Meerkat Rumble

[Morkel Erasmus]

During our January 2018 visit to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, a clan of meerkats had taken residence in one of the rest camps, and their den site was nicely positioned for sunset shooting while lying flat on my stomach.

Techs:
Nikon D5 (courtesy of Nikon SA)
Nikkor 400mm f2.8G
f8.0 | 1/800 SS | ISO-720

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Neat capture, Morkel. I like the back lighting, and enough ambient like to show detail on the shaded side. Great that you caught the sand being flicked off the paw of top contender. Like the other two doing their own thing.
BG tree with branches add to the framing nicely.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[John Mack]

Love the atmosphere here. The backlighting is great. The interaction is quite nice.

[Jay Shah]

Backlighting grants image other worldly look if it is done right. IMO you got it perfectly. Interaction is also quite interesting.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - I'm a big fan of backlit shots and love shooting them too. The rim light here is really strong and nice. Love the flicked sand and the interaction. The meerkat in the bg intersecting at the edge of the nose is too close though. If it were mine I would tame the bright hl in the fg.

TFS,
Rachel

[Dumay de Boulle]

Yeah this is fantastic...Amazing how you composed working in the surrounding Meerkats. Classy image mate.

[Marc Mol]

You've nailed this one mate, love the overall scene, colour and mood here, the DOF with the meerkat looking back and the rear silhouette all come together to tell a great story.

TFS

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Morkel,

I've always wanted one of these but luck hasn't been on my side! Really like it. Beautiful interaction, backlighting is superb, so is the golden light.

Last time I lied on my stomach to shoot a yellow mongoose at Mata Mata I nearly had a scorpion crawl into my sleeve, eh. Not giving up on the place though, going camping again in March ( Rooiputs, Mata Mata and Polenstwa).

So this is right up my alley Morkel, it is "home". Thank you so much for sharing, you made my evening

Kind regards,

[greg cowle]

Nice action in beautiful light.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thank you all!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, nice light and I like the spray of sand from the paw. The intersecting Meerkat in the BKG is a little distracting, but not a deal breaker. I think shooting at f/8 gave some wasted DoF being back lit, f/5.6 to gain some more SS.

TFS
Steve