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The Africa Hornhill

The African Hornbill is a common bird in African and it has a sound that is typical of Africa. It’s a sound that as soon as you hear it, you will be able to identify it , even if you can’t see it. This picture is of the male African Hornbill and there are a number of different types of hornbills in African.

Light is the key to any picture that is taken. Whether it be  wedding pictures, industrial pictures, commercial pictures, animals pictures, portraits etc, light will always be the key  in the picture.If the light is not right, then the images is dead. Often people click away at a subject and the sun might be behind the cloud and by waiting for the sun to pop, will usually be the difference of the subject popping with the natural light on it.

There also pictures that we take place that you were not expecting and when they happen you  need to be ready  and have your camera ready to snap away.

This picture of the hornbill was just perched on its branch and the light was perfect.With the right light this bird has wonderful colors that stand out. They really do pop if you have the early morning light or late afternoon light on the bird.

We were stationary at the time when the  bird just landed near us.  It is such a practical set up and gives us the best results. This picture was shot at f8 which gives a shallow depth of field with this lens when  zoomed in.The shallow depth of field is what gives this picture the depth to the picture. It has  made the bird pop even more as you are drawn to the bird. You don’t have any distractions in the back ground.As the branch goes off into the picture is goes out of focus and that is because of the shallow depth of field that we deliberately  chose to use.It’s an important lesson to the guess about having patience and being prepared for that unexpected moment.

So with a shot like this, where do you focus? Always the eyes and in this case, it was one eye. For 99% of the time you should always focus on the eyes of the animals where possible as the eyes are the window to our soul. For the picture to be alive, the eyes really need to be focused as the eyes are always the most expressive organ that we have. For those who have done any of our workshops, you will know how we stress this all of the time.

The hornbill is not a large imposing creature but it is a significant bird as it is typical of Africa and in this case, all of the elements came together. The subject was close enough that it was going to be imposing and it had the best light on it which made the like pop.

With the right light on any subject, its the first step in taking a wonderful picture. 🙂

Pete Dobré

Author Pete Dobré

There photography is self taught and they enjoy capturing what is before them and sharing that with the wider community.What delight them is being able to show aspects of photography that people may not have thought of before.They like encourage people to look at subjects in a way that they may never have thought of.To encourage people to learn to photograph subjects that may have been out of their comfort zone.To encourage people to see and learn how to see the detail in all of the subjects that they photograph.Photography is so rewarding as you get an opportunity to freeze that moment in time to marvel the wonderful acts of nature and the material world.Every subject has its own delights and beauty and they love it when people discover that and embrace it.

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