Big game shot in Scotland

[David Kilpatrick]

Sadly, shot we would hope a century or more ago in Africa, and brought to Scotland:

rhinoandhipposkulls2-retouched-web.jpg (119.88 KiB) Viewed 921 times

Last week I sold a guitar with a delivery address in Galashiels. I was due to drive past the address that night and volunteered to deliver not post, but I was told my buyer might be out, so I was to go to the conservatory and leave it inside. On unlatching the garden gate to get through, I was confronted by these two facing me. I couldn't work out what they were, and when he called again for some strings, I asked - and also if could borrow them for some shots. No problem!

They are rhino (type unknown, probably African) and hippo and they were recovered from a rubbish skip being filled up by the biology department of the local secondary school - all the old specimens, bones and stuff were to be thrown away.

The hippo has lost the top half of the orbit of the right eye, so this has been repaired using a mirrored copy from the left, but I've also done photographs without retouching, and individually. More to take. They are very difficult to light; this used window light only, with translucent blinds and a very large silver reflector near the camera.

Technique - Alpha 900 at ISO 100, Russian Arsat 80mm f/2.8 on a tilt adaptor, stopped down to f/16 with slight tilt. Raw, ACR 6.2, no need for any chroma or similar corrections as the lens is pretty much perfect. Exposure 1 second on tripod with manual release cable.

David

[Greg Beetham]

Wow lookit the massive muscle channels for the lower jaw chewing action, those herbivores probably have bigger jawcrush power than a lion.
Greg

ps. Nice depth of sharposity, courtesy of the tilt no doubt, very nice lighting arrangement. It's hard too get a feel of the actual size of those though, sortof need something too relate to so you can get an idea, I'm thinking bigger than a cow skull of course, but how much bigger?

[David Kilpatrick]

Big, but smaller than I thought; just under two feet long in either case, does not seem much; hippo 14 inches widest point, rhino 12 inches. But heavy, very heavy indeed. So much that I left the rhino skull on my canvas background and it's made dents in it. I am going to make two further individual photos for b/w fine art prints for the owner.

David

[Greg Beetham]

I suppose the Rhino skull being heavy is understandable when you think about it, the Rhino itself is built like a tank, and they are quite happy smashing their head into things. I wonder where the horn is, that 'pad' at the front looks like the base for a single horn, and the single horn one is the Indian Rhino according too what I see on Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rhinoceros similar in size too the African White Rhino, the biggest on record was 3500Kg.
Greg

ps. I just took particular notice of the title of the thread ha ha.

[David Kilpatrick]

The nose pad appears to show the follicle indents for the single horn, but having said that, I don't know if the double horn is just a bifurcated single horn with a similar growth area. It's just a special type of keratin/hair/nail growth but those pits in the bone indicate it's very deeply connected to the bone - better anchored than hair. Well, much better anchored than my hair, for sure.

David