Bush Warriors Wildlife Photography Workshop: Learn from Technology

With today’s camera technology, it is too easy to get caught up in all the settings and buttons.

I see it all too often.  We are out in the field, a great photographic opportunity presents itself, and then some people are struggling with settings and–you guessed it–they miss the shot.

Don’t get me wrong.  Technology is great and it has definitely changed the way we photograph wildlife and nature, but if you make the technology your focus, you will not create better images.

It is your artistic approach, your vision, which will allow you to take better images with the use of the wonderful technology available to us.

So, with that being said, let’s use technology to teach us something about the artistic side of wildlife photography.

Apart from running Photo-Africa, I also manage a safari lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa.  I recently started putting up camera traps around the waterhole and we have been getting the most amazing results.

I have no idea what the settings on these basic cameras are, but they take the most amazing photos, and all of this purely because something walked in front of it.

Here are a few of the images I have been able to get off the camera traps and a few lessons you can take from it to improve your own wildlife photography.

Bush Warriors Wildlife Photography Workshop: Are You Stuck?

Hi all,

After a few weeks it’s good to be back!

As I was sitting thinking what I should write about for this blog I kept on coming back to one thought.  What is it that gets us inspired to photograph wildlife?  What is it that makes us click the shutter?

After running a wildlife photography workshop last week I wrote this blog post on my site.  The bottom line is that you should never decide before hand, like some people do, as to whether you are going to get good images or not.  Get out there and give it a bash first before giving up.

So to pick up on that, what can you do when you get stuck?  When you are out there and you just cannot seem to create good images?

Hey, I wish I had a definitive answer, but due to the nature of wildlife photography, that’s almost impossible.  I do think, however, that there are ways that you can approach your own wildlife photography to keep things fresh and to keep you inspired.

Here are a few thoughts I came up with, and images I shot, during our workshops last weekend.

Bush Warriors Wildlife Photography Workshop: ‘Decisions and Choices’ with Grant Marcus

Please welcome our guest pro photographer, Mr. Grant Marcus!

‘Decisions and Choices’ with Grant Marcus

So often we sit with decisions in wildlife photography that can either work or bomb out completely.  Especially when you have an opportunity to capture something rare or unique.  It normally happens at the worst time of day, early morning and late, late afternoon.  That is where you need to know your equipment.  Post-processing plays an enormous role in the outcome of your image especially if you worked in bad light.

These lion images were shot just after 6:00 a.m. in the morning.  Normally, I wouldn’t even bother shooting them in this light, but the situation, the scene ,and the opportunity to capture something unique was there and I had to take it.  In wildlife photography you only get maybe one chance to get that unique shot of a species.  We all know that lions swimming and playing in water is, in itself, a unique opportunity.

Bush Warriors Wildlife Photography Workshop: Don’t Be Afraid to Push Your ISO

Hi everybody,

I’m back from an absolutely amazing trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.  The Kgalagadi is an arid park situated in the northwestern parts of South Africa and extends into both Botswana and Namibia.  There is a lot of space, sand, and silence, and makes for one of the most special and unique wildlife and nature destinations I have ever visited.  One thing that makes it special is the fact that there is no cellular signal or internet, which is why I could not do a post last week.  Hey, we all need a break every now and then.  This is where we stayed.

Beautiful hey?  Anyway, I’m back and apart from a huge amount of new images I also had a lot of time to think about and reassess my own way of approaching wildlife photography.  You see, too many if us fall into a rut and keep on producing the same type of images again and again.  Others of us get so caught up in the technical side of the craft that we end up producing technically superb, but cold and lifeless images.  In the coming week, we will be looking at many of these pitfalls and how you can make sure you keep on growing as a wildlife photographer, but for today I wanted to have a look at ISO.

ISO, as you know, refers to your cameras light gathering ability.  A low ISO, such as 200, means that your camera is not as sensitive to light and you need good, strong light on your subject to create quality images.  This is where a lot of people get stuck, but more on that in a second.  A high ISO, such as 1600, means that your camera is a lot more sensitive to light and that you can shoot in lower light conditions but then there is an increase in digital noise, or grain, in your images.

For quite some time, many people have avoided shooting at high ISO settings like the plague!  The thought of having even a small amount of noise in your image is just completely unacceptable!  Or is it?

