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Thread: A pile of 'puppies' - the early days...

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Default A pile of 'puppies' - the early days...

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    Firstly, thank you Dumay in allowing me to use the title, as it does have relevance .

    Some time ago Dumay posted an image of a group of Wild dog puppies out in a clearing. Rachel & I were fortunate to be given access to the same den just as these guys surfaced for the very first time, Dumay's image was many weeks on and they were slightly bigger, but had by then ventured into more 'open' surroundings. In the very early days only one vehicle at any one time positioned some way from the entrance was allowed, good for the 'management' of the pups & the site, however a challenging one at times for us. Losts of OOF shrubs, grass, branches etc and they would also come out towards the end of the day where light was a premium. Enough moaning, here you go, not perhaps ideal from my perspective, but an absolute privilege to see these wee guys at such an early stage of their lives and to witness the interaction between the pack, including the adults. Their 'fur'/down/coat at this early stage was so fine the skin underneath was visible offering an almost 'ethereal/wispy' look IMHO.

    Thanks for either viewing or commenting on the previous image.


    Steve

    Subject: African Wild dog pups (Lycaon pictus), two cubs just by the entrance, looking right, late evening
    Location: SA
    Camera: Canon 1DX
    Lens: 500f/4 with 1.4ext
    Exposure: 1/400's at f/5.6 ISO1600 - ISO too low DOH!
    Original format: Landscape, very slight crop from the sides, almost FF width
    Subject distance: 22m

    The 'blurriness/mottled BKG' in parts, is OOF vegetation in front of the pups

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Super cute Steve - I've yet to see them this small...
    Nice light catching them and you sure managed to isolate them well given the surroundings of the den/area.
    I'd crop from left and top - to get rid of that diagonal blade of grass ULC?

    Off to the Sands myself on Friday, eager to see the area again.
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Steve - It certainly was a privilege to spend as much time as we did with the puppies and then to witness the kill by the adults just took it over the top. You did very well here especially in light of all the frustrating foliage. I like that we can see the den opening behind them. Nice light hitting the faces. Colors and tones look good though if it were mine I would burn the whites of the rear leg of the standing puppy just above the rump of the other one. Morkel's crop suggestion is a good alternative.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    A stunningly beautiful shot Steve! I'm not going to repeate some of the valid comments - I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the cute, curious looks beautified by the soft light from the setting sun...

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Thanks guys, I would rather remove the blade of grass I think Morkel and retain the space, a quick fix.

    Rachel I'll take a look later, thanks.

    Cheers Tobie, you guys have such a great back yard to appreciate/shoot in and so, as Rachel said, the whole experience is a real privilege when opportunities like this arise.

    Please come and share some of your images too, be good to see.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Cheers Tobie, you guys have such a great back yard to appreciate/shoot in and so, as Rachel said, the whole experience is a real privilege when opportunities like this arise.

    Please come and share some of your images too, be good to see.
    Thanks Steve - you're right, we're really privileged to be in and near to the wildlife mecca of the world (considering everything up to and including Tanzania) and we are privileged to have the cream of the best photographers (IMHO!) displaying our riches on a forum like this!

    I can't wait to post here again! I've lost all of my RAW file backups (and backups of backups) in a single incident (armed robbery) so I'm literally restarting my RAW file portfolio from scratch...

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hey Tobie I'm really very sorry to hear that, you know Stu B's wife was involved in an armed robbery too, seems this is oh so common based on the dialog I have with friends in SA. I trust you and everyone else were OK?

    If you have another location then 'Mirror' all back-ups and keep one 'off site'. The images we work so hard in achieving are priceless and those in the robbery have no idea the true value.
    All the very best for the future.

    Steve

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    ... I trust you and everyone else were OK?Steve
    Thanks for your concerns Steve - I'll reply via PM so we don't hijack this nice post...

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    Hi Steve, love the rays of light on the puppies. Do we call them puppies? I thought they are Cubs! Anyway, they do look more like puppies I agree. I agree with you regarding the crop. The stray branch on top is not that distracting. You can't just go and cleanup before the shots. Loi


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    Lifetime Member Andre Pretorius's Avatar
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    Hi Steve

    Love these two little cuties captured in sweet light where it matters.
    I am fine with the crop, it feels balanced and some habitat is included.
    It seems the image IQ would struggle with a tighter crop.(1600 ISO?)
    Sweet moment at the right time!
    Regards

    Andre.

    www.gappimages.com

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Dear Steve,

    I once had a big scar on my nose from a wild dog pup, I believe the culprit was about the same size as those little ones in your image, LOL. It happened many years ago, I had the privilege of joining a wild dog research team and followed a family of wild dogs from dawn to dusk for some days. We were up at 3 am and it was hard work finding them...they were mostly running through drainage lines, often close by but still out of sight...this is when I learnt those chaps start moving in the wee hours of the morning and the adults travel long distances in search for food while the young are left behind and hiding inside the den... well, not always "deep inside" because on one occasion I offered to collect some bits of "evidence" by the den entrance and something whacked me on the face so fast, I only noticed my nose was bleeding much later...No need to mention how seriously I fell in love with this wild dog family...

    Your image is special to me, partly because it brings back memories of those days, I had an entrance level camera and did not know how to use it, brought back hundreds of images, unlike yours mine were mostly blurry ( I never changed settings and the lighting conditions were poor most of the time). Sadly none of the dogs survived, they were killed one by one by a lion pride over a period of two years, this project failed but some great lessons learnt from it.

    I think you have done extremely well under the circumstances, never easy shooting from a vehicle and I take it you did have VR on but no support? A very unique capture, those little chaps just coming out of the den, so difficult to frame with all the grass in front of them, I still love this very much, like the crop as is, beautiful soft light, wonderful pose, just so special...thank you Steve, I so enjoyed viewing, very evocative...

    Warmest regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Hello Steve ! Very cute indeed . I think it is not always necessary to get very clean settings, by reading most of the above comments I feel that( since i am not familiar with the african wild dogs ) this really must have been a special sighting and all the cluttering gives a sense of their environment in which they hide during all those challenging times of their life. So let it be as it is and TFS the beautiful image .

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    BPN Member Anette Mossbacher's Avatar
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    Hi Steve, lovely little chaps indeed. Have nothing to add to the sweet ones, only what cute honey pies they are.

    Have a great evening

    Ciao Anette

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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Hi Steve, great sighting, and I really like the light in this. Good inquistive stare/poses from both pups, and well done on the overall exposure. Angle looks great considering you were shooting from a vehicle, but as you stated, keeping your distance, thus reducing the angle.

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