Elephant digging at Bandipur

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Today is World Elephant Day!

Sharing an image of elephant digging. Whenever forest streams and pools dry up the elephants dig it to drink water. Later other animals too use it. They also love to dig for salt and minerals. This image is from Bandipur tiger reserve and it was with TNA Perumal, the master pictorialist. I was driving my Safari and shot this through my window using the Canon 400mm f2.8 lens at f3.2, 1/200. Full frame image.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

May be an act of benevolence ! With trunk and feet, the female elephant is digging a drying water-hole may be for maximum use of animals who do not like to move out . The positioning of legs and balancing of great bodily bulk are remarkable.. Beautifully captured. Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Mrudul Godbole]

Agree with Saktida, the way she is kneeling down to dig deeper is rarely observed. How long did she continue? Were any observations made by Shri.Perumal on seeing this behavior? Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

She knew that we were not a threat so she was unmindful of us and busy doing her work. She continued for 15 odd mins after which we moved away. There was a jungle lodges vehicle at a distance.

TNA Perumal was always more curious about my compositions as I was using the 400 f2.8. He was using a 70-300 zoom and told me that at his age he finds comfortable with that lightweight zoom. We had lots of discussions about composition of images. He believes that an ideal habitat image is one where the animal is anywhere between 1/3rd to 2/3rd of the frame. I agree with that. However, I create lot of tight closeups primarily to show the details in the animal. With the high resolution cameras that we use these days along with the good quality lenses and good technique it is possible to create wide habitat shots with more details in the subject as well. So large blowups will also have details of the animal. That is one of the reasons I ask people to shoot more environmental compositions these days. Unfortunately all that people do is just crop out the animal/bird. :(

PS: TNA Permual had written a booklet on Wildlife Photography. People can read it here: https://www.indiawilds.com/diary/photographing-wildlife-in-india/

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Apropos of my comments dated 12-08-2018, I may add that the image testifies to M. Krishnan's observations:
' the female elephant's breast curving outward ' for easy access of the baby.
- SaktiWild

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Very nice observation by M. Krishnan. The various organs of different species evolve as per their needs.

[Vipin Sharma]

Apropos of my comments dated 12-08-2018, I may add that the image testifies to M. Krishnan's observations:
' the female elephant's breast curving outward ' for easy access of the baby.
- SaktiWild

Good observation , lovely image TFS.