Mother Mongoose and young

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 7D, Canon 300mmf2.8IS lens, handheld. Shutter speed 1/320 at f5.0, iso400. Location Jao Camp, Okavango Delta Botswana. 01 May 2010, 16h55, no direct light. These are banded mongooses, which are small, social carnivores that live in groups. This particular troop lives on the same island as Jao Camp is situated, so they have gotten quite used to people. I was able to shoot whilst lying on my belly. I didn't quite get enough DOF for the youngster, and the second youngster showed up in the BG when I wasn't expecting it. I may have oversharpened the web shot. A 7D Mraw experiment, cropped from 10mp to 8.5mp. Banded mongooses are fun animals to photograph.
All C and C welcome
Grant

www.grantatkinson.com

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grant, seems like you have a real 'Noah's Ark' collection. :D

I really like the comp, especially with the youngster between the legs. Perhaps a fraction tight overall and I think the OOF one in the BG works well, but it's the depth of detail and sharpness that isn't there for me sadly. If you are revisiting the file would add some contrast too. ;)

BTW I know Jao, use to bump into quite a few of the guys from there as I used to work out of Kwetsani. My favourite Leopard moved up from there towards the landing strip, Beauty. Not sure if you ever saw her?

TFS
Steve

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Steve, thanks for your comments. I used to work at Kwetsani Oct99 to 2002, then at Tubu just to the west. When were you there? I know the leopard well, she has only recently vanished, around six months since the last sighting, although I have been away from the bush for the last few weeks. Very relaxed, and raised some wonderful cubs.
Cheers
Grant

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grant small world isn't it, I was there in 2006/08, with Vundi and OP as my drivers.

Know Beauty very well, she fist showed her cub off which sadly didn't make it, then she was spotted on the strip with another young cub two years later. When we found her the second time she then allowed us a sighting of the two week old cub, both of which I have posted here, if you can locate them. She will come very close about 2m to the vehicle, however much to the Op's disbelieve I got her to do a lot more, she knows me and I know her. :)

Last time I saw her I was convinced she was suffering with a cataract, as one eye looked milky, if so, that is why she is prone to loosing kills I feel. Might post one of her later this week, she is my favourite Leopard.

Steve

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Grant the oof one in the bg works well and would tighten up as suggested .. but keep thinking just having the two with little room around them !! One sweet capture !!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

how did you find the IQ in the MRaw files Grant?
love the low perspective but as noted would have loved just a tad more DOF. I have become very comfortable with pushing my 7D even to ISO-1250 with wildlife, so that was an option.

I still need a good shot of these guys...

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for the comments..I think I do have more space in the original. Morkel, MRaw when viewed on my monitor (which is an average quality laptop screen) looks similar to RAW. I just tried it just this one time though, as I miss the ability to crop. I also asked some of the tech experts on the BPN equipment forum about quality between two, and they assured me better results would be obtained at full res.
cheers
Grant

[Morkel Erasmus]

I miss the ability to crop. I also asked some of the tech experts on the BPN equipment forum about quality between two, and they assured me better results would be obtained at full res.

that's what I was leaning towards too, though I haven't tried shooting in MRaw yet...:D

[Harshad Barve]

Sweet image Grant , liked this very much
TFS