READER PHOTOS

The Drakensberg at daybreak, a campfire under the stars, a waterhole gathering in Etosha… Has your photo been published?

MARK PRESTON-WHYTE

Canon EOS 7D Sigma 18 – 50 mm lens

MARK WRITES: The area around Didima Camp near Cathedral Peak is my favourite part of the Drakensberg. I took this photo as dawn was breaking. My settings: shutter speed 1/50 second; aperture f8; ISO 100. In my younger days I used to hike a lot in the Drakensberg. Now it feels as if the mountains have grown taller and steeper – I can’t keep up with the youngsters any more. Instead, I limit myself to wandering around the Little Berg, looking at the high peaks. I’m lucky that my daughters have inherited a love of the Drakensberg. They often invite my wife and me to spend a weekend with them in one of the camps. I used to hike fast with my head down to get to a summit; now I take photos and enjoy the views. TOAST SAYS: You don’t have to climb to the highest point in the Drakensberg to get an amazing photo, sometimes the best shot is the one you take from the stoep of your rondavel. Composition is key, even when the light is good. Do as Mark did and keep things simple. Ask yourself if the sky adds drama to the scene. It does? Okay, then give it at least a third of the frame. (In Mark’s case, the golden light of sunrise was still visible in the clouds.) And what about the foreground? Without that lovely green slope filling the bottom third of the frame, the scene would have been rather muted. Mark was also clever to include a little house for a sense of scale. (It’s there – look closely.) There’s nothing wrong with hanging around the rondavel and taking photos. You can appreciate the mountains any way you like!