Find the Zebra

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 25, 2015217 views10 comments

There's a zebra in there somewhere...deep in the forests of the Zambezi Valley (Mana Pools, Zimbabwe to be exact).
Wildlife photography is as much about capturing a moment, and painting with light, as it is about photographing wildlife. Sometimes, the wildlife is of secondary importance to your frame.

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 80-400mm VR-II @ 240mm
f5.6 | 1/250 SS | ISO-2500

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on October 25, 2015 at 9:34 AM

Where's Waldo? enlightened

Hey Morkel...I fully agree with the sentiments you express here (but you already knew that, right?). Nicely done...and quite the scene. My only small nit is that the fallen tree behind the "anchor" in the frame (good ol' Waldo) breaks up its outline enough to be a disproportionately large distraction (and all I mean by this is that despite the small size of both the subject and that log the distracting effect of the log is surprisingly significant, at least to my eye).

Nicely seen, nicely captured, and nicely processed. Well done.

Cheers...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Mario Moreno on October 25, 2015 at 10:04 AM

The light captured is superb Morkel ....... The zebra rounds up your composition and adds the touch <div id="myEventWatcherDiv" style="display:none;"> </div>

Registered on January 24, 2012, 163 Posts, 369 Comments

Comment posted by Roel Wijtmans on October 25, 2015 at 2:49 PM

Wow, that's a winner! My only small nit (very small that is) is the same as Brad has, but that's out of your control. But that light is just superb!

Registered on September 30, 2012, 116 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Minish on October 25, 2015 at 10:57 PM

The zebra may be a small part of this scene but it really establishes a sense of scale for everything else. The light in this scene is amazing and I'm guessing you had to do a lot of work to bring out the details in the shadow portions (including the zebra). It's a very eyecatching scene, Morkel!

Registered on February 4, 2006, 625 Posts, 3583 Comments

Comment posted by Hisham Atallah on October 27, 2015 at 2:55 AM

Very nicely composed. Love the patches of light in the center foreground and just behind the zebra. Also the reoccurring pattern in the horizontal branches.

Cheers,

Hisham.

Registered on November 5, 2014, 121 Posts, 352 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on October 29, 2015 at 9:42 PM

Beautiful sense of place that, I agree, almost makes the zebra of minor importance. Good eye, well rendered.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on November 1, 2015 at 2:12 AM

Yikes!! Another stunning, painterly image, Morkel! Wonderful tones and tremendous sense of scale. Just phenomenal. In the "in a perfect world" category I would probably love this even more without the log being directly behind the zebra, but that's hardly within your control.

Registered on April 5, 2011, 223 Posts, 1193 Comments

Comment posted by Joe James on November 1, 2015 at 6:58 PM

Superb image Morkel! I just love your photographs from Mana Pools.

Registered on November 20, 2009, 89 Posts, 808 Comments

Comment posted by Cay-Uwe Kulzer on November 8, 2015 at 1:54 AM

Morkel,

this is a very nice image that perfectly illustrates that nature photography is art and not always as one sees so often in the later years only about action ...

Registered on January 27, 2004, 494 Posts, 4021 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on February 8, 2016 at 5:08 PM

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! :D

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments