Beach Elephants

I can't believe I haven't posted this photo on my blog before - but oh well, here it is. It looks like a pristine beach with idyllic white sand, but it is in fact the riverbed of the mighty Zambezi river flowing between Zimbabwe and Zambia at this point. I was sitting on the bank of the river in Mana Pools National Park (Zimbabwe), and you can see the escarpment of the Lower Zambezi Valley in Zambia rising up across the river.

The late afternoon light, combined with the hazy skies due to winter veld fires burning on the Zambian side, gave an otherworldly blissful feel to this, and this certainly echoes what I felt on this first afternoon of my first trip to this magical piece of wilderness.

I am returning on 29 August 2014 hosting a 4-night photographic safari with Wild Eye and Mwinilunga Safaris, and I can't wait. There is still a spot or two open for those keen to experience and photograph the magic of Mana Pools - you can find all the details you need HERE.

Techs:
Nikon D7000
Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 120mm
f5.6  |  1/500 SS  |  ISO-640
Exposure Bias +0.7 

please click on the photo to view at the proper resolution and sharpness

Thanks for taking the time to have a look!

Morkel Erasmus

The Chobe River in Monochrome

Seeing that I recently returned from leading a photographic safari to the Chobe river, I thought I would post a link to a blog post I wrote early in 2013 for the Wild Eye blog, showing some of my visions of the Chobe in monochrome after our first visit to the Ichobezi houseboat on the river.

You can read the original post HERE.

Morkel Erasmus

Hippo Foursome

Hey everyone! Here's a quick photo to share with you from my recent safari to the Chobe river in Botswana. You can catch up on all the detailed trip reports over on the Wild Eye blog:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

As we were cruising along the Chobe river that straddles the Chobe National Park in Botswana and the Caprivi strip in Namibia, we came across a pod of Hippopotamus who were out of the river quite late in the morning. Hippo usually come out to graze at night and return to the water as the day breaks.

My guests and I were able to capture a couple of lovely photos of these youngsters lazily standing on the riverbank, not entirely committed to getting wet just yet. Some of them looked like they were standing up sleeping, in fact. We were able to maneuver nicely with our specialised photographic boat for lovely photographic opportunities, even as they eventually stepped into the water.

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
1.4x teleconverter
f8.0  |  1/1250 SS  |  ISO-2500

click on the photo to view at optimal sharpness and resolution

Morkel Erasmus

Butterfly Hunter

When you are out on safari, one of the biggest pitfalls you can find yourself in is only chasing the "big" sightings and the iconic species, and moving past so many amazing moments of natural history that play themselves out every day in the bush. During the recent photographic safari I led to the Chobe river in Botswana for Wild Eye, we sat watching a herd of elephants drinking from the river one afternoon, when suddenly we noticed a commotion around the nose of the small photographic boat we were sitting in. The boat was banked just on the riverbank, and there were yellow butterflies fluttering all about. A couple of birds had taken an interest in these butterflies, and started hunting them down as they realised this was a quick and easy chance for a snack.

The Whitecrowned Plovers (or Whitecrowned Lapwings, as you please) were particularly entertaining - often striking a pose akin to those of hunting dogs (think Pointers, Golden Retrievers) as they assumed the pre-strike position. You can see it in the photo below...

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f5.6  |  1/1250 SS  |  ISO-140

click on the photo to display at optimal sharpness and resolution

Always keep your eyes open for the opportunities delivered by the smaller critters in the field!

Morkel Erasmus

Crazy Eyes

I wanted to share a quick image from my recent Chobe safari with you. I wonder how many of you have seen this kind of expression from an elephant before?

This young bull was enjoying a good frolic in the water, and came out head swishing and eyes all crazy. Captured from our specialised photographic boat, I was sitting on the floor with my lens resting over the side. In hindsight I should have gone to f8 for more DOF, but I'm happy with the sequence I got.

I was amazed to see how much the Chobe elephants really enjoy goofing off in the river...

Techs:

Nikon D3s

Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II

f5.6 | 1/1600 SS | ISO-1100

Full frame except for slight crop due to rotation (to get water level in front of elephant level)

click on the photo to view at optimal sharpness and resolution

Morkel Erasmus

Golden Jaws

If you have been following my blog and/or social media channels for a while, then you would know that I have just returned from leading a Wild Eye photographic safari to the renowned Chobe river ecosystem between Botswana and Namibia. The photo opportunities my guests and I were blessed with were legion - and I've got so many new and interesting images to share.

Though the Chobe National Park boasts the highest density of elephants in southern Africa, I thought I would kick off the sharing of images from this trip with something different - an image I have been wanting in my portfolio for a LOOONG time. It's not anything new or groundbreaking, but it is a classically African image, and I am glad to have added it to my portfolio after this safari.

As we were approaching a pod of hippopotamus in the last light of the day, the sun just broke through the clouds for a moment, and I instructed our guide and boat driver Patrick to position us so that we can photograph silhouettes of the hippos against the backlight of the sunset. Just as we were nearly in position, the dominant bull of the pod reared up and gave a characteristic display of dominance with his mouth open. It was over in 2 seconds, and I was pointing my lens in that direction but not expecting anything. I quickly focused and fired off 4 frames with the boat still rearing to a stop, of which I liked this one the best. The golden glow and rim-light was achieved by dialing in an exposure compensation of -1.3 on my camera. The mood was enhanced by the light also hitting the thousands of insects flying about along the surface of the river.

I hope you like it! I will be posting a full trip report on the safari on the Wild Eye blog soon, so watch this space.

click on the photo to display at the proper sharpness and resolution

Morkel Erasmus

Mara Monster

I've seen many specimens of the famed Nile Crocodile in my life on various trips to various reserves and national parks. I've yet to encounter crocodiles as big as the ones I saw last month in the Mara river in Kenya.

