Flame away

Id love to hear all critiques on these photos. I'm a newbie and have a lot to learn including which web host to use for uploading and sharing photos



I want this image to show the years of struggles and hard life this elephant has seen. How tough the bush is on animals.
Nikon d7000
ISO 200
70mm
F 4.5
1/250 s



This to me captures how families work together to survive in the bush. This guy is the lookout while his family gets a drink.
Nikon D7000

ISO 100

300mm

F 5.6
1/80 s

I think the crop on both is to tight. Especially the elephant. A little overexposed on the elephant but I like the black and white.

Better? That's uncropped on the monkeys

Yes better. Don't mean to sound like a nit picker but to bad the elephant wasn't shot in portrait mode.

This place is for learning, that's why I'm here so all feedback is appreciated. Should I take some of the green out?

Both are good. The key to a outstanding portrait is that it can express a prosperity of details in a fraction of a second. Especially elephant, done nice job there.

on your edited shots:

with the monkeys, i find the very bright green a little distracting, maybe it just needs the leaves toning down a little, or being a bit of a darker green, or maybe removing the small collection of green leaves that are very close to the monkeys head would create some space to not lead the eye diagonally away to the top left of the picture.

For me, the elephant blends too easily into the background, particularly in the bottom half of the picture, maybe a touch of contrast or a bit of structure would make him pop out a bit more...

I'm by no means an expert on any of these matters, and very very new to critiquing, so please take what i said lightly and with salt