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Picture of the Day – Big Step Down on Montmartre

by Dave Burns | Posted in Photo of the Day |

Another shot from my recent trip to France. The walk up to Montmartre is full of opportunities for people-watching and photography. Using the Fujifilm X-T1’s flip-up LCD screen helped me be a little more discreet also. Because of that and the 14mm lens, I was only about 3 feet from the boy and his father for this capture. I love the interaction between him and his father, and the man sitting down.

Big Step Down
Big Step Down
Fuji X-T1, 1/60 at f/5.6, ISO 800
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Photo of the Day – Waiter at L’Auberge du Moulin

by Dave Burns | Posted in Photo of the Day | Tags: , ,

A teaser from the week I just spent in France. I am going through all of the photographs I made in France last week and choosing which ones to spend more time on. This one caught my eye so I made some quick preliminary edits before sharing.

This was shot using Fujifilm’s new X-T1 camera and this was my first trip with it to see how well it works. While not perfect, it is excellent and worked out very well. I hope to blog more about it soon.

Waiter at L'Auberge du Moulin
Fuji X-T1, 1/60 at f/8, ISO 3200
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Photo of the Day – Eiffel Tower and Water Cannons

by Dave Burns | Posted in Photo of the Day | Tags: , ,

Thinking of Paris as I get on a plane to fly to France this morning. The Eiffel Tower is easy to photograph but it is very difficult to photograph with a new perspective. When I took this almost 3 years ago, I was walking from the Trocadero towards the Tower and noticed these “things with pipes” pointing the same direction. I found out later these are water cannons – powerful fountains – that spray into a reflecting pool and are turned on occasionally.

I liked their weathered surface and how they were composed of many basic geometric shapes so I got low and close to feature them equally with the Tower. At the same time, I used a moderately long focal length (105mm) to compress the foreground and background, intentionally decreasing the perception of depth to make the cannons seem closer to the Tower than they actually are.

This has been one of my more successful images from that trip and, since the cannons are not well known, they always spark conversations with viewers online and at galleries who want to know what they are. I’m trying out some new gear on this trip and I hope I come home with as many images that I’m as happy with as I did the last trip. If I can, I’ll post initial edits of images from the trip as I go.

Eiffel Tower and Water Cannons
Canon 5dMk2, 1/100 at f/11, ISO 160
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Photo of the Day – Leaning Lions in Lobo

by Dave Burns | Posted in Photo of the Day |

Early one morning while exploring the northern Lobo area of the Serengeti, we came across a pride of lions just lazing in the grass near the road. There were 8 or 9 of them, many of them young males. They entertained us for at least an hour as they played with each other, played with a stick one of them found, and rolled in the grass. I caught these two brothers leaning on each other as they looked at us.

Leaning Lions in Lobo
Canon 5DMk2, 1/200 at f/8, ISO 400

Photo of the Day – Elephant in Tall Grass

by Dave Burns | Posted in Photo of the Day | Tags: , , , ,

This image is one of my favorites from a safari last year and not just for the main subject. One of the things I love about incorporating the African landscape in my wildlife photography is how backgrounds can reveal layers, or stripes, of tone and color.

Using a long lens can amplify the effect as it did here. I used Canon’s 500mm lens with a 1.4x extender giving me a 700mm total and the result is a stacking effect of the different shades of grass from foreground to background. Because this was taken in the Ngorongoro Crater, the foliage in the back extends up and out of the frame. And it helps that the elephant, which is a dark subject, was standing in a lighter strip of grass which makes it stand out.

Elephant in Tall Grass
Canon 5DMk2, 1/400 at f/11, ISO 400

Photo of the Day – Elephants in a Row

by Dave Burns | Posted in Photo of the Day | Tags: , , , , ,

One of the best places to see elephant in Tanzania is in Tarangire National Park, especially in the dry season as the large herds congregate around the river. We caught this group on an overcast day with the matriarch and her daughters leading their young ones down to the river for a drink.

Elephants In a Row
Canon 40D Infrared, 1/320 at f/8, ISO 400
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Photo of the Day – Lion Love for Valentine’s Day

by Dave Burns | Posted in Photo of the Day | Tags: , , ,

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a little love, African-wildlife-style. Seeing mating lions is not common and to photograph it, you must be both patient and quick. Patient because the two lions will spend about 30 minutes between mating just loafing around. Quick because, without much warning, the male will get up, walk over, and before you know it, he’s done in about 10-15 seconds. This cycle will repeat for about 2-3 days. King of the Jungle indeed.

Lions in Love
Canon 5DMk2, 1/640 at f/8, ISO 320
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Picture of the Day – Rhino Mother and Calf in the Crater

by Dave Burns | Posted in Photo of the Day | Tags: , , ,

There are probably 12-15 black rhino in the Ngorongoro Crater but they are shy animals and tend to stay far from the road. On this day, we saw this mother and calf grazing far from the road but nicely lit in the short grass. Using Canon’s 1.4x extender on their 500mm f/4 telephoto helped me get enough reach to place them nicely in the frame.

Rhino Mother and Calf in the Crater
Canon 5DMk2, 500mm w/ 1.4x, 1/800 at f/8, ISO 400

Photo of the Day – Bat-Eared Foxes

by Dave Burns | Posted in Photo of the Day | Tags: , , ,

One morning on one of my photo safaris, we came across a large family of Bat-Eared Foxes in the short-grass plains of Ndutu near the southern Serengeti. These two nuzzled for a while, with the one looking like it was thinking, “A little to the left…ahhh…that’s the spot.”

A Little to the Left. Ah...
Canon 5DMk2, 500mm f/4 lens, 1/800 at f/8, ISO 400