Picture a Week (PAW): Week 17. Elephant Cell

Canon EOS 7D. Tamron 70-200mm at 70mm. ISO 3200. f11@1/250th sec

Picture a Week (PAW) : Wk 10. Thanda Lodge. March photographic workshop.

Thulani, "the quiet one".

New for the blog: 2015 - Picture a Week (PAW)

Since 2010 I have been sure to be photographing at least every week. Sometimes this is easy, it happens as a matter of course. But sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the photographic work that I do is just that - "photographic work that I do". I love photography, but I don't love all photography. A lot of my pictures a week (PAWs) emerge out of what I do for fun. Often, but not always, they emerge out of places where I have no clients to please, no deadlines to meet and no pressure to perform. It is important that I find these spaces and places for without them I run the risk of becoming an unenthusiastic, uninspired and uninspiring photographer. The possibility of this abhors me. So I make sure that I am shooting what I want at least every week and posting a picture. They are all on my website, but this year I've decided to add them to my blog too. Now in its sixth year, it has become a kind of visual diary for me. Like most photographers I remember the times, I remember the mood, I remember the circumstances and I remember my intentions. I hope you remember to come back and have a look at the progress.

Thanda Lodge. May's wildlife workshop

For reasons obscure I didn't post images from this workshop that I ran in may this year. Surprising because we had some really great sightings and a really great bunch of volunteers. just a couple of catch up images from the trip.

Canon EOS 7D. Sigma 18-50mm @18mm. 20.0 sec @f/3.5. ISO 1600. Additional light provided by painting with an LED torch and a tungsten torch.

Canon EOS 7D. Canon EF 35-350mm @270mm. 1/750th sec @ f/5.6. ISO 400.

Canon EOS 7D. Canon EF 35-350mm @350mm. 1/500th sec @ f/5.6. ISO 200.

Canon EOS 7D. Canon EF 35-350mm @ 350mm. 1/500th sec @ f/11. ISO 400.

Canon EOS 7D. Sigma 18-50 @21mm. 1/90th sec @ f/4.5. ISO 400.And we have a hyena, a lion, two elephants and I don't know ... or impersonations thereof.

People Snapping Safaris

Okay, so this post is really a plea. We all know that photography is a voyeuristic passion. Oh, come on. Don't pretend you didn't know! With a camera to your eye (or worse, a picture in your hand or pixels on a screen) you can stare all you like. A safari often turns out to be something similar. I don't just mean looking and picturing wildlife. I'm talking about those guys ... those other people. Shhhh ....!

Sometimes you might find bouncing about on the back of a vehicle getting a little dull. Or maybe those lions have been lying on their backs for the last half an hour, barely moving, and you've already pushed your creativity by doing the paws in the air shot and then the abstracts. You've cleaned the grease off your LCD screen and you are wondering what the time is.

And then as if out of nowhere you see them, those other guys, and predator like you become attentive and alert. You're back to being a camera slinger now and they're the rustlers. We can break these new subjects into a couple of different categories.

1. The Guy Next To You. This is often the start. Its passive and its kinda what you do with your mates and your cell phone back home, so why not here, on safari and with your DSLR?

2. The Vehicle Next To You. Unlike walking with wildlife, if you're in a vehicle you are probably not the only group there. Thankfully there are some ethically sensitive operators who have a policy of limiting two vehicles to a sighting. So your eyes will stray and you will start to stare (how else are you going to see what equipment they are using, right?)

 (And if you haven't asked it already, you should be thinking ... Where is the driver? The answer? Behind the camera - and the rhino!)

 

 3. The Mirror Next to You. Mirrors make great framing elements for other subjects but it is often a little cliché. Look for other types of images and use mirrors to add that little personal touch (and I don't just mean as in yourself). Whenever I am about to embark on a game drive, I always check the mirrors and give then a little wipe. Your driver might think you're a little hygiene sensitive and thank you awkwardly. The mirrors are almost always dirty and a dirty mirror really doesn't help an image at all. 

4.The Other Guy In The Campsite Next To You. Its not always about being confined to a vehicle. In many of Africa's best parks, fences don't really come into the picture (so to speak!) So when you downloading and 'oooing' and 'ahhing' over your previous encounter, keep a weary eye. Elephants don't knock, why would they? You are sitting in their house. In the picture below, my brother contemplates the approach of tea time and the failed departure of an elephant!

5. Just The People Next To You. So we return, effortlessly it would seem to voyeurism. (Okay I exaggerate a little). Have you ever watched, say, two people argueing in the car next to you at a traffic light, or accross the street? You see them going at it, hands and all, but you can't hear a word. So you smile to your self and imagine the words, the cause and the probable outcome. This next image is a little like that because I shot it without including in my frame whatever they are looking at. You have to imagine what it might be. Out of the eight people, there are five different directions being looked in, and with varying levels of enthusiasm. So what are they looking at?
Imagine what it might be 'cos I'm not telling you!