Category: Humour

26Jan

BiF – Behemoth in Flight

Posted in General, Humour, Locations, Park, Portfolio, Road Trip, Rural, THL, Wildlife, Workshop | 1 Comment

Further on from a conversation about photographing dangerous game that a friend started with her scary White Lion staredown photo I thought I’d post a pic of a White Rhino in flight. Just make sure you are not also taxiing on the runway ahead of him…
The white rhinoceros is quick and agile and can run 50 km/h (31 mph). Weight in this animal typically ranges from 1,360 to 3,630 kg (3,000 to 8,000 lb). The male, averaging 2,300 kg (5,100 lb) is heavier than the female, at an average of 1,700 kg (3,700 lb).

Yes that’s a 2.3 Tonne Tank airborne…I kinda wished he was looking my way when I got this shot, but in hindsight maybe not! :)

I photographed him in a Nature Reserve in South Africa and was seated in my tin can 4×4 that weighs a little less than him. One minute the two were grazing grass very peacefully and the next second they took off in a major hurry. You have to see it to believe the pace and hear the sound reverberate off their feet. Needless to say I generally stay quite far from them as a precaution.

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BiF – Behemoth in Flight © Harvey Grohmann All Rights Reserved

Shot details: Nikon D90 and Sigma 100-300mm F/4 EX IF HSM @300mm.
ISO-800 | f/9 | 1/1250s | EV -0.7 | Post Processing in part with Topaz Labs.

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 etc: BandH
Editing Plug-in: Topaz Labs Noise Reduction, HDR, B&W Conversion & more!

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15Nov

Job Security

Posted in General, Humour | Leave a comment

Had a quiet cackle when I saw this “What the Duck” dated 2006. It was the 3rd cartoon Aaron Johnson ever created. Should tell you this issue has been around a long time, not just in the DSLR age, but also in the film days.

Many real Pro’s I speak to and commentators at photo forums online complain about the “I have a full-time job” but “I’m an aspirant tog” amateur taking away Pro’s business, and rightly so; Naturally it is wrong if they present themselves as a “Professional Photographer” simply because they just bought a kit DSLR for $1000-00 with two crappy kit lenses but it LOOKS good. Me, I’d rather see better photographs on the web and in *groan* Facebook…so let ‘em learn but NOT at the expense of paying clients who expect a level of professionalism not just with the photographs but with the entire experience. Customers will also have to educate themselves as to quality, or pay the school fees, to the detriment of the rest of the Industry who are then tainted with the same tar brush. Suffices to say any industry has this problem – people with full time income generating jobs trying to get into other markets… [Note: I still do not palm myself off as a "Pro Photographer", despite having shot events, commissions since the late 70's, and product and wildlife since the early 80's up till today.]

07Nov

Bird Photographers – Code of practice

Posted in FAQ, General, Humour, News, Photography 101, Tips-Tricks | 3 Comments

The yellow what-sit with stripy eye. Excuse the quality!

Actually any wildlife tog should have a mental code of practice…

I’m the first to admit that I am not the world’s biggest twitcher. I battle to identify many of the obscure lesser seen species, especially those darned LBJ’s (how many do we have?!) and Eagles perched in a tree 400m away or soaring in the sky… I don’t race around the countryside looking for that elusive species. I don’t make use of playback vocalisations to call them in. I go. I see what I see. I’m happy to be out there, no just so that I can tick it. I carry a few bibles with me and I always ask someone who knows better than I especially the bloke with the monster prime lens :) Mind you, I’ve spoken to some who couldn’t tell the difference between a Heron and a Hadeda but they had all the latest gear and best glass, bodies…and bank manager!

My friend David from Seokama can identify LBJ’s and others from their calls without even setting eye on them. The yellow what-sit pictured (L) was hastily photographed there out the car window before it took off.  Terribly handy to have Dave on my workshops with me :)

I do try to be as unobtrusive and non-invasive as possible. I often miss shots because of this. Or I’ll let someone else push his way into the hide before me to race off and grab the best seat…even though he and his entire family arrived after me…I know that, by them being the impatient kind & pushing me out of the way, if they don’t at least see 14 elephants at the hide followed by a Leopard and her cub with a kill in a tree, they’ll be outta there before I even set up my gear…aaah peace :)

The last time this happened to my wife and I (Lake Panic, KNP), she spotted 2x and I spotted 1x Bushbuck right next to the hide alley. We stood silently and let the noisy Homo Sapiens pass us, and then resumed watching the buck feeding… The previous time it was at a hide near Satara, and 2x Klipspringer were so close to the viewing window we could touch them, but half a dozen holiday makers came and went in 5 minutes without even spotting them. The rest of us were going to mention it to them but they never gave us a chance :)

/end Rant

Once in the hide, I did get some great shots of a croc eye abstract and a terrapin taking a piggy back ride on a hippo and the Klipspringers. The birds were a bit shy but we did see a few. A bad day in a hide beats a good day at the studio.

Here’s a few tips (saves me typing them) from BirdGuide.com and most of this is common sense, but even that’s not so common any more :(

Be patient and be thoughtful of nature first and others second. Your photo album will love you for it! So will the critters. So will I when we share a hide in Africa somewhere :) Take a plastic bag for your own rubbish. I’ve often cleaned up others rubbish and tossed it at the camp or the next stopover.

PS: So what bird IS that above? PPS: What tree IS it sitting in? :) I know, do you?