This little antelope is called a 'klipspringer' in our country, which is basically the Afrikaans word for 'rock jumper' if translated directly. They make their abode among the rocky hills and mountainous regions all over South Africa, both in lush bushveld or in arid semi-desert climates as depicted here. This photo was taken in the Augrabies Falls National Park in South Africa, just as the sun was starting to kiss the horizon.
Klipspringers mate for life and once the one dies, the other will never take another mate. The male was just on a rock lower down a bit to the left.
Shot with:
Canon 1000D with Tamron 70-300mm Di Tele-Macro lens
f7.1 @ 1/400 SS @ ISO 200
Last edited by Morkel Erasmus; 06-30-2009 at 12:39 PM.
I like the background and I like what you got him on. I wish he did not have the shadow on the front legs. IF possible moving left to get a better light angle (sun behind you) would have improved the image by flattening the light and gotten rid of some of the shadows on the head and body.
Of course that assumes you could move w/o spooking him and that he would have cooperated and turned his body some towards the left too.
From you position, I think you handled this well. I would prefer not have the face in shadow. Did you get an image or him looking towards the background. That would have gotten the face in sun and with more room in front could have worked with him looking into the distance.
Typical posture, posing on a rockface. I would like to know how close you were, as these guys are pretty skittish. Colours look good in the sunlight, and great to see a catchlight too. Well captured Mork.
Morkel,
Good that you caught it in nice light. No idea if you could have moved however slight head turn away from you would have lessened the shadow. Thanks for sharing a little know species.
thanks Peter. I also thought it was a unique pose in this light as they don't stand still for long. the shadow is actually the shadow of the mount - the sun was that low!
Lovely pose and light, waht a great looking animal, love those ears.
Thanks for the explanation.
There's some chromatic aberration (magenta) on the catch light, or at least, it seems to me, easy to correct in the bigger file.
Mork, You missed Stuart's question above in pane #3. Good use of sidelight. RJ: if he went left, it would only place the animal more behind the little hill....
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'Klipspringer' (South Africa)
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