Author: Jennifer Sawicky Photography

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2024-01-07: Wild Dogs

Like elephants (featured in my previous post), wild dogs are a firm favourite to spend time with on safari. I’ve been so fortunate to see wild dogs on the majority of my trips (East Africa in 2016 being the only time I didn’t see them) – which I know is not the experience of most people. My very first guide cautioned me about getting my hopes up to see wild dogs, mentioning that she had talked to clients who had never seen them despite multiple trips, but I have looked at the desire to see things in the wild as a someday request, not something that will make or break a specific trip (and I did end up seeing wild dogs on that first trip, during a day trip in Chobe Park in Botswana).

I spent a few days in Madikwe during my last trip and saw two different wild dogs packs on a couple of different sightings. A morning sighting where the group was active and on the move, and an evening sighting where the pack was quite chill. All of the photos below are from the evening sighting. If you are interested in seeing the other images of wild dogs posted from this trip, you can find them here and here. And you can use the search bar for wild dog posts and find a variety of posts from over the years. I’ve not looked through those archives, but I am guessing they all mention how lucky I am to see wild dogs so frequently.

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2023-12-17: Elephants

I was drawn to elephants today, and wanted to put together a bit of a variety of images, so I have a few in colour and a couple in monochrome to share today. While I have a decent catalogue of elephant images, these are all from my most recent trip to Africa in 2022.

We came across this big guy moments after leaving camp for our morning game drive. I was quite fortunate as my seat mates didn’t go on morning drives, so my guide and I could have a relaxed time in the mornings and we could stop at sightings for as long (or short) as I wanted. I had to tell my guide that he needed to call it with the elephants we found, or we’d end up hanging out with them the whole time. It was a good thing we didn’t, as not long after this, we found wild dogs. I guess I know what I am editing for next week 🙂 Madikwe, South Africa. November, 2022.
I didn’t ask the elephant for directions, but it is pretty clear that they are directing us straight on the road 🙂 Madikwe, South Africa. November 2022.
This was quite an interesting sighting, as I was in a hide to watch birds when this elephant came over to drink and graze. It was amazing to watch from such a close distance. He absolutely knew I was there watching him, but wasn’t concerned with me at all.
Madikwe, South Africa, November 2023.
I love monochrome editing, both for the visual appearance of it, and the way it can save a strangely toned photo. Out of the camera, this image had a very strong magenta hue. The image was captured on an early morning game drive, and while sometimes a magenta cast is quite appealing, on this image, it wasn’t, and trying to correct for it yielded some rather strange results. So, monochrome it is. I think monochrome suits this image as it gives a better impression of how easy elephants can disappear into the bushes than the colour version did. Hwange, Zimbabwe. November 2022.
This small group was part of a much larger herd that came to the waterhole outside of our camp, drinking and bathing and then enjoying a mud bath in the mud pits next to the dam. I love the position of the elephants, showing the typical behaviour of keeping the smallest in between mom and another older elephant (perhaps an older sibling). Hwange, Zimbabwe. November, 2022
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2023-12-03: Humpback Whales

My trip to Alaska was very early in the season, and the majority of the humpback whales that summer in the region were still in transit. Even though the chance of seeing whales was lower, heading out on whale watching trips was still high on my list of things to do. While I didn’t have the opportunity to see dramatic breaches or bubble feeding, I did get to see multiple individuals, including right from the top of the cruise ship while entering and exiting Yakutat Bay, during our day of scenic cruising to see Hubbard Glacier.

As you can see from the images, I was very fortunate to have amazing weather whilst in Alaska. I took scenic whale watching excursions in Icy Strait Point and Anchorage, and saw multiple whales on both excursions. In speaking with some people on my trip that had done over a dozen Alaska trips, they said May carried a good chance for nice weather, and July & August better opportunities for whales, but more rain. I’m pretty happy with the choice that I made.

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2023-11-26: An assortment of birds

I felt like some colour on a dull day, so small birds with bright feathers it is. The lilac breasted roller remains one of my favourite birds to spot on safari, and I was quite excited on my past trip to have the chance to see other types of rollers as well. I didn’t get great photos of the other rollers, but included them anyways to show the variety of colours.

A lilac breasted roller.
A purple roller.

It was unfortunate to only see the purple roller and racket tailed roller high up against very bright skies, but at least I did get the racket tailed roller at the right angle to show off the interesting tail feathers.

A racket tailed roller.
A southern masked weaver.

These weaver images were taken in different areas; the southern masked weaver is wide spread and they create very interesting nests that often hang over water. The males are in charge of construction, and the females in charge of determining if the nest is up to standards or not. When you come across a large colony, you will often see nests that have been abandoned partway through construction.

