A recent comment on one of my images prompted me in turn,  to comment on the quality of image possible with a digital SLR at higher ISO settings.   I made the point that with modern DSLR's we could confidently use ISO ratings of 800, 1000 or even higher and expect high quality,  finely detailed images.    Having made the point,  I realized that one of my shots illustrated this nicely.  The following shot is of a Grant's Gazelle in Serengeti National Park.  I believe the distance to subject was about 30 metres, and it wasn't till I got home and brought the image up on the computer screen that a couple of details became apparent to me.   The main shot is presented full frame and the two crops are, of course taken from it.

    Ask yourself,  how thin is a single strand of a spider's web?  and,  how fast does a fly move when it's buzzing around the ear of an animal?    There are several tech points worth noting.    The shutter speed is very high,  enough to stop almost anything nature might throw up (the beating wings of a humming bird might be the test!)   The lens was at F5.6,  one full stop down from wide open,  so depth of field is narrow and focus needs to be precise.   The quality of the lens is superb,   the 500mm F4.0 is expensive (I rarely drink, and don't smoke or gamble,  that's how I managed to buy one!)  I used it both with and without tele extenders and probably used it for 3/4 of the shots I took in Tanzania.     

     The main point is the ISO,  800.    In the days of film I used to think of ISO 100 or 200 as being a "standard" setting,  now more and more I think of ISO 400 or 800 as the norm.

             Canon 5D with 500mm F4.0 at F5.6,  shutter speed 1/3200 second at ISO 800.

A bit of housekeeping.

       I recently commented on the problem of spam affecting this site and I gather from your comments that several other people have also had the same issue.    Got hit again today,  spent a good 20 minutes going through past blog entries and deleting the rubbish.  I sent off a message through the "report abuse" facility and urge everyone else to take the time to do the same if and when affected.

       I went through my friend's list just recently,  firstly because I want to keep up with what others are doing on their sites,  and secondly,  I wanted to see if any of the sites have been neglected or abandoned.   There are a couple of sites which haven't posted any new content for quite some time so I've sent a friendly message out to them inquiring.  If I don't get a response within a reasonable time from them,  I'll assume they're no longer in use and delete them from the list.  I hope this doesn't upset anyone,  but I don't see the point in a blog that goes 6 months without activity.

Tanzania slideshow.

       On a more positive note,  I've almost finished compiling a web gallery and slideshow of my Tanzania shots.   There are so many shots I'd like to display that I've had quite a time trying to edit them down.   At this stage it looks like I'll have a main collection of over 150 images and I'll probably supplement that with 2 to 4 smaller subject specific galleries bringing the total number of images to around 250.     I hope to have that up on my main site at www.kevindowie.com within the next week.       cheers KD.

    Continuing the recent Wildebeest theme a little longer than I originally intended,  but I think it's a worthwhile story so here goes.    This image shows a calf,  having successfully crossed the Mara River,  climbing to the top of the steep river bank where he will now need to locate his mother amid the confusion of a large herd.   The wildebeest usually calf in February-March with about 80% of the births all occurring within one fortnight.  It's a population explosion which helps to ensure the ongoing survival of the species,  there are suddenly so many young that even the impact of predators can't seriously dent their numbers.   The newborn calf is capable of standing and walking within minutes of birth and within days can run fast enough to keep up with the herd when it's on the move.    The calf will suckle for the first 6 months.

     This calf being photographed at the start of July would be about 4 months old and so still reliant on its' mother.   A wildebeest mother will only suckle her own offspring,  she will not adopt,  without its' mother the calf will soon weaken and fall victim to predators.   For the calf the equation is a stark one,  relocate your mother or die.

            Canon 5D with 500mm lens at F5.6,  shutter speed 1/500 second at ISO 320.

     Crossing the Mara River,  drownings are a reality.   As they approach the steep northern bank of the river,  some animals pause to view a deceased herd member.

              Canon 5D with 500mm lens at F5.6,  shutter speed 1/1600 second at ISO 320.

    In keeping with my recent posts regarding the wildebeest migration,  I've found a webpage worth checking  out.   National Geographic have a nice page on wildebeest at; 

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/wildebeest.html   on the page you'll find a link to a 2 to 3 minute video,  well worth a look.

