I recently got back from Gorongosa, Mozambique and Kruger in SA, both great trips and some really fun sightings between the two parks. Especially cool to see the differences between the two. Figured I would start with this frame, as I had a ton of fun watching these animals in Kruger. Tough setting to photograph here with the side lighting, but loved the second one poking its head out. In post, removed some distracting twigs, tamed shadows and HLs slightly, and NR.
Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 500mm f/4 + 1.4 TC III
Specs: 1/800 f/8 ISO 2,200
Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex
Last edited by Alex Becker; 07-31-2019 at 06:07 PM.
Hi Alex, a fun sighting for sure, they are such characters! I like the head popping out and the stare right at the camera. The details and techs are good. The bright area above the head is a bit distracting but you did well in the PP to tame it a bit. TFS.
Hi Alex they are always a treat to watch the family of mongooses , regardless which species you look at .
I do like the look they gave you and the one peeping out of the hole is good . Lovely colors and you did quite well with the overall tough lighting . The NR does look a bit heavy in parts ... a very smudgie look is obvious in parts . With hindsight i might have chosen a different framing movie the kit to left and a bit down to avoid the bright areas on the RHS of the frame.
Good to see you back and posting, I am so glad you visited South Africa and experienced our wildlife, hope you will share more images from this trip.
Love those two dwarf mongooses, you were so lucky to get them in the clear and such a sweet pose from both - great timing, I gather they were probably foraging, looking for termites, little reptiles, scorpions and insects.
Lighting was tough indeed but the subjects are well exposed. That top right corner is still a bit bright and needs a bit of work. One can do a number of things, the easiest way would be to drop exposure or brightness and maybe reduce the saturation on yellows.
Composition works, but perhaps you could go a bit tighter if it doesn't hurt the frame in terms of IQ. Colours are spot-on and I really like the eye contact with both subjects and those visible claws:)
Hi Alex -- Good to hear that you had a great trip and that means more good images of Africa on this forum.
I liked the image especially the way you have handled the difficult lighting and the one peeping out makes for a fun image. I also see adding that t.c has helped in a tighter frame but i would have liked a bit more tighter frame than this as those bright hls are not adding to the scene and there will be more focus on the mongoose's.
Hi Alex, I don't mind the POV, however if this was shot on a stable support, bean bag, tripod or even mama bag then I might have pushed things to f/11. I think you also need to hone any cloning as your manipulation is visible and there are many ways to remove elements within PS. I would also play with the light and try to get a bit more depth and detail within the habitat and FG.
Thanks all for the comments and suggestions -- all great advice. Apologies for the very late delay as well -- work got ahead of me for a bit there (as tends to happen it seems..). Thanks again all,
Mongoose
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