In the Spotlight

Nikon D3s, Nikon 70-200mm VR II @ 200mm, 1/25, f/2.8, ISO 2500

Ingredients:

• Stationary male lion
• Spotlight at 90 degrees from the subject
• Beanbag
• DSLR camera with medium telephoto zoom lens
• Slow shutter speed

Recipe:

Lions are normally most active around sunset and sunrise and this is the best time to get striking images of Africa’s largest cat.

However, when they have had a good meal they generally do not move around much.  This will give you the chance to not only shoot abstracts and close up portraits but you can also start getting creative with flash and off camera light sources.

On safari you will generally have one or two other vehicles with you in a sighting such as this.  By getting another vehicle to put their spotlight on the lion you will be able to get some very creative results but remember to not put your spotlight directly, full on the animal.  Bounce the light or try and use different angles so that you do not cause any damage or discomfort to the large cat.  You wouldn’t like a spotlight flat in your face would you?

Once your subject is lit up, spot meter of the area of the face or body you would like to expose for.  For the above image I metered off the lion’s face.

Lock your exposure, recompose and then fire away.  You have to be very aware of the slow shutter speeds, due to not much light in the scene, so working with a bean bag will be a great help.

By getting the other vehicle to change the direction of the spotlight you will have ample opportunities to get image like the one above.  The large amount of black, negative space can make for some amazing and different wildlife images.

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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Have been wanting to shoot this little guy for a while and finally he played along.

This little Green Woodhoopoo has been living in the same dead Leadwood tree for almost two years now.  Every night on our way back to the lodge he sticks his head out so that the spotlight catches the bright red bill.  Normally he just gives us a quick look before pulling back into his wooden bedroom. Yesterday however he decided to play along and actually pose for a picture or two.

One of my non photographer guests held the spotlight so that the centre, and brightest part of the light, just missed the little guy and from there we were able to get at least a few frames before he disappeared.  I wanted to include some of the wood as the texture works quite well.  My camera is normally on Auto White Balance as I shoot in RAW so, as with the vulture shot from yesterday, I changed to spot metering and fired away.  When I opened the image in Lightroom there was a very slight red cast, the result of Auto White Balance meets spotlight,  that I bothered me a bit.  All I did was change my White Balance to Tungsten, which is the closest to the spotlight we were using, which removed the color cast and rendered the image exactly like we saw it.

Lessons from this post?  Shoot in RAW, don’t be afraid to play with your White Balance during post processing, look for texture and don’t put your spotlight flat out on a little Green Woodhoopoo who is trying to sleep!

See ya tomorrow!

Gerry