A quick and powerful processing tip

Many of you will know that I present a popular post-processing workshop for wildlife photographers in South Africa. Obviously, if you don't live in our country it's hard for you to attend one of these.

While the +Wild Eye office team and I are working on a way to enable remote attendance of these workshops, you may be hungry for quick processing tips that will aid your processing workflow.

Here's a post I wrote for the Wild Eye Photo Chat Blog, detailing one of my favourite techniques for adding "punch" to your wildlife and nature photos. It's called "Local Contrast Enhancement". Much credit for the way I apply this method goes to my friend Robert Amoruso from the USA (www.wildscapeimages.biz).

Link to my blog post detailing the process

Before and After versions of a photo with LCE applied

I hope you find it helpful. If you are struggling to apply this or have any questions, feel free to drop me a comment here or on the original post.

Morkel Erasmus

About those roads...

If you’ve ever visited Southern African National Parks and Game Reserves, you would have encountered animals on roads. Many in the photographic fraternity frown upon including the road in your photos, as it detracts from the ‘natural look’ of the image.


I’ve got a few thoughts on this...and you can read them HERE on the Wild Eye Photo Chat blog.

Have a great week...

Morkel Erasmus

Whoa Horsey

I'm a big proponent of working with the opportunities and sightings you have while there is decent light. So often we chase the sightings of the big species and forget to photograph and observe the myriad of other species on offer in the bush.

During our recent trip to the Kalahari, I often played around with some slow shutter speed techniques. While we were sitting among a herd of about 400 Springbok, the fawns started pronking, prancing about, running and being silly in general. I immediately seized the opportunity to dial in a slow shutter speed and pan along with the cajoling little ones. The idea with these kind of shots is normally to have the head/face reasonably sharp or at least the outline nicely defined and the motion enhanced.

Techs:

Nikon D3s

Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II

f22 | 1/50 SS | ISO-200

click on the photo to view properly

I hope this inspires you to try more slow shutter speed shots and also to spend time with whatever comes your way on safari - not just the lions and elephants etc.

Morkel Erasmus

Are you a lion snob?

What do I mean by that?

Simply this – are you always chasing after the next “big thing” when you’re in the bush?
Doing this often makes you miss many of the smaller wonders of Africa, and besides this it can frustrate the living daylights out of you when you don’t find that “big thing”.

For more of my musings on this topic, check out this earlier post on the Wild Eye blog.

What are your thoughts? Drop me a comment...

Morkel Erasmus

Seeing Double

or…“What to do with those animals that won’t stay out of your frame in the background!”

Many people like photographing their wildlife subjects against clean backgrounds with minimal distractions. There are even some that lambaste the presence of other out-of-focus animals in the frame as being “distracting”.  Given, they CAN be distracting if they are not adding to the overall story and context and composition, especially if they are not easily discernible or criss-crossing behind your subject in certain ways.

To read a short photographic essay I wrote about this concept - with many more images, check out THIS POST on the Wild Eye Photo Chat blog.

Keep well, until I write to you again!

Morkel Erasmus

Black Crake Dubstep

Bird photography is quite challenging in many aspects. I am about to start a series of short posts on the Wild Eye blog concerning bird photography basics and principles, so keep your eyes peeled for that if you are interested in our feathered friends at all. 

One of the key aspects of creating interesting photos of waterbirds is to try and get on "their level", i.e. shoot from as low an angle over the water as possible. This photo of the normally elusive and secretive black crake was taken by lying down on the deck of a small boat and resting my lens over the side. The bird was strangely unperturbed by our presence, and as you should know, having a relaxed subject makes for great photography.

Techs:
Canon 7D
Canon 100-400mm L IS USM @ 275mm
f5.6  |  1/3200 SS  |  ISO-1000

click on the photo to view properly

What would you like to know about successful bird photography? Drop me a comment and perhaps I can address your question in an upcoming post!

Morkel Erasmus

A reason for every season in the Kgalagadi

Those who follow my photography will know that I tend to visit the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park…a lot.

I cannot think of a single naturalist or wildlife photography fanatic in South Africa who doesn’t have a passion for the Kgalagadi. It’s got so much going for it: wide open terrain, big skies, intense predator action, diverse wildlife and some of the best photographic light that you can find.

I often get asked when is the best time to go.

The answer? Any time…

Seriously, though, I thought of a few of the pros and cons of every season in the Kalahari...and wrote them down. You'll have to click through to the actual article on the Wild Eye blog HERE. 

Happy snapping!

Morkel Erasmus

Behind the Frame: Forest King

How often do you get to see and photograph a lion in a forest? Most people who’ve been on safari in Africa see them either on grassy plains (think Masai Mara), in arid semi-desert (think Kalahari) or in thick bushveld (think Kruger Park). This photo was taken in Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe. What you may not perceive from this photo is how it was made.

The full images is over 9000 pixels wide. To read the whole story about how I made this photo, and to see a higher resolution version, head on over to the Wild Eye Photo Chat Blog and read my post.

Until next time!

Morkel Erasmus

The Best Camera in the World...

...is the one you have with you...

I've just come back from a lovely week's vacation with my family in the iconic Drakensberg mountains of South Africa.

I wanted to share this photo with you guys.

Nice scene, isn't it?

Would you like to guess which camera was used to make this photograph?

My Apple iPhone 5.

You can close your mouth now.

Yes, I did take my Nikon D800 and some lenses along.

Yes, I used them for some shooting.

But as I was spending time with my family most of the time, I found it convenient to grab the iPhone and snap away when something caught my eye.

Be prepared to capture photos with any camera at your disposal!
It's not the tools that maketh the photographer...

Until next time...

Morkel Erasmus

PhotoShare: Regally Poised

Hi everyone. Here's another addition to my new African Visions series of wildlife in monochrome and duotone. 


