Travel Companions

I thought I'd give you a break from Chobe imagery for a short while...

This photo was taken at the Gemsbokvlakte waterhole in the Etosha National Park in Namibia this past November. We had waited for a long time for this male lion to get up and when he did, he proceeded straight to the waterhole. A lone giraffe was also in the area, and also thirsty. In this frame it looks like they are heading in the same direction (and the title implies thus), but the giraffe was actually mostly keeping a close eye on the lion. 

And no - this is not from the sighting where I witnessed a pride of lions taking down a giraffe on the same trip...more about that later!

In hindsight, I wish I'd shot this with my 70-200mm lens. I really thought I would fit them in better with the 500mm and wanted that telephoto compression effect for this (obviously the giraffe was not directly behind the lion). In the end, this is the best I got with both in the frame, and the horizon isn't perfectly level either...

Just goes to show, there's always an opportunity to learn from your mistakes in the field, and you're never too old to make mistakes and realise them way too late, haha!

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f5.6  |  1/800 SS  |  ISO-500

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead of you! Thanks for looking, as always...

Morkel Erasmus

A quick and powerful processing tip

Many of you will know that I present a popular post-processing workshop for wildlife photographers in South Africa. Obviously, if you don't live in our country it's hard for you to attend one of these.

While the +Wild Eye office team and I are working on a way to enable remote attendance of these workshops, you may be hungry for quick processing tips that will aid your processing workflow.

Here's a post I wrote for the Wild Eye Photo Chat Blog, detailing one of my favourite techniques for adding "punch" to your wildlife and nature photos. It's called "Local Contrast Enhancement". Much credit for the way I apply this method goes to my friend Robert Amoruso from the USA (www.wildscapeimages.biz).

Link to my blog post detailing the process

Before and After versions of a photo with LCE applied

I hope you find it helpful. If you are struggling to apply this or have any questions, feel free to drop me a comment here or on the original post.

Morkel Erasmus

Crazy Eyes

I wanted to share a quick image from my recent Chobe safari with you. I wonder how many of you have seen this kind of expression from an elephant before?

This young bull was enjoying a good frolic in the water, and came out head swishing and eyes all crazy. Captured from our specialised photographic boat, I was sitting on the floor with my lens resting over the side. In hindsight I should have gone to f8 for more DOF, but I'm happy with the sequence I got.

I was amazed to see how much the Chobe elephants really enjoy goofing off in the river...

Techs:

Nikon D3s

Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II

f5.6 | 1/1600 SS | ISO-1100

Full frame except for slight crop due to rotation (to get water level in front of elephant level)

click on the photo to view at optimal sharpness and resolution

Morkel Erasmus

Cosmos Sunset Abstract

It's autumn in South Africa again. In the Highveld, where I live, this means it's cosmos time - millions of seeds come into bloom, often in great sweeping patches of white and pink. The challenge is always finding a meadow of a decent size in a decent setting (minimal hand-of-man elements around) and in decent light.

I went out with my friends +Felix Reinders (www.felixreinders.com) and +Rudi van den Heever (www.linruphotography.com) to a local patch that looked promising. Being mindful of mistakes I made last time, I also made sure to take along my 70-200mm lens for some abstract attempts.

The patch was good.
The location was good.
The light was good(ish).
The 70-200mm lens rocked!


Here's one of my attempts using this lens for some abstract floralscapes - using a very shallow depth-of-field (DOF)...I hope you like it. I wanted to isolate a single flower or cluster of flowers against the setting sun and the myriad of flowers behind and around it...

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

Morkel Erasmus