Another graceful animal of the bush, the kudu, here a female one. They seem so curious that they can keep looking out you without moving for seconds, which is fantastic to photograph them.
Shot handheld at 300mm f/5.6 1/250s. The shutter speed was limit, I guess the lens VR (Vibration Reduction) did its job. Lessons learned is that I should have used a higher ISO, up to 800. Many of my wildlife shots ended up slightly blurred.
Processing: 1 RAW of course, the original was a bit overexposed so I derived 3 exposures from the RAW file using Nikon Capture NX2, then recombined them with layer masks in CS3. The background was blurred but not enough and therefore a bit distracting, so I added an extra gaussian blur.
Please check Paul's (panorama_paul) and André's (andreinafrica) photostreams for more great shots of that fantastic 2-days outing in the bush!
South Africa Set
Tags: NoHDR NoDRI 1exp South Africa Waterberg Game Reserve Wildlife Kudu Bush panorama_paul andreinafrica Nikon D300 Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR DanielKHC danielcheong BRAVO interestingness196 Explore16Aug08 Explore Interestingness gettyimagesmeandafrica1
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So here is my first wildlife shot, out of my 'comfort zone'! Only one exposure, handheld, processed from RAW.
This was the first time I could really test my Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR, which is certainly not the ultimate lens for wild life shots. Of course, the famous Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR is the sharpest, but having an extra 100mm focal length also makes the difference when you have to shoot from very far away in order not to frighten the animals.
I took lots of animal shots, but I might be able to save only 4 shots. Timing was a critical factor. Sometimes I had to switch lenses (very scary with all that dust!). I could have also boosted the ISO to get faster shutter speeds, but did not think about it. Will do better next time!
Please check Paul's (panorama_paul) and André's (andreinafrica) photostreams for more great shots of that fantastic 2-days outing in the bush!
South Africa Set
Tags: No HDR No DRI No Blending 1exp South Africa Waterberg Game Reserve Wildlife Bush Giraffe Nikon D300 Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR danielcheong DanielKHC panorama_paul andreinafrica BRAVO SpecAnimal NaturesFinest Explore13Aug08 interestingness106 Explore Interestingness gettyimagesmeandafrica1
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Orchid Garden, Terminal 2, Changi Airport, Singapore.
Tags: sony singapore hyperreal hdr danielcheong flowers alpha a100 orchid airport changi interior garden colors fish pond Explore #488 21-Dec-06 Sigma 18-200mm interior 5xp Tonemapped DanielKHC 10+faves hdrenfrancais Interestingness
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Butterfly Park, Sentosa, Singapore
Tags: butterfly insects singapore sony animal alpha a100 danielcheong DanielKHC
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