Photo Details: Close up of adult male lion (Panthera leo) turning his head to lick his back leg, Mashatu Game Reserve, Tuli Block, Botswana.

Camera: Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi); Lens: Canon EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; Focal Length: 300mm; Shutter speed: 1/800; Aperture: f5.6; ISO: 400.

Additional Info: Strong side-lighting brings out a range of textures in this image, highlighting the mane, white “beard” and whiskers of the lion, while leaving the rest of the subject in shadow but with enough detail to see the facial features.

Side Note: For anyone using a Canon digital SLR — or thinking of upgrading from a compact to a Canon SLR — the range of lenses available is mind-boggling and liable to cause confusion and numbness of the brain.

In an effort to take the mystery out of complex descriptions and codes and help pinpoint the right lens for specific camera models and photographic applications, please have a browse through this article on Squidoo: Canon SLR Lenses. It’s rather long, but will equip anyone prepared to read it with good overview of Canon SLR lenses and how to decipher the identifying codes.

Photo Details: Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) at full stretch, using its long tongue to pluck choice green leaves from upper branches, Kruger National Park, South Africa.
Camera: Canon EOS 450D (Canon Rebel XSi 12.2MP); Lens: Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS USM; Focal Length: 200mm; Shutter speed: 1/400; Aperture: f/8; ISO: 400; Exposure compensation: +2/3; Date: 28 Oct 2009, 8.49am.

Additional Info: The giraffe has a long, prehensile tongue (i.e. adapted for grasping, especially by wrapping around an object) that can be up to 45cm (18″) long. This, combined with a dextrous upper lip, allows the giraffe to manipulate the branches so it can get its tongue in between thorns or twigs and strip only the succulent leaves. In this way it can feed selectively while still consuming the quantity of foliage needed to sustain its massive bulk.

In the above image, the sky is totally washed out with no detail as I over-exposed by 2/3 of a stop. It was overcast yet reasonably bright, conditions in which the camera’s meter can easily be fooled when aiming up at a subject with plenty of sky in the background. In these circumstances, the meter can be unduly influenced by the bright area, expsosing for the sky and under-exposing the subject — so you end up with a nicely exposed sky and a giraffe in silhouette.

But I wanted the giraffe correctly exposed, showing detail in its face, and to achieve this I was happy to let the sky blow out. Although our eyes can adjust to see both the detail in the foreground subject and in the backround (or in the shadows and highlights), digital sensors (and film) don’t have sufficient latitude to show both correctly, so compromises have to be made.

Exposure compensation, where a degree of over-exposure is selected (the + side of the indicator), is usually necessary when aiming the camera upwards where there’s bright sky in the backgroud, as when photographing a giraffe’s head or, more commonly, a bird in the upper branches of a tree. In the same way, you may need to under-expose slightly ( – side of the indicator) if you want to make your subject darker, as when photographing a wet elephant.

Photo Details: Elephant male (Loxodonta africana), front-on view, Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Camera: Canon EOS 450D (Canon Rebel XSi 12.2MP); Lens: Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS USM; Focal Length: 75mm; Shutter speed: 1/125; Aperture: f/4; ISO: 400; Exposure compensation: -1; Flash: Sigma EF-500 DG ST external speedlight; Date: 30 Oct 2009, 5.42pm.

Additional Info: We came across this elephant bull quite late in the afternoon on a cloudy, rather dull day. Usually, because of the light, I wouldn’t even have bothered taking a shot, but decided to experiment using an external Sigma flash attached to the camera hot-shoe.

I didn’t want the sky to blow out as would happen if I exposed to show detail within the dark tones of the elephant, so under-exposed one stop, using the camera’s exposure compensation button, and relied on the flash to add light to the main subject. I only had time to take a couple of shots before the elephant moved away.

The flash has slightly over-exposed the winter grass in the foreground, but at the same time has thrown additional light on the elephant, particularly the tusks, and added a catchlight to the eyes (not visible at this size), while the sky has retained detal, albeit not very interesting.

