When Nikon in South Africa approached me in September 2015 to test out the Nikon D810 and the new lightweight Nikkor 400mm f2.8E FL VR lens I was relishing the opportunity - you see, I was heading to the Mara Triangle in Kenya (part of the Maasai Mara ecosystem) to host a photographic safari in the Maasai Mara for the Great Migration for Wild Eye.
I was looking forward to putting this camera–and–lens combo through its paces in an environment where anything can happen at any distance from the vehicle. The in-camera crop factor (Image Area option) of the Nikon professional FX series provides a great option to extend the effective focal length of the lens.
f8.0 | 1/2000 SS | ISO-280 | EV -1
First off - the D810 is an amazing camera. I was blown away by its dynamic range and amazing image resolving capabilities. The D810 was improved. Dynamic range and low light image quality (high ISO in other words), while offering a higher frame-rate for on demand shooting with an increased buffer capacity. The quiet shutter, intuitive feels and excellent build quality of the D810 makes it a joy to use.
f4.0 | 1/500 SS | ISO-2000 | EV +0.3
Now for the lens! I have just traded in my Nikkor 500mm f/4 for the previous version of the 400mm 2.8 - so knowing what that beast weighs, the first time I picked up the new 400mm f/2.8 from its case which also looks quite different than previous Nikkor super telephoto lens cases, I was flabbergasted by just how light it really is. At first touch, it feels only slightly heavier than a 300mm f/4 would feel. It is as sharp as you can imagine and the focus acquisition is snappy and responsive, making the lens a real pleasure to work with in the field.
f18 | 1/10 SS | ISO-500 | EV 0
Coupling them and knowing how and when to use the aforementioned in-camera crop modes ("Image Area") you can really utilise this combo for a great range of scenarios. If you leave the 400mm f/2.8 on the camera without adding a physical teleconverter, you can achieve the effective focal length of 480mm f/2.8 at 25 megapixels on the 1.2x crop setting. If you go to the DX crop setting you can get an effective 600mm f/12.8 at roughly +- 15.4 megapixels. Some folks will say they'd rather crop in processing and you can - but what makes it a tempting option is that your continuous frame rate for action sequences increases from 5fps to 6fps in these crop modes. If you use the MB-D12 battery grip (also compatible with the D800/D800E), you gain another boost to 7fps in the crop modes.
f4.0 | 1/1000 SS | ISO-1250 | EV 0
I always shoot my Nikon cameras in manual mode with auto ISO enabled. This allows me to select the shutter speed and aperture that I feel would contribute to the kind of image I am looking to create, while allowing the camera to select the ISO automatically (hinged to my selected exposure bias). I know I can implicitly trust my cameras to perform up to very high ISO and the D810 was no exception. Of course, having the option to go to an aperture of 2.8 when using varying shutter speeds helps! Read more on my preferred setup using auto ISO in THIS blog post.
f4.0 | 1/1250 SS | ISO-360 | EV -0.7
I would highly recommend this combination to wildlife and sports photographers. Given the fact that the D810 is the perfect landscape and portrait camera already, the added benefits of using it like I did for wildlife, pretty much makes it one of the best all-round combinations I have ever had the pleasure to use. The lens is a dream. If the older 400mm f/2.8 always felt a tad heavy to you and that was the only thing holding you back – you need to get this lens in your hand and feel the weight difference. It is a strong selling point!
If you've been around decent caliber wildlife photographers for any length of time, you will no doubt have heard one of them admonish someone else to always watch their histogram. It's the final litmus test for ensuring our images come out as we intend in-the-field, right? Yes.
The important thing to remember is that you need to look at the HISTOGRAM specifically. The actual graph plotted for the data contained in your actual image. DON'T trust the version of the image you see on the LCD screen, though. The back-of-camera LCD is far from a calibrated monitor on which to decide whether the colour or even apparent exposure of the image looks correct. It's easy to fall back on pure image review and forget to rely on data interpretation. Yes, of course the content of the image is important if you are reviewing or double-checking your composition - what I am referring to is exposure checking, especially in tricky and challenging lighting conditions. Consider this image - RAW, straight conversion, no processing applied.
If, at first glance, you thought that I had way underexposed this photo, you were correct. Yet, I had done it on purpose! The setting was a glorious misty sunrise on the last morning of the +Wild Eye Mana Pools photo safari I hosted in July (read the TRIP REPORT). When the sun rose behind the trees as a muted fiery ball, I knew that I wanted a photo with everything decently exposed (even the sun). So I purposely underexposed enough to protect the highlights and shadows from excessive clipping, knowing from experience what I would be able to pull back and rescue in processing. I shoot Nikon, and the specific settings might not correlate with how you would need to expose with other cameras, but I used these settings: Nikon D800 with Nikkor 300mm f2.8 VR-IIAperture: f5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/1000 ISO: 250 Exposure bias: -2/3 In this case, I specifically remember that I couldn't really see jack squat on my LCD in terms of composition or image content, the photo was simply too dark. I needed to trust my framing in the viewfinder and also my exposure based on histogram. The resultant histogram:
Again you might think this is creeping up too much on the shadows and highlights ends of the histogram - and yet I posit to you that this is where knowing your gear comes in and knowing how much you can recover from certain tonal areas that may seem blown out at first. A couple of delicate processing steps later:
In processing these photos I always try and go for a look & feel that would seem natural - if you were standing there looking into a hazy sunrise you would see detail, soft light and the scene would be oozing with mood. The original frame doesn't have that at face value, and we need to tease that out of the photo in processing. Remember that the human eye can process an equivalent of about 32 f-stops in one view, so a camera can never just capture the precise way in which we perceive a moody, high dynamic range scene like this. It's easy to overcook this as well and make it look garishly unrealistic! The histogram now:
The brightest spots of the sun can be blown out - it's the sun after all. The darkest shadows are not preventing me from enjoying the image for what is ought to be - a moody dawn in the forest. The lesson? Know your gear well enough to shoot on instinct. Know well enough what you want to capture to shoot on instinct. If necessary, read the histogram and interpret what you need to change to bring you as close as possible to a USABLE image. I hope this post has been of help to you. Morkel Erasmus
The sun has just risen, and we spent its rising with a lioness close to the Rooiputs waterhole in the Kalahari desert, more specifically, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park that straddles the borders of South Africa and Botswana.
