# Portraits from the Mara



## DKN (May 11, 2014)

Portraits from the Mara is a series of shot I did in the Masai Mara, Kenya in mid April. 

First of all I would like to thank the forum for the inspiration and the technical insights purposed. I've really learned a lot here.

When I started to design the shots I thought about the equipment needed. I own a single 6D and a 24-105, which for sure wouldn't have been enough to realize the shot I wanted. So I first rented the Canon 100-400L IS, which after a lot of reading, seemed the best suited lens for my goals. But after a few analysis, it was clear that it wasn't enough either. So a friend of mine lent me his APS-C 650D. 

And it worked just fine! I did the whole safari with two camera bodies 6D+24-105L for close ups and 650D+100-400L for distance. The effective focal lenght of 640mm was just fine for me. Peraphs the only miss was the ISO capability of the 6D, but not having to change lens and two camera bodies at once was great!

Here I present the shots I'm most proud of. I am sorry for the big sign on the attached photos but it was requested for a contest 
The images of the lions are to me quite common, so I tried to portray some particular angles or scenes which looked more difficult to achieve to me and more rare. The one I'm most proud of is the one of the cheetah walking toward me.

The description for each image is on 500px, I didn't want to just paste it here. So if anybody has questions about the shots, I will answer them here.

http://500px.com/photo/69793655

http://500px.com/photo/69888207

http://500px.com/photo/69986631

http://500px.com/photo/70016625

http://500px.com/photo/70100513

http://500px.com/photo/70128071/

Please feel free to comment, critique, give advices to improve! And thanks again to the community!


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## Jeffbridge (May 28, 2014)

Beautiful captures; excellent series!!


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## DKN (May 28, 2014)

Jeffbridge said:


> Beautiful captures; excellent series!!



Thank you Jeff! 

I wanted to add that one of my images is partecipating in the National Geographic Traveler 2014 contest. You can check it here:

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/photo-contest/2014/entries/rate/outdoor-scenes-week-7/#/256196

It's even possibile to download a wallpaper here 

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/photo-contest/2014/entries/wallpaper/outdoor-scenes-week-7/#/3


For any question regarding the technical aspects of the shoot please feel free to ask!


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## RobertG. (May 29, 2014)

Paolo, that's a nice copyright sign! But in some of the pictures the background is a bit distracting. Maybe to reverse it would help: a colorfull copyright on a b&w photo?

The pics on 500px are nice. Thanks for sharing them there. The large copyright sign on the small attachments ( 548x365 pixel) here is useless when you share them on 500px without it in a much larger resolution (2048x1152 pixel). Every picture you see in a browser can easily be downloaded. For Firefox there is e.g. the "Web Developer" add on, which let you see the image information of every graphic on a site. It can also easily be downloaded this way.


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## DKN (May 29, 2014)

RobertG. said:


> Paolo, that's a nice copyright sign! But in some of the pictures the background is a bit distracting. Maybe to reverse it would help: a colorfull copyright on a b&w photo?
> 
> The pics on 500px are nice. Thanks for sharing them there. The large copyright sign on the small attachments ( 548x365 pixel) here is useless when you share them on 500px without it in a much larger resolution (2048x1152 pixel). Every picture you see in a browser can easily be downloaded. For Firefox there is e.g. the "Web Developer" add on, which let you see the image information of every graphic on a site. It can also easily be downloaded this way.




It's not something that makes me feel safe, at least on 500px the images should be somehow protected. Anyway, since I've uploaded them to the contest I've changed the copyrigt sign.


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## DKN (Jun 4, 2014)

I wanted to add that my series has been published on SLR Lounge  , for those interested: 

http://www.slrlounge.com/portraits-mara-tips-photographing-animals-kenyan-jungle


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## sanj (Jun 4, 2014)

Good job, but I find most of these photos bit too tight.


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## DKN (Jun 4, 2014)

sanj said:


> Good job, but I find most of these photos bit too tight.



Yeah it was my goal. I wanted more "tight portraits" than "environmental portraits"


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