I’ll use this image as reference for future shots where the sky is really stormy and dramatic. By under-exposing the sky slightly and adding extra light to the main subject via electronic flash, preferably off-camera, one should be able to get some interesting results.

The big trick of course is to keep it looking natural as possible, unless you’re deliberately aiming for a surreal effect.

One thing you don’t normally associate with bird photography is a wide angle lens. So it was fun trying an experiment during a recent visit to South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

We were staying at Talamati Bush Camp and, as in many other camps in Kruger, the birds are fairly tame and come scratching around the bungalows, looking for food scraps.

There was a family of Natal Spurfowl (Pternistis natalensis) — previously called Natal Francolin (Francolinus natalensis) — doing just that around our accommodation, so I decided to try something different, rather than sitting on the verandah photographing them from above with a long lens, as is the most convenient way.

I put my Canon 450D plus EF-S 18-55mm IS kit lens flat on the ground and attached a remote cable switch (RS-60 E3) that allowed me to sit in comfort on the edge of the verandah while still being able to release the shutter.

It was a fairly dull, overcast day, so I set ISO to 400, selected aperture priority with aperture of f/8 and zoomed the lens to its widest focal length, 18mm. I relied on the lens to autofocus on my subjects, as autofocus continues to operate when using the remote cable.

Armed with a handful of bread crumbs, I was ready to go. The francolin (sorry, spurfowl) soon came scuttling across once I’d thrown a few crumbs their way and then it was simply a case of taking pot luck and pressing the remote shutter release whenever I guessed one or more were in the frame.

These situations are a timely reminder of how easy digital cameras have made photographers’ lives … shoot off a few frames and check the results … mmm, not bad, make a few mental adjustments as to subject position in relation to the camera and toss out more crumbs.

I didn’t spend too much time on the experiment, but was pleasantly surprised at the number of shots in focus and also the interesting compositions resulting from the wide angle and low viewpoint.

Next time I’ll try choosing the background more carefully and use this to enhance the image, through color, shapes, and putting the subject in the context of the surroundings.

Taking into account the magnification or crop factor of the Canon EOS 450D, the equivalent focal length of the lens at 18mm was 28.8mm, or about standard wide angle. I’d like to try with something wider. As I’m unlikely to own a full-frame digital SLR any time soon, the best bet will probably be the EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM (16-35.2mm equivalent).

One gets too accustomed to using longer lenses when concentrating on wildlife and this little experiment has certainly whet my appetite to start playing more with wide angle shots.

Exposure details for above shot of Natal Spurfowl: 1/30th at f/8, using aperture priority and evaluative metering, shot in RAW, color temperature adjusted to 5000K.

Photo Details: This hamerkop (Scopus umbretta) was standing motionless on the river’s edge when, without warning, another one flew in and landed on its back (below), where it remained for a few moments with wings outstretched before flying off again.

I’d never seen such behavior before and my travelling companions (we were in the Kruger National Park in South Africa) suggested the pair were simply doing what comes naturally to the birds and the bees.

Further research, however, indicates this was not the real thing, but rather a strange hamerkop ritual known as “false mounting”, where one bird lands on the back of another as if intending to mate, but in fact just stands there, beating its wings and calling. (I’m not quite sure what the human equivalent would be!)

Camera: Canon EOS 450D (Canon Rebel XSi 12.2MP); Lens: Canon EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; Aperture: f/8; ISO: 400

Additional Info: The Hamerkop — also known as Hammerkop or Anvilhead — is a sepia-colored, medium-sized wading bird (56cm long) found throughout sub-saharan Africa and Madagascar. The prominent crest at the back of its head, coupled with the large bill, is reminiscent of a hammer, hence its name.

A hamerkop’s diet consists of insects, frogs, tadpoles, crustacea and even small mammals. Its method of feeding is to shuffle one foot or stamp in the mud and pounce on what it disturbs.

Despite its rather ungainly appearance on land, when in flight it resembles a bird of prey, but is distinguishable by its long legs which extend beyond its tail.