They.
Are.
HUGE!

During the river crossings these massive Mara monsters have a field day among the wildebeest and zebra that cross the Mara and Talek rivers. This photo was captured during a relatively small crossing at a relatively "easy" crossing point in the Mara Triangle. It was quite an adrenaline rush watching the crocs hunt, and anticipating where they will strike next. Many a young animal was cheered on and applauded when it reached the other side without falling victim to these brutes.

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f4.0  |  1/1000 SS  |  ISO-400

So that's another epic Mara moment shared! I've got many more photos to work through and not half the time that I need for that mammoth job - so please be patient. 

Cheers...

Morkel Erasmus

Graceful Wings

There are few birds in Africa that evoke more in us than the African Fish Eagle. It has been my favourite raptor for years, and their haunting calls along Africa's waterways are an amazing reminder of the privilege we have to be on safari.

One of the best places to see and photograph them is on the Chobe river in Botswana. You can join us on a Wild Eye safari to this amazing oasis of wildlife where we will use a specialised photographic boat fitted with rotating chairs and mounted gimbal heads for your long lens, while based on a luxurious houseboat that can moor deep into the Chobe National Park for special access to key parts of the river in good light when other operators need to move out to make the "gate times". There's one date left in 2013 but 2014 dates are already laid out - I will be leading a trip from 12-16 March 2014. You can book and see all the details and info (plus images of the boat and houseboat) HERE.

click on the photo to display properly

This image was taken from the Wild Eye photographic boat. I just love how the light reflected off the water displays on the bird's open wings.

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f8.0  |  1/2000 SS  |  ISO-2500
Exposure Bias +0.7

Have a great day, friends!

Morkel Erasmus

PhotoShare: Blyde River Canyon

Well, as the holiday season is upon us I am reminded of the fact that this December we won't be going on a proper holiday (had a lot of trips during the year though!)...

We are, however, going away for the long weekend to the Mpumalanga escarpment near the town of Graskop. I am hoping to spend some time with my wife before the arrival of our first child early in 2011! We will probably be visiting all the local scenic locations such as the Blyde River Canyon, "God's Window", Bourke's Luck potholes and the likes. I would like to capture some images of these with my camera, as the only real images I have of the Canyon were taken hand-held and in poor light.

Here is a panorama I stitched together from a few shots taken handheld in 2009 while were were briefly in the area for a wedding:

If you are travelling during this festive season, stay safe! Enjoy the rest and for those who will still log into SAFFAscapes from time to time I will probably post some more blog posts since I will be biding my time at home.

Cheers (and don't forget your camera gear at home!)

Morkel Erasmus

Welcome to SAFFAscapes...

WELCOME!!

Hi everyone, and welcome to the SAFFAscapes Photo Blog...

I find myself constantly traveling to various parts of Southern Africa, either on holiday, on business or for the heck of it...

My fascination with photography in general, and more recently with HDR photography as a medium, has spurred me to start this blog to showcase the awesome natural beauty of God's creation as seen in Southern Africa, conveyed through the art of HDR photography.

Now you might as...what is HDR photography??? Quite simply put, it is a modern technique in digital photography whereby we attempt to convey a scene in a way that more resembles what the human eye would have seen if you were there with me. Oftentimes you stand with a lookout on a magnificent vista, taking it all in and being awed by it - but when showing the photo to your friends after explaining the grandeur of it all, they just don't seem as awed as you would've wanted them to be....which is understandable given that the human eye can take in considerably more light and dynamic range than a camera can with just a single exposure.

Onto the scene comes HDR - High Dynamic Range - photography. Now, you take a few different exposures of the same scene (read TRIPOD or STEADY HAND ;)), exposing each time for a different part of the scene (e.g. the sun/sky, the background, the foreground) to get the most dynamic detail out of each section of the scene. Finally, you blend them together to create a combined picture that brings together the best parts of your different exposures.

Capeesh??

Let's take an example.

Me and my wife and a couple of our friends were very privileged to be able to hike the Fish River Canyon in Namibia earlier this year (May 2009). Before starting our hike, we set off to the main view point to take in all we can of the magnificent view of the Canyon.

I took a photo of the scene we saw. It was quite hazy, and it was raining over the far reaches of the canyon. The colours and textures of the rocks were amazing. Somehow, the single photo just doesn't do it justice...here it is (with some basic tweaks in Photoshop):



Now, you can see just how hazy the camera made it look - but in fact we saw much more than that - our eyes allowed us to see fine detail in the canyon and also cut through the haze to see into the distance.

Here is the final result of my HDR blending (and some other tweaks in Photoshop)



I'm sure you can see the difference. There are actually many ways to produce an HDR image. Many people prefer doing manual blending using gradient masks in Photoshop, while others prefer Photomatix, an app specifically developed for HDR imaging. I tend to use both, depending on the shot and the end-result I envisage. In this example, I used Photomatix to create a full-blown surrealistic HDR, and blended this back with the original shot in Photoshop to enhance the details and colours of the brooding clouds and the eroded earth.

Well - that's an overiew of what I want to accomplish/share with this blog. There are some developments coming up (which I'll share later) which will allow me to travel much more and hopefully make many interesting additions to this blog.

I already have so many images and experiences to share from our trips during the past year...so if you would like to read and view some more, please subscribe and go on this journey of our wonderful part of the continent with me...

You are especially welcome if you currently live/work abroad and just need that intermittent reminder of where you come from...:)

Blessings,

Morkel Erasmus