Wild life shots

[BamaFru]

As mentioned time of day is crucial...not that you always have a great deal of control over that! But DANG, these would have been twice as awesome later in the day...warm warm warm! Your rule of thirds played in here, but SOME rules are meant to be broken. (Cliché, I know, sorry.) I think these are pretty exciting even if the lighting wasn't perfect...

I know these would most certainly be proudly displayed in my keepsake albums. Maybe a little cropping for my personal taste would be in order on the elephant in the opposite direction.

Sorry, can't help you on the calibration question...try the help files on that one...the gurus are close at hand!

[JK_Photo]

My fave is the lion cub. Nice comp and the time of day hasn't affected it due to it being in the shade. Little crop off the top and the left side would tighten it and balance it even more in my opinion. The exp. is right on.
The giraffe is falling a little flat contrast-wise. Pump it a tad and you're there. It's a nice comp. though even in full sun.
Same with the elephant. Fine tune the contrast and it will come to life. Maybe next time you can get him barrelling towards you at full-speed a la Frans Lanting (I think he got that one - what hasn't he got?)
Nice shots.