The hamerkop’s nest is a work of labor and ingenuity that can take up to six months to build. Roberts Birds of Africa describes the nest as “an accumulation of sticks, reed stems and any sort of rubbish it fancies, such as old clothing, bits of leather, skin, bone and a fair quantity of grass on occasion — formed into a hollow dome, with an entrance situated below in such a way that it cannot be reached by human and other marauders”.

When you’re on safari in southern Africa, it’s standard practice in most game reserves to view the wildlife from an open game-drive vehicle — as in the picture above, taken in Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana. This is a great way to enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of the African bushveld. It’s also excellent for wildlife photography as you’re not hindered by windows and door frames obscuring your view.

But it’s difficult to use a tripod or similarly stable form of support in these vehicles, so photographers resort to beanbags — or hand-holding their cameras. Some degree of camera shake is inevitable when hand-holding a camera. This is magnified when using telephoto lenses, which photographers will invariably be using when shooting wildlife pictures.

Fortunately image stabilized lenses can help reduce camera shake – and the blurry photos that result from camera movement. They’re a huge asset for wildlife photographers, producing many more useable images than would otherwise be the case.

However, it is tempting sometimes to rely on image stabilization while hand-holding, instead of finding a better way to support the camera. If you think about it, using a 100-400mm zoom lens lens attached to a digital camera like a Canon EOS 50D or 450D with a 1.6x crop factor is like shooting with a 160-640mm lens.

It’s extremely difficult to get pin-sharp pictures hand-holding a 640mm lens, even with image stabilization, yet the IS makes one want to try, often resulting in disappointing results. It’s not the lens’s fault — 600mm lenses are not meant to be hand-held!

For more about image-stabilization, the lenses now available with this technology and how best to use them, see Canon IS Lenses and Canon IS Lens Lineup.

Photo Details: A female saddle-billed stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis) comes up empty-handed (or empty-billed) while wading and hunting for fish and other aquatic morsels, Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Camera: Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi); Lens: Canon EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; Focal Length: 300mm; Shutter speed: 1/640; Aperture: f8; ISO: 200; 28 Oct 2009, 2.34pm.

Additional Info: Saddle-billed storks are large, striking birds, reaching up to 1.50m (nearly 5ft) tall and are unmistakable because of the prominent red and black bill topped at the base with a bright yellow “saddle”. The legs are black, while the feet and knee joint are red.

Saddle-billed Stork Photographic Survey

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and South African National Parks (SANParks) have launched a photographic survey of saddle-billed storks in the Kruger National Park. The survey kicked-off on 1 September 2009 and will run for a full calendar year.

According to EWT, the survey is part of a research project to be conducted over the next three years on the population status of saddle-billed storks, regarded as one of Kruger Park’s rarities.

“Census operations on any species within the boundaries of the Kruger National Park are important to help us get an idea of that species’ status within the context of biodiversity management,” says Marcelle van Hoven, the project’s coordinator. “The last saddle-billed stork survey conducted in 1993 suggested that there were less than 60 of these birds left in the Park.”

Saddle-billed storks are classified as Endangered in South Africa. They breed slowly and are dependant on extensive wetland habitats, which are under increasing pressure from human encroachment. Saddle-bills in South Africa are largely confined to the north-eastern, tropical lowland with the majority of the population residing along the riverine habitat in the Kruger National Park. They normally occur in pairs, are strongly territorial, and remain in the same area for years.

See Saddle-billed Stork Photographic Survey for further details.

Canon digital SLRs have three different sensor sizes, depending on the model:
1. Full-frame sensor, which is the same size as a 35mm neg (36 x 24mm), found on the Canon 1Ds and Canon 5D bodies.
2. APS-H sensor — slightly smaller than full-frame (28.7mm x 19.1mm); found only on Canon EOS 1D bodies.
3. APS-C sensor — smallest of the three (22.5 x 15mm); found on Canon Digital Rebels (400D, 450D, 500D), Canon 30D, 40D, 50D models, and the new Canon 7D.

