cheetah – Jennifer Sawicky Photography

October 11, 2020October 11, 2020

2020-10-11: Kenya Images

The opportunity to travel is just one of the many things that I am grateful for. Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Carrying on from the past couple of weeks, so images from my time in Kenya back in 2016.

One of the many acacia trees that dot the landscape.

The vast open spacesof the Maasai Mara, covered in wildebeest.

A cheetah that we spotted on route to the river crossing point.

July 20, 2020July 20, 2020

2020-07-20: Monochrome Monday

This cheetah was a surprise during a game drive; to be honest, cheetah are never really on my radar when in the Sabi Sands, so every sighting of them is a bonus.

A female cheetah who was about to set off on a (failed) hunting attempt. Seen while staying at Chitwa Chitwa lodge in South Africa, May 2019.

April 19, 2020

I wasn’t at all anticipating seeing a cheetah during my last trip to South Africa; we were spending the majority of the time in the Sabi Sands, which is far more known as a destination to see leopard than cheetah. But this beautiful female was spotted about 15 minutes or so into our afternoon drive, and we had the opportunity to watch her on a failed hunting attempt, which was quite something. The wind wasn’t in her favour and the impala spotted her before she was even remotely close to them.

XT3X3047 — Waking up from an afternoon nap.

XT3X3080 — The beginning of stalking posture.

XT3X3125 copy-Edit — We were heading away from the sighting when she popped up in front of our vehicle at the top of a small slope, allowing for an interesting angle.

April 5, 2020

2020-04-05: Sunrise to sunset during safari

I’m working on a guest post for a friend doing an Armchair safari series, and thought I would share the images here as well. I decided that the theme of my post would be sunrise to sunset on safari; showcasing images from dawn till dusk while out in the bush. These are all shot during my last trip to South Africa and were from all of the camps that I stayed at. I would have to plan a lot more in advance while out in the field to have a sunrise to sunset images from a single day (note to self, do that next trip!).

Rather than a highlight reel of amazing sightings, these are just a collection of moments out in the bush.

I hope you enjoy.

6am - Lions — 6am – Lions. Two of the Torchwood Pride greet each other.

7am - Hyena and Impala — 7am – Hyena and Impala. A group of impala look on wearily as a hyena approaches down the road.

8am - Elephants — 8am – Elephants. A pair of youngsters tussle while the older elephants graze nearby.

9am - Giraffe — 9am – Giraffe. A giraffe bull paused in the road allowing me to capture this image while on the way back to camp for breakfast.

10am - Waterbuck — 10am – Waterbuck. A waterbuck heads towards the dam for a drink.

11am - Hippos — 11am – Hippos. A group of hippos making their way back to the water to beat the midday heat.

12pm - Hornbill — 12pm – Yellow-billed hornbill. A “flying banana” perched just beyond the deck at camp.

1pm - Infrared Landscape — 1pm – Landscape in infrared. Midday was a great time to wander around camp with my infrared filter and play around with long exposure photos. This was shot from the deck at Lion Sands Tinga Lodge.

2pm - Purple Crested Turaco — 2pm – Purple Crested Turaco. I tried for ages to capture a good image of this beautiful bird from my balcony, but given they like to be deep in the branches, it really wasn’t meant to be. It was a fun way to spend part of the afternoon though.

3pm - Cheetah — 3pm – Cheetah. We’d only been out on game drive for about 10 minutes when we came across this cheetah, and had the chance to watch her stalking some impala. They spotted her right away so supper wasn’t in her immediate future.

4pm - Wild Dog — 4pm – Wild Dog. Spending time with wild dogs always makes my heart happy. We had a good half an hour with them before they took off in all directions, setting out to hunt.

5pm - Honey Badgers — 5pm – Honey Badgers. I had always wanted to see honey badgers and on my first game drive of the trip I finally had my chance. It only lasted about 30 seconds but it certainly was thrilling, even if all I could get were butt shots!