A beautiful young leopard pauses and sits poised like only this graceful cat can. I think I have one of the poorest (read: least amount of photos) leopard portfolios of all the wildlife photographers I know. I just have bad luck with them! Aside from that one epic sighting in Kruger last year of the leopard scaling the tree, my other leopard sightings leave much to be desired. They avoid me in the Kalahari. They avoided me shockingly in Savute last year. And they even avoided me in the Sabi Sands earlier this year. This was taken in 2010 when leopards still liked me, LOL.

Monochrome conversions are very personal and subjective. Contrary to popular belief, merely converting to black-and-white won't "save" a photo. I often shoot with monochrome in mind - trying to look for contrasts and textures to use. Getting a monochrome conversion just right often takes me longer than processing a normal "colour" photo.

Have a great weekend, folks! I hope to meet some of you over the weekend at the Photo & Film Expo in Johannesburg, South Africa. Come and check out the Wild Eye stall (#339).

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 200-400mm f4
f4.0 | 1/160 SS | ISO-500

www.morkelerasmus.com

This photo is Copyrighted © Morkel Erasmus Photography.

You may share this image as presented here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 licence (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

More info:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Guest Post: The Digital Photography School

I had the privilege and honour of contributing a guest blog post to The Digital Photography School (DPS) (conceived and run by Darren Rowse) listing my own 10 Tips for improving your Wildlife Photography.

Would LOVE for you to check it out and give me some feedback!

LINK

Enjoy your week!!


Morkel Erasmus

PhotoShare: Kruger Kuduscape

Things are buzzing by my head now at a pace so frantic it's hard to keep up. I am heading off to Mana Pools in Zimbabwe next week, a dream destination for me. Afterwards I shall have plenty of time to wind down and catch up on things like regular blogging, etc.


In the meantime - here is an image to make you think. How often do you just wish for a longer lens? We always tend to want to get the tightest, most detailed shots of our subjects...and we forget to think about shooting "wider", and placing the animal in the context of its environment.


This was an occasion where I didn't have "enough glass", but it didn't bother me. I have many close-up portraits of the graceful Kudu antelope. In this instance I had parked in the middle of a road going through a dry river in the Kruger National Park. It was quiet, and I was taking in the morning sounds and smells with my window open. All of a sudden, a herd of Kudu came out of the dense riverine foliage and into the wide open riverbed. Kudus have a knack of surprising you, being able to stay perfectly still and hidden. Hunters have long been calling them the "African Grey Ghost".


This cow paused and noticed me. I snapped a picture. This picture tells the story much better than a closer photo would have. Don't you agree??

(Nikon D3s, Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II)  f5.6  |  1/1000 SS  |  ISO-640

Morkel Erasmus

10 Must do’s for a successful remote photographic expedition

Renowned wildlife and culture photographer Piper Mackay has posted a very insightful post on her blog entitled:

10 Must do’s for a successful remote photographic expedition

You can check it out HERE


Cheers!


Morkel Erasmus

Tracking Kalahari Lions

I thought it was time for another "proper" blog post, don't you think? So much has been going on in the hustle and bustle of my life that I have again started neglecting my blog - tsk tsk tsk. Things have been hectic busy on this side. Did I mention we are expecting our 2nd child later this year? We recently found out that we are expecting a boy, so soon there will be 2 pairs of little feet to pitter-patter around the house. Having a family is such a blessing and privilege and I am fortunate to have such a loving and supporting wife who knows how obsessive I can be about my passions.

After visiting the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park again recently (you should know by now how I love the place), I was reminded by a recent experience of one of the exciting aspects of being on safari there...tracking lions. Oftentimes in the Kgalagadi I have found fresh lion tracks and used some latent knowledge of tracking handed down by my father when I went hunting with him as a boy, and some knowledge of the predators' behaviour to eventually find a good lion sighting on my own.

Now it sounds cliche, but unlike the private lodges where there's a tracker sitting on the front of the vehicle, in this park it's all self-drive and you can only track animals that have actually walked in the road. So upfront it sounds quite straight-forward...but there's actually a lot to it.

1. First off - you need to be out of the gates FIRST in the morning! If you're not, the guy who made it out before you will probably just drive over any fresh tracks there may be. Male lions are frequently on patrol in the early hours of the morning, but it's not uncommon to find moms with cubs or even entire prides on the road or close to it.

2. You need to know what a lion track looks like. Think your kitty cat's feet multiplied by 20. It helps to familiarise yourself with the various predator tracks so you can distinguish between them.

3. You need to be able to tell if it's fresh or old. If it rained last night, and there are tracks without drops in them - FRESH. If there's lots of loose sand in the track and it's hard to discern the shape - OLD. If the sand is scrunched up on the sides and the track is nice and clear - FRESH.

4. You need to have a keen eye. They may not necessarily be in the road. They may be lying under a bush close by or they may be a little way off to the side in long grass.

5. You need to be able to read the direction of the tracks and make a prediction on where they were going if the tracks leave the road...they may have just taken a shortcut and ended up at a nearby waterhole.

6. You need to be patient. On my recent trip I was tracking a certain pride of lions for 4 days consecutively before I found my first "usable" photo opportunity.

7. It's not just about tracking lions. I have often found leopard, cheetah and hyena tracks too, and these also gave me a good idea of which predators were hanging around certain territories with a view of looking for them later, and even finding them indirectly as their tracks found earlier made me alert to their general presence in the area.

Here are a few images I have captured of lions in the Kgalagadi which I found by following, reading and interpreting their tracks over the last 3 years or so...

I hope you enjoyed this short post about something which makes self-drive safaris in South Africa's National Parks so rewarding and exciting for me.

Cheers!

Morkel Erasmus