One Big Baby!!

I could watch African elephants for hours.Â The way they look after each other is always amazing to experience in person, and the sounds they make when they communicate with one another is indescribably beautiful to listen to.Â We saw many elephants during our trip to Kenya, both in the wild, as well as at The David Sheldick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi.Â I watched several of the baby elephants play with each other, as well as with their caretakers, for a good longtime, capturing some really amazing moments.Â I’ll probably post some more from that shoot in the future.

This is an amazing photo dude. Everything about it is stunning!

God’s beautiful creatures! Well done Jacques!

Such a cute and breathtaking image! Fantastic work Jacques!!

Punchy!! Love it!

Awesome!

Stunningly beautiful! Susan and I are both big fans of baby elephants, so your image is a real treat this morning.

I really like this one.
The soft focus around the baby elephant gives the effect that the whole scene is a diorama.

And by the way… how close were you? I’ve seen and read that elephant moms are a bit temperamental when someone/something is near their babies.

This little guy is awesome! Love your choice of processing, and your comp is great!

That elephant looks as if it’s 3D! Great capture!!!

I agree with Scott, the image is almost like a 3D image. Awesome shot Jacques. Your details are amazing.

Are you back from Kenya Now?

I watched Water For Elephants last weekend with some people and it was pretty decent.I was amazed with the elephant. I would probably rather your experience though – watching them live in Kenya.

The shot is first class and the processing too.

What were you shooting with? Wondering how close you were able to get!

That’s one cute baby! He deserves to be in National Geographic! 🙂

Hey y’all! Thanks a ton for all the great comments. Looks like folks are enjoying my little detour from URBEX.

Scott: Yep; I’m back from Kenya. It was an amazing adventure for our family, and one we will be talking about, like our previous Alaska adventure, for years! I was shooting with the D700 and the Nikkor 70-200 2.8 VR (the original one, not the new one).

Hector: I was about 15 to 20 meters away, if that. Camera (a full frame D700 with 70-200 mounted) was set to 75mm for the shot, and there was absolutely no cropping of the shot, so I was darn close. Since this was an elephant orphanage for baby elephants, there were no mother elephants around. No way could I have gotten close if there had been. We did manage to get pretty close to a herd of elephants in the wild while we were in Samburu, Kenya, and that scarred us because first they were not there, and then they were about on top of us; we had to move very quickly back to the car (as we were on foot) so we were out of their way.

What a wonderful photo! The details are amazing, I feel like I could reach out and touch the baby elephant! 🙂