With higher ISO settings comes faster shutter speed.  This is because the higher ISO allows the camera’s sensor to capture a lot more light.  A faster shutter speed, in wildlife photography, means you freeze more of the movement and you get sharper images.

I know of too many photographers that always use the lowest possible ISO settings and then have to use very challenging shutter speeds to try and freeze the action.  Why?  Rather push the ISO up a bit and use a faster shutter speed.  The noise reduction of programs like Lightroom is so advanced these days that you could easily fix things up afterwards.  Worst case scenario: you have a slightly noisy, grainy image. In the old days, it was a part of what we did!

I always used try and keep my ISO as low as possible and never wanted to go above 200, but this I have changed.  Here is a breakdown of my ISO setting from the two cameras I used on the Kgalagadi trip.

You can see that a lot of my images were taken at around ISO 500.  Also, depending on the camera, I sometimes went as high as ISO 1600.  This is one of the images I shot at a high ISO.

The early morning light on the Black-Backed Jackal was amazing, but not strong enough for me to use a low ISO setting.  I pushed my ISO up to 1600, which then gave me a fast enough shutter speed—in this case 1/200—to get a nice, crisp image.

The following image was also taken at ISO 1600 and was where the little jackal above was heading to.

Awesome, early morning sightings and if I was stuck on never using high ISO settings, I would not have gotten the images.  Even zoomed in to 100% the noise levels are acceptable and with a bit of love in Lightroom, I was able to get the image perfectly crisp, sharp and virtually noise free.

The following image was taken at an ISO of 800, as the overcast light was nice and soft but not too bright.

The juvenile Gabar Goshawk was trying to get a little warm spot and hide from the weather.  I was able to get a great, crisp image of him even with the soft light.

The last exmaple, below, was shot at ISO 500.

Flat on my stomach, I spent an entire morning photographing the ground squirrels at one of the camps we stayed at.  I decided on an ISO of 500 as they kept on moving into and out of the shade.  In the shade, the ISO helped me to get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action and in the light I was still quite happy with the ISO.  If I were to keep on changing up and down I would have missed some of the shots!

So, I guess the bottom line is… don’t be afraid to push your ISO.  Yeah, yeah, some cameras deal with high ISO better than others, but rather get the shot and deal with a bot of noise rather than miss it completely!

Get out there this weekend, push your ISO and challenge the fading light.  This is, after all, the time when wildlife seems to be at its most active!  When you are all done, make sure to upload some of your images to the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day Contest to share with all of us. 🙂

If you are keen on some more images from the Kgalagadi, I will be posting some of them to the Photo-Africa blog by the end of the day.

Keep shooting and I’ll see you next week.

Gerry van der Walt

Bush Warriors Wildlife Photography Workshop: You Have To Work It!

You have to work every sighting that you get!  That’s how you are going to get memorable, striking wildlife images.

All too often, I see people on safari aim their camera at a subject, take a few shots, and move one.  Afterwards they always complain that the resulting images are not what they hoped for.

The remedy, and I’ll say it again, is that you have to work each sighting !

Never stop looking for different angles, facial expressions, light.  Wildlife can, and normally will, be quite unpredictable and therein lies both the challenge and possibilities.

Unpredictable means you have to always be ready or you will miss the shot.  On the flip side, it can also mean that you have the opportunity to get different images of the same subject.  Nice!

Two days ago, on one of our photo safaris, we found a leopard next to the road.  Initially, he was quite comfortable in the long grass and we weren’t expecting too much. But then he started moving around and we started working the sighting!

The start of our sighting…  A standard leopard image with the spotted cat moving through the grass.  We could have stopped here, but after getting the shot, there was a lot more photography to come!

 

Crossing the road, the young male made for a great backlit image.

 

An over-the-shoulder look makes for a great animal portrait!

 

Even as the leopard walked away, we did not stop shooting!

 

Whatever your subject, always wait a while.  Check things out, watch the light change and the animal move around.   Try different lenses, try different aperture, try anything— as long as you work the sighting!  There are images everywhere, as long as you are willing to spend the time and work the sighting!

As I write this, I am sitting in the car on my way to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park for a bit of a working holiday.  Don’t you just love technology? Lots of photography and some good time with friends.

