Wild dog pair blur.

[Marc Mol]

One from the archives here, a pair of WD are running off with a zebra afterbirth (not to be confused with a plastic bag )
We had witnessed the birth and the Mapula pack of 11 WD were sated with mum's trick of dropping her afterbirth to draw their attention and give her enough time for herself and foal to escape.

Moremi GR- Botswana 2009.

D3 500 f/4 VRII + 1.4tc 1/10s ISO140 f/38 I had hoped for more leg movement/blurring @ 1/10s but managed to at least keep both heads relatively sharp.

C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Marc - Interesting but I don't think this is really working for me. It's too difficult to tell what the wd has in its mouth. Had you not told us it was afterbirth, it does look like a plastic bag or a blanket. It also feels a bit saturated to me. What's the red by the front wd's leg? That being said, I do know how hard a good blue shot is to capture. I think for me here the problem is more the content then the techs.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Marc,
i am with Rachel here . Interesting to see and the story behind adds to it.
But as a blur image it is not working for me , i feel the afterbirth looks too distracting for me.Colors are looking ok, but i would drop the yellows.
IMHO i do not think that the heads are "relatively " sharp , for sure not a 10th of a second, just my observations.

Sorry Marc,i am just honest.
Cheers Andreas

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Marc, good attempt at doing the blur with the 500f4. Must be hard!!! I think the afterbirth is a bit of a distraction here and without the story it is hard to tell. As for the blur, IMHO the heads need to be a little sharper. Loi

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Rachel, Andreas & Loi

What's the red by the front wd's leg? That being said, I do know how hard a good blue shot is to capture. I think for me here the problem is more the content then the techs.

TFS,
Rachel

If you look closely you'll see that the "red" is all part of the afterbirth tube starting underneath the WD's chin and down the chest to trailing between it's front legs.

IMHO i do not think that the heads are "relatively " sharp , for sure not a 10th of a second, just my observations.

Sorry Marc,i am just honest.
Cheers Andreas

I can guarantee you Andreas this was taken @ 1/10s , (EXIF doesn't lie) for using the 500 + 1.4 tc handheld it is relatively sharp (ie.good definition at least) IMO,
remembering this is a pan blur image I'm attempting to capture. (perhaps we have lost something in your English translation?)

For me I think it doesn't quite come off due to the legs not blurring sufficiently

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Marc,

I believe this was taken at a 10th of a second, and my wish is that you had a tad more shutter speed. I am certainly not experienced with pano blur, so I am only giving a humble opinion as a viewer. The most attractive pano blur images I have seen have a sharper focal point (usually the head of the subject), something my eyes are drawn to immediately. I do like the leg blur here, the tails in the air, the sense of speed. The colours are great and so is the crop. Love the BG/FG. What bothers me here is the magenta creeping in on the wild dog's face (the chap carrying the afterbirth) and also the tube that seems disconnected from the afterbirth itself (which might have happened as the dogs were running, by the way) . I am very interested what the others think, Morkel has some experience with this kind of images and I look forward to his opinion

Kind regards,

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Gabriela

What bothers me here is the magenta creeping in on the wild dog's face (the chap carrying the afterbirth) and also the tube that seems disconnected from the afterbirth itself (which might have happened as the dogs were running, by the way) .
Kind regards,

The magenta is actually the blurring of the afterbirth across the WD's face, and something that should stay IMO.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Marc you got me wrong , or i said the wrong thing.
I meant you cannot get a relatively sharp head with a SS of 1/10 sec within a fast moving subject , as far as i know and understand.
Just wanted to say that i do not feel to see a "relatively" sharp head in the image. Just a blurry one or better said two blurry ones, technically not a surprise with an SS of 1/10 sec. Even if panned the camera.

I hope it is now clearer what i wanted to say.

Cheers Andreas

[Marc Mol]

Hey Marc you got me wrong , or i said the wrong thing.
I meant you cannot get a relatively sharp head with a SS of 1/10 sec within a fast moving subject , as far as i know and understand.
Just wanted to say that i do not feel to see a "relatively" sharp head in the image. Just a blurry one or better said two blurry ones, technically not a surprise with an SS of 1/10 sec. Even if panned the camera.

I hope it is now clearer what i wanted to say.

Cheers Andreas

No problem Andreas, I had thought perhaps a misunderstanding.....all good.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Yep for sure

[Richard Flack]

Hi Marc, I really enjoy this shot. I like the sense of movement and the position of the dogs. IMO it is very cool! TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Marc, I too feel it's not really working, you know the content, that's not the issue I feel, perhaps 1/10 is just a little too slow and that perhaps having elements more visible i.e. the head sharp'ish', but the rest more of a panning blur might have helped???? Maybe it's the overall movement of the WD up & down and running for me doesn't quite convey the panning, but that's just my take. Perhaps having a slightly tighter crop LHS & above may also help?

TFS
Steve

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Steve

Hi Marc, I too feel it's not really working, you know the content, that's not the issue I feel, perhaps 1/10 is just a little too slow and that perhaps having elements more visible i.e. the head sharp'ish', but the rest more of a panning blur might have helped???? Maybe it's the overall movement of the WD up & down and running for me doesn't quite convey the panning, but that's just my take. Perhaps having a slightly tighter crop LHS & above may also help?

TFS
Steve

Can't disagree with you on this, I guess I was a little disappointed how this pan came out and had hoped for better.

[Steve Kaluski]

Marc, unless you/we get this down to a fine art, then often it's a hunch/gamble on settings, likewise the speed of the subject, light etc all play a factor to get this right. I'm sure since then your panning skills have improved, but it's fun to try.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

The right scene for creating a keeper! I think what spoils it for me is not the blur but rather the ghost images (i.e. much more than just blur) created by the slow shutter speed. I think only a lot of experience with similar scenes and various shutter speeds will tell what the best settings would have been for achieving your goal here. Together with a bit of luck because everything depends on how fast exactly the dogs are moving at that particular moment. Full points for trying!

[Martin Dunn]

sorry Marc, this one does not work for me on any level.
In particular I think the pov is not right for the shot you are trying to achieve.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Can't add much more here, mate. It's an interesting piece of natural history for sure. I am okay with how sharp the heads came out, but like you wanted more of the motion/speed conveyed through the legs.
I don't usually go lower than 1/80 or 1/60 on the 500mm when panning, perhaps I need to go slower sometime for fun

[Marc Mol]

Can't add much more here, mate. It's an interesting piece of natural history for sure. I am okay with how sharp the heads came out, but like you wanted more of the motion/speed conveyed through the legs.
I don't usually go lower than 1/80 or 1/60 on the 500mm when panning, perhaps I need to go slower sometime for fun

For sure, since this my new go to lens for pan blurs is the 80-400AF-S, a real treat to use and prefectly suited for the job.