The Mud Bath

Asiatic Elephant doing a mud bath on a hot summer evening. This behavior is commonly seen in Elephants because it helps them to maintain their body temperature cool and keep insects away. This was my first trip to the Dhikala range and to be honest, capturing an image of an elephant doing a mud bath was a dream for me. Aiming for such shots, I was wondering all around to understand the forest and animal activities. When everyone was busy looking for Tigers to come out, I noticed this tusker who was enjoying the mud bath continuously at foothills of the Himalaya and the sunset was on the top of the mountain giving me a darker background. Observing the Elephant, I positioned my vehicle and waited for him to come straight in front of us, meanwhile I composed my frame. In this case, I placed my subject at the middle lower section of the frame, considering mud in the air I left enough negative and positive space all around.