Shingwedzi watercrossing

[Andre Pretorius]

Image captured at the Kanniedood dam Bird Hide close to Shingwedzi Restcamp in the Kruger.

I normally do not like to go the the KNP because of the loads of tourists, but this time the North treated us well.

In the afternoons the River drive was a bit of a gauntlet, with all the ellies coming down to drink, you have super sensitive moms that care so much for their calves. (can you blame them?)
To keep the cars at bay as they and their young cross a narrow road to the river, where they drink, they were quite aggressive.
We have been reprimanded a few times by the moms that we are too close..

On this occasion they grazed around the hide, we had to vacate the hide on foot, while they were grazing less than 5m away-we had to load cameras, coffee flask, bean bags etc in the car while they were eying us!
We were keeping an eye on the super sensitive youngsters while loading the SUV, one scream from them would sent the mommies coming with crushing foliage...

Techs:
Nikon D3S with 600F4
F7,1 S/S 1250
ISO 1250

Knew what S/S I wanted, and DOF required, shot on auto ISO. Know there is critique about this method, but what are the grounds?? (noise?)
Was tired of getting slightly OOF images, set the D3S to release only on focus priority only, with back focus operated by my right thumb.

Suggestions welcomed...:tinysmile_shy_t::eek3::2eyes2:

Andre

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice procession in afternoon light - love the Shingwedzi area.
I shoot all my Nikon cameras on auto ISO and back button focus, have done so since 2011, works very well for me :cheers:

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andre - welcome back! Nice afternoon light and texture. The comp works well for me.

I'm not a fan of Auto ISO but I shoot Canon and I like to stick to more traditional ISOs such as 100, 200,400, 800 etc and auto will choose intermediary ISOs. At some point, I had read that intermediary ISOs such as 125, 640, 1250 negatively affected image quality and had more noise than the traditional whole value ISOs. That was a while ago and its possible with the advances in cameras and technology that it is no longer the case but I don't know.

I am a big fan of back button focus and have been using it for about the same amount of time as Morkel.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andre, welcome back, love the Elephant crossing, like the light & overall colours.

Techs look good and have never shot auto ISO so sadly cannot help, but have been shooting back button for many years now, it's the way to go. Would like to have had more FG for the Elephants to walk into, for me its a little tight, either the 500 or 300 would have been good, but assume Gabriela was using one of them. :S3: PP looks better too.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Andre , nice crossing of the elephant line up.
Shooting down is not ideal i think , but do not know the location, and i think you would have gone lower if possible :w3.
I am fine with overall tones and colors , but i miss a bit of punch , maybe just me .........

Regarding Auto Iso , i do shoot roughly 50 % of my images with that mode , specially in changing light conditions , no problem for me, as far as i overexpose + 1 - +2 EV in manual , less when shooting AV .
Back button focus at 100 % .

Rachel i have no intermediate ISO values in my arsenal ; just a matter of setting the cam right :w3, at least with the DX and MK IV .Should be possible too with the 5D .

Cheers Andreas

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp with a nice EXP but there are many problems. Shooting down as Andreas mentioned. But nobody mentioned the off-angle light from the left with the little one totally in the shade. And the last animal's face in the butt of the one in front of it.....

[Andre Pretorius]

Thank you all for comments and suggestions!

Was shooting from a hide, so angle and position fixed. Could leave the hide and shoot on foot to get lower, too many tall reeds and tall Ellies down there. (the hide is elevated, can park a car underneath)

Love your RP Andreas, can you remove the shadow on baby and get the rear youngster's face out of the next one's butt?

Regards

Andre

[Andreas Liedmann]

Love your RP Andreas, can you remove the shadow on baby and get the rear youngster's face out of the next one's butt?

Andre no problem to make this possible , for me .............. not at the moment but with the next major release of PS . Just talked to Mr Adobe about this kind issues and he guaranteed there is something in the pipe , just be patient :bg3: :c3:.

Glad you like my edit.

Have a nice weekend , i am off to WC Brazil ( on TV)

Cheers Andreas

[Steve Canuel]

I like the line up and the splashes of the crossing, would've been nice to have the last one's face a little more visible. I don't mind the downward angle. It's something different as most elephant shots are shot from a lower perspective.