No spam please. 

      A week or two ago,  a series of comments appeared amongst my photo entries which had nothing to do with me and had no relevance to this site or any of it's content.   In short,  spamming.    As soon as I became aware of those spam entries I removed them from the site.    As I'm sure I've said before,  I don't push or promote any product or service and I don't associate with companies or individuals that act in the manner described.    If any further such material appears,  please treat it with the contempt it deserves and rest assured I'll bin it as soon as I become aware of it.    As I've said many times before,  I value feedback and have never deleted comments from genuine readers.    Thanks KD.  

     One of the most remarkable things I saw in the Serengeti was the crossing of the Mara River by wildebeest.   As I've mentioned several times previously,  the migration of the wildebeest is one of the most notable of natural occurrences.   I thought when I visited the Serengeti that it was probably out of season to witness this, but not all years are the same and the seasons can vary a little.    The wildebeest migrate from the southern part of the national park,  north towards the border with Kenya.   The critical point of this migration is when the animals have to cross the Mara River in order to continue north.   Predators,  notably crocodiles gather at crossing points and await the prey.

     For those of you who haven't seen video footage of this,  I suggest you get to a video outlet and look at the documentaries produced by David Attenborough and the BBC,  they've gathered some amazing footage over the years.  

     We were out on the plains just to the north of the river when we heard that the wildebeest had gathered in large numbers on the southern side of the river and there was a chance they may cross.    We dashed to the northern bank in time to see the crossing.     This would prove to be probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen.   On the far bank there were tens of thousands of wildebeest.  They would make their way down the steep bank of the river and then throw themselves into the water and swim,  battling against the current and then clamber over slippery rocks and boulders to get to the far bank.    They were jumping in at a rate of at least one every second.    The northern bank and the rocks were so congested with animals that they were frantically trying to climb over the top of each other.   Some couldn't get a foot hold and ended up crawling on their knees over the rocks,  some falling back into the water and having to try repeatedly to get up.

     The activity was so chaotic and frantic that at times the water churned like a washing machine with water spray going in every direction.    All the time there were crocodiles lying at the water's edge.  We didn't see the crocs attack anything,  they didn't have to.   At the point where we observed all this,  there were 7 or 8 wildebeest carcasses floating in the water,  drowned or trampled to death.   Goodness only knows how many die this way.   The carcasses we observed were floating in eddies,  no doubt many more would have been carried away by the current.  

     We observed this activity for about 30 minutes when suddenly they stopped crossing.    Why we'll never know,  a change of wind direction?    The sun went behind a cloud?   Don't know but it was so abrupt that it was as though someone had thrown a switch.    Those thousands of animals still on the southern side gradually moved back from the river,  presumably to try again at a later time or at a different point on the river.

     At this point we were all pretty stoked,   grinning and going "how good was that?"     Then one of our group pointed upstream.   About 200 to 300 metres away the wildebeest had started crossing again.    We moved our vehicles closer and watched in awe as the spectacle played out again for another 30 minutes at least.   In all we must have seen 4 or 5 thousand animals cross.

     It was only afterwards that I really appreciated just how lucky we'd been.    One of our drivers has been doing these safaris full time for the last 30 years and has only witnessed the river crossing 4 times.   Another of our drivers is into his 10th year of safari driving and had only seen it once before and the previous sighting wasn't nearly as good as this.

     I won't go on at length about the technical issues here,  this has already turned into one of my wordier blog entries,  sufficient to say fast shutter speeds were used to freeze the movement of the water spray in these shots.

     And finally,  I am a huge admirer of Attenborough and more to the point the cameramen he works with.   This experience just hints to me at the incredible dedication and perseverance they must have.               Enjoy  KD.     

             Canon 5D with 500mm lens at F 5.6,  shutter speed 1/200 second at ISO 100.

            Canon 5D with 500mm lens at F 5.6,  shutter speed 1/1600 second at ISO 320.

              Canon 5D with 500mm lens at F 5.6,  shutter speed 1/2000 second at ISO 320.     Cropped image.