As always, keep sharing your images on the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day contest and remember…

You have to work it!

Until next time!

Gerry van der Walt

Click here to see ALL of the Bush Warriors Wildlife Photography Workshops!

Bush Warriors Wildlife Photography Workshop: You Can Photograph Wildlife in the Rain!

Let me start off by wishing you all the very best for the New Year.  I hope that you had an amazing festive season with family and friends and that you are ready to get 2011 underway!

Rain.

Normally not something associated with wildlife photography, but—and this is one of my own photographic goals for 2011—breaking out of your comfort zone is one of the best ways to move your photography into a new direction.

During the last few weeks, the Madikwe Game Reserve, where I am based, has been getting a huge amount of rain.  Instead of putting my camera gear away like I normally would do, I decided to go into the rain, clouds, and varying light conditions that can occur during an African rainstorm.  The results have been great, both from a image and mindset point of view.

It is so easy to get caught up in a rut and keep on photographing the same image over and over again, whether you realize it or not.  You have to make a choice to try something different and you have to not worry about the results.  Sounds strange right?  Not worry about the results?

It is when you head out into the wild, with no preconceived ideas of what you want shoot, that you will be free to shoot what catches your eye.  You can shoot what excites you!

Here are a few of the images I was able to shoot during the last few weeks.  I did not plan any of these shots.  I simply went out there, whether rain or shine, and photographed scenes that excited me.

This young lion was very annoyed with all the rain and kept on shaking the water off him.  Seeing the pattern, we got ready, composed our images and waited.  As the youngster started shaking the shutters clicked like crazy.  The result?  An awesome action shot that I could never have planned for.

Yeah, it’s a wildebeest.  When you go out into the wild you tend to see a lot of them.  The difference on this particular morning was the light.  The morning started off very overcast and dull, but as we sat watching some general game on an open plain, the clouds opened up for a few minutes.  They opened up just long enough for me to fire a few frames and this was the resulting image.   Plain and simple image of a very often overlooked subject but it’s all about the light.  Cloudy days can make for the most amazing wildlife photography.

A vulture in a dead tree must be one of the most often shot silhouettes in the wild.  Is that a reason not to click the shutter again?  Absolutely not.   The dark clouds in the background made for a nice sombre atmosphere, to mimic the mood set by my subject.  Sometimes plain and simple is still great!

Under normal circumstances I would never have even attempted to photograph this scene.  It was very far away and there was no major composition to speak of, but the weather changed everything.  We were sitting on a dam wall and the heavens opened up.  The rain came down so hard that we could barely even see the giraffes in the distance.  I pushed up the ISO to 3200 and used a beanbag to keep my camera still.  Click.  Success!  Normally, I would not even have thought about photographing this scene, but I’m glad I did.

After all of that I suppose you get the idea, but just in case, here are a few lessons that I took from my last few weeks and that could help to break you out of a photographic rut.

– Don’t go out there with too many preconceived ideas.  Let your eyes guide you.
– Don’t pack your camera gear away when the clouds start building.  There are a lot of ways you can keep your gear dry and still get the shots.
– Don’t worry about the results.  Just go out there and enjoy yourself!
– Don’t look at everything through your camera’s viewfinder.  Put the camera down every now and then, look at the scenes and subjects around you, and then shoot what excites you!

As this year get going, think of ways in which you can change the way you photograph nature and wildlife.  Ways you can improve your images.  Ways in which you can find new inspiration for photography!

I wish you a year of great sightings, awesome light and many shared moments online.  Don’t forget to submit them to the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day Contest!  If you have any questions or comments that you would like to share please feel free to either leave a comment or contact me directly.

Until next week!

Gerry van der Walt

Bush Warriors Wildlife Photography Workshop: Hope for the Future!

Only two weeks left in 2010!  It really is amazing how quickly time goes by.

With this, the last photography post for the year, I wanted to look back at the past year and also start looking ahead to 2011.  This year saw the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day grow in leaps and bounds and it has been amazing to follow along and see all the images that people have uploaded.

Apart from the obvious visual beauty of the wildlife and nature image there is a larger issue that we need to be aware of and, if at all possible, hold on to and grow even more in future.

Every time anybody shares an image of animals in the wild they are creating an awareness.

