“How do I make my subject pop out of the frame and blur the background?”

This must be one of the most common questions that I gets asked on courses and workshops and for good reason.  A shallow DoF, that blurs the background, is an amazingly powerful way to create striking images.

Check out this example.

Nikon D3s, Nikon 70-200mm VR II, @ 200mm,  1/100, f/4.5, ISO 250

At an aperture of f/4.5 I was able to focus on the feeding jackal in the foreground and blur the background.  By doing this I have kept the main focus on the jackal but I have still been able to include the hyena in the background as he is a part of the story even though not as a leading roll.

What you must remember though is that the depth of field can not only be used to creatively blur the background but the foreground as well!

As a general rule, once you have focused on your subject your chosen depth of field will blur two thirds behind the subject but a third in front of it a well.  By knowing and using this you can create different images to the normal ‘blur-everything-in-the-background’ ones.

Check out this image from the same jackal and hyena sighting.

Nikon D3s, Nikon 70-200mm VR II, @200mm,  1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

This time I focus on the hyena and my depth of field blurred the foreground (as well as the background if you look right at the top of the image).

By doing this the hyena becomes the main character of my story which would not be complete without the out of focus jackal in the foreground.

If you would like to read a bit more on Depth of Field check out these older posts on Photo-Africa.

• Depth of Field in Wildlife Photography
• Depth of Field in Wildlife Photography #2
• Tell Your Story with DoF

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park seems amazing!

After reading Villiers Steyn’s guest post yesterday I am even more excited, if that’s possible to my trip to the KTP in January 2011.

Villiers, thanks for a great article and awesome image!  Appreciate your contribution!

If you are keen to learn more about the KTP you can check out the official website here.

As I sat down to write this blog I honestly had no idea what to write about.

No idea.

So I scrolled through a few images from the last week, looking for something to write about, and found this one of a black backed jackal.

There were many other images including lions, elephant and rhino, but decided to go with this one as it made me think of quite a few different things ranging from photography to conservation.  Isn’t that one of the great things about photography?   A single image can make you think about many different things.  Love it!

So in no particular order, here are a ten completely useless thoughts and useless pieces of information, that comes to mind when I look at this image.

1.  The collar on the female jackal has a huge story behind it.  Rob Harrison-White has been working on his Predator Biodiversity Project for many years.  This female therefore forms part of a truly amazing research project which is no doubt going to change the way people think about these amazing animals.

2.  From a wildlife photography point of view, does the collar ruin the image?

3.  I like the image, but it would have been nice if she was running in the other direction in order for the late afternoon light to play on her face a bit more.

4.  This female is currently taking care of brand new youngsters and has been foraging for about 8 hours a day to feed the growing youngsters.

5.  There are currently four jackal dens in Madikwe.

6.   Would you crop the image to try and remove the pieces of vegetation on the sides of the image?  For me it adds to the scene as it places the jackal in her natural environment.

7.  In my mind I kinda expect to see a lot of these animals in the Kgalagadi when I head up there in January.

8.  The black backed jackal must be one of the most misunderstood animals out there.

9.  Black-backed jackal will pair for life and both partners urine scent-mark their territories and defend against intruders.

10.  I really need to try and photograph more of these amazing little animals.

Amazing isn’t it?  One image, many thoughts.  That’s what makes photography great!

What are your first thoughts when you see this image?

Right before I go two more things.

If you have been following the blog for a while you will surely recall Morkel Erasmus.  Morkel is a friend, great photographer and has done two guest posts on Photo-Africa.  His last post was on the KTP and shows why it is a photographers paradise!  You can check out that post here.  Once you have finished reading through that article, make sure to pop in to Morkel’s brand new website.  Awesome collection of images!  You can check out his new site here.

Secondly, every Friday I do a guest post on the Bush Warriors site.  These guest posts generally deal with wildlife photography tips and tricks so if you have a moment you can pop in there as well.

Time to get going.

See ya on the flip side.

Gerry

Hein Welman has just added new images to the Photo-Africa Stock Library.

Male Lion by Hein Welman

Black Backed Jackal by Hein Welman

To view more of or purchase any of Hein’s images click here.

More soon.

Gerry

Right, after a bit of tech-talk with yesterday’s iPhone applications back to wildlife photography.

Before carrying on, I have to however mention I was informed that there is in fact an iPhone application called Sit or Squat which can find you a restroom anywhere in the world.  So there you go.  An application for absolutely anything.

