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

Kruger: December 2009 (Part 7)

Time to carry on with this trip report, wouldn't you say??

The previous episode can be found HERE.

We had a good rest over lunch and headed out that afternoon - aiming to head south again from Shingwedzi and drive the Red Rocks loop. The local troop of Chacma Baboons along the Shingwedzi river provided some nice entertainment in the rainy weather.

The little ones never fail to provide cute photographic moments...

This little Terrapin also paused while crossing the road...

A shy Common Duiker glanced back at me before vanishing into the foliage again...

The Amur Falcons were out in force that day, hunting spawning insects.

The rest of the drive was filled with general plains game...

Without much further excitement, we arrived back at camp, had our traditional "braai" and also packed up the stuff - the next day would see us move on to Punda Maria and the magical Pafuri.

Stay tuned...

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

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