Zebra in South Africa

[Mike Buckley]

Photos 1A and 1B were captured at the water hole located at Motswiri Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve. The other photos were captured while self-driving through Addo Elephant National Park. Photo 6 was captured by my wife and post-processed by me.


Photo 1A



Photo 1B (The revised crop is thanks to Richard's suggestion.)



Photo 2



Photo 3



Photo 4



Photo 5



Photo 6

[Brownbear]

Stunning images, all!

I adore the bold compositions of #1 and #3, especially #3. #5 is my favourite. I also adore the 2nd image for the moment, detail and beauty captured... I find the blurred branch on the right hand side - extending from just above the zebras mouth/nose a little distracting.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, Christina, and especially for mentioning the branch in the background. That problem will be easy to solve.

[rpcrowe]

Mike,

I love these images... Have you even considered cropping #1 in from the left so that the zebra image left is a mirror image to the zebra on image right. This makes for a very neat composition....

[Kaye Leggett]

Beautiful photos and lovely colouring. You were fortunate to get so close, Zebra's are generally very skittish, or perhaps there were no lions around ?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Mike,

As others have said; a great series.

My contribution to PP ideas?
While I appreciate the dung piles are part of the landscape, on #5, I find the two in the 'foreground' either side of the right most zebra somewhat distracting and I'd clone just those two out if the shot were mine.

HTH,

[Donald]

Compliments, Mike. Fine photography.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

Richard: I added the crop that you suggested to the first post of the thread. I hadn't thought of it on my own, mostly because I had the other crop in mind when I captured the photo. However, the first crop is already using a small portion of the file. Your suggested crop is using an even smaller portion, so the print size will definitely be limited. I was shooting with a 300mm lens on a camera with a 1.5 crop factor and could easily have used twice the focal length for the crop that you suggested.

Kaye: It was interesting to learn how unbelievably skittish the zebras were. All of these photos were shot with the equipment mentioned in my reply to Richard, so I wasn't particularly close. Even so, the reason I was able to get Photo #5 with all of the animals looking nearly at me is because the click of my shutter spooked them enough that they looked up from their grazing. When taking Photo 1 from about 30 meters (90 feet) away or more, despite that the animals were preoccupied with drinking water, a bartender in the lounge another 10 meters to my rear and behind a wall clinked some ice that caused all the zebras to jump. When I lifted my camera to my eye, that also made them jump. I don't know if there were any lions nearby but the zebras in the last two photos wouldn't go to a nearby water hole until the elephants had departed.

Dave: I got so used to seeing elephant dung everywhere, including spending two days driving the car and dodging the piles because running over them kills the dung beetles, that all the piles in the photo have become no more distracting to me than a cloud in the sky. Even so, removing the two piles that you mentioned certainly can't hurt. Considering that almost everyone would surely have your perspective about the dung rather than mine, I'll be sure to remove them. Thank you!

[Brownbear]

LOL... I hadn't noticed those but I like the two in the foreground on the right hand side, and I would keep them, ie; its nature... The ones on the left hand side (rear ones) I might clone out because they are not as beautifully symmetrical.

PS I really like Richards idea for a crop.

Hi Mike,

As others have said; a great series.

My contribution to PP ideas?
While I appreciate the dung piles are part of the landscape, on #5, I find the two in the 'foreground' either side of the right most zebra somewhat distracting and I'd clone just those two out if the shot were mine.

HTH,

[Mike Buckley]

You folks seem to like zebras so much that I added Photo 6 captured by my wife to the first post in the thread. I should have used it instead of Photo 4 in the first place.

[Brownbear]

Photo 6, is beautiful... Yes, indeed your zebras are exquisite!

[Digital]

Nice series Mike.


Bruce

[ucci]

Magnificent captures. No other comment from me as I intend to go back to just enjoying them. Thank you for sharing these so I got to see them.

[Mike Buckley]

I created this monochrome version to emphasize the stark nature of the pattern of stripes. I will remove the distracting background stuff at the top center of the image and the distracting hoofs in the water on the right side if I decide that the image is worth taking the time to do that. That also goes for the color version of this photo.


Photo 7

[Loose Canon]

I think you should take the time Mike.

The image is worth it for sure.

#3 reminded me a lot of myself! Horse's A**!

[jprzybyla]

Nice series Mike...great images, wonderful memories.

[Wavelength]

Stunning images

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

Joe: I'm not yet willing to agree with you that the images are "great," but I am wholeheartedly with you that they are the very best memories.

[jamn4ex]

these are really great!

[Mike Buckley]

Glad to know that you disagree with me, James.

All,

Terry encouraged me to take the time to remove the distracting stuff that I mentioned when I posted Photo 7. I woke up this morning feeling energized and ready to take on that task, so I eliminated those distracting elements and more. It's not so much that the image is worth making those changes; it's that the task is so easy to accomplish and downright enjoyable to do if doing that sort of thing is enjoyable to you. That leads to my next point.

For those of you who have Lightroom 4 and can make use of a far more powerful Cloning tool, I urge you to test drive the Cloning tool in Lightroom 5 or at least review a tutorial about its improved capabilities. If you have Lightroom 5.0, be sure to immediately update to 5.2, as the Cloning tool is even more powerful in that later version. Though I realize that I mentioned this in another thread, it bears worth repeating here.

The revised photo is shown below with the distracting elements removed and with an improved conversion to monochrome. It's fun to move back and forth in the Lytebox between these last two images to see how much stronger the revised image is.


Photo 8