Magaliesburg Photographer Trumps Lunar Eclipse Photos

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Posted on 17th June 2011 by admin in AstroPhotography

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Amazing Lunar Eclipse South Africa - Mitchell Krog

The Lunar Eclipse Over South Africa on 15 June 2011 captured as never before by South African Photographer Mitchell Krog

South African Photographer Mitchell Krog, based in the beautiful Magaliesburg region has once again pulled something magical out of his photographic hat. Mitchell, a multi award winning photographer, is no stranger to the night skies and has spent much of the last 5 years photographing them. On Wednesday evening the 15th June 2011 a lunar eclipse event occured over much of the Southern Hemisphere and had sky watchers all over the world outside to witness this magical event.

In South Africa it is currently winter and up on the highveld in the Magaliesburg region it gets especially cold at night.  Braving the cold weather, Mitchell headed out to capture his 4th lunar eclipse and decided to try something different. Instead of just focusing on close up images of the moon, Mitchell decided to go much wider and set up one of his camera’s with an extreme wide angle lens.

What came out of his camera was nothing short of amazing and has certainly trumped a plethora of lunar eclipse images all over the web. Mitchell describes this effect, “A combination of heavy dew fall and misting from the very cold weather is probably what caused the camera to capture this, it is an amazing optical effect like I’ve never seen before and I’ve spent hundreds of nights out photographing the night skies. What I find amazing about this image is that, optical effect or not, it clearly shows the moon sitting in shadow surrounded by the blue glow of Earth’s light. It’s easy for people to jump out and say it’s manipulated but it most certainly is not, this is direct from camera to screen but I’m so accustomed to critics and competitors trying any avenue to demoralize or discredit.”

All we can say is we’re amazed with this image and it already seems to be circulating all over the web and being very much WOW’d.

See more of Mitchell’s incredible award winning photography at his web site http://mitchellkrog.com or on Facebook

The mistake almost every photographer makes

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Posted on 16th September 2010 by admin in Photography

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Having been actively involved in photography for a number of years now, I’ve been through many different experiences and behaviours and also taken note of behaviour’s from other photographers. It seems that at some point in every photographer’s career something shifts inside them and they feel they have to reinvent themselves and their photography. I’ve seen this trait in photographers from all walks of life right up to the top photographers in the world.

Why is it that when you have developed a recognisable style and have found the recipe for your success do you feel the need to change it? Personally I think boredom or a feeling of going stagnant are to blame and that’s just human nature.

Of every photographer I have seen or known who felt the need to reinvent themselves, virtually every single one spent several years “trying” to unsuccessfully reinvent themselves and after a lengthy frustrating journey they realise that what they were doing all along was the right thing and they go right back to doing things the way they have always done it. Sadly some seem to get stuck permanently reinventing themselves and end up getting very lost and even losing their audience or worse giving up photography.

Please don’t misinterpret this topic as me saying you should not improve or advance in your photography, that’s not what I am saying. I advance and improve on a daily basis, I thrive for creating new and interesting images, I learn new techniques all the time but I do not reinvent the way I do things, I perfect them. I have been down this road like everyone else I’ve known but I luckily realised it quite quickly and stumbled back onto the path I was already travelling.

Happy Shooting ;)

Photographing the African Landscape – Africa Through The lens.

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Posted on 23rd July 2010 by admin in Landscape

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Africa is by far one of the most diverse landscapes in the world and much of it is still undiscovered by the lens. Many photographers would trade a limb to have access to the African landscape yet a great majority of South African photographers seem intent on travelling around the world to photograph landscapes that have been well covered by other photographers, all the while a treasure chest of images lies right under their noses.

Africa holds a treasure chest of landscape photography opportunities. Commercial Fine Art Photography South Africa.

"Mercury Down II" The sun sets and the mercury indicator starts to drop after a very hot day in Namibia - Copyright Mitchell Krog / Living Canvas Photography. All Rights Reserved.

For the budding and professional landscape photographer there is virtually endless landscape photographic opportunities in Africa and Southern Africa. South African photographer Mitchell Krog is no stranger to the African landscape and spends many months a year exploring, discovering and capturing breathtaking images of the beautiful African landscapes. Mitchell chooses to completely avoid re-capturing images which have been captured a million times or more, “I just don’t see the point in photographing things that have are captured 100 times a day when there is just so much that has NOT even been photographed yet” he says.

Photographing the African Landscape, South African Photographer Mitchell Krog is regularly exploring, discovering and capturing breathtaking images of the African landscape. This image from the mountainous Drakensberg area of South Africa captures a beautiful sunrise over the beautiful landscape of this area of Kwazulu Natal.

"Drakensberg Sunrise" - The sun rises over the beautiful and majestic mountainous region of the Drakensberg of South Africa. Copyright Mitchell Krog / Living Canvas Photography. All Rights Reserved.