I was originally thinking of doing a Daily Photo today but to celebrate the fast approaching end of 2009 I thought I would not only post more than just one image but also make them downloadable as iPhone wallpapers.  As with the previous three iPhone wallpapers, the following images have all been optimized for use as an iPhone wallpaper but they might work on other handsets as well or, if you don’t want to downlaod any images, you can just browse through some African wildlife photographs!

All the following images were shot during the last month yet it barely even start to showcase the diversity of Africa’s natural heritage.  With the year almost at an end I suppose it is quite normal to start thinking ahead and start planning, hoping and dreaming about what the future holds or what  you can make of it.  At this stage I am doing the same, both from a photographic and personal point of view.  I believe that as a photographer you need to look at and question your style, how you shoot and what you shoot all the time as it will keep things fresh and stop you from getting caught in a rut.  I have already started looking at this and am starting to get quite excited about the New Year and all the possibilities when I think of all the plans, ideas and goals I am working on.  More on this as 2010 unfolds!

It is very easy to start shooting images that all look the same and in there is one of my goals for next year but jumping the gun a bit.  For now I am quite happy with the diversity of the following seven images that don’t seem to all look or feel the same.  It was a tough choice but here goes with seven of my favorite images, available as free downloads, from the last month.

Angry Sunset.  Shot this a few weeks ago as an approaching thunderstorm was trying to overpower an African sunset.  The result was spectacular!

A close up black & white image of a male lion shows the intensity of their stare.

Baby Jackal.  Cute.

Elephant Close Up.  These grey giants offer so endless amounts of shapes and angles to photograph.

Elephant Trunk.  Love the depth of field on this one.

Lion Silhouette.  Enough said.

Male Lion.  Seeing Africa’s largest predator move through the bush like this is an amazing experience.

To download any of the above images simply click on the image of your choice, save it to your computer and sync it to you iPhone.  Simple as that!  I would love to hear which one you chose and why so feel free to comment below and make sure to tell all your friends and family to come and download there favorites!

Tomorrow, being Thursday, I am very please to have Greg du Toit as the guest blogger.  Greg is a professional wildlife photographer and 8th generation African.   Born in South Africa in 1977, he has lived and worked in four different African countries.  From a young age, he has engaged the wilds of Africa, and there was never any doubt as to what he would do with his life.  It was therefore no surprise that after completing his tertiary education in Nature Conservation, he went to live permanently in the African bush.

Greg’s photography is truly inspirational and his work was recently commended in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, one of the most prestigous wildlife competitiosn in the world. What is it like to be a professional wildlife photographer?  For an insight make sure to visit the blog tomorrow for his guest post, ‘A Time to Reflect‘.  I am very happy to have a photographer like Greg end of 2009 on Photo-Africa.  Some truly fantastic African wildlife photographs to inspire a New Year of going out into the field and capturing the beauty of nature.  Viewing other people’s work for ideas and inspiration is a great way to give your own creative juices a kick start so there you go.  Another reason to pop in tomorrow and if you need another reason, the zebra image is mind blowing!  I will be back on Friday for the first post of 2010.

However you decide to celebrate the start of a New Year – enjoy, keep safe and thanks so much for sharing this year with Photo-Africa!

Wishing you health, happiness and many great photographic opportunities in 2010!

Gerry

Baby Jackal

Madikwe Game Reserve

(Nikon D300, Nikon 80-200 @200mm, 1/200, f/2.8, ISO 320)

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A week ago we found this little youngster in the middle of a large open clearing.  Initially quite relaxed and sleeping in the grass, the young jackal suddenly got up and proceeded to stare very nervously in one direction.  Even after a few minutes, when we drove away, he did not budge.  We never found whatever got this young jackal so upset but the interesting thing, photographically speaking, was that the moment the animal turned away from us a lot of the people stopped taking pictures.  Many books and blogs will tell you that you have to always get the animal’s eyes sharp in focus but that does not mean you should stop the moment you cannot see the eyes anymore.  When this happens, and an animal looks away from you, start looking for lines, shapes and use basic compositional guidelines to create your images.  By placing the young jackal in the bottom right hand side of the frame I left some negative space for the animal to look into.  Since I could not see the eyes I focused on the ears which was without a doubt the focal point of the scene.  At f/2.8 this meant that the animals body would be slightly out of focus.  This, along with the full frame of grass, ended up giving the image a slightly ‘dreamy’ feeling which I then took just a little further in the digital darkroom by adding a slight vignette around the edges.  Something slightly different and I quite like the end result.  Your thoughts?

Since I got completely carried away this weekend and did two posts that’s it for today!  If you missed the weekend’s posts here is a quick reminder:

• Honesty in Wildlife Photography
• Africa On Your iPhone
• New Images Added:  Kerry de Bruin

More soon!

Gerry