Intent

Nikon D7000, Nikon 70-200mm VR II @ 160mm, 1/160, f/2.8, 1/1250

Madikwe Game Reserve

Until next time,

Gerry van der Walt

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In the Spotlight

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 70-200m IS II @ 200mm, 1/1600, f/2.8, ISO 500

Madikwe Game Reserve

Until next time.

Gerry van der Walt

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Lioness

Nikon D300, Nikon 300mm VR II, 1/400, f/2.8, ISO 640

Madikwe Game Reserve

Until next time.

Gerry van der Walt

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Sepia Lioness

Madikwe Game Reserve, 1 August 2010, 08h43

Nikon D300, Nikon 80-200 @ 200mm, 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 400, -1/3 EV

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After sitting watching this lioness the entire morning she finally made her way out into the open.  She walked around our vehicle and ended up a little way away, staring into the morning sun.  Did not have too many options for shooting her in her surroundings as the background was pretty ugly.  I decided to go in quite tight and focus on her head and leave her just a little bit of space to look into.

Due to the already bright morning sun I underexposed a little to compensate for the very bright areas on her face.  The color image was ok-ish but I ‘saw’ this in a slight sepia tone so proceeded to convert the image to B&W in Lightroom and then added a slight split tone to the image.

Plain and simple.

If you have been following the blog you will know that the Thursday guest posts will be back in September so after the sharing post from last week, tomorrow I will be doing a bit more of a learning type post.

Well sort of.

In photography, both wildlife and otherwise, it is important to get your blacks black and your whites white so check out tomorrow’s post on how to use Lightroom to help you achieve that goal.  This tutorial will pick up where the previous Lightroom post left off.

See ya tomorrow.

Gerry

In the Eyes

Madikwe Game Reserve, 23 June 2010, 10h29

Nikon D300, Nikon 80-200 @ 185mm, 1/160, f/5.6, ISO 200

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Whether you are shooting portraits or wildlife, it’s all in the eyes.  This particular female gave us a very, very good look.  The reason?  Her three young, four week old cubs just out of frame.  We sat watching as she fetched them from the pride, where they were playing with the sub adults, and moved them off into the thicket.  I got a few frames of the new lions but with the sun already quite high and them not standing much taller than the grass there really was no shot.

The female, and her stare, was too good to miss so I metered off her face, underexposed slightly and fired away.  Cropped it to a slightly longer composition to get to the final image.  I like it even though I am still deciding whether the tiny piece of grass on her left eye bothers me.  What do you think?

Tomorrow I will be on the road but make sure to stop in to join Phil Gould, the author of Photography 365 for the Thursday guest post.    Phil shares some basic photography tips which has stood the test of time so make sure to pop in.

I’ll see ya again on Friday!

Gerry

Lioness

Madikwe Gme Reserve, 4 May, 07h44

Nikon D300, Nikon 80-200 @ 200mm, 1/50, f/8.0, ISO 400

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Quick one from yesterday.  It was raining in Madikwe, again, as this female walked straight down the road towards us.  Placing her slightly towards the right of the frame I was able to include more of the muddy, wet road which works quite well in leading your eye from the corner towards the lioness and on towards the corner.  I suppose you could call it implied movement as you can see where she came from and along with her focused gaze and foot movement shows that she is definitely going somewhere.  Spent a few minutes playing around it the image and this was the final result.

More tomorrow!

Gerry

Sepia Lioness

Madikwe Game Reserve, 28 February 2010, 18h11

Nikon D300, Sigma 50-500 @ 500mm, 1/200, f/6.3, ISO 800

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Shot as the sun was going down, I had to brace my camera against the vehicle’s door as I was already up to ISO 800 and shooting at only 1/200.  Quite happy with the resulting image.  I know I might shoot it a bit too often but I love getting in tight on my wildlife subjects.  Combined with removing all the colors it allows you to create an image that shows the true essence of the subject whether the visual message is power, tension or just plain beauty.  Being able to create images like this of real wild animals, and not animals in zoos or cages, is truly a great challenge and a huge privilege.  There is always something else to try and new images to create.

Tomorrow I will be going on leave for two weeks of holiday after quite a hectic six weeks.  Apart from a few portrait shoots and a two days away to indulge in some wildlife photography on my own terms I will be spending most of the time in and around Johannesburg.  The last couple of weeks have produced quite a few good wildlife images, even though content seems to include a huge amount lion pics, so I will be taking some time to work though these, upload new images to various stock sites and write a few tutorial type posts for the blog.  I will also be adding a lot of new links and blog reviews to the site so even though I won’t be in the bush for the next few weeks I will still be posting on the blog every weekday.  The only exception is that I will be taking off from the blog tomorrow, Friday and the weekend so I will be back on Monday with lots and lots of new images and blog posts.

I will be checking email so you can still get hold of me there or alternatively you can hook up with me on Facebook or Twitter.

Bye 4 now.  See ya next week!

Gerry

The internet is a truly fascinating place.

A year or so ago I did a post called Brutal or Amazing.  You Decide. You can read the original post here but the short version is this.  We found a lioness who just killed a hartebeest and proceeded to watch as she showed some very ‘interesting’ behavior as she found a foetus inside the dead antelope.  No doubt it was an amazing sighting but the comments that was posted on my old blog ranged from philosophical to ridiculous but it sure caused reaction.  I just thought it was a great sighting.

A few months ago someone must have found this post and spread a rumor that the lioness in the original Brutal or Amazing post died.  The reason, apparently, was from sadness and despair.  The idea of this post was not to get involved in an anthropomorphic discussion but rather to confirm that she is not dead.  Not from sadness.  Not from despair.    She is not dead.

This morning I received an email from Ahmad Azini from Iran saying that he received the images and story in an email, again, and wanted to find out what happened to the brutal lioness and do a blog, in his own language, to clear up any contradicting stories.

So, to clear things up here are the posts that have mentioned this lioness since the original post.

• Original post – Brutal or Amazing.  You Decide.
• Follow up post – The Brutal Lioness is not Dead!
• More proof – Misty Lions (she appears in this one)

Other than the images in the above posts, Grant Marcus captured the following image a week ago.

The image shows the ‘brutal’ lioness on the left with two of her five new youngsters and her sister.  Obviously doing quite well and… not dead!  So the bottom line is this.  The Tshabalala lioness from the original Brutal or Amazing post is doing very well and is not dead.  And don’t believe everything you read in emails!  ;)

The series of images and accompanying story from the original post has appeared in a number of UK magazines and newspapers but if you have received any other versions of this story via email I would love to hear from you.

On a different note.  I am very excited about some of the guests I have lined up.  From tomorrow, each Thursday will feature a different guest blogger on Photo-Africa.  Topics will include anything ranging from wildlife to photography and everything in between.  HDR, how to photograph leopards and what makes a wildlife image stand out are but a few of the topics the guest bloggers will be writing about in the coming weeks.  And, as always, some great wildlife images to go along with each post!  If you would like to do a guest post on Photo-Africa, or have someone in mind that you would like to see do a guest post, please let me know!

Tomorrow Kerry de Bruyn will kick things off.  Kerry is a photographer and writer who has written for a number of magazines and photographs wildlife, landscapes and lodges.  For now you can check out her website by clicking here and then make sure to join her on Photo-Africa tomorrow.

Until later.

Gerry