Talking pictures: April 2013

Monday, April 29, 2013

Quiver tree: Namibia,

The quiver tree is an aloe, a succulent growing in a desert. Indigenous to southern Africa, their branches are hollowed out and ostensibly used to make quivers for arrows. Hence the name. This one along with two companions stood in the middle of a very desolate landscape as we drove towards the coast.

Copyright © Natasha Mhatre If you're reading this without attribution to me anywhere other than at my blog Talking Pictures, its probably being plagiarized.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Twyfelfontein, Namibia

Dussy rat

Friday, April 26, 2013

Look Ma, no hands: Walvis bay, Namibia

Thursday, April 25, 2013

A bad hair day: Etosha Namibia

Some days you roll out of bed and you're just a messed up furball on two legs. Like cousin Itt but less cool.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Populist pandering

If I look at what people click in to see, I notice that you like the beasties and the landscapes. Birds, not so much. So I'm going to start with a landscape so you'll love it and then slip in some birds on the sly.

Of course, you might be getting bored anyway. So if I fail to garner any interest at all, I can probably go back to not posting anything at all...It is soon going to come to that, seeing how I can see the bottom of the Namibia barrel already. Well, thanks for being an audience to share things with!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Tawny eagle, Etosha National park

Monday, April 22, 2013

A purple dawn: Sossusvlei, Namibia

The beautiful killers

They look beautiful, don't they? But there are a few of you that know who they are. And why this post is the only appropriate one to write after the previous one. These are growths of fungus on one of the front elements of my 'long' lens. When I first came to Bristol, I didn't bring that lens with me. Instead I chose to leave it in a bag. A bag that simply sat somewhere in a cupboard in Bangalore while I was away for a few months. Somewhere in that time I think the lens caught fungus. Once it's started, its an inexorable march forward.

If the front element makes you want to weep, have a look at what one of the inner ones looks like. Not pretty eh? This lens is done. Its lived out its life. It made me a book and thats pretty good value, I think for what it was. But now it's done.

But, I had to take a long lens when I went to Africa. There was no way I could go without one. So I had to think about whether to take this lens or buy or rent another one. Somehow between being lazy, stingy and generally uncertain. I packed this lens as was and went. You've seen some of the pictures.

Of those, this lens made this image of a Jackal, this seal image, the rhino images, the drinking bull elephant and then some. (But it also made the ostrich image, which is at a distance and quite soft).

In the end, I think it was a good idea to take it because the image above shows what I did to it. It was attached to my camera in my backpack, which was sitting on the front seat of our vehicle. I had unzipped the bag and forgotten that I had. At one of our rest-stops, I lifted the bag up and hoisted it to my shoulder and swung around to walk away from the vehicle. The flap flapped open, predictably, and the lens and camera went flying out and landed on the ground with a thud. Maybe three-four feet away. My heart skipped a beat.

Suffice to say, in the end, I discovered this 'dent' was the only outcome of my little disaster. The camera survived and so did the lens. They both still work. As imperfectly or perfectly as before. 'How?', you ask. I don't know. They're built like tanks and I am grateful for it. I would've been very disappointed if I'd lost either at that stage in the trip. And as grateful that I hadn't done it to another more expensive lens, whether bought or rented.

That lens is an old Sigma 170-500 mm f/5-6.3. It was never the best or even close to the best lenses on the market. It's AF has always been slow, still is. Its only f5 at its brightest and thats not bright at all. Its bokeh is far from great and it has always been a bit rubbish at far away subjects. But it was cheap, suited my grad student pocket and was light enough for the lightweight that I am to hand-hold. It served me well, my book wouldn't have been possible without it. There were many situations, I'd even say enough situations where it was more than adequate for the job. If you don't believe me, I hope you will be convinced by the photo at the end. It was taken at the flood lit water hole at Okaukuejo waterhole with the other rhino photos at night.

I'm struggling with what now though: whether I want another one, whether I shoot enough to even warrant buying one. And if I do, which one? They are all so expensive and so heavy! Damn, this is a hard decision...Buying the Sigma in the first place was so much of an easier decision!

Feel free to chime in if you have an opinion. Or even just to send me your commiserations. You see I had the best holiday ever and I'm still moaning. There's no hope for me!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Smudges: gear care and why you should do it.

I'm not precious about my gear. I treat it like a tool; a tool I use, I throw around and am easy with. I throw my camera in a bag, a bag without padding! I have no UV filters on most of my lenses. Despite this...despite this. I would love for my camera to be a part of my arm and be about as careful with it as I am my arm. Careful but take it everywhere :)

I have it on good authority that some people have some really good gear, in mint condition, in a box. But that gear might as well be dust in that box (or merde d'artista) for all it does. Mine has some dust in it, (and my technique too), but at least it gets used.

Occasionally, I rue my methods though. The thing is its ok to treat your gear like a tool. But I shouldn't have lapsed on the care and maintenance of my tools as I obviously did. See that smudge on the far right of the next image? I did that by being careless and I have paid for it in a lot of images. You can't fix everything in post. In fact, the things that count can never be fixed in post.

Sometimes, I'm just stupid, I know I'm being stupid and I'll pay the cost gladly. Like when I shot the next image through the windshield I knew there would be that reflection from inside the vehicle. I knew that, mentally to me, that was a 'record' shot. So, I was ok to write it off. But the smudges, they hurt. They make me angry. And I don't know when I'll ever be back in Namibia again

So, my advice is clean your gear.

(PS: Don't take record shots, make them all count! Digital is not an excuse for being sloppy and you never know when something lovely will happen and you'll miss it if you aren't prepared).

Copyright © Natasha Mhatre If you're reading this without attribution to me anywhere other than at my blog Talking Pictures, its probably being plagiarized.