My 2015 in imperfect hindsight

As is customary for many photographers of all genres during this time of year, I started glancing over my portfolio of work captured during the year in hopes of posting a "best of" collection. I have done so since 2010, and you can see my post from 2014 HERE.

Last year I took a very specific approach, only showing photos taken at a focal length of less than 100mm, to showcase my desire for including the greater environment in my photography (particularly when it comes to wildlife photography).

That being said, 2015 was a different year for me in terms of travel and photography. I had some great experiences out in the field, but not all great sightings resulted in great photography. I also took far fewer photos on the whole compared to the previous years. My total amount of photos "kept" up to this date compare more with the final result from years like 2009, 2010 and 2011 when I was more trigger-happy than I am now, but after extensive culling and weeding out of images I was not pleased with.

I think my collection below will be more reflective of specific memorable moments I enjoyed in nature, as opposed to groundbreaking new approaches to my photography and even a veritable "best of" selection. Nevertheless, I do hope you enjoy it. I want it to be an honest reflection of my year's photography, and an even more honest reflection of the memories built up. 

Every year it just dawns on me more and more that these moments in unspoilt nature are getting rarer and rarer as wild places and natural habitat wanes and falters before the onslaught of the greed of man. I can only hope that my children will still be able to enjoy the places and species I am introducing them to now long after I am gone from this planet and they have to share it with their offspring...

Without further tear-jerking musings, here we go. Photos are posted in chronological order (date taken) and not according to personal favouritism.

As usual, clicking on the photos shows them at best resolution and against a dark background!

1. Painted Dog Silhouette

I seemed to spend a lot of time in the Kruger National Park and surrounding reserves (like the Sabi Sand) this year, indeed much more than in the previous couple of years. One thing that struck me about this moment, captured in January 2015 near Pretoriuskop in the Kruger, was that I've seen very few distinct silhouettes of the African Wild Dog (Painted Dog). The size and stature of the animal and their tendency to keep to the bush and grasslands probably add to this...it's hard to get to a vantage point lower than they are at the best of times. This image was the result of a long period of waiting - as with many of my predator images - for the subjects to become active towards the end of the day.

Nikon D3s  |  Nikkor 500mm f4 VR  |  f4.0  |  1/640 SS  |  ISO-200

2. Starstruck Windmill
We spent a week over Easter with our family in East London (a city on the South African Wild Coast). We made a road trip of it, visiting the sheep farm of my friend Rob Southey in the Karoo desert on the way down. The Karoo is famous for its extreme weather and starry skies, and it didn't disappoint! A hot flask of coffee and good company made getting these shots a real treat...

Nikon D800  |  Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8  |  f2.8  |  30 seconds  |  ISO-6400

3. Nahoon on the Rocks
Our time in East London was primarily spent with family and having fun on the beach, but I did get the opportunity to link up with some old-time online friends for the first time in real life and enjoy a sunset shoot on the rocks at the beautiful Nahoon reef. The light did not peak as I expected it to, but I do have a distinct lack of seascapes in my portfolio and it was fun adding to them nonetheless.

Nikon D800  |  Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8  |  f16  |  2 seconds  |  ISO-50

4. Mare and Foal
The aforementioned road trip ended with a 3-night stay at the Mountain Zebra National Park, a real little gem in the crown of the South African National Parks portfolio. I hadn't been there since 2011, so this was a good opportunity to spend some time soaking in the scenic views and getting re-acquainted with the interesting diversity of wildlife it offers. The park is named after the endangered Cape Mountain Zebra, and has been a huge factor in the recovery of this species from the brink of extinction. Here a mother tenderly nudges her young foal as the sun sets behind the Karoo dust.

Nikon D3s  |  Nikkor 500mm f4 VR  |  f5.6  |  1/1000 SS  |  ISO-720

5. Gaze of Defeat
I posted about this specific moment in detail on my blog earlier in the year (read HERE). It just remained with me, a very poignant gaze and a privileged view on the end of a life well lived in the bush.

