Chobe Elephants

[botspur]

Elephants beside the Chobe River during an afternoon drive. A storm was brewing and I caught the last light before the sun went behind cloud cover.

Nikon D90; 55.0-200mm; ISO 200; 1/1000 sec at f/5.6; Focal Length 55mm

C&C welcome

[dje]

Nicely captured Clive with nice colours and a very interesting cloud pattern. Quintessential Africa !!

Dave

[MilT0s]

Excellent Clive.

It has motion although the far left elephant is moving on the opposite direction to the others. The right edge is not clear but not big deal. You could open up the shadows a bit.

In general your image is balanced and very pleasing to the eye.

[Donald]

Quintessential Africa !!Dave

As Dave wrote.

What a sky!

I wonder why you went at f5.6 and whether, if you had stopped down and increased the depth-of-field, it would have had a positive or negative impact? But the question doesn't detract from, simply, a delightful image.

[jprzybyla]

Wonderful image Clive. How interesting your photography must be with subjects such as these. Television shows and print articles here portray elephants as on the decline suffering from poaching and habitat loss. Encouraging to see they are still available to photograph.

[botspur]

Hi Dave, Miltos, Donald, Joe. Many thanks all for the positive comments.
The f5.6 is a bit of a story. I was photographing a bird in front of us while the elephant were drinking. I was so involved that I almost missed the first elephant walking towards us, then it was one quick shot before the elephant was past us. Never even thought about f5.6.
We are very fortunate in Botswana to have a healthy elephant population compared with the rest of Africa. The Chobe National Park is famous for its large herds and concentration of elephants. I find them the most intelligent and charasmatic animals and love to spend time with them.