Tuesday 27 January 2015

Elephant in the Mara

Hello everyone. I've been a bit flooded of late so blog posts have been sparse.

In the beginning of the month, I published a collection of images from my 2014 "photographic year". Though I always do this and view it as a useful way to assess my growth and artistic voice, I purposefully posted only images taken at 100mm focal length or less. You can read the entire post HERE.

The image I am sharing today NEARLY made the cut in that post.
During our +Wild Eye photographic safari to experience the Great Migration in the Mara Triangle in September 2014, we spent some time with a gentle yet impressive African Elephant bull who was leisurely grazing on the long red oat grass along the Mara river. He was right next to our vehicle so I was able to inspire my guests to really work the scene with their wide angle lenses. I am a sucker for an "animalscape" and having a circular polariser in front of my lens helped bring out more detail in the sky and tame some of the harsh late morning light.

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm
Kenko Pro Circular Polariser
f4.0  |  1/400 SS  |  ISO-100



Do you enjoy seeing photos like this? Or do you prefer the animal to be larger in the frame?
Let me know - drop me a comment on this post and let's discuss...

Morkel Erasmus

3 comments:

  1. I love the animalscapes! Tighter portraits are fine too of course, but I come away from a lot of wildlife photography wishing I had more sense of what Africa actually looks like. Please keep them coming!

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  2. I much prefer wildlife imagery that includes at least some sense of the environment.

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  3. I also like the wider perspective shot including the wildlife and environment. I must admit that I like close-ups of the animals, as well. Perhaps for some really cool animal pics that you could do both provide both wide and close-up shots? The hard part will likely be determining which of your shots warrant this special treatment, as likely they are all cool!

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