Zambian nocturnal wildlife

africaddict

Nikon D2Xs / 300 f/2.8VR + Better Beamer
1/250s f/4 ISO400 (with -1 to -1.7 EV)


2 (of 6) cubs waiting for mum to return from the hunt.




Large Spotted Genet





Cerval hunting on salt pan






Female Leopard quenching her thirst after Impala meal.




Juvenile Giant Eagle Owl




2 year old Male Leopard



The Hollywood pride on their Impala kill
We watched a group of 3 females and 1 (2 yr old) male, stalk, and take down this Impala on a moonless night. One female lay in waiting in a ditch, whilst the 3 others funneled them down towards her culminating in a mid air take down. You could hear the thud as she pulled it down, with the others racing over and pulling the poor beast apart in a four way split.



C & C most welcome
Cheers
Marc

dbaker1221

excellent Marc thanks for sharing them

Giphsub

As always, great pics!

jdmphoto

Excellent shots, I love #2,3,5.

spechtal

great shots!

africaddict

Many thanks for your positive comments.

Cheers
Marc

kdog

Really great work, Marc.

Mind if I ask you a Better Beamer question? I've only used it once on an elk in the early morning, but I completely blew out the elk's eyes. Do you use an extension flash bracket to get the flash away from the camera body? Or any other tips? Thanks!

-joel

africaddict

kdog wrote:

Really great work, Marc.

Mind if I ask you a Better Beamer question? I've only used it once on an elk in the early morning, but I completely blew out the elk's eyes. Do you use an extension flash bracket to get the flash away from the camera body? Or any other tips? Thanks!

-joel

Hi Joel

I use RRS off camera flash bracket, as shown here. IMO you can never have the bracket high enough and at times I have got my wife to hold the flash some metres away to get the right lighting!
You put it on the flash, set the flash zoom (if it has one) to about 50 mm, and shoot away. TTL exposure works exactly as it does without a 'beamer attached.I always do a test shot to confirm it is pointing where I expect.

50mm is the recommended setting to have the manual zoom set to on your flash.You can go down to as low as 24 mm on the flash and this concentrates the beam so that it will go even further, but the trade of is of course that the beam is narrower and you need to make sure it is aligned correctly.

The key to using the beamer is repeatability, ie. putting it on the same way each time.

I marked my flash with textra colour where the velcro should go
and put the unit on the same way each time and know how it should be sitting. Initially I took it on and off a few times, taking shots each time to confirm that I put it back on right and that calibration is correct.

The easiest way to calibrate is to find a wall or something around 10-20 m away and take a shot of it with the beamer on the camera, adjusting the position of the velcro and or any flash brackets until the whole frame is lit evenly.
I use 24mm for this check as the beam is at its narrowest.
If you get it right here, then you have plenty of margin for error @ 50mm.

Take the flash off the camera and remove the beamer.
replacing it and repeating the test, that way you know you can put the unit on the same way, even then, every so often you should check the calibration just in case I havent lulled into bad practice.








Cheers
Marc

Harryb

Excellent shots with some good info on the BB too. Thanks Marc.

kdog

GREAT info on BB usage. Thanks so much!!

Maestro

Awesome series! And good info on the BB.