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

Photographic Safaris with Wild Eye

Those of you who follow me on social media would have seen that I am now a Wild Eye Ambassador. What does that mean?

First - you need to check out what Wild Eye is about. Browse around on the homepage:

www.wild-eye.co.za

So what does it mean? Effectively, it means you now have the opportunity to join me on various photographic safaris throughout the year. During these trips we will focus on maximising building your photographic portfolio, learning from each other and above all, having fun (because wildlife photography is supposed to be fun, right?).

You can see my profile, as well as those of the other ambassadors (all good friends of mine and excellent photographers) HERE.

The preliminary dates for my trips with Wild Eye for 2013 are as follows:

1 - 5 May 2013 

Samara Game Reserve in the Karoo desert, South Africa

The focus of this one will be the wildlife and landscapes of this uniquely South African biome. I will release more information once this goes live on the website.

17 - 21 July 2013

Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe

You've probably seen some of my photos from this magical place. Marlon du Toit and I will be leading a camping safari for max 10 people into this pristine wilderness, staying on the banks of the mighty Zambezi and exploring the floodplains, forests and riverbed. More details HERE.

22 - 28 September 2013

Masai Mara Migration, Kenya

The Great Migration is the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth, and once again Marlon and I will be there to help you capture this phenomenon on your camera - frame by frame. We will operate from the Wild Eye tented camp, a mobile tented camp on the banks of the Mara river. More details HERE.

If you've ever wanted to spend time in the field with like-minded people, having fun doing what you love to do, then these trips are just for you. There are many departures throughout the year, not all led by me, but led by amazing people who will help you grow your portfolio and have fun with the same passion and vigour as I will.

I hope to see some of you on safari next year!

Keep well,

Morkel Erasmus

Wild Eye Photographic Competition: March Winner!

For those of you who don't know about Wild Eye yet - where have you been? They are a new startup company catering to all things photographic and travel in Africa and are run by a team of experienced professionals. 

Among other things, they are currently running a Photo Competition with some amazing prizes up for grabs...the main prize being a superb safari to witness and photograph the Great Migration.

I was fortunate enough to be the winner for the month of March, and my image will go into the final draw at the end of the year. Congratulations as well to all the other winners and commended photographers. I look forward to the results of this competition in the coming months...

This is the image I entered:

And to crown it all, another of my images was selected among the Top 10 for the month:

You can check out the winning images for the month of March 2012 HERE...


Cheers!

Morkel Erasmus