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Low key Black and white photo of two male buffalo in the Kruger National Park
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Low key Black and white photo of two male buffalo in the Kruger National Park



behind the lens badge
cameraCanon EOS 7D

settings Aperture f/5.6 ISO 100 Shutter 1/250 Focal Length 400/1 

upload_dateApr, 2018

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5070

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4 Comments |
geetppatil
 
geetppatil April 02, 2018
great animal portrait
christophersalerno
christophersalerno April 02, 2018
Thanks geetppatil, much appreciated!
bobtoye PRO
 
bobtoye May 11, 2018
Great portrait of . . . Mike & Ike, Hoot & Holler, Cuff & Link . . .
marcbaechtold
 
marcbaechtold May 13, 2018
cool photograph with nice details and good contrasts, keep shooting!
michellesonkajones
 
michellesonkajones March 07, 2019
I'd definitely consider this a fine art portrait. Nicely done!

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Tags

#buffalo #black #white #low key #kruger national park #south africa
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Behind The Lens

Location

I was on a safari drive in the Kruger National Park of South Africa when the game vehicle stopped at a watering hole as the sun was setting. While we were enjoying the birds and other small antelope, these two male Buffalo came down for a drink at the waters edge.

Time

The photo was taken around sunset, as the light was fading.

Lighting

Due to it being a relatively overcast day, there wasn’t much direct light from the sunset, it was more a diffused soft light across the scene which led to the moodiness of the photo after editing.

Equipment

This was shot on a Canon 7D with a Canon EF 100-400mm lens. It was handheld, simply resting the camera against the door of the safari vehicle.

Inspiration

There were two main factors that led me to take this photo: the first being the way these two incredible Buffalo were interacting with each other and sticking very close to each other while drinking at the watering hole. The interaction and synergy between these huge bulls was amazing. The second factor was the lighting, due to the cloud-cover the warm sunset gave a decent overall exposure.

Editing

This photograph was post processed a fair amount, firstly it was cropped slightly to help the Buffalo fill the frame. The main editing came in with converting the photo to black and white. The sunset lighting gave some nice shadows, which coupled with a deliberate underexposure assisted me when editing the shot. I faded out the background with black and just enhanced the shadows through dodging and burning. The final step was a high pass sharpen, which was added to most parts of the photo.

In my camera bag

At the time this photo was taken, my bag had a Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens, Sigma 18-35mm art, Sigma 24-105mm art. I have recent also purchased my first full frame mirror less camera, the Sony a7RII, along with a Sony 16-35mm lens.

Feedback

My advise to capture a shot similar to this is mostly in two aspects, firstly the mood that you as the photographer feels while there enjoying the sighting, most specifically how the scene makes you feel and your memories of it after. The second most important factor is lighting, while a lot can be done in post, there is very little that can be done to truly bring out the lighting and the way a portrait has been captured. While cloudy conditions can give you washed out photos on most days, try turn those shots into something different. And most importantly never forget to experiment.

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