Blog Category: Photo of the Day

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Print Sale: Flamingos Taking Off

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

I just sold a canvas of Flamingos Taking Off. When someone buys a print, I always enjoy telling them the story behind the photo.

Flamingos Taking Off
Flamingos Taking Off

I took this image of Lesser Flamingos while visiting the Serengeti in Spring of 2012 on one of my photo tours that I lead in Tanzania.

On March 16th, our group drove to sunset at Lake Ndutu, an area just off the southern tip of the Serengeti where the famed migration is at that time of year. Lake Ndutu is packed with flamingos but I noticed this group of six wading together very tightly and followed them with my lens for several minutes. My patience paid off because, suddenly, they formed a line and started running. I pressed the shutter button as the first in line spread its wings to take flight. Seconds later, they were all in the air.

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Print Sale: Baobab Tree at Sunset

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

I just sold a framed print of Baobab Tree at Sunset: 12 x 18 inches plus matte and frame. When someone buys a print, I always enjoy telling them the story behind the photo.

Baobab Tree at Sunset
Baobab Tree at Sunset

This image was taken on one of my photo tours that I lead in Tanzania and was made with my DSLR modified to record infrared light.
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Print Sale: Zebras and Wildebeest Running

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

I just sold a framed print of Zebras and Wildebeest Running: 12 x 36 inches plus matte and frame. When someone buys a print, I always enjoy telling them the story behind the photo.

Zebras and Wildebeest Running
Zebras and Wildebeest Running

This image was taken on one of my photo tours that I lead in Tanzania and was made with my DSLR modified to record infrared light.
More ›

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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