A yellow-billed stork looking for a snack, a buffalo in a cloud of dust and a gemsbok on a dune… Did your photo make the cut this month?
THINUS SCHOEMAN
Canon EOS 6D Canon 100 – 400 mm lens
THINUS WRITES: My brother and I visited Zimanga Private Game Reserve near Mkhuze in KZN. Zimanga has special photography hides to help photographers take specific kinds of pics. Lagoon Hide, for example, is in the middle of a dam with views in all directions. Half of the hide is underground so you’re at eye-level with the birds and animals that visit the dam. A yellow-billed stork showed up, looking for something to eat. It was about 5 m away and the low angle offered a unique perspective. It was a cloudy day and I had to increase my ISO to 2000 to use a relatively fast shutter speed of 1/320 second. TOAST SAYS: Zimanga’s innovative hides offer photo opportunities on a silver platter. Still, every photographer will see something different in the same scene. The choices you make as a photographer – everything from the lens you use to how you frame your main subject – have an effect on the end result. By using a powerful 100 – 400 mm telephoto zoom lens, Thinus opted for a close-up portrait rather than a wider shot of the animal in its watery habitat. So let’s look at how Thinus framed his subject: By excluding most of the stork’s black-and-white body, he draws the viewer’s attention to the most colourful part of the bird – the red-and-yellow head and beak. The eye, the fine lines around the eye and the marks on the beak are emphasized in detail. It’s an unusual, strong photo. And the low angle makes it feel like the stork might start fishing around for something to eat in your shirt pocket.
EBEN OLIVIER
Canon EOS 70D Canon 18 – 55 mm lens
EBEN WRITES: I took this photo in Arniston. The sun was behind me and clouds were rolling in from the sea. The green-blue seawater also didn’t disappoint. After testing all the angles, I decided that crouching down in front of the colourful boats would be best.
TOAST SAYS: An easy way to make your photo striking is to include strong colours and shapes. Eben’s composition is almost symmetrical, with the small boat in the middle balanced by the two bigger boats on the sides. A wide-angle lens was a good choice, and by crouching down he’s ensured that the boats stand out against the background. I would have liked to see a human figure somewhere in the frame, maybe between the small boat and the big one on the left. When you add a person to the scene, you get a sense of how big the boats are. Had a person walked past behind the boats, you’d also get a sense of depth. That said, the colours here work well together: The steely grey sky brings a formal touch to the flipflops-and-board-shorts palette. Eben was smart to turn his back to the sun because that warm light illuminating the boats is what makes this photo sing.
JOHAN BEUKES
iPhone 7
JOHAN WRITES: I took this photo on a koppie called Jean’s Hill near Kleinmond on the Overberg coast. It’s an easy half-hour to 45-minute walk to the top. The trail is about 3,5 km in total and you climb to a height of 160 m above sea level.
TOAST SAYS: There’s nothing easier than slipping your cellphone into your pocket when you take your hound for a walk. You’ll have a camera at hand if a photo opportunity arises, and your handiwork can be beamed to Instagram before you’ve wiped your feet on the welcome mat back home. Johan’s composition is perfect. By shooting from a low angle, he’s made sure that dog Heika stands proud of the horizon. The side profile also works well, as does the position of Heika’s head. Had she been looking to the right, you wouldn’t have been able to see her face. What if your dog is facing the wrong way? Call her and press the shutter button when she looks at you. I also like the natural lines of the landscape, from the buildings of the suburb below to the sea on the horizon and the clouds above. Everything is in its place!