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D300 pictures from Namibia

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Mitch Alland

Guest
A few weeks ago I wrote that I bought the D300 a day before leaving for a 2-1/2 week trip to Namibia. Here are a few B&W pictures from the trip. In shooting with small sensor cameras, mainly street photography, I've been printing in B&W almost exclusively, but in reviewing the 1,200+ pictures that I shot at Etosha National Park in the north of the country and in the Wolwedans Reserve in a desert in the south I thought that I would print in colour because of the beauty of the landscape and the game. Nevertheless, in making a first pass through the pictures I was immediately attracted by the possibility of making some expressive B&W prints, some of which you can see below.

Perhaps what pushed me towards these B&W renditions was that colour shots of landscape and game tend to look like everyone else's pictures: in a game park you are shooting from an open Land Rover, which you cannot leave and which cannot be driven off-road in the game park — this gives you the same view as everyone else, often far from the subject.

The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, which I used for most of the pictures, is spectacular and its VR system works very well. As I usually prefer more rather than less depth-of-field I started the first day by shooting this lens mainly at f/8 and found that I wanted more DOF and shot at f/11 the second day; and then I tried f/9 on the third day, which I found that I preferred to the other two apertures because it gave a bit more DOF than f/8 and was sharper than f/11.



70-200mm f/2.8 lens | ISO 200 78mm [117mm EFOV] f/8





70-200mm f/2.8 lens | ISO 200 70mm [105mm EFOV] f/8





70-200mm f/2.8 lens | ISO 800 200mm [300mm EFOV] f/6.3





70-200mm f/2.8 lens | ISO 800 | 130mm [195mm EFOV] f/2.8





70-200mm f/2.8 lens | ISO 400 | 200mm [300mm EFOV] f/9






17-35mm f/2.8 lens | ISO 200 | 35mm [52.5mm EFOV] f/8





And finally, here's the first picture that I wanted to do in colour, but, then, I tried it in B&W as well and found it yielded delicate, beautiful tones: obviously, as befitting the subject, quite different from the rhino picture above, which is more in my usual style in which I try to avoid an "exquisite" look. Of course, these delicate tones and gradation — even at ISO 800! — are quite different from what you get with a small sensor cameras.

Any reaction to these pictures? And any reaction to the last B&W versus colour rendition, particularly in the context of the difficulty of making colour pictures of these subjects that are not very much like those of everyone else?



70-200mm f/2.8 lens | ISO 800 | 200mm [300mm EFOV] f/2.8







—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Really great shots, Mitch, and you must have been pretty close to e.g. the rhino, I think they can sometimes be quite grumpy and attack even cars if you meet them on a bad day ?
In general I like wildlife photography in colors because the main subject usually is in sort of natural harmony with the colors of the surrounding nature, while in streetshots you can often improve the focus on the main subject by avoiding the sometimes noisy colors in the surroundings ?
Anyway, that last shot is stunning in colors and in black and white as well, it works perfectly in both versions.
I think the same would be the case for the zebra image. The rest of them I would probably prefer to process in color versions. Just my 0.02. You're the one who knows the actual RAW files.
Steen
 

nostatic

New member
I had the same issues shooting in Yosemite. In that case, you've got a pretty serious B&W ghost haunting you, and while some landscapes worked great, I found that some stream shots that I took just had to be color. In part that was due to the beautiful shades of green moss and lichen that were around, and for some reason I just could not get them to pop at all when converted to B&W.

I think the elephant and the landscapes are stunning in B&W btw.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
Nice images Mitch! How did you like Namibia? I have wanted to go there for awhile, so I am interested to hear how you found it. Obviously, the photos turned out at least!
 

ecliffordsmith

New member
Hi Mitch,

Personally I prefer the landscape shots and certainly I prefer the B&W over the colour version of your last shot. They are of course all very good images.

It looks like a wondeful place. You must have been pretty close to the action even with the zoom and the crop!
 

gogopix

Subscriber
The B&W has a very "IR" look, esp in the last shot. on purpose? or just the high contrast light?

In general, as in people portraits, I find interest in animal personality. However, here that gets masked.
e.g. in th rhino shot, can't see the eyes (though I could still imaging a caption like :D"..Huh? what duh!.. watcha doin??..."
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Really great shots, Mitch, and you must have been pretty close to e.g. the rhino, I think they can sometimes be quite grumpy and attack even cars if you meet them on a bad day ?
Steen, in these game parks one is limited to driving on the roads, but there are many animals that are quite close to the side of the road. The Rhino was some 30m away. I've reworked the rhino picture in LightZone, and here's the new version:




—Mitch/Bangkok
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Thanks, nostatic, Ed and Helen!

Stuart, Namibia is wonderful: it's a vast country, albeit most of it is desert or scrub, with a population of only two million people, with a wonderful climate, excellent infrastructure and beautiful scenery and game.

gogopix, I don't think it's an infrared look: it's just high contrast, except for the last picture, which I have reworked in colour and in B&W. I was trying to keep from using over-saturated colours, but made the initial version too pale.











—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Thanks, Amin.

Here are two more. In this case I like the B&W more, which is a problem in this type of picture because it obviously gives no sense of the colours of the landscape and the animal, a kudu.


Nikon 300D 70-200mm f/2.8 lens | ISO 800 | 200mm [300mm EFOV] f/5










—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 

jonoslack

Active member
HI Mitch
I've really enjoyed all of these splendid shots.
I like the black and white better - removing the colour adds more than it loses (imho of course).

Lovely stuff
 

rayyan

Well-known member
Mitch, you and the D300 seem to have hit it off. #4 is my fav. The 70-200/2.8
vr is some lens...no?

Best.
 
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