Dumelang! In my language, this would be equivalent to, hello everyone.
This is a Dennis Mokapisi from a Pangolin Photo Safaris.
I'm here to talk to you about my three most challenging
subjects to photograph.
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My number one most difficult subject to photograph, would be the malachite kingfisher.
The place where we are now is a typical malachite kingfisher habitat.
So, a malachite kingfisher is a subject that tends to blend into the background.
As you can see, we have a lot of common reeds, which is the ideal
habitat for the malachite kingfisher.
First of all, the background here, is very, very difficult to work with.
And the second thing is our subject is so small that it blends in into the environment.
And, the most interesting thing about photography is to get your subject in action...
and to try and get a malachite kingfisher in action...that is, a malachite kingfisher in
flight...is very, very difficult.
So you're going to be working with some really crazy, crazy high, a shutter speed.
You're looking at, say, somewhere between 1/4000 and 1/6000 sec.
So even then, it's still very, very difficult to photograph this amazing beautiful bird.
But if you're looking for a portrait of a malachite kingfisher, you can get it in
some places, but..
as I've said, the background will still be challenging.
Photography is about patience...
So, whenever we get a subject that is not ideal, we try and look for more subjects.
Ideally, a subject that is a little bit far from it's background, so we can get a nice
shallow depth of field.
The second most challenging subject subject to work with a photographically
would be the Impala. Impala's are generally in a group,
and whenever we approach them in a group, people like excited to say,
I am finally good going to get my Impala in high definition, but...
the first challenging factor about photographing a group of Impala is that
getting this jumbled up setting of Impala...one Impala looking to the left and one to the right.
So basically, you have a chaotic setting of Impalas.
You must try and look for one subject in the middle or one subject on the side,
which is sticking out more.
Hopefully you're going to get a subject with a little bit of interaction between
Impala, and for example an oxpecker. If you are lucky to get that kind of interaction,
then good for you...because photography at the end of the day is illuminating,
or drawing your viewer's attention towards just that one interesting subject.
So my third and last subject to photograph, would be the elephant.
Elephants, as you probably know, here in the Chobe, we have the highest density of elephants...
and you cannot run out of an opportunity to photograph an elephant out here on the Chobe.
But the most difficult thing would be how do you find your ideal subject,
in, once again, a jumbled up setting...where you have too many subjects.
Let's say they are coming down to the river to drink, and they're coming down as a herd,
or a breeding herd..and it's a big
giant mess of subjects..and you are still, again looking to direct your viewer
towards that one area of your frame that you want your viewer to focus on.
So how do you do that with elephants?
With elephants, what we tend to do here at a Pangolin Photo Safaris, is that we try
and get a more close and intimate...and photograph some of the more interesting
parts of our big subject.
So for example, you would do what we call detail shots.
You just focus on the eye. Believe it or not, the tail of an elephant is
actually quite interesting as a portrait.
So you can focus on the tail, you can focus on the skin texture.
You can even focus on just the tusk.
And from time to time, when they are drinking water, they tend to curl their trunks
into a round shape. You can actually focus on that and come up with the really nice
detailed shot of an elephant, instead of just focusing on these huge big
head or huge big animal.
Those would be my tips on how to the photograph this, in my opinion, very
difficult, but beautiful subject.
Thank you for watching.
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We hope to see you here someday on the Chobe...and thank you!