From the Botswana series,  this pied kingfisher obligingly posed on a twig for me.  This species was frequently sighted both hovering over water and also perched as shown here.    Notice the blurred background,  a result of the background being well separated from the bird,  and the narrow depth of field, or selective focus,  given by the long lens used at wide aperture.    The stronger light and stationary subject here allows for a strictly realistic image when compared to the more "impressionistic" blurred effect that occurred with my hovering kingfisher shot posted on 7th October.   

     Canon 5D Mk 2 at 700mm (500mm lens with 1.4x tele-extender) at f5.6,  shutter speed 1/2000 second at ISO 320.

      An unscheduled blog entry,  just to make people aware of some of the rubbish that occasionally gets through the system.   I received a personal message from one of my network friends earlier today in response to a message supposedly sent by me.   The message appeared in her inbox,  with my email address as the source,  and contained in part the following piece of gibberish....

Hellooo!
long time yeah? no see? ...
anyway here you go
I got that for you... :p

      Anyone who's followed my blog for any length of time will be aware that I'm rather particular about spelling and grammar and would immediately be suspicious of the above paragraph.    In addition to that,  the "message" included a link to some other site.   By hovering the cursor over the link,  the web address can be seen and should immediately arouse suspicion.  

      It's not clear to me whether others in my network have received such "messages",  if you have then please treat them with the contempt they deserve and rest assured that I have not knowingly had anything to do with them.

      For what it's worth,  the only links that I recommend to anyone are those that I refer to in my blog entries.    KD.  

    Another shot from the Botswana series.   Shot in early morning light,  this majestic fellow also currently features as the homepage image on my main site.   Clicking on the banner image at top of the blog page will take you through to the other shot and linked explanation for those who are curious.   A reminder also that the custom list displayed beneath my profile image provides links to my other internet based activities,  Facebook,  Flickr etc,  with the most detailed explanations of my photos via the homepage image.   cheers  KD.  

  Canon 5D with 500mm lens at f6.3,  shutter speed 1/3200 second at ISO 1600.

      Although I've entitled this entry "early morning patrol",  because that's what this lion was doing,  I could just as well call it "surviving a stuff up".    Once again I've dipped into my files from my Botswana adventure to find this image of a fine young male lion patrolling through the grass of an Okavango Delta floodplain.   I recall this was early in the trip, early morning, and the sun was only just peering over the horizon.   I was trying to get the telephoto lens focused on the lion in the dim light and accidentally engaged exposure compensation resulting in at least 3 stops under exposure.  Unfortunately by the time I realized my blunder,  about 20 or 30  frames later,  the lion was disappearing from view.   Talk about an "Oh Shit" moment!

      Anyway back home and reviewing the shots,  I thought this was compositionally one of the better of my "stuffed up" exposures.   Digital processing to the rescue.   I increased exposure by 2.5 stops in Lightroom and was well on my way to an image that I ended up being reasonably pleased with.      

      Canon 5D with 500mm lens at f4.0,  shutter speed 1/2000 second at ISO 1600.   Resulted in approx 3 stops under exposure.

Blog Changes.

      The observant among you may have noticed that I've changed some of the settings on the blog.  I've added a "Blog Categories" list so if there's a topic you want to refer back to you can.   I wish the list would display in alphabetical order,  would make more sense and be easier to use.    I've also added a custom list below my profile with some web links to my other web based stuff.   Some people have sent me Facebook invites which is nice but the way the system is set up doesn't make a lot of sense.   In order to accept a friend's invite,  I'm prompted to join Facebook which is a bit odd because I'm already on the system.    If you'd like to join me there,  please click on the link and then place an invite through my Facebook profile page,  that's the simplest way.   Cheers KD.

      A red lechwe leaps over a channel in the Okavango Delta.  Taken at dusk,  it's not a great shot by any means,  and I admit that I've taken some liberties with the processing as well.    This was one of three shots that I took in burst mode as this lechwe jumped,  and this I felt was the most pleasing body position of the three shots.    Lechwe are among the more prolific of the larger species in the delta and are well adapted to the swampy conditions with large hooves for running on wet,  boggy ground and a greasy coat which sheds water.     

      Canon 5D Mark 2 with 500mm lens at f5.0.  Shutter speed 1/500 second at ISO 1600.

Apologies.

      So,  what happened to Friday's blog entry?   Sorry folks,  didn't happen.   The reality of shift work means that days just seem to disappear from the calendar,  especially when you're working 14 hour nightshifts,  some of which turn into 17 hour shifts!  (groan)  

     Photographed in the Okavango Delta, Botswana,  this little bee eater was one of several that I saw during my photographic safari.