             Canon 5D with 500mm lens at F 5.6,  shutter speed 1/2000 second at ISO 100.

      Now,  let me get this straight....   You were using a super-telephoto lens,  with a slow shutter speed,  the subject was a herd of wild animals running flat out across your field of vision,  and you were moving the camera and lens at the same time.  How did you expect to get a sharp picture doing all that?    Well I didn't expect to get a sharp picture,  and that's the whole point.

      During my recent trip to Tanzania,  I had numerous opportunities to get sharp, detailed,  wildlife images,  as regular readers will have seen.   However it's also interesting to take a different approach occasionally,  as I've done here.    The Serengeti is famous for many things among which are the herds of wildebeest, or gnu,  which graze,  breed in,  and migrate through,  the region.   It's estimated that there are about 1.8 million of them and their migration is considered one of the wonders of nature.   Whilst these animals can often be seen standing around eating grass,  there are occasions when the herds will run en mass through the landscape, a stampede if you will.   What prompts them to run isn't always obvious but with the herding instinct at work,  when a few members of the herd start running,  it seems to be a cue to the rest.  

       On one particular day we sat and watched (and photographed) as a herd numbering several thousand ran past us.   The animals would run in single file or at times three and four abreast.  They all seemed to follow the same path with the result that tracks became furrows in the ground. 

Pan and blur techniques.  

      My intention here was to try and capture some of the feel of the movement that was occurring.  The result is an impressionistic image of the events.   Head and body shapes are still recognisable but legs and hooves become a blur of movement.    Panning with the action and using a slow shutter speed are the keys.    A slow shutter speed ensures that those elements that are moving fastest relative to the camera are registered on the sensor (or film) as a blur,  whilst some definition is retained in those elements that move the least relative to the camera.   With the camera panning with the animals,  the foreground and background,  though stationary,  are moving rapidly relative to the camera.   The animals' legs are blurred due to movement as well,  but their heads and bodies,  whose movement are not so great relative to the camera and lens,  are rendered sharper.  

       The first challenge is to pan the lens smoothly with the action whilst releasing the shutter.   I concentrated on "squeezing" the shutter release rather than "pushing" it and also on "following through" with the lens.    It's something akin to hitting a golf ball with the driver.  You're not hitting at the ball,  you're hitting through the ball.

       The second challenge in bright conditions such as these is to get a shutter speed slow enough to get the motion blur effect.    Ironic that in the early days of photography,  the challenge was to get a workably fast shutter speed so that they could get a decent portrait without having to strap or brace the sitter in place to prevent them moving during exposure.   Now with techniques such as this we have the opposite challenge!    I closed the aperture down to F25 and selected the slowest ISO setting my camera was capable of in order to get 1/15 second.       

          Canon 5D with 500mm lens at F25,  shutter speed 1/15 second at ISO 50.

           Canon 5D with 500mm lens and 1.4x tele extender (effective focal length 700mm) at F29, shutter speed 1/15 second at ISO 50.

"Wildebeest week" continues....

           In my next entry I'll continue the wildebeest theme but with a very different style of image and with another story/insight as well.  

Stay tuned!   ;-)   KD.    

     Taken in Serengeti National Park,  I decided to entitle this shot "calling out to the morning",  just seemed appropriate!    In reality he was probably calling out for a mate.   At the time we were watching some other, more obvious photographic subjects,  elephants I think,  when I looked around and saw this little fellow squawking his lungs out.  He was some distance off and of course tiny in the frame,  so it required both the 500mm telephoto lens, and a 1.4x tele-extender, and then some cropping of the frame to arrive at this image.

Look behind you.

    I guess there's a lesson to come out of this.   Firstly be aware of subject material that perhaps isn't so obvious and secondly,  don't become so engrossed in one subject that you don't take a moment to look over your shoulder to see what's in the other direction.  Sometimes there may be more than one good photo to be had if you just turn around and look.   A little bit like the pantomime villain,  "he's behind you!"        

            Canon 5D  with 500mm F4.0 lens and 1.4x tele extender (effective focal length 700mm)  aperture F7.1,  shutter speed 1/1000 second at ISO 320.

Preview.