The greatest parts of the undiscovered African landscape are only accessible via foot and often many kilometers of walking can be involved simply to capture one image. As Mitchell Krog says, “This is the game unfortunately and quite simply if you’re not willing to go the extra “mile”, excuse the pun, you will not return home with any new or unique images that have not been captured already. The Drakensberg region of South Africa, of which the greatest area lies within the province of Kwazulu Natal, is a good example. Photographers seeking to cover this area really need to go many extra miles to get to unique locations and in the Drakensberg there literally is endless locations on offer. The Drakensberg is so diverse and the landscape is ever changing, the light is so dramatic that you could sit and photograph the same scene every day for 365 days and not one image would be the same, it is for this very reason that I can say the landscape opportunities of the Drakensberg are endless.”

Cape Town and the Western Cape of South Africa offer many landscape photography opportunities. A great majority of the Cape has been well covered by photographers but much like the Drakensberg, the Cape is mountainous and the light is dramatic and there are still many opportunities awaiting the photographer. This panorama of Table mountain and the Cape peninsula taken by South African photographer Mitchell Krog.

"Table Mountain at Dusk" - One of the most photographed mountains in the world, Table Mountain. Copyright Mitchell Krog / Living Canvas Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Similarly the Western Cape region of South Africa is also very mountainous and has some very dramatic landscapes. The Cape weather is rather unpredictable but this coupled with dramatic light seems to make for a good recipe for excellent landscape photography opportunities. The Cape is one of the most photographically covered regions of South Africa but this does ot mean that there is not still many landscape photography opportunities in store for the visiting photographer. No doubt South Africa will see many international photographers visiting our shores as the World Cup Soccer draws closer and it will be interesting to see how fresh eyes portray our beautiful landscapes.

Copyright – Living Canvas Photography / African Photography Blog – Duplication in part or whole is expressly forbidden. All images and photographs are copyright to Mitchell Krog & Living Canvas photography and may not be used without prior permissions. All images are available in limited and regular edition print series on archival quality papers and canvas through the web site www.livingcanvas.co.za – You may syndicate articles from this blog using our RSS feeds but all syndicated articles must link back to the original content on this site. Please see the Copyright page for more information.
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BBC Wildlife Veolia photographer 2009 stripped of coveted title

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Posted on 21st January 2010 by admin in Uncategorized

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Entries now open for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010

Entries now open for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010

The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year has been stripped of his £10,000 title after judges said they suspected that the winning photograph featured a ‘trained’ animal.

Spanish photographer José Luis Rodriguez had entered a photo of an ‘Iberian wolf’ jumping over a gate.

But the competition’s strict rules ban model animals from featuring in submitted photos.

The Natural History Museum, which helps organise the competition with BBC Wildlife Magazine, today confirmed that Rodriguez has been disqualified.

As a result there will be no winner of the 2009 title.

NEWS UPDATE: Photographer faces lifetime ban

Rodriguez denies that he used a ‘model wolf’.

A spokeswoman for the Natural History Museum said organisers were saddened by the outcome of their investigation: ‘The judging panel was reconvened and concluded that it was likely that the wolf featured in the image was an animal model that can be hired for photographic purposes and, as a result, that the image had been entered in breach of Rule 10 of the competition.’

She added: ‘The judging panel looked at a range of evidence and took specialist advice from panel judges who have extensive experience of photographing wildlife including wolves. They also considered the responses to specific questions put to the photographer, José Luis Rodriguez.’

It is understood that the picture, entitled ‘Storybook Wolf’, was captured using a specially set up camera trap. The animal would have triggered the shutter by crossing an infrared beam.

Commenting on the controversy, wildlife photographer Andy Rouse told Amateur Photographer (AP): ‘The fall out from this scandal will continue for a long time and will ultimately affect the photographer, the competition and the reputation of wildlife photographers in general.’

In an exclusive article for the AP Rouse added: ‘To my knowledge no image has even been taken like this of the Iberian Wolf. It is an incredibly rare and shy animal, avoiding human contact at all costs and highly suspicious [of humans] due to years of persecution in its homeland.

‘To get this close, to get the lighting so perfect and the timing so exquisite was just incredible and I was slightly in awe of the photographer.’

José Luis Rodriguez, who lives in Spain, could not be reached for comment despite numerous emails and phone calls to his office.

His son told us that the photographer was currently on assignment in Madeira where he has been photographing ‘marine birds’.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year is billed as the world’s most prestigious photography competition of its kind.

The 2009 awards pulled in a record 43,135 entries from 94 countries.

Organisers told AP that it would be unfair to choose a new winner as the competition judging process is ‘blind’.

The museum spokeswoman said: ‘As the photographers are now known, as well as all the details about the images, it would be impossible to make an objective choice of an overall winner and it would be unfair to all the photographers who entered the competition.’

Source: http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Wildlife_photographer_stripped_of_coveted_Veolia_title_update_1155am_news_294010.html

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