Every time anybody shares an image of a natural landscape they are showcasing the beauty of our natural world.

The reality is, and this is looking past the atrocious rhino massacre we have seen during the last year, that the animals and places we photograph and share might not be there for ever.  Human greed is unfortunately destroying our natural heritage and, if we do not do anything about it, the only thing we will have left one day are the images of a lost world.  A place we used to visit.

Now, go and take a look at some of the images that have been uploaded to the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day contest.  These images show the natural world we all love.  It shows that there are many, many people out there that care enough about nature that they create images of its subjects and landscapes.  These images, and all the other ones we share in books, magazines, and on the internet will stand the test of time!

So, looking back at 2010 I would like to applaud all of you who have taken the time to not only photograph nature but, and this is almost more important, share those images.  After all, why create photographs if you are not going to share them with people.  Whether you intend it or not, you are helping to create a visual celebration of the fragile beauty that is nature.

Since we are almost at the end of the year, and most of you are on holiday, here is a list of wildlife photographers who share their work on a regular basis and serve as amazing ambassadors for wildlife photography.  Check out their work for inspiration or just to marvel at the beauty of nature!

Andy Biggs
David Lloyd
Etienne Oosthuizen
Grant Marcus
Greg du Toit
Morkel Erasmus
Shem Compion
Wynand van Wyk

What does next year hold for wildlife photogrpahy?

Who knows. What we can be sure of that many people, like the photographers mentioned above, will keep on pushing the boundaries.  They will keep on producing images that inspire and make us all want to grab our cameras and head out into the wild places of the world.

I also believe that photographic safaris will keep on growing in popularity.  These safaris give you the opportunity to, not only shoot alongside a professional wildlife photographer, but to go to the most amazing destinations, while being presented with the best photo opportunities anywhere.  To that end, next year will see a few interesting partnerships take place so make sure to watch this space!  What?  Did someone say Bush Warriors Photo Safaris?  Like I said, watch this space!

On that note I am going to say goodbye and wish you all the very best for the holidays!

This festive season I wish you the tenderness of the past, courage for the present, and hope for the future!

See you all in 2011 and rememeber to keep those shutters clicking!

Gerry van der Walt

Click here to see ALL of our Bush Warriors Wildlife Photography Workshops!

Wildlife Photography Workshop: Slow It Down

If you follow my blog, you will have seen this image.

(Nikon D300, Nikon 80-400 @ 320mm, 1/5 sec, f/11, ISO 320)

I have had quite a few requests, from people wanting to try this techinque, asking… How?

So here goes…

First off, in order to get a sharp image you need to make sure that your shutter speed is as least 1/your focal length.  This means that at  focal length (zoom) of 50mm you should have a shutter speed of at least 1/50 sec and at a focal length of 200 you should have a shutter speed of at least 1/200 sec.

Got it?  Good.

Now in order to create motion blur images, like the one above, you need to break that rule and select a shutter speed that is way slower than you would normally use.  As a guideline, you can start with a shutter speed of 1/10 and then slow it down from there if necessary.

With shots like this, your aperture is not important as your background, which will normally be affected by the aperture, is going to be blurred anyway.

Now, once you have your slow shutter speed you are ready to start.  The idea, and ultimate goal, is to focus on your moving subject, click the shutter and follow along with their movement.  Objects moving from one side to the other in front of you will give you the best results.

To get the image above I had to give it a few goes, as I never quite got the zebra’s head sharp.  By doing this you will give your viewer a starting point in the image, as our eyes will always start on the sharpest point, and then the motion blur will tell the story of your moving subject.

The slower your shutter speed the more dramatic your background will be but the more difficult it is to get the subject’s head (and shoulders) in focus.

Go and give it a bash this weekend!  Motion blur images are great fun and will add a whole new dimension to your low light photography.  Then, when you are done, add a few of then to the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day site to share with all of us!

If you have any questions please leave a comment on this post and I will get back to you!

See you next week!

Gerry van der Walt

Wildlife Photography Workshop: Show the Beauty

If you look around bookstores and the internet, you are bound to find quite a bit of black and white wildlife photography.

It’s easy to see why.

By removing color from an image, especially with a wild subject, we cut through all the emotion and distractions.  You see a world of textures and shapes.  You see the real subject.

