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

CheetahScape

I've often recommended to wildlife photographers (on safaris I guide or online) that they should shoot wider to include more of the scenery, rather than merely trying to get as close as possible for as much detail as possible. One of the reasons I say this is that a very tight headshot could actually be taken anywhere (like in a zoo). Framing wider tells your audience a bit about WHERE the animal or bird found itself and WHAT it was doing. This does not always mean you should whip out a shorter/wider lens...sometimes it just means using your telephoto lens and not driving right up to your subject. 

I'm a big fan of using the compression factor that comes with the super telephoto lenses to tell stories and enhance the overall composition by seeming to bring the compositional elements closer together than they really are. The photo below shows such an example. This male cheetah was photographed in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (Kalahari desert), and was scanning the Nossob riverbed for a potential breakfast target. The sun was just coming up and the light was sublime. I particularly liked how it was lighting up the shrubs and grasses around him, and a the camelthorn acacias in the distance. I chose to frame vertically (portrait orientation) to include the tree.

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
1.4x teleconverter
f5.6  |  1/640 SS  |  ISO-1600
Exposure Bias: -0.7 

I hope you found this useful, and of course I hope you like the photo. Either way, drop me a comment and let me know what you think...

Cheers!

Morkel Erasmus

Call of the Spurfowl

There are very few things that affirm to you that you are in the bush and you need to wake up to go on a game drive as pleasantly as the morning call of the Swainson's Spurfowl. This call evokes endless memories of trips to the Kruger National Park and surrounds in me, and I'm sure many of you too. This bird is actually a francolin, and can be found all over Southern Africa. This particular photo was taken early one morning close to the Satara rest camp in the Kruger National Park.

If you want to learn how to improve your bird photography, check out the new series I am busy posting over on the Wild Eye blog:

For the Birds - Part 1

For the Birds - Part 2

(more to come!)

Techs for this shot:

Nikon D300s

Nikkor 200-400mm f4 VR @ 340mm

f5.6  |  1/400 SS  |  ISO-500

click on the photo to display at optimal resolution and sharpness

Now I feel the need to go on safari...darnit! Don't you?

Morkel Erasmus

Amber Eyes

Cheetahs have always been a special species to me. Since I was a little boy, I have been fascinated by them for many reasons (of which their immense speed was obviously one). As I took up photography, I came to appreciate more of their nuances. But one thing that's pretty challenging when photographing them, is getting their amber eyes to come out nicely - this can only really happen in that first and last light of day when the sun is flat enough to shine in under their slightly protruding brows. During the rest of the day these same brows/eye-banks cast their eyes in shadow.

This image was captured early one morning at the Craig Lockhart waterhole in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. I sure hope to be seeing cheetahs on our upcoming family trip there!

Techs:

Nikon D3s

Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II

f8.0  |  1/1000 SS  |  ISO-560

Exposure Bias +0.7 

click on the photo to display properly

Morkel Erasmus

Shooting against the light

We've all been there...you are sitting at an awesome sighting, watching some beautiful animal or bird...but the light is just W-R-O-N-G...

Now you've got 2 options. Either you pack away the camera and just enjoy the sighting...or you try to work with the light you have and create some images that might come out better than you thought, or better yet, might come out a litte 'out-of-the-box'. In this post I will elaborate on some of these situations you might encounter, and also show some of the images I have been able to capture in similar cases which I thought came out okay.

The classic case is the "back-lit" image, where the light comes from directly opposite your viewing position and you have to use it to enhance the contours and outlines of your subject. The key here is to ensure you under-expose significantly to ensure you capture the mood and don't blow the highlights. You can either do this by manually adjusting exposure or exposure compensation bias and checking the histogram, or if you like to use your metering function apart from your focusing function you can meter off the brightest highlights.

Another angle of light we encounter in the field is a case of strong 'side-light'. In this case the light hitting the subject creates a stark contrast between one part of the subject and another. Obviously this is only possible in the early morning and late afternoon...no noon-time shots available here! The ideal exposure for me in cases like this is to obtain enough detail in the shaded parts without making it look unnatural and without blowing out the highlighted areas.

 

The key to facing a situation where the light is challenging, is to know your equipment well, know how to use your exposure bias setting to achieve an over- or underexposed shot, and think creatively...in the end the best images are formed in your mind's eye before you even trip the shutter.

We all want those moments of "perfect" light, but they seldom are perfect...my advice would be to make the most out of the situations you do find yourself in when you are out in the field. Most of us have so precious little time to spend in the field to begin with!

Here are some more images I have been able to capture in these kinds of light.

Till next time!

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