African Moments

March 5, 2010 Categories: General by Gerry 1 Comment

First off a big thanks to Hilton Kotze for his guest post yesterday where apart from a killer sequence, excuse the pun, he share some solid advise for aspiring wildlife photographers. Make sure to go and check out his blog or, if you are keen on improving your wildlife photography, join him on a photographic safari.

Black & White Lioness

As I sit here I don’t actually have a clue what to write about so let’s see how it goes.

Not sure if it is because there are too many thoughts and ideas I actually want to share or whether it is just on of those days. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to use the black and white image on the left in this post. I photographed this lioness a few days ago during one of the most fantastic light-meets-lion moments I have had for a very long time.

Strangely enough this image stood out not because of the light on her, she was laying in full shade, but because of something else. The look? The lines? The composition? Not sure, but the moment I saw this image through the viewfinder and again later when I opened it on my Mac it jumped out at me. It’s not one of those images that makes you go wow, like Hilton’s images from yesterday, but rather just a good, solid wildlife image. To me there seems to be a sweetness about the lioness, an innocence. Perhaps that, even more than the composition, is what drew my eye to this frame when I first saw it.

I have no doubt that as you spend more time in the field you will start seeing more and more of these kind of images. You will see them as you look at your subjects and you will recognize them in an instant as you see your image take shape through your camera’s viewfinder. Other than hours and hours or practice, the other way in which you can get better at ‘seeing’ images around you is to shoot, and share, with other photographers.

The sharing is the important thing though. Showing someone the image you just took and telling them what you were thinking or going for when you depressed the shutter is a great way to organize your creative thoughts and make them real. The more you do this, the more insight and vision you will have when you look through the viewfinder again.

Looking at other photographer’s images out in the field will also, if you are open to it, act as inspiration. You will get new ideas with regards to angles, composition or the use of light. Sharing and discussing your thoughts is what cements all of the learning process together and the final result? You grow as a wildlife photographer.

Ultimately, and perhaps this is one of the stages Hilton mentioned yesterday, we move past trying to create wildlife images but rather try and express our own personal vision. Show your viewers what you see when you look at a scene. Look for emotion in your subjects. Look for moments. This kind of growth is essential for your longevity as a wildlife photographer.

Quite a mouthful for someone who had no idea what to write about! Anyway, on most Fridays I upload a slideshow with a few images from the last week but today I am going to have a quick look at the five new slideshow images I have chosen for March with a few thoughts on each.

The last few weeks have been amazing for lion sightings and this little guy and his four siblings stole the show each time. When I was looking for images for the slideshow on the top of the blog I had to look for something that would work as a long landscape images. That normally means fill the frame completely or leave plenty of negative space. In this case the empty space on the right of the frame has been left open to ask the question “who or what is the little guy snarling at?” If your images can ask questions then you are on the right track.

As with the lioness on the top of the post, this was another one of those moments that I saw through the viewfinder. I shot three shots in this series, with this being the first. Love the open ears and leading line taht gets created by the ellies trunk. Great animals to watch and photograph.

For the last few weeks I have been shooting almost exclusively with my Nikon 80-200mm f2/8. We were lucky enough to find this raptor sitting on a dead tree right next to the road which made for quite a nice photo opportunity even though it was quite gloomy – that is where the f/2.8 came in handy. As you can see the sky was completely gray and overcast so I spot metered of the bird’s chest and fired away. Neat and clean image which leaves all the focus completely on the bird even though blue sky would have been nice.

A week or so ago I had an off evening so I joined Grant Marcus for an afternoon game drive. Was great to be able to just sit back, look around and shoot whatever I wanted. Great fun and a magical sunset.

This is a shot I have been trying for a while. I am sure that every single person who has even photographed a zebra must have tried something like this but I still like the simplicity of it and even though I like this one I will keep on trying.

If you are looking for a quick and inspirational read this weekend, make sure to head over to Craft and Vision where you can pick up Dave Delnea’s latest e-book ‘Below the Horizon – Understanding Light at the Edges of Day’. For $5 it is an absolute steal and even though, at Dave’s own admission, there are no mind blowing secrets in the book you will find great advise, guidelines and image of how to shoot before sunrise and after sunset. Yeah, this is the realm of long exposures, early mornings and late evenings. Awesome inspiration. While you are on the site you might as will pick up a few of David duChemin’s e-books. Probably the best photographic e-books available today!

After reading Below the Horizon, I headed out to give the long exposure thing a bash. Have not done anything like that for a very long time but along with Gavin Tonkinson, had a great time. We played with tripods, remote controls and neutral density filters and as mentioned earlier, it is the best way to learn. Shot a good couple of frames and even though the results were ok, I will be doing a lot more of this in future. Here is one of the images I shot after sunset.

This was a four second exposure which shows the view towards the west of the Madikwe Game Reserve. The reflection in the vehicle windscreen is my attempt at being creative and in the distance you can see the light of Botswana’s capital, Gaborone. Very different to what I normally shoot but a great exercise in long exposures. Will hopefully be posting more of these in future. Good fun.

Before I let you go for the weekend, one last wildlife photograph that I shot the same afternoon as image of the lioness at the top of the post.