Edward Rotberg
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 Namibian Potpourri (14) | |
I recently returned from a couple of weeks in Namibia. We were there right at the start of spring, but unfortunately at the end of the dry season, so things were very brown - when they weren\'t rocky or sandy. The country is fascinating and the people were as well. Lots of wildlife opportunities, though I would say that it seems more spread out that what I saw in Tanzania in 2011. We did see a few very rare animals (Aardvark and Bat-eared foxes for example). Usually those were in terrible light, but I will probably post a photo or two at some point, just because of their rarity.
Sadly, I never did see the one animal I was most hoping to - a Caracal. I spoke to a South African working pro who was leading a photo safari and he said he is lucky if he sees two or three in a year.
A couple of notes. I shot with both my 1DX and a borrowed 7D Mk II as I was trying to decide if I should sell my 7D and get the Mk II as my 2nd body. The extra reach appeals to me, but I\'m sad to say that the image quality is just not there unless you have pretty good light. Once you drop even to ISO 800, its deficiencies relative to the 1DX become apparent. I will probably save up cash for the 1DX Mk II when it comes out, or buy a 2nd, used 1DX when the prices start to fall.
I decided to limit these photos to 1024 pixels max on the longest side. They will be posted bigger on my site when I get around to uploading them there ( http://www.edrotberg.org/gallery )
The EXIF is intact as always, and all comments and critiques, good, bad, or indifferent are welcome. This is just a smattering of images as I\'ve only just started processing them. Hopefully more to come later.
= Ed =
We started our trip spending 3 days at the Cheetah Conservancy Fund near the town of Otjiwarongo. The folks here do a fantastic job with not only rehabilitating cheetahs, but training Anatolian Sheep dog to sell cheaply to the local farmers to protect their livestock from predators. They do great work and were wonderful hosts.
1. Cheetah - full tilt. This was taken at the Conservancy. This is one of the4 \"ambassador\" cheetahs that they have. They are all siblings that were taken in by the Conservancy when their mother was killed. They are not tame, but they are used to people. We were in the enclosure with them when they were being exercised and at times they were very, very close to us. This photo was taken with my 28-7fmm lens at 75mm! Though I wanted to get low for a better perspective, I was warned not to as it my make me appear to be prey. I stayed standing up 
2. We were lucky to see two separate fights between male Giraffes, as the vied for dominance over the females. It was amazing to see them swing their horns into each others bodies. The light was not great, however.
3. Flying Bananas. That\'s what the locals call the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills.
4. Black Rhino at dusk at the Hilali watering hole. The light here is from a spotlight. This was taken at 500mm f/4 ISO 6400 1/6 second with mirror lockup and cable release. I wanted to change to the 100-400 to get more of the reflection, but I was afraid that 1/3 second would just be too long. As it is, you can see motion blur in the near ear of the rhino. The sky obviously did not appear that blue during the photo, but rather it was a deep indigo. I did not mess with the way it came out at all, however.
5. Black Rhino mother & child. We were driving ourselves through Etosha National Park one evening and we caught these two in perfect light at a different watering hole. Sadly, the monotone nature of the image makes it less interesting than the night shot.
6. Swallow-tailed Bee Eaters. \'nuff said.
7. Lion stands over lioness. Shortly before we came across the mother & child rhinos, we came upon a lion and lioness doin\' what the birds and the bees do. We stayed for quite a while as their amorous moments were numerous with short rest periods between. Once again the light was not great, but check out the focal lengths - we were very close!
8. Lioness portrait in the shade. From the same session as above.
9. Makalani Palms along a Namibian river. OK, so this isn\'t strictly wildlife, though it might count as nature. The scene was simply striking, however, especially as it was one of the very few places where we saw any green. The palms are not indigenous to Namibia. The Brahma Bulls were a bonus
10. Namibian Rock Agama female
11. Red-billed Francolin
12. Dik-dik male. This was taken in some really great light.
13. Black-backed Jackal. Again, some pretty good light.
14. Black-backed jackal tears at a Springbok carcass. Not the same jackal as above. We happened on this guy working over this carcass not far from the road in Etosha National Park.
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