The driver/guides are paid tips, some customers do want to tell them where to go. The guides will do what the customer requests if he knows he will get a huge tip.

I was in Kenya in July, my 3rd trip to Africa. Our guide/driver is well known in Maasai Mara. We constantly saw other drivers getting to close to the animals, following them to closely. We had an off road pass, we were with 5 cheetah brothers on a kill. The other trucks surrounded the one who had the kill, the other 4 couldn't see the one with the kill. We moved so they could see & get to the one with the kill.

So many are NOT respectful of the animals, so many get way to close to the animals.

This is an example. These 2 trucks, blocked the elephants when they were trying to cross the river. The elephants were not happy, trumpeting, and trying to find a safe place to come on the land. These trucks should have moved when they saw the herd getting close. They did not.

Great image. I love the first one. I find the second one, the framing is distracting to me.
Excellent!

Several times on safari in different countries, the animals get very close.
This image was taken in Kenya in July. I was on a private safari with 5 Long Island Photographers.
We had 2 trucks so each person had a full row of seats. Fortunately a friend in the other truck took this image of a beautiful leopard walking directly next to our truck. One lion used our truck to ambush a wildebeast. The elephant was at the Elephant Bedroom camp. His name is Obama and he came to visit us often.

I had a small business making my own 5x7 cards for camps. schools, hotels, country clubs. Then visitaprint, shutterfly, costco, just about everyone started to make cards. I couldn't compete with their prices.

I still have card stock, both inkjet and laser, with envelopes.
I would love to sell them since I no longer have a laser printer and am just not making cards anymore.
pm me if interested.

This looks really good, it is not an easy thing to create, so keep trying, don't give up. I love your concept of the woman walking under giant mushrooms. I do have a few suggestions, if you don't mind.

I would suggest darkening the lighter areas in the image. The white areas brings my eyes to that area first. It looks like it is the background you used, maybe try another background. There are many free ones online or make your own.

The wasp and the woman are sharp but the mushrooms are not. They are large so it becomes more obvious to me that they are not sharp.

I encourage you to play with creating images. It helps to get suggestions how to improve. While I have done composites for years, I am still learning to match the lighting on my composites.

Hi,
Thanks for sharing your story. I do think some judges don't really understand or like creative images. I believe judges are supposed to judge based on what they see, not on what they like. In my club we have had judges that say, *I like birds* so other images won't score as good. I think the important thing is to listen to what the judge says about the image, suggestions for improving, see what images you like. The bottom line is if you like your image.
I do love to play with creative images, some work some don't. It helps me improve my photoshop skills just to play.
Absolutely, do what makes you happy!!!

Thanks Chuck, but I am done working on that image.

I was just playing, I liked the two images, I like the positioning of the 2, leading the viewers eye into the path ahead. i have also used him in another image.

I am also a judge on long island. We had a new judge and his scores were very low. We score 6.5-9. Out of over 100 images, he gave out 1 score of 9, many 6.5.

Judge is a professional Nikon ambassador, his comments were ok but his scores were very low.

Thanks for your great suggestions. No contest, just a camera club competition.

Thanks so much for the comments. With my creative images, I have to learn more about the direction of the lighting in this kind of image.

Hi,
I had a camera club competition last night. I did not do well on my images. The judge is a professional Nikon Ambassador. I believe he was scoring based on professional competitions, not camera club competitions.

Here is my image. His points were good, I need to work on lighting the subject better to reflect the lighting in the scene.

Comments welcome. :)

Thanks so much for all the great comments. I will post more of my creations...
Love the great feedback!!!

I have had the Fotopro E-6H Eagle Series Gimbal Head for a few years. I LOVE this tripod head. It weighs 1.5 lbs, load capacity for 22 lbs, folds flat and can be used for both long lens or landscape. I did have to get an L bracket for my cameras to use it for landscape.

Fotopro E-6H Eagle Series Gimbal Head
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1452509-REG/fotopro_e_6h_gimbal_head_black.html?sts=pi&pim=Y

I have a discount code for Luminar and Aurora

PM me if interested.