photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Two: On Safari -- expressing the essence of nature > Cool hippos, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
previous | next
01-JAN-2006

Cool hippos, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006

Many of Luangwa's lagoons are covered during the wet season with a plant known as Nile Cabbage -- favorite places for hippos to spend the hot African summer days. This image is rich in abstraction and incongruity. I use the cabbage as an abstracting device to incongruously disguise the hippos. It is an image rich in color and unfamiliar textures, which complement the incongruity of seeing a hippo’s head detached from its body. A layer of green powder clings to the forehead of this hippo, almost as if it was a cosmetic. A second submerged hippo adds context. It almost seems as if these enormous animals are playing hide and seek with us. Actually, they are merely trying to keep as cool they can. Once again, less is more. The hippo is one of the largest mammals on earth. Yet these are barely revealed to us.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/320s f/3.7 at 88.8mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
share
Phil Douglis16-Jun-2007 05:43
thanks, Sun Han, for seeing the passage of time at work in this image.
Guest 16-Jun-2007 04:44
if this bath to be any longer, even the tree and fungus would agree to grow on them
Phil Douglis26-Jan-2006 06:19
Thanks, Alister, for appreciating the art of in camera cropping as you do. It is always an imperfect art, because we are balancing so many factors instinctively, and when the subject is constantly appearing and disappearing, as these hippo were, it can be a very demanding art, indeed. As a bird photographer, you know it well.
alibenn26-Jan-2006 02:47
Knowing the shot is full frame is important here...had you cropped it this way back home, I would have questioned your motive...As it is full-frame I completely concur with you and you did an excellent job...
Phil Douglis25-Jan-2006 18:10
I find that if I spend too much time thinking through all of the aspects of an image before I make it, I miss the moment. So I try to act, not think. Thinking is instinctive, not logical. Sometimes I make a mistake. Perhaps the right hand edge here is a bit too close. But better that than lose the moment.
alibenn25-Jan-2006 07:52
I'm much the same as you...I tend to leave a little space for cropping though, but what I see in the viewfinder is essentially how I want the final frame to look...
Phil Douglis25-Jan-2006 04:10
Good question, Alister. My cropping motivations are instinctive. A lot of photographers prefer to crop loosely in the viewfinder and then crop later, in retrospect, while editing. It is a logical way to do it, and it makes good sense, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I am a compulsive cropper, an instinctive cropper. I crop from gut feeling. I can't recall every motivation on every shot, but I most likely cropped this as close as I did to the hippo's nose so as to create tension. Cropping is never an aesthetic exercise with me. It is a story telling act -- and I did not want to just isolate the hippo in the pond. Rather, I wanted to charge the picture with tension -- you can feel the resentment here. I think I've pissed him off. As soon as we drove up, this guy submerged and when he came up he was not amused. He is trying to keep his cool, but by cropping it as I did, I try to hint at the ire within.
Phil Douglis25-Jan-2006 04:03
Good point, Christine. Africa is full of such contrasts. The green cabbage is soft and glowing, while the hippo is not only harsh featured but harsh in temperament as well.
alibenn25-Jan-2006 01:09
In addition to the existing comments, once again, I would like to question your cropping motivation? In the past you have cropped some scenes quite tight in order to add an element of tension to the scene. Or, of course to limit distracting content that may be lurking on the edges.

What was your motivation this time...If there is a distracting element you want to avoid, add tension...or have you just cropped it a little tight!!!!?

For me the noses of the Hippos are a little close to the edge of the frame, a little more space all round would isolate the animals a little more..
Guest 25-Jan-2006 00:52
The colours are amazing, emphasizing the contrast between that beautiful soft green and the harsh features of the hippos. Christine
Phil Douglis24-Jan-2006 20:34
Thanks, Catriona, for summing up the keys to this image as you see them. You are right -- they are keeping cool. And also protecting themselves and their young. They wear their camouflage well, don't they?
Phil Douglis24-Jan-2006 20:33
I don't think the word "kind" is in the animal vocabulary, Kal. They act on instinct, honed on a need to survive. They do whatever is necessary to survive, or ensure the survival of their young, including killing. They must always challenge, or they will die before their time.
Guest 24-Jan-2006 12:22
There is so little to this image but it is so expressive and powerful! You have cut this down to the main essentials - no distractions for the viewer, the greens and browns of nature, beautiful texture of the Nile Cabbage, and two abstracted animals keeping cool. What a wonderful experience you have had Phil!
Kal Khogali24-Jan-2006 11:32
They kill more humans than any other animal...those are not kind eyes.....but challenging ones...the green is the screen to their real world.
Phil Douglis24-Jan-2006 03:28
There is always a veil of deceit present in wildlife photography. Hippos, for example, are often seen as humorous or cute, when in fact they are considered by many to be among the most evil tempered, dangerous mammals in Africa. We tend to endow them with human qualities, but animals are not human. They are part of a ecosystem rooted in sheer survival. This maybe, as you say, a bucolic, warm image. But beneath the green mask is a lethal potential.
Tim May24-Jan-2006 00:14
I sense the power beneath the bucolic - the image is so "warm" but those huge animals may rise up at any minute and charge.
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment