Masai Mara Some Sharing and Musings....

Tariag wrote:

It looks like... Or is it PP?

Anyway, great pictures!

Hey Tariag

The sky was a little blue but over exposed, so I used the GND in lightroom to bring it down and the sky became blue. That's all.

Ken Gosden wrote:

All are very nice. Agree that the first elephant shot is excellent. I also really like the 'golden light' with the solitary antelope(?).

Thanks Ken, I did try very hard for the golden light antelope. I wasn't sure of how much to lift the shadow on the antelope. Do it all the way or leave only a shilout. Decided to have just enough for a few details and that's it.

Cheers Ken

Rahul

larsbc wrote:

Definitely explore more of your "experimental" shots. They were very, very good, especially the b/w lion couple. The conventional shots were nice but your "unconventional" shots really impressed me.

Thanks for the encouragement Iarabc. Appreciate it. Till next time I go back I think I will have to maintain a set of notes to keep a record of what I did so I can explore further.

Cheers

Skeeterbytes wrote:

A fine set--you used your time there well. Am just getting accustomed to the 40-150+300 Pro pairing and so far am thrilled by their 1-2 punch (sports in my case). Oly has brought us to the promised land where the aspirational has become reality. After seeing your work I'd definitely lug them on safari.

Cheers,

Rick

Hey Rick

Totally agree. The two work very well together. Don't forget the mc14 though, I used it a few times, more with the 40-150. Very helpful.

Cheers Rick

Rahul

boxerman wrote:

Just a wonderful set! I admire your pushing to get different perspectives, especially low-down shots. Our first safari involved a stay at Little Governors, too. That was 2010, and I was woefully underprepared with camera equipment. I remember fighting (successfully, I think) the urge to portraitize every animal. But, I will try hard to think more about vertical angle, from your shots.

that's a complement and thank you for it.

The 300 seemed to do wonderfully for you. But, I've always wanted zoom for safari--to get the framing better fit to the scene more often. Did you miss that flexibility at all? I even found 300 too short on many occasions, and used digital teleconverter.

I have always been a prime user at the Oly end (Birder) so I am very comfortable. And it's about giving clear instructions to your driver where to stop. I always prefer two cameras and lenses. Much more easier with my combo. The prime forces you to get novel portraits.

You? These days, I've been shooting 75-300 (plan to move to the 100-400, for the flexibility, per above), and my wife loves the 40-150 for video. I guess your having both on separate cameras lessens the need a bit for a zoom on the big lens.

Two notes: We were told that the wildebeest initiating the river crossing was essentially random...there is no alpha guiding them. Were you told differently? It is very tempting to just assume the first one is a leader. There's actually psychological literature on that assumption!

Interesting! Didn't know about that. I mentioned about the leader from a discovery channel series I saw long time back.

I have a different perspective on "lazy" cheetah's.

Lazy was me trying to be funny.

They are really very fragile creatures, in a small and narrowing niche.

Yep agree they are fragile and can be chased away from their pray even by a solitary hyena.

Just at the edge of disaster, most times, even more, I think, than other top-line predators. Lions, for example, are big and burly, but cheetahs have to hit their prey just right...don't have the option of wrestling them to the ground. If you haven't, you must find the BBC series "The Hunt."

Will do.

You're recognize some of the places they filmed. (We also went to Zambia and Botswana more recently, and I swear we recognized some particular fields they photographed.)

Thanks for your contribution. Inspiring.

-- hide signature --

The BoxerMan

Cheers Boxerman

Rahul

glassoholic wrote:

RVC as someone mentioned you did not just take tight portraits. Well done for seeing and taking shots that most would not.

Thanks Glassoholic

Before the trip, I went through pictures of people who had gone and realised that they all had the same angle and similar feel and I wanted to do something different. Didn't want the touristy shots, and you see the results.

Tones more on my flickr gallery.

Cheers

Rahul

Hey Guys

A heartfelt thanks for your comments and encouragement. I felt that more pictures needed to be shared but sis not want to spam it here so posting a link to my flickr gallery, do feel free to visit if these pictures piqued your interest.

https://flickr.com/photos/126558841@N07/sets/72157671936645371

C Sean wrote:

Excellent Work RVC!

I'm going to Kenya next month and I would like to ask you a question.

What do you think is the best method to get the animal's eyes or face in focus? Normally I focus on the point I want and recompose the camera before firing off the shutter. Usually I use the center one focus point to achieve this.

Hey Sean

That's exactly what I do, keep the focus point on the eye. With the greater dof with m43 it's much easier to get the eyes in focus. I generally use the arrow button to move the focus point around rather than focus and recompose. The large mammals don't move fast and you will mostly come across them sitting. That's why the giraffe and ostrich are so tough to photograph. Their eyes / head is so far removed from the body.

If you are shooting an animal in motion just aim for the head.

Hope this helps.

Cheers Sean

Rahul

19andrew47 wrote:

A very enjoyable set. You did well.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew

R V C wrote:

C Sean wrote:

What do you think is the best method to get the animal's eyes or face in focus? Normally I focus on the point I want and recompose the camera before firing off the shutter. Usually I use the center one focus point to achieve this.

