Blesbuck Faceoff (posting from the field)

[Morkel Erasmus]

I am still on our road-trip and thought I would pop in to leave a photo, unfortunately I don't have the connection speed nor the time to browse through everyone's recent contributions, but I will be back in full swing as soon as I am back from my extended travels!

Captured this one early this morning at dawn in the Mountain Zebra National Park, South Africa. These 2 blesbuck males were involved in a bit of "how's your father", though it never escalated to a full fight.

They were in the shade of a hill and the sun was just casting its first rays behind them over the plains.

Techs:
Canon 7D with 300mm f2.8 L IS USM + 1.4x TC-II (420mm)
f4.0 @ 1/640 SS @ ISO-1600

[Robert Amoruso]

Looks good for ISO 1600 (glad to see someone pushing this camera ISO-wise and showing what it can de) and I like the action.

If feels slanted to me and I find the OOF mountain bothersome. I cropped and rotated the repost along with opening up the shadows and some sharpening.

[Ofer Levy]

I like the behaviour and the inclusion of the habitat. IQ suffered from the high iso (I don't think the 7D really holds in such high iso) and overall image looks a bit soft.

Repost doesn't help this at all IMHO as the tight crop takes away the essence of this image.

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Morkel, like the mood here and the blue hazy mountain BG. I like the original crop though I feel it might need a little CW rotation. I think Roberts repost improves sharpness on the blesbok. Good behavioural shot in habitat...
cheers
Grant

[Rachel Hollander]

Morkel - nice action and I like the banded bg but agree the OP is soft. Robert's repost improves on the softness but I prefer the comp of the OP. Looking forward to seeing more from your extended travels.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the feedback folks

Robert - it looks skew but I went by the horizon of the plains in the BG as they were standing on an incline. Might have to do a 1 degree rotation in the end

Ofer - you are of course entitled to your opinion but I have seen my 7D perform very well at high ISO shots. IQ is good and it's tack sharp at full resolution. I think I was timid with sharpening after resizing due to the quality of the screen I am working on while on the road. The quality of the high res file is such that I would be able to submit this to my stock agency without a quibble if they desire an image of blesbuck fighting. Sure it's a tad grainy but it can be tamed very well in processing. Besides - until I can afford and justify to buy a camera that effectively costs the same as a good second-hand car in South Africa, I will continue to push my current equipment in these situations to rather get the shot than sit and merely watch.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, good to see you are having a good time.

Regarding the crop I think another option could be between the two, providing you are happy to extend the blue into the LHS as I like the various colours & strata of the BG. Nice interaction and you can only imaging the noise from the clashing antlers. I can live with both options as presented or the slight rotation, but certainly Robert has improved the detail and sharpness that was lacking in the OP.

Look forward to seeing more, but just take your time Morkel as the Zebra post I saw was a little off in colour & detail IMHO.

TFS
Steve