Experimenting with DxO film simulations. The best I’ve seen for reproducing those looks I grew up loving. They’ve been very systematic and the results look excellent - responding to your camera’s sensor profile. This used their Ilford HP5 profile.
I’ve developed an elephant size scale out of twelve - with the smallest baby I’ve ever seen (likely born that week) at a half, and the utterly titanic bulls at a twelve. This guy was a ten and his buddy, over a foot taller again, was an eleven. It amuses me to appraise.
Scratching post.
We’ve had two days of frankly chilly weather but today it’s back to the proper lowveld heat.
All elephants together.
Looking at some of my ‘B’ selections from our recent Kruger Park trip. This was more experimentation with my ultra cheap ttartisan 50mm f1.2 on my Fujifilm XE1 - shooting wide open to get a mid 20th C bushveld look. You can see the vintage lens design in this brand new lens in the slightly odd character of the out-of-focus parts of the image.
The savannah woodland in the morning - also the world’s largest land animal. I experimented a bit today using my Fujifilm XE1 and the fast manual focus 50mm f1.2. On full frame that’s a 75mm focal length and roughly an f1.8 aperture in terms of depth of field wide open. I was trying to go for a bit of an old-fashioned look like if you were in the bush in the ’60s with a Pentax Spotmatic with a Takumar 85mm f1.8.
I can’t remember if I posted one of these pics from Punda Maria restcamp in Kruger in Jan 2018. It’s far in the tropical North of the park. The waterhole you can watch from inside the camp is full of amazing visitors. Without having to be worried about gate-closing times, you can also catch them in the best evening light.
An old chap chewing on a grass stem.
The vigilant herd matriarch. Elephant cows spend much of their time away from the large and unpredictable bulls. They form herds to raise their offspring led by these tough-as-nails older females that are ever watchful and have no patience for bullshit.