Hey Sean

That's exactly what I do, keep the focus point on the eye. With the greater dof with m43 it's much easier to get the eyes in focus. I generally use the arrow button to move the focus point around rather than focus and recompose. The large mammals don't move fast and you will mostly come across them sitting. That's why the giraffe and ostrich are so tough to photograph. Their eyes / head is so far removed from the body.

Just a small technical point on the technique of aiming the camera to focus directly on the subject, and then recomposing. This results in the focus plane being FARTHER from the subject than the subject actually is, in the final composition. Draw yourself a little diagram (Basically, your focus distance becomes the hypotenuse of a right triangle, one leg of which is the distance to true focal plane. And, ahem, the legs are alway shorter than the hypotenuse.)

Under most circumstances, this won't matter that much, but if you are in a situation of really thin depth of field, then moving the focus point on the framing you want will be more accurate. The new long lenses (300 f/ 4 or 400 f/6.3) may bring this into play more. I'm hoping to get really convenient focal point moving (e.g., tracking with your finger on the display while looking thru the EVF) on the E-M1 II. I almost always use EVF, so would have to use arrow keys, now, which is horribly inefficient and slow for me.

boxerman wrote:

R V C wrote:

C Sean wrote:

What do you think is the best method to get the animal's eyes or face in focus? Normally I focus on the point I want and recompose the camera before firing off the shutter. Usually I use the center one focus point to achieve this.

Hey Sean

That's exactly what I do, keep the focus point on the eye. With the greater dof with m43 it's much easier to get the eyes in focus. I generally use the arrow button to move the focus point around rather than focus and recompose. The large mammals don't move fast and you will mostly come across them sitting. That's why the giraffe and ostrich are so tough to photograph. Their eyes / head is so far removed from the body.

Just a small technical point on the technique of aiming the camera to focus directly on the subject, and then recomposing. This results in the focus plane being FARTHER from the subject than the subject actually is, in the final composition. Draw yourself a little diagram (Basically, your focus distance becomes the hypotenuse of a right triangle, one leg of which is the distance to true focal plane. And, ahem, the legs are alway shorter than the hypotenuse.)

Under most circumstances, this won't matter that much, but if you are in a situation of really thin depth of field, then moving the focus point on the framing you want will be more accurate. The new long lenses (300 f/ 4 or 400 f/6.3) may bring this into play more. I'm hoping to get really convenient focal point moving (e.g., tracking with your finger on the display while looking thru the EVF) on the E-M1 II. I almost always use EVF, so would have to use arrow keys, now, which is horribly inefficient and slow for me.

R V C wrote:

boxerman wrote:

R V C wrote:

C Sean wrote:

What do you think is the best method to get the animal's eyes or face in focus? Normally I focus on the point I want and recompose the camera before firing off the shutter. Usually I use the center one focus point to achieve this.

Hey Sean

That's exactly what I do, keep the focus point on the eye. With the greater dof with m43 it's much easier to get the eyes in focus. I generally use the arrow button to move the focus point around rather than focus and recompose. The large mammals don't move fast and you will mostly come across them sitting. That's why the giraffe and ostrich are so tough to photograph. Their eyes / head is so far removed from the body.

Just a small technical point on the technique of aiming the camera to focus directly on the subject, and then recomposing. This results in the focus plane being FARTHER from the subject than the subject actually is, in the final composition. Draw yourself a little diagram (Basically, your focus distance becomes the hypotenuse of a right triangle, one leg of which is the distance to true focal plane. And, ahem, the legs are alway shorter than the hypotenuse.)

Under most circumstances, this won't matter that much, but if you are in a situation of really thin depth of field, then moving the focus point on the framing you want will be more accurate. The new long lenses (300 f/ 4 or 400 f/6.3) may bring this into play more. I'm hoping to get really convenient focal point moving (e.g., tracking with your finger on the display while looking thru the EVF) on the E-M1 II. I almost always use EVF, so would have to use arrow keys, now, which is horribly inefficient and slow for me.

Dunno why my edits didn't appear.

But agree with you Boxerman

With long lenses the dof is too thin to do this trick and so I never use it.

I hope the pen f function where u can change focus point on the screen is good. Will have to wait for em1 mkii to see. If not I am not with the direction arrow keys.

Cheers

Rahul

Terrific series of captures Rahul, great variety of animals, compositions and lighting.

I really like most of them, especially the elephant, close up cheetah and leopard and the giraffe. Very well done.

Haven't read all the comments and your replies but I notice a lot taken with the 40-150mm. Did you find this focal range sufficient most of the times because of the size of the animals or just trying to include the environment in the shots?

Did you find that you used the 40-150mm more then the 300mm f4?

Cheers

Dennis

Denjw wrote:

Terrific series of captures Rahul, great variety of animals, compositions and lighting.

I really like most of them, especially the elephant, close up cheetah and leopard and the giraffe. Very well done.

Haven't read all the comments and your replies but I notice a lot taken with the 40-150mm. Did you find this focal range sufficient most of the times because of the size of the animals or just trying to include the environment in the shots?

Did you find that you used the 40-150mm more then the 300mm f4?

Cheers

Dennis

Hey  Dennis

Thanks for the compliment.

I am glad I bought the 40-150 pro before I went. I did use it a lot, mostly during

1) early morning and late evening for the f2.8

2) when we were very close to the animals

3) for habitat shots but used the 300 almost as much.

I am so much more comfortable with the 300 than anything shorter.

Cheers Dennis

Rahul