      Thinking out loud now about what I may present next week,  I'm thinking it may be a wildebeest of a week!   On my safari we had some quite remarkable wildebeest opportunities,  the story of which,  and the resulting photos,  I think you'll find rather interesting.   tease, tease.          KD.

     I was looking back through some of my posts just recently,  and saw that when I presented a buffalo picture a couple of weeks ago,  I indicated that I would have more buffalo shots.   So in order to make good on that statement I present today's image.   This animal was one of a huge herd,  numbering probably in excess of 300 individuals,  and like many he was covered in yellow billed ox pecker birds.   The buffalo tolerated these "freeloaders" as they climber over him picking ticks and so on.   The only time the buffalo objected was when one of the birds would get too intrusive and start picking around the eyes or nostrils at which point a shake of the head was required to sort them out.     enjoy KD.

      PS: try counting the birds.

           Canon 5D with 500mm lens at F7.1,  shutter speed 1/400 second at ISO400.

    There's more than one way to take a landscape!    Earlier this week I presented  "Lone Tree,  Serengeti National Park",  a toned black and white landscape in horizontal format.  At the time,  I said I'd present a different approach to landscape,  so here it is.   Early morning with the sun rising behind distant mountains,  the decision to go colour with this image rather than black and white was obvious.   Colour is a large part of why I took the image.

"Landscape" vs "Portrait" format.

      Landscape format,  portrait format,  one of the silly naming conventions in photography that annoy me.   The formats should really be thought of as horizontal or vertical format,  as opposed to landscape or portrait format.    The suggestion that landscape should ordinarily be displayed in horizontal format and portraits as vertical format is a nonsense.   When I look back at the landscapes I've done over the years,  I think at least a third of them would be in vertical format.    Similarly there's no reason why portraits can't work in horizontal format.

Lens choice. 

      A number of the wildlife images I've presented recently were taken using long telephoto lenses.    It's sometimes tempting to think of such lenses as "wildlife lenses" or perhaps "sports lenses",  whilst thinking of wider optics as "landscape lenses".    But once again, to think in such terms means overlooking numerous possibilities.   Wider lenses can be used effectively for wildlife,  especially if you're trying to show wildlife in the context of its' environment (see "Zebras in the Landscape" blog entry 11.08.2008 for examples).    Conversely,  long lenses can be used effectively for landscape,  not to show the grand sweeping scene,  but to isolate particular elements of interest,  as in this case.        

       Canon 5D with 500mm F4.0 lens at F4,  shutter speed 1/800 second at ISO 1600.

 Scheduling blog entries.

        Over the last couple of weeks I've been presenting blog entries about twice per week.    I think I'll try and do this to some sort of schedule in future so that visitors to the site know roughly when to expect something new.   I'll aim to post early in the week,  say Monday,  and later in the week, say Friday,  just to try and be consistent.  I expect this may from time to time vary by a day either side of Monday/Friday due to personal and work commitments.    Being in the emergency services,  I work erratic and sometimes long hours,  days blend into each other,  weekends mean nothing and days off are often spent catching up on lost sleep (back to back 14 hour nightshifts!  any takers!)  

         I've had several new people join my "friends list" lately,  so welcome to them,  and to readers who've been onboard for some time, welcome back!     Thanks to all those who've recently left comments too,  as I keep saying,  I appreciate any feedback or inquiries.   If anyone has any suggestions or ideas regards the site please let me know.   Cheers KD. 

   Taken about an hour after sunrise in the Serengeti National Park,  I decided to give this "lone tree" shot the toned black and white treatment.   It's an effect I'm getting to like more and more and,  having used it on some of my lion shots a couple of weeks ago,  it's now obvious that it can work nicely for some landscape subjects as well.   At some point I may present the image in colour,  just for comparison sake.     Notice that the focal length was 45mm which on the 20D with it's 1.6x cropping factor means an angle of view equivalent of 72mm.    Later this week I think I'll present another landscape which will show quite a different approach,  and should illustrate some interesting points regarding the image making process.   cheers KD.    

              Canon 20D  with 24-105mm lens at 45mm,  aperture F10,  shutter speed 1/320 second at ISO 100.