Mother of One

Much has been said about the plight of Southern Africa's black and white rhino population since 2010. I won't rehash it all here. Some days I'm hopeful that a solution will be found, and other days I really fear that it's all going to fade away (rhinos, elephants, lions, all of Africa's natural heritage we hold so dear). There just seems no stopping the greed of man...

I am grateful to have had some opportunities to photograph the critically endangered Black Rhino in recent years. These images might be the only way my children's children get to see these magnificent creatures.

This particular image was taken after sunset at a remote waterhole somewhere between the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Just as the sun dipped below the horizon, a cautious mother and her teeny calf emerged like ghosts from the surrounding bush, making their way gregariously towards the life-giving water. She stopped every now and again to survey the area, take in any new scents, and perk her ears towards unfamiliar sounds. She was keenly aware of her surroundings and of the potential danger that could lurk in the shadows...lions in this area have been known to have a go at rhino calves. The sad part is that we as humans hold the biggest threat to her and her young one's survival...

Eventually, they got to the water, and by that time it was too dark for decent photography - so I put the camera down and just enjoyed watching them drink peacefully as the stars started blinking around us...a special and rare moment in Africa!

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f4.0  |  1/160 SS  |  ISO-2500
Exposure Bias +0.3 

The light was very low, so I opted for a slower shutter speed given the pace that they were moving at. I also utilised my Nikkor lens' Vibration Reduction function for better sharpness.

click on the photo to display at optimal sharpness and resolution

Morkel Erasmus

Scenes from the Mara

A little while ago, I wrote a post on the Wild Eye blog about how difficult I found it to photograph the vastness and multitudes of the Great Migration in a way that would communicate it properly to people who would only have the chance to view my photographs and not experience the phenomenon for themselves.

This is another photo I captured during an amazing afternoon of driving through hundreds of thousands of White-bearded Gnu (with some Plains Zebra thrown in) over the rolling hills of the Mara Triangle in Kenya. With so many animals succumbing to the waters of the Mara river, the stampede of their herd-members or the plethora of predators prowling the plains, the vultures of that ecosystem just sit around and bide their time while the next meal is being dished up. I tried to capture a tree that had quite a few of them roosting in it, combined with the trekking herds over the hills. This is the result - well, one of them.

This one needs to be viewed larger - so I am posting an image larger than what I normally post. This one is 1400 pixels wide so do click on it to view properly.

What do you think of it? Does it give you a sense of being there?

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 190mm
f9.0  |  1/200 SS  |  ISO-640

click on the photo to display at a better viewing resolution for great detail

Thanks for viewing! Have a great day!

Morkel Erasmus

Striped Lineup

I loved seeing Etosha under massive clouds most of the days during our recent trip. Most people tend to go in winter time and then it's mostly hazy blue sky you see in their images. This place truly is big sky country with an immense sense of space! This lineup of Plains Zebra were walking along the plains en route to the Salvadora waterhole in the Halali region.

I went for a monochrome conversion here, giving it a slight blue tone. Zebras just work so well in a colourless format, and the use of the circular polariser on the lens lends that deep punch to the blue sky which also converts well if you apply a red filter in the conversion process. I used Nik Silver Efex Pro for this quick conversion, though I often play around more with it afterwards in Photoshop to use more dodging and burning.

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 70mm
f5.6  |  1/400 SS  |  ISO-220 

click on the photo to view at proper resolution

I hope to find more time to process some new images over the weekend. Let me know what you think of this one in the meantime.

Morkel Erasmus

The narrow escape with the Lionscape...

So, I am back from a very exciting and fulfilling trip to Dullstroom and the Madikwe Game Reserve. Not only were there loads of mind-blowing photographic opportunities, but I got to spend some quality time with my wife, a few good friends and like-minded photographers like Gerry van der Walt and Kerry de Bruyn.

I thought you might get a good chuckle out of the story I want to share, as well as have even more appreciation for the image it produced upon reading it.

