Art in the Park

An arty motion blur image capturing the atmosphere at the buffalo sighting.

In the previous post of our trip to Kruger I mentioned the remarkable herd of Buffalo we encountered. Unfortunately from a photographic point of view the great morning light already disappeared by that stage. One thing played in our favor though – action!! Whenever one can predict any action it makes matters so much easier in wildlife photography where cameras, notoriously often, pop out only after the decisive moment. As mentioned in the previous post, when the younger buffalo realised they were lagging behind, they made a dash for mom. This happened time and again thus enabling us to predict the action. Because they were filing past at right angles to us, the situation called for a motion blur image. Important when getting these kind of shots is to have some part of the subject sufficiently sharp (its head in this case) while the rest of the image is artfully blurred in order to lend the image an atmosphere of movement.

Although it was incredible to witness, the fact that we photographed them late morning resulted in harsh light and subsequently limited photographic appeal. For that reason I decided to convert the image to black and white and in doing so still have a usable image that to me, artfully captures the atmosphere of that sighting.

For all my fellow photo nerds out there, the technical details are F29 and 20TH/sec, ISO 100 and a 80-400 mm lens at 105 mm. The camera was hand-held.