The early rainy season is a tricky time for photography, as there is endless intense greenery (which appears almost unnatural) and much of the game scatters away from the main river after the initial downpours.
However, a few months on, and we find ourselves living in a paradise of lush grasses, flooded waterways and flowering plants. The early green growth, which is lurid and bright (perhaps a celebration after so many months of dry browns) has handed over to a gentler life-giving green, which is soft and makes for beautiful backdrops.
After some time away, we were very happy to be out in the National Park once more, noticing that we had – once again – forgotten how dramatically different the Valley looks after the addition of many billion gallons of rain.
With such beautiful sights to be enjoyed, we will certainly be out again soon, so there’ll be more on this blog soon.
Comments
By Allan Semmler: Love the shot of Ginger and the Impala in the Lupunga Grass. So different from when we were there in October.
Allan & Raelene.
By Edward Selfe: Hi Allan & Rae –
Thanks for getting in touch! Yes, it’s hard to believe that it’s the same place as the one you visited in September. Equally, it’s hard to imagine how it will ever dry out….the mud, rain and water are everywhere!
Hope to see you again one day.
Ed
By Marlies Vermeesch: Love the photo with the running zebras. Hope we can try to make another one when we are back
By Edward Selfe: Hi Marlies! Yes, you know how I like to try out different things…! We can certainly work on this when you next visit.
The key thing with getting a shot like this is that you have to slow down your shutter speed significantly. You will be constantly monitoring the light levels and adjusting your ISO up and down to ensure you get the best combination of sharp images and low digital noise. But you need to ignore all that for motion blur images, where you need a shutter speed of between 1/30sec and 1/100sec depending on the subject.
To do this, I use a combination of ISO and Aperture. When I see a good motion blur situation coming up, I roll the top wheel rapidly to the right to increase (make smaller) my aperture value; I also reduce my ISO a couple of stops and then have a look to see if I’ve done enough to give a shutter speed in the range mentioned above. Since these running situations often come and go quite quickly, it’s worth practicing this so that you’re ready to go when the chance arises.
Looking forward to seeing you again! All the best to Wil, Henk and Kitty,
Ed