A southern masked weaver colony in the midst of nest construction.
A male long tailed widowbird in breeding plumage.
A male violet backed starling.
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2023-11-05: Hubbard Glacier

Today I selected a few images from my time cruising around Hubbard Glacier during my trip to Alaska in May. I’m guessing in a month or so, when the snow has settled in here at home, editing images of snowy landscapes may not have much appeal, so I wanted to tackle a bit while I was inspired.

As for this day of scenic cruising, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect blue sky day. While it was very foggy while out in the open water, it cleared dramatically as soon as we entered the bay, and stayed that way until we left again in the afternoon, and then we were back into the fog.

As for home, there has been a brief glimpse of the winter to come, but thankfully for the next few days at least, we are to be above zero each day.

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2023-10-29: Kingfishers

I find kingfishers to be fascinating birds to watch. I always enjoyed it when I spotted them during my walks along the river when I used to live near Vancouver, and especially love to see the large variety of kingfishers whilst travelling in Africa.

On my last trip, I was fortunate to see 7 varieties of kingfishers, and to get photos of 6 varieties (a woodland kingfisher still stubbornly remains on my mental images to capture list).

While some of the images from this trip weren’t as good as previous (such as the pied & giant kingfishers) I wanted to get as many of them as I could in one post, as it shows the wonderful variety of size and colour. And despite the name, not all kingfishers fish. Some prey instead of small amphibians or insects.

Brown hooded kingfisher. Zambia, November 2022.
African pygmy kingfisher. Zimbabwe, November 2022.
Grey headed kingfisher. Zimbabwe, November 2022.
Pied kingfisher. Zimbabwe, November 2022.
Malachite kingfisher. Zambia, November 2022.
Giant kingfisher. Zimbabwe, November 2022.
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2023-10-22: A simple tree in Hwange

I want to get back into the routine and habit of working on my photos and posting at least once a week, so I started with the first image that caught my eye when looking through my unedited files. I believe this is an umbrella acacia tree, and it stood out amongst the grasses and shorter brush while out on a game drive. It would have been amazing under a clear blue sky, or silhouetted against a sunset. Even under a cloudy sky, it is a magnificent tree, but it was a rather flat image in the colour version.

I haven’t played around with much black and white editing recently, save for a few infrared images I have worked on. I feel a bit rusty with all aspects of editing at the moment, but like anything else, it comes back as you start to use it again. I am much happier with this image in monochrome, though with more time, I probably could have gotten it to a bit closer to what I had in my minds eye when I started out.

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2023-09-24: Madikwe Sunset

I had high hopes of working through a decent number of images this week, while I was off work on a staycation, but I also have a tendency to create a mental to do list that 3 people couldn’t finish, let alone just me. My household projects, yard work and the like all had a lot of effort directed at them, but creative time took a backseat. With winter coming, there will be lots of time to be inside working through images, while getting the autumn yard work done (and a round of golf in) has a pretty limited time frame now that September is almost to a close.

For my image today, it is a lovely sunset taken on my first evening staying in Madikwe last November. It’s hard to believe almost a year has past since that trip.

Sunset in Madikwe. South Africa, November 2022.
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2023-09-10: Elephants in Silhouette

I’d always hoped for the chance to capture an image of elephants silhouetted against a sunrise or sunset. I had the opportunity when I was in Zimbabwe last year, though the results weren’t quite what I had in mind. I think if we had been in position about 15 to 20 minutes earlier, the sky would have been a bit brighter, though still colourful enough to be interesting. Though, of course, had we been in this particular spot earlier, the elephants wouldn’t have been there, as they were on the move and just passing through the area.

There are so many sightings I think would be interesting, and images I would love to capture. I don’t put pressure on myself or guides when we are out and about to find certain situations, as part of the joy of being in the bush is the unexpected. Though if we are at a sighting, I will ask for a vehicle to be repositioned, if it is safe to do so and doesn’t adversely impact others, in order to be able to capture better images, but usually, the guide has already thought of that as they position a vehicle.

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2023-08-06: Hubbard Glacier

One of the days on my recent cruise was a scenic cruise to the Hubbard Glacier. While I was told that it is not as impressive as cruising in Glacier Bay National Park, I thought the scenery was breathtaking and beautiful.

Similar to most mornings when we were out at sea, I awoke to pea soup fog, and I thought that perhaps we wouldn’t see much of anything. I took in the morning talk by the onboard naturalist, and then headed to the coffee bar for a mid-morning pick me up. I got to chatting with some people while having a coffee, and it was explained to me that as we headed into the bay, and got closer to the glacier, the weather would shift very dramatically. At noon, we headed into the bay, and sure enough, we left the fog in our wake and had gorgeous sunny blue skies and beautiful scenery (and, when we left the bay, the fog closed in as rapidly as it had lifted earlier in the day). There were some whales spotted from the ship, both on our way to and from the glacier, which was wonderful to watch.

I took an enormous number of photos during this scenic cruise, and since I am behind in my cataloguing a bit, I just selected a few that appealed to edit and share.

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