We set out on Tuesday morning at 5AM to drive to a section of the Madikwe Game Reserve called the Madikwe Plains...a vast open stretch of African savannah that is reminiscent of the Serengeti in many ways. We got there well before the sun peeked over the horizon, and there were some wildebeest and springbok visible on the plains, with nice mountain ridges and some clouds that were adopting glorious colour tones from the rising sun.

In a great mood to make the most of this landscape, Gerry and I hopped off the Land Rover with our cameras and tripods and started setting up in front of the Landy in the dirt road, looking to the West to capture the colours of the sunrise on the plains. All of a sudden my darling wife asked: "What's that in the road?"

When I turned my head, a cold shudder ran down my spine and tingled in the tips of my toes...even though the sun hadn't completely risen, the shape that was lying about 20 meters up ahead in the road was unmistakeably that of a full-grown male lion...and he was looking straight at us. We could certainly have broken some kind of record for high-jumping with our attempts to scramble back into the vehicle! All the while the lion was just lying there, minding its own business. It's kind of funny when you look back at it now...

Here is a shot I snapped very quickly after we'd hopped back into the relative safety of the game viewer...

As we drove closer, it turned out to be one of a coalition of 2 brothers who were dominant on these plains, but this one seemed to have bit on the short end of the stick in a scuff with his brother recently. The next moment he broke out roaring right next to us! 

A few moments later his brother answered from across the plains.


It was quite a surreal experience...they kept roaring at each other periodically, and we kept trying different photographic compositions. In the end, one of my favourites from the trip is this last one. I held my camera way down the side of the Land Rover, went ultra-wide with my wide-angle lens, and snapped 3 exposures, of which I used 2 to blend this final image together. One exposure was used for the sky and mountains (underexposed) and one for the lion and plains (zero exposure).


Here is my lion in high dynamic range...(remember to click on the images for higher res viewing)

 I would love to hear what you think about my "experience" and the resulting shots! :)


Thanks for keeping a watchful eye on my meager blog...


I will be changing the overall content of this blog to cover more of my photography than just "HDR" or "blending" since I am in the process of constructing an official homepage and will link this as the official blog to my page.


Keep shooting!!


Morkel Erasmus

Storms on the Highveld...

Most of you who've been to the Highveld of South Africa know what it's like. Endless rolling plains and knolls - green in the summer and brown in the winter. Lots of power lines, pylons, smoke stacks and eucalyptus trees (which is an intruder species in South Africa by the way).

But what you can also find on the Highveld, especially in spring and early summer, are enormous thunderstorms. And I do mean some mean storms.

I happen to live in a town called Secunda on the Highveld region of Mpumalanga, and went out to a nearby farm the other day to do some landscape photography amidst the brewing of another belter of a storm.

This particular farm offers some respite in terms of just seeing the power lines and power plants on all sides on the horizon, particularly since there are old ruins standing there. As the rain started pelting me (I had to keep wiping the lens clean), I had a great time trying different compositions and takes on the scenery around. The grass is already quite green from the continuous rain.

The clouds opened for a brief respite in the distance, and I took my shot:

I love how these ruins stand against the storm, weathered and worn, but withstanding for another year, until gradually the elements take their toll and all the man-made clutter starts to fade away.

I've always said that if I had a farm, it would be in the bushveld or the Kalahari...but being on this farm made me realise - any darn ol' piece of land to call my own outside of the confines of a town or city would be just FINE!!

I walked around some more since the rain was only coming down in spontaneous droplets crashing into my face every 10 seconds or so...(made me think of Forrest Gump, the legend, talking about "big ole fat rain"). There was a cattle pen nearby in which a lovely whitish-grey horse was trotting around listlessly, with its reign (made of nylon ski rope) dangling loosely in the sweltering wind.

As I saw this beautiful animal within the small pen - the wires around it being easily clearable with a single jump - and its reign flapping in the wind, it made me wonder how comfortable we've become in our 'cages', knowing freedom is just within reach, yet being fearful to take the 'leap' because we do so love the comfort of our chains and boundaries...hence this photo was born, one of my favourites - entitled FREEDOM...

I will leave you at that for now...some more interesting shots to be seen from this location, as I continue to explore Southern Africa in High Dynamic Range.......