Back home after a great 2 weeks in South Africa. We had a number of fantastic sightings including of some fellow BPNers. We met up with Dumay Boulle over a lion sighting in the bush where he was a guide at a neighboring lodge that shared traversing rights. We had a coffee with Brendon Cremer who visited us at one of the lodges. Finally, we had dinner in Joburg with Stu Bowie, Arno Ellmer and Anette Mossbacher. Unfortunately, Morkel could not make it and others lived too far away.
As to the wildlife sightings, it was tough deciding where to start. I took tons of images and it will take a long time to sort through them, let alone process them. Here's one from early in the trip. We were privileged to watch a pack of at least 25 wild dogs playing in a water hole for more than 40 minutes. Taken in the Timbavati Game Reserve just before 9 am.
Canon 7D
300 II
1/1600
f7.1
ISO 800
Beanbag from safari vehicle, cropped to 16x9, dropped exposure .30 in post, levels, curves, luminosity mask, selective color adjustments, sharpened in CCPS.
Hi Rachel, good to see you put those hours in on the plane home, to good use . Certainly a great sighting and to spend such an amount of time with these guys on our own was a privilege, especially when they are so endangered. They provided some excellent interaction as per you capture and being in the water added more drama to the scene. As you said a while back, both of us can comment at first hand so it's going to be interesting.
I think you can bump up the blue with another Lumin adj, but change the blend, as the water was ridiculously blue with an almost luminous green algae in places too. The blacks look a little thin, so again, a Curves adjustment & Select col addresses that. Likewise a Curves & brightness for the white of the water just gives that pop to the spray. Based on the posting the first item would be Levels, the white spray is blown in small fragments, nothing you can do that is what happens in these conditions, so if you address the slider forgetting the small dots, it makes a good starting point I feel, it's in your in box. Wonder if it needs a tad more space above, WDYT?
Well you are certainly out of the blocks, I think Anette could be next. Fantastic trip, I don't think we could have asked for anything more (I'm not going to say it Rachel) , some cracking stuff to come I know and great to meet some additional BPN bods, a cracking night, and good to call in Dumay into some of our finds too.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Rachel you sound like you had a real good time in South Africa must say I am very envious and must get myself over there before I'm to old. Great catch of these animals splashing about in the water and you did very well showing all three faces, very much enjoyed viewing.
It's always a thrill to see WD on any trip Rachel, but to find 25 of them all in a playful mood is the icing on the cake!
Love the action depicted with all 3 involved and the associated water splashes, agree on an increase in the blacks here for a tad more contrast, looking forward to more goodies!
Great image and what a fantastic sighting too. Agree it may need just a little more oomph if you know what i mean, perhaps a little more midtone contrast just to adda little more punch, this is what i did below. WDYT?
It was really great meeting up with you and Steve while you were here, hopefully one day we will get to do a safari together.
Last edited by Brendon Cremer; 06-09-2014 at 05:50 AM.
Wild Dogs at play in the water is a dream sighting for me, Rachel
This rocks, might take a sliver off the bottom though, and love what Brendon did. Sorry again for not being able to make the meet-up...
Hi Rach, glad you are back safe and sound, and it was really great finally meeting up with you and Steve, and Anette too.
What a cool sighting with wild dogs playing in water. Love the interaction between all three, and the flying water adds to the fun they are having. I quite like the space below.
Hi rachel welcome back and glad you had a good time down in SA with stunning sightings .
Very nice interaction shot of the WD , the splashing water is great and i feel it must have been fun to watch 25 of them.
OP is a tad flat for me in tone and color as others already stated , Brendon addressed this in his RP but i would go even a little bit further , a little bit.
I also would tend to loose some of the FG.
Good that all you guys met up for a BPN dinner , how about Dumay is he well ? will he be back here , hope you tried to push him
Thanks Morkel, Stu and Andreas. Morkel - we missed you but understand that other commitments came up. Stu - it was great to meet you too. Andreas - We tried with Dumay and he is awaiting some new equipment. Hopefully, once he has it, he'll return to BPN.
great sighting indeed. I as well like what Brendon did with your image.
Am still sorting and do not even know where to start.
For sure was great to meet you all in Jo'burg for a great fun dinner.
Steve, report will follow
Welcome Back,
Sounds like you had a great trip and I'm looking forward to seeing some of your images from the trip. You got some nice angles and interaction on these three. Like the additional contrast.
Hi Rachel - love it. These are my favourites and to find them playing like this..... I think you might move the whole crop up if you have space. I like the water splashes and I would prefer to see more of them and less of the water in front. However, with fast moving subjects like dogs, you might not have the space....
Ed
Thanks Anette, Steve and Ed. I should have said earlier that the reason I went with the 16x9 and cropped the way I did was that there was part of a dog in the upper right and I wanted to crop it out.
We will be in that part of the woods next week(well a bit north..) for a few days, the forum has given me some fresh ideas on capturing the image, might try something different.
Stunner of an image of the WD! Love the splash, found it can confuse AF, dogs sharp!
Love the emotion captured in the eyes, three very different emotions in each dog.
IMHO agree with tighter crop on FG.
I leave the colours to the experts, they have spoken..
I am so envious of your wild dog sighting ! Fantastic image and I love the very active interactions and the splashing water! Great that you can clearly see the eye on that left dog looking back into the frame. I favor the colors of the repost. Very much looking forward to more images from both you and Steve.
I am right at the back of the line with my comment but believe me I had a few good looks at this image! I find it hard to concentrate at work when it comes to writing comments, and last night I could not log in, problem sorted out very quickly thanks to Steve and Peter-much appreciated.
First of all, I am extremely happy you got to see the wild dogs, the interaction you have captured is very special! Although I did spend some time in the past following these chaps with my Wildlife Act friends, I have never saw anything this entertaining - I can just imagine your joy when you saw them - water splashing everywhere, maybe difficult to get a sharp image but you nailed this one brilliantly and probably more in your folders, congratulations! Love the expression on their faces, especially the fellow on the LHS, subjects relaxed and not aware of the photographers, all "in their element" as they say.
Like Stu, I do like the space below - one has to allow enough for these stretched legs and a tad extra, so the crop is just right for me. Colours look natural, sharpness is there, image looks effortless. I must admit Brendon's version has a bit more "pop" , so difficult to judge, I know you like to stick to the version that is closest to what you saw, at the same time - as a viewer - one is probably drawn to the more vivid colours - matter of taste, of course. I love this very very much, your capture will stay on my mind for some time, great efforts in this area where I live to reintroduce them to various game reserves and we love to have feedback from the rangers in terms of their survival.
Congratulations Rachel, this is a special image and I am privileged to see what you have witnessed recently, great capture, I know there's more where this came from, will check Wildlife daily!
Rachel, I'm late to the party since I had been traveling for a family event in NYC and then work. You made me envious with the sighting of 25 wild dogs in water. These guys sleep all day and then when they get up, they are often in the shade and then the sun would go down. Really good action with the water. Brendon's RP brings more pop out of the image for sure. Too bad that you had to crop out the top as the image is a bit tight and off balance to me, but I know these things in the BG often compromise how we do the crop and cloning if to be done is the last resort. TFS. Loi