Foxy Face

Southern Africa has a couple of interesting canids to see when you are on safari. Besides plenty of Black-backed Jackals, the rare Side-striped Jackal and the funky-looking Bat-Eared Fox...there's also the Cape Fox (Vulpes Chama). This is our only true fox species, and they are beautiful and great fun to photograph.

Later this year I will be headed back to one of my favourite parks with my family - the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Kalahari desert. We will be going right in time to hopefully see many dens of Cape Foxes with the young ones playing about energetically. This particular kit was sitting in a slight drizzle right outside its den, and also right beside the road. I used my telephoto lens and went in for a tight portrait.

Techs:

Nikon D3s

Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II

1.4x teleconverter

f5.6  |  1/500 SS  |  ISO-1000

Exposure Bias +0.7 

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I hope you enjoyed this one. Have a great week, friends!

Morkel Erasmus

The Poser

You'll notice I'm posting more photos locally on my blog...I'm moving more of the stories I share on my Facebook Page here so that traffic to my blog can be increased, and that I have my stuff hosted on my blog rather than a Facebook Page that can be taken away if the powers that be so choose.

This is a baby Chacma Baboon photographed in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. These little guys are photographic gems and always provide fun, interaction and quirky poses like this. This guy was part of a troop which hangs around the Shingwedzi river close to Shingwedzi rest camp. Their whole area has changed due to the recent floods there, so I'm not sure if the troop has moved on. 

Overcast, rainy weather evened out the shadows and created a nice exposure with soft light. You always need to be mindful for great poses with primates, especially ones which can seem anthropomorphic. The smaller the subject, the more important the shooting angle also becomes. I was able to get a decent low perspective here, even though I was shooting from my vehicle parked on the road. 

Techs:

Canon 1000D

Canon 100-400mm L IS USM

f6.3  |  1/500 SS  |  ISO-800

Exposure Bias +0.3 

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).

NB: Click on the photo to display correctly

Morkel Erasmus

Quick Update!!

Hey everyone...


I apologize upfront for the silence on my side. Things have been quite hectic! First off, our first-born  arrived on Thursday, so much of my time has gone into preparing for her arrival and also in starting to learn the ropes of parenthood.


Here is a photo of me holding little Aimee Erasmus in the hospital:

There are some VERY exciting developments on my side of the world. If you have ever read this blog and wondered what it would be like to go on Photographic Safaris with me, then there's some news coming up which will pique your interest! I'll expand more on it later when things have fallen into place.


I should be able to post a new photo sometime later in the week.


Until then - keep well! I probably won't be sleeping much, but the joys of parenthood far outweigh the side-effects!


Morkel Erasmus

PhotoShare: Amongst Giants

Hi everyone...

I thought I'd kick off October 2010 with an endearing PhotoShare moment. I photographed this herd of African Elephants earlier in August in the Addo Elephant National Park. The little one seemed to get lost among the bulky adults around him, and I also liked that he was the only one facing me.

f8.0  //  1/500 SS // ISO-400

I hope you enjoyed this one. There are many more photos on my new WEBSITE (which I launched last week in case you missed it). Go check it out - and remember you need to have the latest version of Flash installed to enhance your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Morkel Erasmus