Nikon D3s  |  Nikkor 500mm f4 VR  |  f5.0  |  1/500 SS  |  ISO-1100

6. Stalker
I'll let this one simply speak for itself. A moment between Africa's most adaptable and stealthy predator and me...with nothing separating us.

Nikon D3s  |  Nikkor 500mm f4 VR  |  f5.6  |  1/1000 SS  |  ISO-720

7. acroBATics
In June, the Wild Eye team hosted the inaugural Wildlife Photography Seminar at Sabi Sabi in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve. Early one morning we came across an African Harrier Hawk (Gymnogene) acrobatically hunting for prey in the bark of a dead leadwood tree. It was a fascinating sighting, the bird really put on a display hanging upside down from its talons at times to break off pieces of bark. It was quite overcast but some soft light hit the clouds behind the bird for some colour in the sky. Eventually, when reviewing the images later, I realised the intended prey was a colony of bats nesting in the dead tree. In this frame there's one in its beak. Join us again next year for this inspiring event!

Nikon D3s  |  Nikkor 500mm f4 VR  |  f5.6  |  1/1000 SS  |  ISO-3600

8. Painted Pups
One of the definite highlights of my year was being able to witness how the Ngala pack of Painted Dogs (African Wild Dogs) brought their 17 new puppies out of the den for the very first time. My wife and I were spending time with the EWT researcher Grant Beverly who monitors all the movements and dynamics of this species in the greater Kruger area, and perchance we happened to be at the den at the right time to witness the special moment when the pack called the pups out and regurgitated food for them and allowed them to explore and play around for about 45 minutes before nudging them back into the old termite mound they'd chosen as a den site.

Nikon D3s  |  Nikkor 500mm f4 VR  |  f6.3  |  1/640 SS  |  ISO-1600

9. Dust and Mayhem
A photo simply cannot convey the sensory overload and general madness that is a large dusty Mara river crossing. We had quite a couple of insane crossings during the Wild Eye Great Migration photo safari that I hosted in September with my friend Andrew Beck. This particular one started after sunset at a crossing point close to our camp, so slow shutter speeds and high ISO settings were at the order of the day. After a couple of minutes the light was too bad for photography and we could put down the cameras and just soak it all in as the herd kept crossing, a leopard snuck past our vehicle to try and grab a youngster, and the smell of wildebeest adrenaline mixed with dust hung in the air. I will be hosting another trip in August 2016, so make sure you check out the details HERE if you want to experience this bucket-list safari for yourself!

Nikon D3s  |  Nikkor 70-200mm f42.8 VR-II  |  f2.8  |  1/25 SS  |  ISO-4500

10. Graceful Grazing
This scene happened in my mind's eye at least 15 minutes before the shutter tripped. I saw the giraffe ambling along to our right, noticed the iconic scenery with Balanite trees on our left, and instructed our Wild Eye East Africa guide to cut the engine of our Land Cruiser and wait. I told my guests what I thought would happen and what kinds of images I was hoping they could achieve - and it played out exactly like I planned. This is the wide open space of the Mara Triangle, folks!

Nikon D3s  |  Nikkor 70-200mm f42.8 VR-II  |  f7.1  |  1/800 SS  |  ISO-1400

There you have it, my friends.

Thanks so much for reading along. I think I have had more "wow" images in previous years, certainly, but I like that I was really able to distill this selection down to key moments - in the end the moments and memories are what matter, not how creative you got and how much you pushed the photographic envelope. 

Perhaps in 2016 I can do more of the latter. For now, I am getting ready to head back to the Kalahari, one of my favourite self-drive safari destinations. Look out for more images upon my return!

I wish you all the very best for the coming year! May God richly bless you in your coming and going, and in your life's journey with those you love most.

Morkel Erasmus

Beauty in Simplicity

One of the things I love about landscape photography is finding beauty in unexpected places. Many times you are in such a hurry to compose as many variations of a scene during the fleeting moments of sweet light available to you, that you don't REALLY get to take all the details and nuances in visually.


