Nature & Wildlife |
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Sleeping Hyena |
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| As hunters they work in packs, but as sleepers the hyenas are more solitary. The floor of the Ngorongoro Crater didn't look all that comfortable to me, but this guy was lights out. |
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| Image 121 of 251 20111211205945948 |
Sun Dec 11, '11 08:45PM Comments 4 Views 251 |
Uploaded By: Patrick Flynn |
Thanks for bringing back wonderful memories Patrick. I took a film picture way back in 1991 in Botswana that mirrors this almost exactly. So of course I love the shot! You are right though...you almost can run over them and they do not care. When they are full in the middle of the day....major zzzzzzzzzz and who cares about the world. Odd creatures. And yes...very well done.
Hyenas are admirable animals and very miss understood at the same time! I have seen many of them in the African bush and I have a good knowledge of their resilient nature and habitats !
What bothers me in this composition is that the subject is floating in an out of focus foreground and background at the same time. Which means that the picture convey zero information about the elements that consiist the habitat of the animal!
As this capture is not a portrait, but rather a picture that shows the subject together with the wider context of its environment, it should treat this aspect with respect as well !
Therefore, I would prefer it with very sharp foreground and background and I am sure in that way it would be very balanced and interesting composition
Richard, happy to oblige! I think I owed you one there ;-)
Fokion, thanks for the honest critique. I never thought of your approach but will probably try that the next time I go on a safari - I am hoping to take the kids over once they are old enough to appreciate it.
ah Patrick, I have lived in Africa all my life, grew up in the bush, been to many game reserves, etc, and the hyena, along with the aardvark and leopard have always eluded me....
it is one of those inexplicable things in life...some years ago, I took my cousin to a game park in Zululand, we saw virtually everything they have there in terms of animals and birdlife (excepting hyena, etc).. that afternoon, a local guide took two American tourists to the same place, and apart from Impala and giraffe, they saw nothing...
I like this photo, as it shows one uncaring and probably exhausted hyena catching a ziz in an unusual surrounding..
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We are like a thread in a huge fabric of generations !