Bringing a Knife to a Sword Fight...

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Everyone,

Thought I'd share with you a more unusual sighting, despite the relatively poor IQ of the image.

This was captured last year near a waterhole in the Kalahari, in very harsh light conditions and from some distance. In order to bring the subjects closer to you I had to perform some "surgery" in the form of a heavy crop:tinysmile_shy_t:.

Seeing this interesting behaviour we could not help it but take a few quick frames, obviously we did not try to get closer as there was no time - everything happened just too fast...

A couple of gemsboks approached this waterhole, all males save for one female. Testosterone was running high and the males were competing for the female - she showed no interest whatsoever in them. At some point a lonely Wildebeest arrived at the scene and we noticed with amusement that he was almost always in the way of the largest Gemsbok (who was busy making yet another move to conquer the pretty female nearby). It was the Wildebeest who challenged the Gemsbok and it all ended with a clash of horns! The fight only lasted a few moments, and this is just one of the frames I am busy working on for the Story Sequences Forum. Thought you might enjoy viewing this interesting behavioural aspect, we have been to the Kalahari so many times but only saw this kind of interaction between two antelope species on this particular occasion.

Don't you just love Wildebeests? We call them "Troublemakers", and wherever they pitch up there will be some action and fun and games...They act in the spur of the moment (much like Andre:t3:bg3:) and they are always entertaining and full of surprises (again...like Andre:w3)

Techs:

Nikon D3S
Nikon 300mm F2.8 (I cannot remember why I have not used the 500 lens, it must have been tucked away in its box and the 300 was nearby, I guess:2eyes2:)

ISO 320

F6.3

1/3200s

Hope you all have a wonderful week-end,

[Morkel Erasmus]

What a moment Gabriela! Love the silliness of Wildebeest. I have a similar frame captured early one morning near Samevloeiing - close enough for a good image but my focus was just off and it was over by the time I could adjust focus. You handled the light and the large crop well!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Morkel - I had to show you this:) I too love those silly Wildebeests, what would the bush be like without them?:bg3:

I am slowly building up a sequence, will let you know when posted:w3

Warmest regards,

[D. Robert Franz]

Very interesting action.. Worth taking for sure. You know the technical challenges in this image but the interesting behavior/action trumps any shortcomings here!

[Marc Mol]

Superb action & drama here Gabriela :5 the dust flickup and impending clash are great!

You've handled the lighting and large crop (just how much?) well and shows the quality still with one of Nikon's best lenses, I still miss mine in a lot of ways, but can't fly with both a 300 and 500 :e3

Should also mention your image title's are getting even better.................keep 'em coming.:bg3:

TFS

[Dumay de Boulle]

I love the title! Its brilliant.....
Great tones and the IQ looks fine to me. Nice action and poses from both animals, especially the tail of the WB.....
If I was to say anything...To me it looks like it could use a CW rotation to level the ground and then the horizon would level a bit more as well.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Awesome image Gabriela! Thanks for sharing this with us, or we wouldn't have known what we missed! Great title! I like the action, the pose and the striking contrast between the animals and their weapons!!!

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - You know I think this one is great for the unusual behavior captured. Good timing with both heads down. Really interesting to see and love the title.

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you all so much for viewing, comments, and for tolerating the shortcomings:w3I hesitated to post, thinking you probably expect better images from me - but the content was interesting so worth sharing, if only to make you smile:)

It was Andre who suggested this title and I found it so appropriate... still wondering how dare a wildebeest challenge a gemsbok, with weapons so small? Looks like it's more about the attitude than it is about the size, LOL

Marc, from what I remember the crop was about 50%, I would have left it uncropped but too many distracting elements in the frame and also half a gemsbok looking in from the RHS (the female).

Will check if it needs rotation Dumay, not sure I can do much with this image in the future and whether it's worth revisiting though...

I am glad you all enjoyed the sighting, it is stuff like this that makes me love the Kalahari: Jackal biting badger, wildebeest challenging gemsbok, birds of prey stealing food from other birds of prey, etc. I will try post some of those in the Story Sequences forum, I just thought most of you visit Wildlife more often and in this case I did not have enough decent frames to make a sequence.

Have an awesome week-end, we are having a barbecue under the stars tonight and a videographer friend coming to look at some of our fun Kalahari videos...when ready I'll find a way to share some of those with you:bg3:

[Carl Walker]

Super capture here G and you did well with the heavy crop. Agree that unusual behaviour between diverse species is exciting to observe. You did well and timing excellent.:cheers:

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Nice shot of a very unique moment Gabriella! This is a brave (dumb?) wildebeest for sure! The crop works well here!

[Giovanni Frescura]

Nice shot of a very unique moment Gabriella! This is a brave (dumb?) wildebeest for sure! The crop works well here!
Perfect shoot Gabriella it is fantastic for situation and for composition

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic! I love the interaction, and the big tree at top really adds a lot to the composition. You cropped the image just right. You could experiment with a slightly warmer white balance IMO, but man-o-man that is a sighting to die for!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Carl, Tobie, Giovanni and Daniel:w3

I must add here that Wildebeests are quite possessive of waterholes and when in great numbers they do chase Gemsboks away. Clashes are usually avoided.

Daniel, I am sure a bit of warmth will benefit this image, thank you - will adjust:5

Hope to find some more exciting scenes for you, will look through my folders again:)

A lovely Sunday, everyone!

[Steve Canuel]

Nice capture of this interspecies interaction. It has a good sense of tension, leaving the viewer to wonder how this played out.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, I really like the interaction and the fact you have two different species 'duelling', those horns of the Gemsbok look formidable to say the least, but the bent front legs of the WB seems he means business, especially with the dust flying. Certainly, if this is a 50% crop then the 500 may not have given you the nice expanse of the environment, just depends on what you want, maybe adding a converter may have helps, easy to say with hindsight. I'm not sure if a hint more USM may help applied to the subjects may help?

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Steve:wave:both Mr. Canuel and Mr. Kaluski, I mean:)

Whew, you cannot imagine the rush when I took those shots, no thinking whatsoever in the process:2eyes2:, as I was busy aiming at a jackal near the vehicle when I saw with the corner of my eye the WB getting in the way of the gemsbok and suddenly sensed potential for something interesting there...One moment they were grazing and the next - dust was flying! Converter in its pouch in the front seat pocket, no chance to grab it...

Never thought of applying USM, Steve - will give it a try, thank you:)

Very grateful for your views and comments - much appreciated:)

[Dennis Behn]

I'm really glad you decided to post this shot as I read you questioned it. But I know how quick these interactions take place, and they are over. We are left with only what we saw! Getting anything would be worth it, but you got a killer photograph here. Looks very sharp and good action, but more than anything an absolutely unusual occasion in nature that you caught for all of us to see! Thanks.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela i do remember exactly the scene when and where !!!!!
It was just great but happened so quickly and was gone in seconds ............. i for myself missed that sequence for photography just watched it :wave:. Due to a technical issue with my combo i had to just enjoy it with my eyes !

I think you did really well under the given circumstances , i agree with Daniel a slightly warmer WB would work better on this one , but hey it is a Nikon , what i have to take out from time to time from my Canon you have to put in :t3.

Thanks to Andre for the idea of the really great title ...... works like charm for the image :5.

TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Dennis and Andreas!

Sorry about your technical issue Andreas - you did return with some stunners from this trip and this capture is certainly not a great loss. Glad it brought some nice memories though:w3

Kind regards,