When the weather turns. October can do anything in a day — this is when the Drakensberg gives its best photographs.
18-150 · any · try 100-400 at 200mm for the ridgesNo filterHood on
- Mode
- Av
- Aperture
- f/8
- ISO
- Auto
- Exposure ±
- +⅔ for mist · −⅔ for storm
- Drive
- Single
- Focus
- Servo · tap a near tree or ridge
Do this
- Mist makes the camera underexpose — brighten it, +⅔ to +1, so mist stays white rather than grey.
- Storm is the opposite: −⅔ to keep the sky black and heavy.
- Look for layers: a near tree, a middle ridge, the far wall fading. Mist gives you depth for free.
- Put the 100-400 on and zoom to 200mm at the mountains. The long lens stacks ridges into bands of grey — a completely different picture.
- Rain: hood on, cloth ready, camera under the jacket between frames. Don't change lenses in the rain.
If it goes wrong
- Grey, flat, lifeless
- You didn't brighten it. Mist needs +1. Or wait for the sun to find one gap.
- Water on the lens
- Cloth, then hood angled down. Check the glass after every frame.