Night drives in Africa sometimes reveal animals that would never be seen in daylight. I captured this flap-necked chameleon a few nights ago in South Africa. The challenge of night shooting is the necessity of using a high ISO, but the combination of better camera technology and Neat Image software for mitigating noise has allowed us to take pictures that would have been impossible just a few years ago. I used a 500mm f/4 Canon telephoto for this, and my settings were 1/500, f/4, and 10,000 ISO. Notice I chose a high ISO setting so I could maintain the fast shutter speed. It's paramount when using long, heavy telephotos to use a fast enough shutter to guarantee a sharp image. There is no point in reducing noise if the picture is not going to be sharp. The light came from a hand-held spotlight, rather than on-camera flash, that our 'spotter' used to find nocturnal animals in the dark.
2 Comments
May 11, 2018, 8:01:42 PM
Jim - Hi Sylvia, I know, it is amazing. The trackers in Africa have eyes like eagles. They don't miss anything. Always great to hear from you.
May 11, 2018, 5:59:32 AM
Sylvia Rourke - Amazing that you were able to find and photograph this beautiful chameleon at night time.