As I went into my 2010 archives, I came across this shot. I was capturing the sunrise on a clear morning on the South African "Wild Coast" near a little town called Haga-Haga. I was changing compositions here from the rising sun over the coastline to the interesting rock patterns that ran into the ocean perpendicular to the rising sun. I noticed the light was hitting the rocks nicely, and with only a little cloud cover in the sky on the horizon-line, I decided to compose for majority land and minimal sky.


Only after viewing it on my large screen at home did I notice the lovely nuances of colour and texture in the rocks patterns, and the way the rocks act as converging leading lines with the creases in the rock "floor".

f16  //  ISO-100  //  Blend of 2 images to tame dynamic range

I blended two exposures here to achieve optimal dynamic range.


Hope you liked this one! Let me know what you think, and if you've had similar experiences.


Morkel Erasmus

Silky Slick Silhouettes

Hellooooooo and welcome back to SAFFAscapes...

For today's post I decided to do something different - something which is not exactly what you would call HDR. But, after all, I am a photographer and I don't only do HDR, it's just one of the fun techniques I play around with.

I am posting a few very different silhouette photos today. Silhouettes can either rock the house or they bomb out and fizzle into nothing - depending on what you choose to portray and how that image leans itself to lines, texture and simplicity.

The first shot is one that was taken late one afternoon on a dune in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. A herd of oryx was grazing peacefully, minding their own business, as the sun was setting behind them in the little piece of blissful serenity which is called the Kalahari desert.

 

(click on the photo for a larger view)

 The second shot was taken in the town where I live at a local duck pond. The smog from the factories drifts past the sun on many evenings, creating a hazy, smoky scene which makes normal photography very challenging when you're waiting for that sweet golden light of sunset as the sun is hidden behind the smog. This time it didn't make a difference...I was ready. I had spotted a section of the willow tree on the island in the middle of the pond where I could capture a bird roosting on a perch with the sun directly behind it. Many afternoons I had hoped for the perfect bird to sit on the perfect perch with the perfect combination of smog and clouds. And on that day - it was there! I do wish that I'd had my longer lens at the time as this is quite a crop to get the other birds and branches out of the frame...

 

(click on the photo for a larger view)

I personally love these 2 photos. Finding the right scene for your silhouette is half the battle. Composing in camera is another 30%. Processing right afterwards makes up the rest.

Sticking with birds...I also want to show you a silhouette I captured sometime last year of a black-headed heron flying in to roost for the night at the same local duck pond.

(click on the photo for a larger view)

I like how the dramatic clouds and sunset colours add poignancy to the bird's pose.


The fourth photo I want to share was taken early one morning at the entrance gate to the rest camp in the Augrabies Falls National Park. The falls are currently flooding after some intense rains and I wish I could be there now! The quiver tree is quite a landmark in the Northern Cape and Namibia. Rugged. Hardy. Lonely. These words all describe this beautiful tree, yet none of them really describes it to one who has never seen them. 

This is the silhouetted quiver tree shot as I have adjusted it from the camera - in other words - as shot with a bit of natural tweaking:

 

(click on the photo for a larger view)

Notice how the texture and shape of the quiver trees make for a lot of eye-candy.
 

Now - let's see where creativity can take us...

Getting a bit more creative, I also used a little Photoshop magic on the photo posted above - I copied the silhouette of the flying heron into the quiver tree photo and created a piece of 'visual art'. I don't mind when people play around creatively with their photos in Photoshop - one should just always make mention of the fact that the photo has been 'shopped' (that is to say - one has gone beyond the boundaries of enhancing what is already naturally in the photo by adding elements and transforming the photo into something else). I also boosted the colours of the quiver tree shot a lot to add to the visual impact of the silhouettes.

Here is my final result. I call it "Quivering Landing". I would REALLY like to know what you think of this one, whether you enjoyed it or whether you think I've "crossed the line too far". :)

 

(click on the photo for a larger view)

There you have it! Hopefully I've inspired you to go and look out for some stunning silhouettes in your area, or on your next holiday.

Until next time...keep capturing those moments in time...

Morkel Erasmus