All spears, no tears

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

These guys caught me off-guard as I was busy shooting a secretary bird when they started their sparring contest. I would thus have preferred a much faster shutter speed but I reckon I did catch enough of the the short-lived battle. Levels & curve adjustments to reign in the effects of mid-day sunlight. Kgalagadi TFP.

D600 + Tamron 150-600 G2 @ 280mm.
f/8 | 1/800s | 500 ISO | Stabilized on car mirror

[Giovanni Frescura]

Nice situation ..I know that it wasn't the right light but the front for me is a bit too much overexposed

[John Mack]

The action is pretty cool. The light was not on your side. You did pretty good with this situation.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Tobte ... stunning action frame , well it is so hard to work at that location during the bright time of the day .

As presented the image appears overproccessed and sharpness is not there , way more SS needed to freeze the action . Been there myself i would say colors are subjective , and your call . Highlights are blown in two channels .....so no detail can be in them . You need at least two channels with no blown highlights to recover them with a slow hand and some fine tricks

So i would bin this , and go back and try it better .

Just being honest , TFS Andreas

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Hi Tobte ... stunning action frame , well it is so hard to work at that location during the bright time of the day . As presented the image appears overproccessed and sharpness is not there , way more SS needed to freeze the action . Been there myself i would say colors are subjective , and your call . Highlights are blown in two channels .....so no detail can be in them . You need at least two channels with no blown highlights to recover them with a slow hand and some fine tricks So i would bin this , and go back and try it better . Just being honest , TFS Andreas

Thanks for commenting Andreas and nice to see that you are still around! Yea I know - the dynamic range was just crazy as created by the midday sun on this pinkish soil (at 45C) and I have a few shots as proof of that! As mentioned by myself, the SS was certainly too slow as my intention was not to photograph this piece of split-second action. As far as going back - not sure if it's ever going to happen because I had to rent a 4x4 which made the trip quite expensive - but I'd surely love to!