

branch of green foliage still showing signs of life. The shapes and colors of the trunk of

these pines look like giant flames of fire coming from the gound. They are simply a

"Nature's miracle and work of art". They also represent an extraordinary and extreme case

of a living organism's adaptation to extreme living conditions.

While I got busy photographing a group of Banded Mongooses in a termite mount, few

curious individuals came around to inspect one of my cameras I had just placed on the

ground. They were all over it for several minutes inspite the fact I was standing just a few feet

away. After they touched and covered with dirt every part of it, including biting the eyepiece

cover, the strap and lens cover, they finally left. One of the individuals pressed on the shutter

a few times and, had the camera been ON, it would have taken several pictures of those

looking through the front of the lens. I took several pictures of this very funny interaction

and this is just one representative of the event. Hope you like it.

This image just won "Best in show" at a photography contest for Nature Photographers.

I wanted to share it with other Photo.net members and hear any comments or critiques.

 

Cesar

Would like to hear any comments or critiques on this image.

Thanks,

Cesar

Agree with above comments. This is not a "real" photograph, but mostly a digital composition. Just look at the drastic manipulations that were done in many parameters during RAW conversion....it does not look at all like the original image.

The colors may look "cool", but in my honest opinion and with the only intension to a constructive critique, this is the kind of work I hate to see depicted as "Photography". I think it should be categorized under "digital image composition", which can be done sitting in front of a computer in the middle of the night with a basic knowledge of PS.

A digital photograph, when it is propperly exposed, requires very little image enhancement at all in PS, and the idea is to show a "true" representation of what it was captured by the photographer.

But again, that is just my opinion,

 

 

Cesar

Any resemblance with a movie character (alien) is pure coincidence!

I think it works great!

I specially like her expression and how she is caressing her pregnancy. I would make sure

it gets as a beautiful and funny print at the same time.

 

You have a winner in this one!

 

 

Cesar Fernandez

Great colors and composition?

Love it -

 

 

Cesar Fernandez

Group of King Penguins coming to shore after a morning swim.

South Georgia, Antarctic Circle.

Exploring the sand dunes of the Namib Desert. Namibia.

The shape of the dunes with its sensual smooth curves and softness of the sand

resemble a woman's frontal pelvic region. Mother nature at its best.

 

Any comments or critiques are welcomed.

Any comments and critiques will be appreciated. Other images from this trip can be seen in

the Antarctica gallery.

 

Thank You

Comments and critiques please......

Comments and critiques are wellcomed

Oh Come On...Guys!!!!!

He is not attacking any body! Can't you see the poor guy is just hungry and have a rush for a peanut-butter sandwich? Look at his face, he would not kill a fly.

This series of pictures clearly reveal that the elephant was looking for food inside the truck.

The picture is very good. All those people in the background looking at the elephant is what complement the picture and gives it a story and character. I happent to like it a lot for what it teach us and tell us about "us" the human species.

From the photographer standpoint, I would have walked right next to the elephant to get a much "intimate" angle and approach, preferably with a wide angle lens, which also would have shown better the people in the background and the items that the elephant was getting out of the truck. Maybe he was too busy to bother having you to get closer to get a picture, in fact, elephants will give you warnings when they feel that you are getting too close to their "zone of tolerance" and you better back off (keep in mind that I am not suggesting that you try this next time but it would be something "I" would see me doing....but again, I suffer from chemical imbalance, at least that is what my guide in my last trip to Africa told me after I was chased by a black rhino mother after I tried to get too close, by foot, while trying to get a picture....he, he. )

 

...by the way, the Rhino picture was all worth it...or was it?

 

The bottom line....this picture speaks volumes. It tells a wonderfull story between the neverending struggle of animals and human interaction when their habitas cross each other. Unfortunately, they are the ones that ultimately loose, mostly because their behaviour is so misunderstood.

...well, enough of all this yada, yada, yada.

 

Ragards,

 

Cesar Fernandez

WOW!

A legendary photograph. I am glad you brought it back for many of us to see for the first time. A picture of a lifetime!

By the way, you crop this one......you kill the picture. DO NOT touch it. !!!

Congratulations.

Cesar Fernandez