Supper on the banks of the Zambezi

[Morkel Erasmus]

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D800
• 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
• ƒ/22
• 70mm
• 1/160s
• ISO 1800
• Morkel Erasmus
• Flash not fired
• Mon, 18 July 2016 5:19 PM
• Morkel Erasmus Photography
• Ver.1.10

Hi folks. :e3
Long time no see, I know.
What a tough time it's been all around the world! And my tough times began even before that...

Long story short, in the last 4 years I have:
1) completed a grueling MBA while working full time and being present for my family
2) lost my father-in-law due to an aggressive form of cancer
3) seen my mom fall ill with pancreatic cancer, go through a very big operation and subsequent treatment, only to have the cancer spread through her body and lose her to this terrible disease
4) seen my dad fade away after losing my mom, only to succumb to heart failure after a very big (but necessary) operation last year
5) made a major career change which saw me have to give up leading safaris, relocate my family, and sell off all my photographic gear (due to very little time for photographic travel)
6) had another baby (a late-comer, my other children are heading into their teens) which has upended the apple cart quite significantly in our household :t3

Frankly, I had to focus on my personal life and pushed travel to the background (the travel we did do was to my parents' place), and I lost the will and energy to edit the thousands of images still in my library, and lost the passion to spend time on forums like these with the little free time that I had...

I am hoping to slowly get back to working on my photos, posting photos online, and planning out where photography will fit into my schedule and life going forward.
I know I will never stop taking photos and loving photography, but I know there are seasons in life and I have had to adapt to mine.
We did recently find time for a wonderful off-road overland adventure to the Northern Cape and Namibia, and I am beefing up my overland travel kit at the moment in pursuit of giving my children lifelong memories of overland travel in the wilderness.

So after that long intro, this is a previously unshared photo from the last trip I led to Mana Pools in Zimbabwe in 2016...a magical afternoon spent in the presence of a couple of relaxed elephant bulls.

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 70mm
f22
1/160 SS
ISO-800
handheld, on foot

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, I like the concept, but the sunburst I personally find too dominating and draws the eye and there seems to be some artifacts within the file. In addition I would have thought the FG would have been in shade, as the sun is behind, so the light looks a bit off????

Is the starburst from a filter, or software as I see so often now in Social media where skys are just replaced to create added interest to the image.

TFS
Steve

 

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Morkel, I like the concept, but the sunburst I personally find too dominating and draws the eye and there seems to be some artifacts within the file. In addition I would have thought the FG would have been in shade, as the sun is behind, so the light looks a bit off????

Is the starburst from a filter, or software as I see so often now in Social media where skys are just replaced to create added interest to the image.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve.
Artifacts noted, this is an older processed file (from circa 4 years ago) so might need to rework it.
The sunburst is natural, as shot, as you know I don't like to manipulate my images by adding things that weren't there.
M

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel ... you're still alive :5:cheers:
Nice to see you surfacing here .... a great part of creativity will be thrown into the straight forward mix , with your return . Hope you found time to participate on a regular basis .

A very pleasing start with this animalscape .... capture and comp is wonderful and I do like the sun and the placement of the ellie . Albeit it has a somewhat HDR effect due to your processing I quite like it .... but it is borderline for my taste .

Keep posting and commenting ... my friend

TFS Andreas

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

I think a very eye catching shot, the sun perhaps a little too dominant in terms of overall brightness, I could imagine some contrast in the mid/foreground to help emphasise the sun shining into bottom right corner. The elephant looks ideally positioned. A very pleasing image I enjoyed viewing.

 

[Marc Mol]

Welcome back mate! Hope you stick around for a while. :5

I do remember you mentioning the loss of both parents and what a double blow that must have been for you and family.

A typical Morkel scape image, nicely seen, true that sunburst is large in the frame however the Ele is enough to anchor the scene overall. This is Mana to a tee, well done.

TFS.

 

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, folks.

Yes, Marc, been a really tough time even without lockdowns and Covid etc. We are pulling through, though.

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

My goodness Morkel, you and your family have been through so much. Glad to see you popping back, and hopefully doing well, despite all these events (although the new child is surely a blessing :S3. I love the mega starburst and the placement of the elephant on the opposite side of the frame - a well balanced composition.