Monthly Archives: May 2012

White-fronted Bee-eater at Lake Panic, KNP © H Grohmann

White-fronted Bee-eater at Lake Panic, KNP © H Grohmann

I’ve never had a chance at getting this ‘close’ to them so this was a first. The 500mm Mirror (750mm effective) was used as I wanted to rekindle my manual shooting prowess. I deliberately left the 150-500mm at home. The (enlarged) image is a bit noisy but acceptable for a 30 year old lens design (but manufactured 2009)…and a 2006 sensor (D80) that’s quite noisy at 400 ISO never mind the 1000 ISO I have to be at to get an exposure with at least double the focal length in shutter speed to get a sharp(ish) image, and then cropped in by at least 50%. Whew…Breathe!

A number of 18-270, 100-400 and 150-500mm (Nikon) photographers came and quizzed me about the mirror :) The 400, 500 and 600mm (Canon) prime users ignored us…and they call “us” snobs! LOL.

Read about the Mighty Mirror here.

White-fronted Bee-eater at Lake Panic, KNP, RSA © H Grohmann

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leopard Look © Harvey Grohmann

Contact me for tuition and tours as well as event photography!

Gear I use: Bodies: Nikon D-SLR’s / Lenses: Nikon, Sigma, Tokina, Vivitar
Filters: Hoya UV & Polarizing / Flash: Nikon Speed-lights / Bag: Lowe Pro
Tripods & Heads: Manfrotto / Grips, Triggers, Timers, Batteries: Phottix
Editing Plug-in: Topaz Labs Noise Reduction, HDR, B&W Conversion & more!

Fabulous day. Days like this make you proud of what we have achieved in this country, from the old days to the new. Shot at SAAF Museum AFB Zwartkop, Gauteng, RSA

Contact me for tuition and tours as well as event photography!

Gear I use: Bodies: Nikon D-SLR’s / Lenses: Nikon, Sigma, Tokina, Vivitar
Filters: Hoya UV & Polarizing / Flash: Nikon Speed-lights / Bag: Lowe Pro
Tripods & Heads: Manfrotto / Grips, Triggers, Timers, Batteries: Phottix
Editing Plug-in: Topaz Labs Noise Reduction, HDR, B&W Conversion & more!

I occasionally enter a few images over at DPChallenge.com
Quite a big caring community of photographers there and a a recent challenge to help lift the spirits of one of the members’ 5 year old sons who suffered 33% 2nd and 3rd degree burns over his body. Poor kid. The idea being that the images would be printed off and given to Dallas in a scrapbook. Lots of thoughtful images were submitted.The challenge allowed Expert Editing so a lot of Photo Shop fun was allowed.

Here is my entry of an African Stone Chat titled “Hang in there Dallas!” but with minimal editing.

Hang in there Dallas!

And click here to view one from my friend Leo in Arizona titled “AH!… a giant “taco eating dog”!”

Naturally the winner was Cristophe (gyaban) with his fantasy masterpiece “The Hero”

Check out all the shots here: “For Dallas” and Dallas’ Hospital Support Website