I captured this lone springbok ram next to the road in the dry Nossob riverbed in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park recently. I just love the way he pops from the background and the way the last vestiges of light is falling on the opposite riverbank.
How do I know it's a male besides the obvious signs? Their horns are very thick at the base - ewes have slender delicate horns which won't last in a fight.
This is full frame.
Techs:
Canon 7D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 100mm
f5.6 @ 1/320 SS @ ISO-1600
Exp +0.3
Last edited by Morkel Erasmus; 08-15-2010 at 04:17 PM.
Reason: springbok Kalahari Africa antelope golden light
thanks Robert...I would have liked to and actually wanted to mention something about space at the bottom...in terms of "virtual feet", the feet are just below the ridge so technically there is space for them, it's just very tight at the bottom - the hooves would be extremely close to touching the frame if they were visible.
As I recollect I was sitting on the other side of my vehicle (driver's side - South Africa uses RH driving configurations), and my friend in the other seat was also photographing the buck...so I had to wedge my camera in alongside him and pointing it down would have made me include car door :o
This is nice a Springbok in muted light, it is always difficult to see the BG when you are concentraing on the face, a lower POV would have been better bit it is always extremely difficult to get there when you are confined to a vehicle. No doors would be ideal:D
The first thing I noticed was the way the Springbok just pops from the bg...nice light and too bad about your position as it relates to the virtual feet.