Tag Archives: rhino

A quick update and a quicky

Dear all,

It still being January, I allow myself to reflect a little on 2012. It has been quite a ride, with a Wild Eye competition mention, a picture on 1x (which also made it into their limited edition yearbook No Words), getting some good air in online Newspaper articles as well as Belgian print versions and getting a shot into the high level Geographic Expeditions catalog. In short, nice things happening (you can check out the concerned shots on my newly created Awards page), yet even more things to improve upon. With Ronja joining our ranks, I havn’t been out in the field as much as I would have liked, nevertheless, besides my non photography related day job, I am enjoying photography through the NYIP course, with now 2 out of the 6 units finalized. I just submitted my projects, consisting of 6 photo assignments (only prints are accepted, which is really nice thing, since it forces you to go the extra mile in delivering a finalized product):

  1. using shutter speed to express a sense of motion/speed by panning, stopping the action or using a slow shutter speed to capture motion in your frame;
  2. use selctive focus to make the subject stand out;
  3. create a feeling of distance by using a great DoF;
  4. emphasize a sbuject by its size and off center placement;
  5. use framing to focus attention on your subject;
  6. use leading lines to draw attention to your subject.

Meanwhile, you may have noticed I finally found a way that works for me in creating nice looking galleries in my WordPress blog, being the NextGen galleries whom blow me away for their actual simplicity amongst a whole bunch of way less user friendly plugins which do the same thing, only worse and without nice widgets, such as the random shots you can see to the right of this post now. And I can tell you that I’ve been trying quite a few of them over the past few months, none of them pleasing me, finally I found something that did please me. Have a look here, I would be happy getting your opinion.

Leaving you with one of my personal 2012 favorites.

Canon 7D, Canon 300mm f/4 L IS USM, 1/8000, f/4, ISO 800
Canon 7D, Canon 300mm f/4 L IS USM, 1/8000, f/4, ISO 800

As for 2013: it promises to be quite a ride for us, yet more about that in my next blog post, which will be up later this week, along with a first guest post for the year (one which I’m really excited about), so keep an eye on this space and my related social media, you can find the relevant links on the right of this screen.

For now, HAVE A FANTASTIC 2013, GREAT LIGHT and PLEASURE in doing what you do!!!

Warm regards,

Guy

 

Stop the horror

Dear all,

Today marks World Rhino Day and I am amongst the first ones to agree that the horror has to stop. The injustice being done to these animals is just sickening (I talked about this in an earlier post).  As photographers, amateurs and professionals alike, we can do our bit in trying to stop the horror and the slaughter of these beautiful animals. Over the last few months I have developed quite a strong opinion on this though, being that photographers and conservationists have to STOP SHOWING THE HORROR to actually make it stop. Let me explain this. It is a known fact that in situations of genocide, because of being confronted with extreme violence, people get used to this violence and both perpetrators and victims start accepting it, up to the point where the victims start accepting they actually have to die.

I strongly believe that a similar thing happens in the mind of the general public when being continuously confronted with rhino horror shots. Because of this confrontation people actually start to think about the rhino as an animal, lying dead on the ground, bading in a pool of blood, with the horn cut off and a calf to its side, … I know it happens, we all do, yet keeping on showing the horror will not make a difference, on the contrary! The perpetrators don’t care anyway and the general public gets tired of these shots while slowly, slowly getting used to the species being extinct as early as 2025 (which could be the case if poaching goes on at today’s pace).

So, if we want to make a difference, we have to stop showing the horror and show more of the beauty of this animal and the environment it lives in, this way bringing people on board by showing them what they are fighting for. While doing this, we have to keep on telling the truth and spreading awareness about the plight of the rhino, … by doing so, I believe we can bring more people on board in the fight against poaching and ultimately be of more use to those beautiful animals out there.

Canon 7D, Canon 300 mm f/4 L IS USM, 1/640, f/5.0, ISO 800

In case you are with me on this one, then please spread this message as widely as possible!

Warm regards and talk to you soon,

Guy