Dawn of the Striped Ones

It's early on a summer morning in Namibia's +Etosha National Park.
The first summer rains have just started to fall - so everything looks and smells fresh.
There's still a lot of cloud cover overhead from last night's deluge...but there's a gap for the sun to rise into on the Eastern horizon.

As I drive out of the gate of the Okaukuejo camp with my wife and kids in the back of the SUV (kids still dozing), I head East towards the nearest waterhole, which is called Nebrownii. 

As the sun starts peeping over the horizon and through the break in the clouds, I find my first willing subjects - a small group of Plains Zebra.

Stop the car.
Fiddle to grab the nearest camera. Lens too long (500mm).
Switch to the other camera - this one has a better focal length (70-200mm).
Start snapping.
Check exposure.
Make adjustments.
Snap again.
Check exposure.
More adjustments.

Framing a rising sun and plenty of sky with wildlife at the bottom makes for a tricky exposure. This is where using your exposure lock function helps, as well as back-button focus to be able to focus and reframe.

Finally satisfied with my exposure on the D800 and 70-200mm combo, I contemplate swopping the 500mm on the D3s for a shorter lens, but realise the sun will rise behind the clouds in a few moments. So I grab my instamatic wide angle that is always with me (that would be the Apple iPhone 5, folks), switch on the HDR function, and snap a few images that way.

Here's the DSLR photo...

Nikon D800  |  Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 70mm  |  f4.0  |  1/250 SS  |  ISO-800

And here is the photo taken with my iPhone...

Which do you prefer?

Sure, the iPhone version doesn't have the same high resolution quality, and it came out a bit over-the-top when it comes to the HDR effect, but it does make it look quite surreal. The perspective is definitely better for me at this wider focal length. Perhaps I should have switched lenses right away when I got there...but I will have to take that lesson into my next safari.

What's the old adage? The best camera is the one you have with you...

Morkel Erasmus

Dusk Zebra

I absolutely love photographing wildlife in the soft light just before sunrise or after sunset. There's a luminous soft glow and saturating mood that you just don't get in any other kind of natural light. I literally don't care what my subject is when I'm in this precious short window of light...

This particular photo was taken in the Mountain Zebra National Park of South Africa, a small reserve which has immensely beautiful vistas all around and is a highly underrated safari destination. Situated in the Karoo semi-desert near the town of Cradock, this National Park now sports lions and cheetahs, along with several interesting herbivore species and it's also a hotspot for seeing the elusive Aardwolf! 

This photo shows the endangered Cape Mountain Zebra (from whom the park takes its name). This species was critically endangered in the early 1900's but was brought back to a sustainable population thanks to the efforts of the South African National Parks, with the establishment of this particular National Park in 1937 no small step in securing their future.

You can read more about the park HERE.

Techs:
Canon 7D
Canon 300mm f2.8 L IS USM
f2.8  |  1/100 SS  |  ISO-1600

Enjoy your day, friends!

Morkel Erasmus

Forest Zebras

We usually associate Zebra (specifically, the species Plains/Burchell's Zebra) with the rolling plains of the savanna, and not with forests. However, there is one place where you can see them in a forest...and that's in Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe.

There are many things which could have been better in this photo. That darn middle zebra with its head down is my main bugbear, and the elements of the scene could have been better arranged. What I do love, is how this transports me to being out on the Mana floodplains at first light...and there's few things that beat that!! Can you spot the hippo in the background??

I captured this photo on foot. It was also my first time using the new and improved Nikkor 80-400mm VR-II lens (and I was duly impressed).

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 80-400mm VR-II
f5.6  |  1/200 SS  |  ISO-900

click on the photo to display at proper resolution and sharpness

I will be heading to the Chobe river on Wednesday, leading my first Wild Eye photographic safari of the year. See you on the other side!

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

PhotoShare: Cape Mountain Zebra

It seems like July will slip by without another decent blog post, but here is a quick PhotoShare for you guys.

I captured this image before sunrise in April 2011 in the quaint little Mountain Zebra National Park in the Karoo desert, South Africa. I will do a proper blog post sometime soon about this great underappreciated National Park.

f4.0  |  1/100 SS  |  ISO-1000  |  420mm focal length

Hope you enjoy this one. Cheers!

Morkel Erasmus

PhotoShare: Another one bites the dust!

Hi everyone!! So I am back from an amazing trip to Botswana...with so many photos to work through I don't even know where to start...

Here is a quick one from our first morning on safari. This was the first time in my life I had witnessed this kind of behaviour, which is called "geophagia" (definition thanks to my friend Grant Atkinson, an amazingly talented photographic safari guide in Botswana). This Plains Zebra (Burchell's Zebra) was biting chunks off a termite mound in order to supplement her diet with specific nutrients.

I am in the process of doing a full trip report so hang in there!!

f5.6  |  1/2000 SS  |  ISO-800

Morkel Erasmus

The obsession with eye contact

The last time I blogged, I spoke about "seeing the bigger picture" when you are out taking photos. In the meantime I was privileged to do a guest post for Photo-Africa about the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park as a safari destination (check it out here) 

I thought it prudent to share more of my thoughts on alternative approaches to wildlife photography. If you frequent various online photography forums (like I do), you will often find the critiques given lamenting the lack of better eye contact and/or a glint in the eye (catchlight). Now while this may be valid in many of the cases, this doesn't mean you should pack away your camera in situations when you're not getting that golden eye contact from your subject. Often while on safari we will be faced with a situation where the most gorgeous animal presents itself, only to spitefully shy away from eye contact with the tourists/photographers.