Sunset silhouettes in South Africa

[Mike Buckley]

I came upon these three scenes while on game drives in Madikwe Game Reserve. One of them required patient positioning of our truck by our guide. The other two were taken while I was out of the truck...drinking wine .


Photo #1



Photo #2



Photo #3

[Stagecoach]

Great series Mike,

It's No 1 for me with it's suggestion of a hot dry landscape.

[Rob Ekins]

3 for me Mike,

I hope it was one of the drinking wine shots... it has that feel.




Robbie.

[ShaneS]

Lovely shots Mike! I'm torn between the first and third - as said above the first as an environmental shot and the third just because of the composition.

I'm not sure if is the fact that Halloween is just around the corner but my mind went there right away with the second and third shots

[John 2]

Like all three of these in their own way Mike. Good eye.

[dje]

All very nice Mike, great stuff. And not a halo in sight

Dave

[pasusan]

Hi Mike - Great job. All three are very nice, but #2 is my favorite - I like the horizontal cloud lines across the sun that mimic some of the branches of the tree.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone! It's interesting that at least so far there is no clear favorite, which also reflects my thinking.

[Brownbear]

While I adore the first image, the 3rd is my definite favourite... very unique and different.

[Mike Buckley]

This photo was captured by my wife and post-processed by me.

Photo #4

[kdoc856]

I really love number 3: compelling simplicity with a strong silhouette over a lovely palette

[Digital]

Mike, very nice images.


Bruce

[deetheturk]

Great images Mike, no.2 for me!

[tbob]

The best ,by far, is number 4. Shows real talent and puts the rest to shame.

More seriously; #2 The banding on the sun, the tree silhouette and the trees in the partial shade make this for me. Could even withstand a tighter crop to make the main tree silhouette more dominant

[Mike Buckley]

Continued thanks to everyone!

The best ,by far, is number 4. Shows real talent and puts the rest to shame.

It's good to know that you and others are picking up on that trend.

#2...Could even withstand a tighter crop to make the main tree silhouette more dominant

I actually had a tighter crop in mind when I captured the image even though I was using the longest focal length in my bag. I will experiment but this image is already a relatively small portion of the image file and the quality will suffer if the file becomes too small.

[rpcrowe]

I like them all. This is one type of an image that I would have wanted to bring back if I ever visited Africa...

[Nancy Moran G]

. The other two were taken while I was out of the truck...drinking wine .

You were really roughin' it, huh..
#3 for me, and the small branches on right almost look like they are clapping at this wonderful sunset.
Nancy

Photo #1



Photo #2



Photo #3

[Mike Buckley]

And not a halo in sight
Dave

Thanks for mentioning that, Dave. I just now remembered that I forgot to expand on your nice observation.

For those who aren't aware, the part of an image that has dark tones adjacent to substantially bright tones often needs no sharpening. That's because the contrast between the dark and bright tones provides a nice edge that has the appearance of being sharp. In those situations, it's nice that there is no need to risk or attend to halos that often become apparent when using the Unsharp tool. As an example, Photo #3 has no sharpening applied anywhere in the photo. That includes removing all sharpening that had been applied to the RAW data at the time of capture.

[Mike Buckley]

Yes, we were really roughing it, Nancy. We were forced to drink wine out of metal goblets presumably because the bumpy rides surely would have broken glass.

[Suzan J]

These are truly amazing shots. I also cannot decide on a favourite. It think they would look great framed as a trio. You must have had a very interesting vacation. If drinking wine can cause a person to get shots like these, then please pass the bottle!