Kenya & Tanzania wildlife Pt2

[marc]

Some more images here from my recent migration trip.

Ostrich sunrise.
D700 70-200VRII + 1.4tc 1/640s f/5.6 ISO800@340mm. Masai Mara, Kenya. Oct 2010





Hunting in the rain
D3s 500VR + 1.4tc 1/125s ISO3200@f/6.3. Masai Mara, Kenya





Young Gnu that was too slow in crossing the Mara river.
D3s 500VR + drop in CP filter 1/1600s ISO400@f/5.6. Mara river Nth Serengeti, Tanzania





Common Fiscal Shrike.
D3s 500VR 1/2000s ISO400@f/6.3. Masai Mara, Kenya.




C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

[Mr Darcy]

#1 I can't help thinking you need a lower POV so you get more of the Ostrich's legs. You'll just have to go back and try again

#2 are you trying for POTW again?

#3 Ditto

#4 just a touch more DOF would have been nice, or perhaps just move the field of focus back to get the tail in but the leaves out. See comment #1

[gstark]

#2 is excellent, but it leaves me dissatisfied.

I love that you have the streaks of rain, the colours are not shouting at us, the animal is cleanly and clearly focused with a beautifully defocused background ... but the cropping doesn't work for me. I think that there's too much negative space to the right.

I see two ways to play with this, and perhaps improve it. (Or perhaps not. )

Crop more tightly from the top, leaving about an ear's length as the clear space above the head. Then crop out the negative space from the right, attaining a square crop for this image.


Alternatively, start again as I've described above for cropping from the top. Now, crop from below, using the chest as the bottom edge's reference plane for the image, attaining a pano style crop, but keeping the negative space.

[colin_12]

I would be more than happy with any of these.
I agree with Gary on the second.
Agree with Greg on the last.
I like the first as it is though, the grass looks to tall to go much lower.
All very nice

[zafra52]

Trully magnificent set and an inspiration!
Each one is a masterpiece.

[the foto fanatic]

I like them all!

The third one takes a bit of looking at until you work out which bits are the croc and which are the gnu.

The cheetah in the rain is fantastic.

Well done.

[Reschsmooth]

My favorite is the first although agree with Greg's suggestion.

Lovely series nevertheless.

[ozimax]

Trully magnificent set and an inspiration!
Each one is a masterpiece.

Ditto.

The ostrich is superb, wonderful, POTW material or better.

[surenj]

[marcotrov]

Absolutely superb images Marc. In particular #1 and #2 are exceptional.
I'm left in awe!
I look forward to Parts 3 through infinity
cheers
marco

[blacknstormy]

I actually don't mind the negative space in the second
Love the sharpness in the eye in the second shot - can just imagine the animal thinking 'what the hell am I doing out in this ???? '