Classical Etosha

Hey everyone. I am just back from a round-trip family safari with my wife and two small kids. We visited Etosha National Park in Namibia, and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa. Both parks are arid and unique in their own way and we enjoyed the trip very much, despite there being some quiet days when it comes to game viewing.

This photo was taken one afternoon as the storms were passing over the Etosha Pan. It's a classical composition and nothing unique, but I still like it. It shows a Gemsbok/Oryx alone on the vast Etosha Pan, with the nourishment of rain after a 2 year drought imminent.

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 200mm
f8.0  |  1/250 SS  |  ISO-640
Exposure Bias +0.7 

click on the photo to display properly

I am looking forward to sharing more of the images from this trip as time goes by!

Morkel Erasmus

OVERWHELMING: The power of panoramic presentation

Hey everyone...

I did a rework this week of an old photo...you know how that goes, right? You progress in your photography and your post-processing skills, and you think: "hey, remember that photo I captured at ______ last ______? (fill in the blanks) Let's see what it looks like now."

In this case it wasn't so much a new processing skill I learned, but that I realised after browsing through the particular shoot's thumbnails that I realised I had taken alternative compositions of this scene. With the advent of digital imaging we tend to sometimes just click the shutter as many times as we can at as many perspectives possible to make sure we make the most of the scene...the problem is we end up forgetting exactly what we shot and why we did so.

The original is of a lonely tree (cliche, right?) overwhelmed by some building cumulus clouds over the South African Highveld. I titled the photo - you guessed it - OVERWHELMING. The original perspective was shot using the Canon 100-400mm zoom lens, at a focal length of 105mm (thus nearly as wide as I could go with this lens).

100mm focal length  |  single image  |  slight crop from the top

Just for overall perspective, here is the same scene (albeit with a cooler white balance setting) shot at 22mm. This is close to how the human eye perceives the scene (at 35mm focal length equivalent). 

22mm focal length  |  single image  |  no crop

Now, going back to the folder I remembered that I had also used the 105mm focal length setting in the first post on this scene and shot a few consecutive frames with the view of stitching them together as a panorama one day. That day came last week. I opened up the 3 consecutive shots in Photoshop in order to stitch them together using the "Photomerge" command. Now it goes without mention that the final stitched image not only provides a "grander sweep" of the scene, but also has a much higher resolution than I could have achieved with a single image...this makes it easy to print it BIG. 

I also went for a darker, moodier feel...converting to black and white with a red filter to bring the most out of the blue sky (that tip is for free!). The only crop I applied was to remove the "white edges"...after compiling a panorama the image is usually left with some white edges where the image had to be straightened to fit the next image perfectly.

105mm focal length  |  3 images stitched together  |  crop to remove white edges

This kind of image unfortunately doesn't display well on a blog format where the maximum image width is constrained. You can view a larger version on my 500px profile here

I don't have a larger version than the 500px version online yet...so watch this space.


I would love your feedback. Which one works better for you, and why???


Cheers, till next time...


Morkel Erasmus

An ancient tree...

Once again I have to apologise for a very short blog post. I merely wanted to share this photo I took this morning. It was a very emotionally loaded day for me and my wife and this tree just made me think of the cycle of life and death... 


How many summers and winters has it seen? How many storms has it weathered? How many pests has it had to endure, and was it ever threatened with being cut down?


So I share with you this tree - bearing scars that have healed well and others which are still visible.


May you stand strong and grow where you are planted despite the storms, the hardships and the turmoil. May you soak up every ounce of sunshine and rain as if it were your last. And may I do so as well...

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.......