Showcasing the beauty of Mother Nature
I’ve been really enjoying working through bird images lately, so I have carried on with that today. These images are from both my 2022 and 2024 trips and the only thing that unites them is that they caught my eye when I wanted to work on some images. Perhaps that isn’t the best theme or reason, but I went with it anyways.
I realized I still have a lot of images from my 2022 trip that I wanted to work through, so I decided to select some images from Victoria Falls, both from the Zimbabwean side and from the Zambian side.
I first visited the Zambian side of Victoria Falls in April of 2013, and the water level was perfect for viewing as there was a strong water flow to highlight the epic scale, but not so much as to shroud the entire falls in mist. My second visit was November of 2022, and there was far less water flowing over the falls and a lot more exposed rock, which showed off the scale of the falls in a completely different way.
On the day we visited the Zimbabwean side, clouds hung heavy in the air, but I don’t believe delivered any rain that day. Our visit to the Zambian side 8 days later couldn’t have been more different, with clear blue skies and fairly significant heat and humidity, around 38C or so, going from memory.
We’ve had some beautiful weather the last few days, and my road is finally clear of icy and easy to walk, so I’ve been getting the dogs out for nice morning walks. The morning twilight and sunrise have been beautiful, but since I didn’t have my camera with me to capture them, I went through some of the many images I have left to edit, and found a selection that shows some of the beautiful colours I have been enjoying.
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.
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.
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.
I’m recently back from a trip, and I took loads of photos that I am excited to go through, But, since I only managed to get them onto my computer today, sharing them will have to wait a little bit. Instead, I have an image of Victoria Falls, taken from the Zambian side of the border, from my trip in November, 2022.
This is such a different feel to the first time I saw Victoria Falls in April of 2013: the volume of water was significantly less. One of these days, I am going to get around to finding some of my old images to compare just how different it was in the spring versus the autumn.
That’s all for today, have a great week!
Today, I made it to the end of the weekend long before the end of my to do list, so I’ve just selected one image today to work on. I’ve decided to share a lovely sunrise along the Zambezi River. Our group was fortunate to have a few sunrise and sunset river cruises, thankfully they happened after all the wild weather we had with heavy rains at the start of the trip.
I’ve been fortunate to see many rhinos over the years, and it is always a thrill and a privilege to have the opportunity to view them. Sadly, rhinos still face intense pressure from poaching. Many reserves are needing to make the decision to dehorn rhinos in an effort to avoid the animals becoming targets, and seeing rhinos with horns may be less likely on safari in the future. Horn or not, they are impressive animals to be around.
I have some bird images that I took on my first trip to Africa, which I printed to fill a frame with 4 – 5″ x 5″ openings. While I see it every day, I haven’t really given it much thought in years. But today when I looked at it, I wondered if with the skills and software I have now, I could improve upon those images.
All of these were shot in raw format with a Nikon D5100 with a 55-300mm kit lens. I did the best I could at the time with editing them, but we all know that software has come a long way in the last 6 years, not to mention there has been a ton of room for improvement in my skills with editing (and still so much to learn).
A lot of these were taken during the harsh light of midday; but when you are out and about, you shoot what you see, when you see it. You never know if you’ll even see the same species of bird again, let alone have another opportunity to photograph it. And as it stands, after 6 trips to Africa, I have only seen carmine bee-eaters on that very first trip while in Zambia, so I am glad I did capture what images I could 
For each image, first is the original edit, and second is the updated edit.
I think in every case, the re-edit made substantial improvement. As soon as I remember to pick up a replacement light magenta ink cartridge for my printer, I am going to reprint these and replace the original images in that old frame.
I have a few other ideas of images I would like to explore from my archive, so watch this space in the coming weeks and months.
Have a great week!
Hi everyone! I recently put together this photo slideshow for my photo club Christmas party, and thought I would share it here as well.
The photos are taken over the past three years, and there are several from each of my trips to Africa.
I hope you enjoy, Merry Christmas, and all the best for the coming year.
Along with the Southern Red Bishops, the Weavers kept me entertained and happily snapping away while they went about their business. The amount of bird life was fabulous when we were in Zambia and as well for our day trip into Botswana. Such an amazing variety of bird life, and such extraordinary colours and patterns on the feathers. I can’t want to return!
