'Klipspringer' (South Africa)

[Morkel Erasmus]

This little antelope is called a 'klipspringer' in our country, which is basically the Afrikaans word for 'rock jumper' if translated directly. They make their abode among the rocky hills and mountainous regions all over South Africa, both in lush bushveld or in arid semi-desert climates as depicted here. This photo was taken in the Augrabies Falls National Park in South Africa, just as the sun was starting to kiss the horizon.

Klipspringers mate for life and once the one dies, the other will never take another mate. The male was just on a rock lower down a bit to the left.

Shot with:
Canon 1000D with Tamron 70-300mm Di Tele-Macro lens
f7.1 @ 1/400 SS @ ISO 200

[Robert Amoruso]

I like the background and I like what you got him on. I wish he did not have the shadow on the front legs. IF possible moving left to get a better light angle (sun behind you) would have improved the image by flattening the light and gotten rid of some of the shadows on the head and body.

Of course that assumes you could move w/o spooking him and that he would have cooperated and turned his body some towards the left too.

From you position, I think you handled this well. I would prefer not have the face in shadow. Did you get an image or him looking towards the background. That would have gotten the face in sun and with more room in front could have worked with him looking into the distance.

Just some things to think about.

[Stu Bowie]

Typical posture, posing on a rockface. I would like to know how close you were, as these guys are pretty skittish. Colours look good in the sunlight, and great to see a catchlight too. Well captured Mork.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Morkel,
Good that you caught it in nice light. No idea if you could have moved however slight head turn away from you would have lessened the shadow. Thanks for sharing a little know species.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the kind comments Saby, Stu & Robert! they are quite easy to scare off so once I was in this position I took what I had.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Peter. I also thought it was a unique pose in this light as they don't stand still for long. the shadow is actually the shadow of the mount - the sun was that low!

[Fabs Forns]

Lovely pose and light, waht a great looking animal, love those ears.
Thanks for the explanation.
There's some chromatic aberration (magenta) on the catch light, or at least, it seems to me, easy to correct in the bigger file.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Hi Morkel,
I love the angle of light here and your comp. Nicely done mate. Congrats!

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Fabs & Akos - I'll have a look at the catchlight...

[Kartikeya Puri]

Beautiful background and catchlight. I did not notice the CA in the catchlight till someone commented on it.

Cheers,
Kartik

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Kartik. I've tried to removed the magenta abberation in the catchlight. Is it still visible? I'm not on a very good monitor at this moment.

[Arthur Morris]

Mork, You missed Stuart's question above in pane #3. Good use of sidelight. RJ: if he went left, it would only place the animal more behind the little hill....

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Artie - yeah missed that one.

I was about 20m from the buck.