Portfolio review
Reader Mihir Bhatt takes us into the Rwandan wilds to show off his shots from a trip into the Akagera National Park
Every three months, I go to Akagera National park in Rwanda on a camping trip. I enjoy the outdoors and like to photograph the natural environment, including the wildlife. Early one morning, during my trip, I awoke with a plan of finding lions. They had recently been reintroduced after a 15-year absence from this park.
After some searching I found a male lion, hidden on higher ground, amongst the tall grasses [1]. I managed to get down on a low angle, almost eye-to-eye with him. I felt the angle was definitely what helped me get the shot, but I struggled to capture his face and get his eyes sharp in the tall grass. If I were to take this photo again, it would’ve been nice to have had more time to concentrate on my technique.
On another occasion, I was driving around the park in the afternoon, only to spot a buffalo herd in a dry thorn bush. I’m used to seeing buffalo in the open plain, so it was interesting to witness them in a thick bush like this [2]. However, Idid struggle again with focusing. The eyes got lost amongst the thorns and, at times, it was hard to see them, let alone focus on
It was lucky timing really, as the rain had only just started to fall. I wanted to freeze the rain drops as they fell around the eagle
them. I also found it difficult to compose them in amongst the bush as it was such a busy frame.
Some months later, I went back for another trip to the park, but this time in the rainy season. As I was driving around spotting animals, the weather changed and I managed to get caught in a storm. But, I did spot this juvenile fish eagle perched, on a tree branch
[3]. It was lucky timing really, as the rain had only just started to fall. I wanted to freeze the rain drops as they fell around the eagle so I used a fast shutter speed of 1/800 sec. I was using my 70-200mm f/2.8 with a 2x teleconverter to reach 400mm and get tight in on the bird. As a result my minimum aperture was f/5.6, so I had to boost to ISO640 so that I could compensate for the underexposed image.
I’d love to revisit this type of shot and experiment with numerous settings to make the raindrop effects even more dramatic.
The last thing you would want to do, is lose a shot you’ve worked so hard and waited so long for
would have meant waiting for the rain to come down a little heavier. But in wildlife photography you don’t always get that chance to wait. You have to shoot with the circumstances you’re presented, so it’s a much better idea for you to get the shot rather than waiting.
The last thing you would want to do is lose a shot you’ve worked so hard and waited so long for, simply because you wanted to see if something better might come along – seize your opportunity as best you can, especially when working with unpredictable animals!
The focusing issues you talk about, regarding the lion [1] and the buffalo
[2], are more the limits of the autofocusing system, not a lack of skill on your part. These busy environments, especially when filling the frame with your subject and its surroundings, will leave even the most complex AF struggling to keep up. You’ve done incredibly well to have captured such sharp shots of the animals despite this.