Black and white photography also brings with it a sense of the past.  A sense of nostalgia.  It reminds us of a bygone era or, if things keep going like it is, a species that we used to see in the wild places of Africa.

As of 14 November 2010, 285 of these amazing animals have been poached in South Africa this year.

That means that one rhino gets killed every 27.5 hours.

One rhino… every 27.5 hours!

As wildlife photographers, I feel it is our duty and privilege to photograph these amazing animals, not only to show the beauty of these ancient-looking members of Africa’s Big 5, but also to raise awareness.  We must show the beauty that is being destroyed all around us.  Our images might soon be all that is left of an amazing animal.

For me, black and white images show the real subject and brings emotion.  It shows what we have now.  Let’s try, and hope, that we can keep it that way.

If you have any images of rhino why not share them on the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day facebook page.

Let’s show the beauty of the animal, the beauty of nature.  Let’s show the fragile nature of an animal we will hopefully see in the wild places of Africa for a long time to come!

Yeah, not our normal wildlife photography post but I have just returned to the Madikwe Game Reserve where I manage a lodge and the reality of the rhino poaching hits home hard after being away for a few weeks.

Share your images.  Show the beauty!

I’ll be back next week with a, hopefully, more upbeat post!

Gerry van der Walt

Wildlife Photography Workshop: Be Ready for the Moments

I am sure you have paged through a photography magazine, looking at the work of some or other professional wildlife photography and thought to yourself , ‘How did he get that shot?’

The answer is actually quite simple:  you have to be ready – always.

In nature things can happen very quickly and sometimes you can consider yourself lucky to see a certain animal or behavior, nevermind actually photographing it.  In order to photograph these moments you have to be ready.  When the action goes down you cannot be struggling with your settings or changing lenses.  The moment will be gone.

Check out a few of these examples.

A moment like this generally lasts quite a while.  The elephant will drink, stand around, perhaps splash a bit of water around, but generally he’ll be there for a while.  In situations like this, you will have the time to play with your equipment and settings.  Photograph, experiment, and enjoy.

An image like this is most definitely a moment, but you can normally predict when to click the shutter.  When a kingfisher is busy diving, he will do so very regularly.  So, if you have the patience to sit and wait, you stand a very good chance of getting the shot.  Yeah, yeah, your equipment and settings do play a par,t but we’ll look at that in a little while.

As with the kingfisher image above, a scene like this has the potential to produce a photographic moment.  Young elephants tend to be quite possessive of whatever waterhole they find themselves at, so when the herd of buffalo started arriving, I knew there might be something special coming up.  I did not have to wait too long as the young ellie took exception to the buffalo wanting to drink ‘his’ water, and proceeded to chase them all over the place.  Great moment, especially with the dust in the background.

And then you get moments like this.

Unplanned.

Unexpected.

Awesome.

We were sitting watching a pride of lions, including three very young cubs, as the played around in the early morning light.  They started crossing the road in front of us, and suddenly, out of nowhere, this lioness gave us a mock charge.  Impressive stuff, very impressive.  As this happened, I clicked the shutter and captured this moment.  As we arrived at the lion sighting, I checked light and dialed in the settings.  I was hoping for a nice close up portrait of the lioness as she crossed, so I was ready.  Not quite ready for what happened, but photographically, I was ready to click the shutter.

There is so much that can happen out there that it is almost impossible to be ready for everything.  You can, however, put yourself up with a good chance of capturing some amazing moments by having your equipment on ‘standby’ mode.  Every morning before heading out into the field I check all my cameras and place them in ‘standby’ mode.  This is what the basic of my standby mode looks like:

– Camera Mode:  Aperture Priority
– Aperture:  f/8
– ISO:  400

These setting allow me to pretty much grab my camera and fire away.  Depending on my subject, and what I want to do with an image, I can change my aperture up or down with the simple turn of a dial.  It takes a few seconds to get your camera ready before you head out, but when you capture that moment, it is most definitely worth it!

I’ll leave you with one more moment.

This moment was one I had to wait for.  I liked the look and feel of the scene, but I had to wait for the wildebeest to walk into the right position before clicking the shutter.  Patience!

If you have some moments that you have captured, why not take a few moments and upload them to the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day Contest.  Share your moments!

I’ll see you all next week!

Gerry van der Walt