Lenses made for traditional 35mm SLR cameras are designed so that the circular image cast by the lens just covers the rectangular area of the film (or a digital sensor of similar size).

When you substitute a full-size sensor with a smaller one, more of the subject now fills the frame — as in the picture below where the black rectangle represents a full-frame sensor, the blue rectangle an APS-H sensor, and the red rectangle an APS-C sensor.

The impact of using a lens designed for full-frame sensors on a camera with a smaller sensor is commonly referred to as the “crop factor”, and also as “lens magnification factor” or “focal length conversion factor”.

The implications are enormously beneficial for photographers using long lenses on cameras like the Canon 50D or 500D, but simultaneously rob wide angle lenses of extra width. For more on this, please see my attempt at more fully explaining the Canon digital SLR crop factor, one of a new series of articles under Canon Lens Reports.

Additional Info: The spurwinged goose (also called spur-winged goose) is Africa’s largest waterfowl, weighing on average from 4 to 6.8kg (8.8 to 15lbs) and reaching up to 115cm (45″) in length.

Males are larger than females and also have a larger red facial patch extending back from the red bill. Plumage is a glossy black with white wing patches, although females and immature are browner with little or no white. The long legs are pink and the bill is bright red. The name stems from the spur on the elbow of each wing that is used in defence against predators

Spurwinged geese occur near rivers and dams and on floodplains and swamps. They are mostly vegetarian (although they are known to take small fish) and generally forage on land.

Photo Details: Portrait of a captive Hooded Vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus), African Bird of Prey Sanctuary, Ashburton, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Camera: Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi); Lens: Canon EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; Focal Length: 300mm; Shutter speed: 1/1000; Aperture: f5.6; ISO: 400.

Additional Info: The hooded vulture makes me think of a barrister wearing his court-room wig – or, more accurately, a less-than-complimentary caricature of an English barrister. Some, no doubt, would say the similarity between barristers and vultures runs more deep. In truth, both are merely doing their jobs.

Within the vulture family, hooded vultures are smaller, with thinner bills, than their cousins, so find themselves low down in the pecking order. The undisputed king is the lappet-faced vulture with its massive, powerful bill that enables it to rip into parts of a carcass that are too tough for the others. Once these dominant birds have eaten their fill, they’re often followed by hordes of white-backed vultures that fight and shove to get into the action.

Fortunately for the hooded vulture, it’s long, thin bill can get into cavities that the others couldn’t reach, so it does extract some food from the carcass.

In general, vultures can’t compete with the regal eagles and most other birds of prey in the glamor stakes and are often dismissed as ugly scavengers. Yet they play a crucial role in cleaning up carrion and the last remains of dead animals – anything left behind by the hyenas and jackals. In this way they limit the spread of disease. They also help control rodent populations that, if left unchecked, could decimate crops.

Despite this, in many parts of the world vultures are under threat because of human expansion and resultant habitat loss. In Africa many die from poison, usually from cleaning up the remains of rodents and other small mammals that have been poisoned by farmers to protect livestock.

According to the Endangered Wildlife Trust, “vultures are faced with various threats including poisoning, persecution, electrocution, collision with powerlines, drowning in farm reservoirs, food shortages and loss of suitable habitat. Recent research has shown that vultures are one of the species most threatened by the trade in traditional medicine, and there is strong evidence to suggest that traditional use is partly responsible for the rapid decline of vulture populations in the (African) sub-continent”.

Today’s photograph was taken at the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary, a self-funded care-center run by a small group of dedicated conservationists. It is home to the widest selection of indigenous birds of prey in southern Africa, including captive-bred or “non-releasable rehabilitation” birds, such as the hooded vulture above. These captive birds give visitors a unique opportunity to view and photograph many rare birds of prey from close-up. Photographing the birds in their cages does present challenges, but it is a way of capturing bird portraits that’s simply not possible in the wild.

The sanctuary’s effectiveness and goals are hindered by insufficient funds and donations or contributions are always needed to assist research, caring for and rehabilitating birds, and educating the public. See Feathered Friends Sponsorship Program for more on this.