South Africa is experiencing a heat wave of sweaty proportions - normal summer temperatures here average around 45C, and this week it's been up to 54C most days...in the shade. As we drove out of camp it was already 26C, pre-dawn.
Suddenly I spot a dark shape moving purposefully along the dry Nossob riverbed.
Honey Badger!! If you don't know what honey badgers are, they are pretty much the roughest, toughest buggers in the African bush.
Anyhow, finding a honey badger on a trip to the Kalahari is a special treat, and this early in the morning! We follow him as he scrounges around, digging for grub in the loose Kalahari sand.
"Nothing here..."
"How about here? I smell something!"
Promptly the badger dug up a small leopard tortoise! Right next to our vehicle (and we were the only people there).
The prey in itself brought its own set of challenges - how to break through the shell?
A tough nut to crack...
What followed is a lengthy process of the dexterous badger working his prey until he was able to pierce the shell of the tortoise, and get to the good stuff inside. Yes, it's sad for the tortoise, but it's the circle of life and it was fascinating to get to watch this "nutcracker" at work.
Suffice to say that the badger eventually got through the carapace of the tortoise.
That wasn't the end of the morning's activity, though! As we are watching the badger feeding, my wife notices that there are two lionesses and two lion cubs walking by behind the badger...talk about a Kalahari double whammy!
Let's leave the lions for another day - as they kept us busy for the rest of the morning. I hope you enjoyed seeing these photos! We have some video too - might edit and release it soon. Keep well... Morkel Erasmus
Last year, my wife and I had an incredible privilege: we witnessed the moment a massive litter of 17 highly endangered African Wild Dog (Painted Dog) puppies came out of their den for the very first time.
We were in the Lowveld on a family holiday, and got the chance to head out with Grant Beverley for the day. Grant heads up the EWT(Endangered Wildlife Trust) Wild Dog research and monitoring for the Greater Kruger area of South Africa. We visited two separate packs of the enigmatic "painted wolf". The first one was situated in the Zandspruit Aero Estate, in the town of Hoedspruit. To see these animals adapting and denning with puppies in a residential eco-estate where people were developing holiday homes was quite something!
We only caught fleeting glimpses of the alpha female of this pack, and decided to head out to the Ngala Private Game Reserve bordering the Orpen gate of the Kruger National Park.
Last year, the alpha female of this pack gave birth to a whopping 17 puppies! They had, at that point, never ventured out of the den. Grant was hoping that the pack would possibly call them out for the first time (he visited this den nearly every day, was in contact with the Ngala guides, and had camera traps installed at all his monitored den sites).
(note: all images shot in this post were captured with a Nikon D3s and Nikkor 500mm f4 VR lens)
When we arrived, the pack adults were lazing about, and I was able to capture some portraits of them. It was evident that they had recently made a kill, as their faces were covered in fresh blood.
It looked like we were in for a long wait that would possibly not result in any visual of the pups. Suddenly, one of the adults moved towards the den (seemingly an abandoned warthog burrow).
More of the adults moved towards the den entrance, with some starting to vocalise with yelps and chirps...and then two little faces appeared from the abyss!
Followed by a couple more!
What followed was just one of the most special moments I've ever witnessed in the bush - the pack proceeded to regurgitate some of their meat of the day's kill for the youngsters. It might seem gross to some people, but this is a piece of behaviour few people have had the privilege to witness as intimately as we were doing at that moment...
Here's a short video clip of what we saw!
We also sat and watched as the pups explored around their den for the first time, how some of the adults haphazardly handled the roughed up the runts of the litter, and how they all eventually were signaled by the alpha female that it was time to get back to the safety of the den.
I hope that you are not bored by now with these images!
Before it was all over, I did get a chance to capture the pups all lined up at the den entrance for one last glance at the weird people in the Land Rover with the pointy thing that keeps clicking...
It is very rare for a single female to have this many puppies. They survived much longer than anyone could have dreamed, as the pack cared well for them and protected them. In the meantime, the pack has split and regrouped with other dogs many times, so it's hard to determine exactly how many of the 17 pups have seen their first "birthday".
The work that Grant and the EWT are doing is immensely important in ensuring the viability and genetic diversity of the South African population of this rare predator. Their territories are vast, and as human encroachment keeps fragmenting the amount of land under dedicated conservation, the pressure on them will mount. Your donations can keep this team focused on monitoring and managing the greater Kruger meta-population with long-term survival and sustainability in mind. Please consider making a donation!