6pm - Leopard — 6pm – Leopard. We were heading back to camp for drinks and dinner and came across this leopard heading in to this large puddle to drink. It was a quick stop before the leopard was on its way.

September 29, 2019

2019-09-29: Photo Art – The Magnificent Seven

This post was originally going to be the big five, but I had images of cheetah and wild dog that I wanted to play around with, so the magnificent seven it is.

One of the reasons I wanted to focus on my photo art this month was to try and learn a bit more about Topaz Studio version 2. I’ve played around with it a bit, and watched some tutorials, but for the workflow I am using, at this stage I will be sticking with version 1. The issue that I was finding is I can’t get files to make a round trip using On1 Photo Raw. I can get the file into Studio 2, and work on it, but the only option for saving is an “Accept” button, which with the workflow I am using, appears to do nothing. I select it, but the file doesn’t get saved, exported or anything else. New software versions are typically a bit buggy, so I’ll give it a few update cycles and then play around with it again and see what happens.

One of the great things about photo editing tutorials is getting the little reminders for things that are outside of the normal workflow. In this case, the reminder was to play around with blending modes when using AI Remix, Impression and textures. For example, the cheetah image below was edited using (amongst other tools) a filter in AI Remix called Neon Rise. But changing the blend mode from normal to luminosity kept the amazing texture that the filter offered, but eliminated the wild and crazy colours for something far more subdued, and suited to the image.

I hope you enjoy the selections below. Wishing you a fantastic week ahead.

You can find some of these images in the Photo Art section of my gallery.

August 28, 2019August 27, 2019

2019-08-28: Wordless Wednesday

August 5, 2019

2019-08-05: Monochrome Monday

This week I decided to work on some cheetah images for monochrome Monday. I only had one cheetah sighting on my last trip, but as we had the opportunity to watch the female cheetah stationary under a tree, and in the beginning stages of a failed hunt, there were lots of opportunities for images. I’m still waiting for the magic moment of seeing a cheetah moving at something faster than a saunter; but that’s just another reason to go on safari again someday!

I hope you enjoy my selections for the week. Happy Monday, and wishing you a wonderful week ahead!

XT3X3065 — Cheetahs are such slender animals, that when they lay on their sides with their heads on the ground, you can barely see them. I think we might have driven past this female if she hadn’t lifted her head at an opportune moment.

XT3X3046 — A stretch and a yawn, then she moved about 5 feet before laying down again.

XT3X3101 — Disappearing into the tall grass at the start of a failed hunting expedition. The herd of impala spotted her as she moved through a clearing, ruining any element of surprise. Here though, you can start to see how these animals become invisible in their environment. If she had been slinking along through the grass in a more crouched position, she would have been invisible to any impala that glanced in her direction.

June 17, 2019

2019-06-17: Monochrome Monday

I had some good opportunities during my travels for some animal portraits. Here are the first couple that I have worked through, just in time for monochrome Monday.

Have a great week everyone!

Pensive Cheetah — I only had one cheetah sighting during my past trip, and it was an interesting one. We had the opportunity to watch this female try to get close enough to a group of impala to begin to hunt, but her cover was blown.

Leopard Portrait — One of the many leopards that I was lucky enough to view this past trip.

Lion Portrait copy — A side view of a lioness.

Did you know you can find these images, and other like them, in my gallery? You can see an evolving collection of my favourite images there, and even order a print or two if you choose.

April 24, 2019

2019-04-24: Wordless Wednesday

April 8, 2019April 7, 2019

2019-04-08: Monochrome Monday

I’m keeping fingers crossed that I’ll have the opportunity to see lots of big cats while of safari next month. Here are a few images from my previous travels to start the week.

Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead!

20170512-DSC_4983 copy-Edit — A family of cheetah huddled together during a wind storm.

20170514-DSC_5471 — A sleepy looking lion, obscured by the tall grasses.

20170515-DSC_6101 — A leopard obscured by the vegetation.

Category: cheetah