A friend and I spent two afternoons photographing a pack of wild dogs all by ourselves in a sandy riverbed in the Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe last week.
I will never forget the 2nd afternoon, when we leopard-crawled through crusted river sand and pebbles for over 40 meters to get within good shooting distance, ending up with bleeding elbows and bruised knees. Just before we had to leave, the Alpha Male got up and stalked towards us, growled a couple of times, took in our scent, and then lied down about 7 meters from us, relaxed again. An absolutely thrilling moment!!
I didn't have any noteworthy images in my portfolio of this endangered species, and am so stoked to have come back from Mana Pools with a truckload of images from low angles like this, with an unobstructed view of the canines. As we left the park we met up with the Painted Dog Conservation Trust who were inbound to come and collar some of the members of this pack - so I'm glad we got some 'clean' shots...
I've got many shots to share, but I thought I'd post this one here on BPN first to entice some discussion . I was lying on my belly for this shot (actually, for most of them).
This is the main guy checking us out - focus distance 16.8m
I cut off the lower parts of his legs since he was just too close and he'd approached so rapidly we hadn't had time to remove our converters. I cropped closer to get a better composition here and make the legs look less "chopped off" than they did with more of them in the frame. What do you think???
As usual with these sightings and me - it was overcast at sunset which resulted in me having to push the ISO, since DOF + SS was at a premium at this shooting distance.
Techs:
Nikon D3s with Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II + 1.4x TC @ 700mm
f6.3 @ 1/320 SS @ ISO-8000
EV +0.3
lying on the ground, lens supported on Badger Beanbag
Cropped to about 80% of original frame (cropped from RHS and bottom)
BG as shot
Last edited by Morkel Erasmus; 06-24-2012 at 03:51 PM.
Hi Morkel, this for me is so close in crop, to warrant, 'feet in'. Personally I would go tighter. I think you are hiding a better one, but no doubt things will unfold in time. Still impressive ISO8000.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Thanks Steve. Things may indeed "unfold", as I am "hiding" quite a few better ones...
Curious to have your crop suggestion here.
I was shooting vertical (since horizontal was a no-go at this distance) just to have some options...shortly hereafter we took off our teleconverters, but eventually he was close enough to make me sweat about fitting him in @ 500mm on the FF sensor (that's not all I was sweating about )
Re ISO - since I used auto-ISO here on Manual Exposure mode, I think I accidentally metered off the dark inner ears or something here, as the other shots in this burst are at lower ISO's (2800-5000) but this one is the sharpest of this sequence...
Here's the original FF capture SOOLR (straight-out-of-Lightroom) with minor adjustments to the RAW file, no cropping and slight sharpening overall after downsizing to 800px high. I'd be keen to see you and our wider community have a crack at suggesting alternative crops here...
In hindsight I should probably have framed from the chest up, "losing the legs" entirely...sadly, the adrenaline got the better of me...
Last edited by Morkel Erasmus; 06-24-2012 at 04:13 PM.
Yep, the issue of framing and the dam beast moves, typical and with a fixed lens you are stuffed. Might post a similar image shoot with similar issues.
My take based on the OP.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Morkel,
Wonderful detail and POV. I prefer Steve's composition/crop of the image as it draws ones focus to the face of the wild dog. These are really beautiful and highly endangered animals.
Thanks for sharing and best wishes,
Mark.
My personal take for low angle shooting, when using longer telephotos (200mm plus), is that you need the foreground to give the viewer a sense of the angle you are shooting from, as you could assume this dog was on a small mound etc.
Thanks folks - value your feedback! Nice crop Steve. Makes me think how stupid I was not shooting like that with more "green stuff" on top to begin with...Adrenaline eh?
Originally Posted by Russell Johnson
My personal take for low angle shooting, when using longer telephotos (200mm plus), is that you need the foreground to give the viewer a sense of the angle you are shooting from, as you could assume this dog was on a small mound etc.
I've got a few of those, Russel...watch this space
Hi Morkel - good discussion above and I also prefer Steve's crop. Congrats on finally getting your desired wild dog shots. I'm curious as to whether you print images shot at such a high ISO or just use them on the web (e.g. is the IQ good enough to print?).
I've got a few of those, Russel...watch this space
Having seen your posts elsewhere, with foreground included, I believe this is probably influencing my reaction to the image. I think we have all been in the position of trying to squeeze as many images as possible from a sequence, and this would be a marginal choice compared to the other offerings I have seen.
Hi Morkel,
luckily you still under the living creatures.What did you feel when you were stalking them,or other way round when this guy was checking you out ?
One time in Kruger NP i saw a group of WD tearing apart an Impala in a couple of minutes,i was impressed by that time.my feelings were that i never wanted to meet these guys on foot!!
Like the image in terms of colors ,contrast and comp.I think a bit tighter than OP would work for me.
Impressive IQ for that ISO.
TFS from here!! Explain me what does this mean -TFS
Very, very nice job on getting up close and personal, Morkel. The OP works best for me. The eyes sparkle. Sounds like my kind of trip - down in the dirt. TFS, and look forward to more from this trip.