Photo of the week – Baboon and baby

Johan J. Botha is one of the photographers involved with photographic courses at Indlovu River Lodge.  Following their recent photographic course, we have asked him to provide us with his pick of the week.  Here follows Johan’s feedback:

“I have decided to discuss the image of one of my recent international students from the USA, Professor Andre Boezaart.  This image was shot with very poor light (heavily overcast) and therefore the following shooting parameters:

Camera – Nikon D4S
Lens – Nikon 300 mm f2.8 with Nikon 2X tele-converter
Camera mode – A-Priority
Metering Mode – Matrix
Aperture – f10
Shutter – 0.7 sec
ISO – 6400

The baboons were close to the hide on the edge of the pond. An aperture of f10 was necessary with the telephoto lens, to ensure that the baby and mother’s faces are sharp.  This resulted in a very low shutter speed requiring an ISO of 6400 with a shutter speed of still only 0.7s.  This could only be done with a solid and sturdy camera support system and steady hand when pressing the shutter.

It is a very high impact image with the face of the baby baboon clearly visible at eye level with the photographer. The image tells a strong story that the mother baboon is trying to get something to feed and the young one is just hanging on…  The clean background, strong diagonal line between the baby’s face and the mother’s face and tight crop, add to the impact.  Andre did extremely well capturing this amazing image under these difficult conditions. He will soon share his experiences and some of his photos with us on the Indlovu blog.”

For more information on photographic courses at Indlovu, you can contact Louisa at:

Indlovu Lodge: +27 (0) 15 383 9918
email: [email protected]
http://irl.co.za/greater-kruger-photographic-safaris/

For specific courses by Johan J. Botha, you can have a look at http://www.dslrtraining.co.za/ultimate-indlovu