Sparring Hippos

Another high-key image from my trip to South Africa earlier this  year. I photographed these sparring hippos during a day trip to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. These Hippopotamus were located near the town of Santa Lucia, in an inlet which leads to Lake Santa Lucia. The lake is part of the Wetland Park. There were about a half-dozen hippos in the water and these two young hippos were having a great time sparring. I decided to process these using the high-key post-processing technique that I used in some of the other wildlife photographs taken during the trip.

The name hippopotamus comes from the ancient Greek for “river horse”. The hippo is the third largest type of land mammal behind the elephant and rhinoceros. Despite their resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial beings, the closest living relatives are whales and porpoises. Adult male hippos average 3,300 pounds, female hippos are slightly smaller. Despite its stocky shape and short legs, it is capable of running 20 mph over short distances. The hippopotamus is a highly aggressive and unpredictable animal and is ranked among the most dangerous animals in Africa. Nevertheless, they are still threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat and ivory canine teeth.

This image was taken with my Canon EOS 5DS using my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 II Lens set on 400mm. The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/5.6, shutter speed at 1/1250th of a second and the ISO set at 500. This is a single image processed in Lightroom and Photoshop (mostly Photoshop).

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© 2016 T. Kahler Photography

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