Serengeti sunset

[Roger Clark]

I'm way behind in processing my August safari images, and in commenting on other's images here. I'll try and catch up on both.

Here is a situation that had pros and cons. I was in the northern Serengeti in August, but there were many grass fires happening all around. That made for hazy skies and limited landscape opportunities, except at sunrise and sunset. The thick smoke made for some amazing light near sunrise and sunset.

Comments welcome. This is a full image with no crop. Is a crop needed? I like the space, but is it too much?

Canon 1D Mark IV digital camera, 70-200 mm f/4 L IS lens at 200 mm, f/8, 1/320 second exposure at ISO 200. Hand held on beanbag.

Roger

[peter delaney]

Hi Roger

Congrats on A very iconic African image... I like crop as presented . I did flip the image and quite liked the affect .

Peter

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Roger - works for me as is. Beautiful, rich color. Well done.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely simplicity and mood here, Roger. I do like it as posted, but wonder if it could do with less red and more orange as it were?
Just for interest' sake - by how many stops were you underexposing here?

[stuart wanuck]

agree with iconic nice

[Roger Clark]

Lovely simplicity and mood here, Roger. I do like it as posted, but wonder if it could do with less red and more orange as it were?
Just for interest' sake - by how many stops were you underexposing here?

Thanks everyone. Morkel, I'm not sure how to answer your question because I was using manual exposure. I looked through my images and found that I did several exposures and did a range to make an HDR at some point. I did 1/2500 second exposure to get detail on the sun's disk, and a 1/40 second to get more detail in the grass. But I like the exposure as presented best and not sure I need to make an HDR. The horizon is the top of a hill, so the sun was still pretty high (several degrees above the real horizon). The red came from very thick smoke from many fires burning. I remember it very red to my eye.

Roger

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Roger, the comp works as is for me. Love the fiery skies!

[Judy Howle]

I love the crop and beautiful red sky with the sun and tree silhouette. I've always wanted to photograph a scene like that but alas I can't go to Africa

[Roman Kurywczak]

Simple yet effective. Very nicely done!

[Steve Canuel]

Nice shot Roger. Gives off a nice vibe.