           Canon 5D Mk 2 with 500mm lens at F7.1,  shutter speed 1/800 second at ISO 1600.

    From my Botswana adventure,  a lilac breasted roller sits on a twig and plays catch with what I think was intended to be lunch.   I took several shots of this scene and am not entirely sure what it is that he's tossing with his bill.   After looking at several frames,  my best guess is that it's a grub sticking to a small twig.   I chose to post this shot as I felt it was the best "moment".    In a "perfect world" I would have preferred that the small branch wasn't obscuring the bird's tail but, with wildlife,  by definition you have no control over the subject's behaviour,  and so have to make the most of what's presented to you.   

    Canon 5D Mk 2 at 700mm (500mm lens +1.4x tele extender) at F5.6,  shutter speed 1/1250 second at ISO 200.

    A quick entry today featuring a young Impala who was good enough to pose for me during my Botswana adventure.   KD.

     Canon 5D Mk2 at 700mm (500mm + 1.4x converter)  at F5.6,  shutter speed 1/1250 second at ISO 200.

     Well,  I figure this one's different enough to qualify as a "Weird Wednesday" shot.    The pied kingfisher was a species which we sighted frequently in Botswana,  it could often be seen sitting on branches or logs,  but also hovering in flight,  as shown here.    I tried several times to get shots of these birds as they hovered over waterways looking down into the water for signs of prey but,  good shots proved elusive.     Often they were far enough away that they were very small in frame and they would often change position suddenly making framing difficult.

     This shot was taken in really poor light,  actually after sunset if memory serves me correctly.    I saw him hovering and thought,  "the light's really not good enough",  but digital photos once taken cost nothing but your time to process,  so what the heck.   The low light meant that even with the lens wide open and a high ISO selected,  I was never going to get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the rapid movement of the bird's wings.   Even with the settings I used,  the shot was still under exposed by at least 1.5 or 2 stops.

     In terms of processing,  I ended up throwing just about everything including the kitchen sink at the file to get to this point.   In Lightroom,  I increased the exposure by 1.5 stops,  increased the colour temperature,  opened up the shadows with a curves adjustment and cropped.   With such under exposure,  the shot ended up being really noisy,  so the next step was noise reduction,  how much?    Bucketloads.   The trade off with heavy handed use of noise reduction is a loss of fine detail.  Even after noise reduction,  I still had some noise issues and so I applied a blur to the image,  masking it to the sky area to at least smooth it out. 

      The end result I think doesn't look so much like a photograph but more like a watercolour painting or pastel drawing.   A photo "impression" perhaps?   The movement blur combined with the extreme post processing treatment means that the wings in particular become swathes of colour.   This too is not "photorealistic" as the bird in reality is entirely black and white.   Thankfully,  whilst hovering,  although the kingfisher's wings are flapping madly,  its head and body are still enough as to remain distinctive.           

      Canon 5D with 70-300mm zoom at 300mm and F5.6,  shutter speed 1/160 second at ISO 1250.   (Resulted in considerable underexposure)

      3 spoonbills find that the top branches of a tree make a good vantage point.   This shot was taken moments after the "Egret Landing" shot which I posted recently.   The tree had several spoonbills and egrets perched in it,  but I liked the way these three birds lined up and so chose to concentrate on them.

       Canon 5D Mk2 with 500mm lens at F7.1,  shutter speed 1/4000 second at ISO 800.

    Another shot from my Botswana adventure.    An egret,  wings outstretched and feet forward,  about to land in a tree.  The question is whether it works best as a colour image or a monochrome.  I kind of like both but,  what do you think?   I should point out that a slight vignette effect has been employed in the monochrome version but not the colour version which may influence some people one way or the other. 

         Canon 5D Mk2 with 500mm lens at F7.1,  shutter speed 1/5000 second at ISO 800.

     A cormorant perches over a waterway,  Okavango Delta,  Botswana.    Very little needs to be explained here,  the shot is almost straight out of the camera.  A slight crop,  very slight adjustments to contrast and colour saturation,  use of my signature brush,  sharpening and conversion to jpeg for Internet display,  done.   Total processing time less than 5 minutes.   Wish I could do things that efficiently all the time!    Enjoy,  KD.

     Canon 5D Mk 2 with 500mm lens at F6.3,  shutter speed 1/320 second at ISO 200.