Today I have received the great news that one of my images has won a Highly Commended prize at the Naturescapes Images of the year 2009!.
The winner image has made it into the “landscape” category, one of the typically most difficult due to the high amount of incredible imagery it attracts.
Naturescapes is one of the major international nature photography on-line magazine, made by and for professionals and serious amateurs in the field of nature photography. Thousands of images are taken into account for this annual contest, where some of the best nature photography can be seen. Take a look at the winning images by clicking on the following links:
Rafael Rojas secondary blog 
Congratulations. A great shot of the famed southern Africa location. I am envious. I didn’t know one was allowed to be there at night. I am amazed that you were able to capture the stars with the moon near full. Also surprised by the nice hard shadow. What was your shutter speed and aperture?
Hi Buddy. Thanks for your comment! You are right, normally you are not allowed to be there, but I could convince the management to allow me for a night. We left later on. The image was taken some three hours after sunset i think…The shadows were quite strong. The moon was almost full and the dried pan was very reflective, so the lines were quite sharp (to the camera, not to the eyes). I used an iso of around 600 to record still more stars, an aperture of 2.8 for the same reason, and a speed of 30 seconds. At a focal lenght of 17 mm, more than 30 seconds started to give slightly blurred stars (due to their movement), so I found a compromise in terms of iso and aperture. You must take into account when shooting night scenes that the higher the iso and the wider the aperture the more stars the camera will “see”. That is why it is a good idea to record elements that do not need a large depth of field, and you can keep the aperture to its widest…
Still, I was “sad” not to have taken with me the nikon 14-24, a real beauty for the night scenes…But i must reckon the 17-35 did perform quite well!