2018-07-30: Monochrome Monday

Hopefully no one is getting bored of leopards, after having a few posts in a row featuring my favourite cat.

If you missed the post from yesterday, you can check it out here, with lots more images of this beautiful cat.

Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead.

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2018-07-29: The Tamboti Leopard

Even spending a short time in the bush with a given animal, it is easy to get caught up in the drama of its life, and care how things turn out for it.  Regardless how deeply I realize it is all part of nature and the circle of life, I still find myself feeling sad in hearing of the passing of an animal that I had a special sighting of.

I recently read on the Londolozi blog that the Tamboti female leopard has not been spotted in over a month, and is presumed dead.  I had two sightings of her on my last trip; the first, we arrived to the riverbed moments after she stashed her cub into a new den site, missing what we thought would have been the sighting of a lifetime.  We did catch a brief glimpse of her moving a cub into a deeper part of the bushes she stashed them in, and as we headed back to camp, I was happy to even have seen the briefest glimpse of a cub so tiny.

The next morning, our last on safari, after having an amazing moment with elephants we headed off on a whim back to the clump of bushes where she stashed the cubs.  Our wonderful ranger Dave had an instinct that she might move the cubs again, and as we arrived, we found her with one of the cubs and were able to follow her on a long journey through the bush to her new den site, and then spend some time watching her interact with her two tiny cubs.  I’ve posted about this sighting before, and you can see some other images here.

Reading that she is now presumed gone, and only her female cub remains, prompted me to edit a few more of my images to share, and to relive those wonderful moments in the bush, watching nature unfold.

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This was the best image that I could get during my afternoon sighting of Tamboti and one of the cubs.  Londolozi, May 2017.
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Following Tamboti moving one of the cubs to a new den site.
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Every so often, she would set the cub down for a quick break, and then carry on, over whatever obstacles were in her path.
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My dreams of leopard shots were limited to hoping to see one in a tree one day; this was far beyond anything I had imaged I would see while out in the bush.
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After stashing the cub deep into the hollowed out log, she looks around, scanning for any threats.  We heard the call of another nearby leopard while we were watching the family.
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You can just make out the cubs in the darkness of the fallen tree.
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When she determined it was safe, she allowed the cubs out and here shares a tender moment.

 

2018-07-02: Monochrome Monday

I didn’t plan on taking yesterday off of posting, but I had a last minute invite to play golf, and decided to do that instead of sit in front of the computer.  While I do my best to keep to the schedule I have set for myself for posting, sometimes a bit of leeway is in order, especially to take advantage of the all too short summer we have up here.

As for today, I wanted to share some more images from this fantastic leopard sighting.  The interaction we got to see between the cubs, and the cubs and their mom had all of us on the vehicle laughing.  The cubs raced around, climbing on everything in sight, tackling, chasing and biting at each other and then took the occasional break to have a cuddle with mom before repeating the process over again.

I hope you enjoy my picks for today.  Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead.

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The cubs pause at the top of a fallen tree to survey the landscape below.  They didn’t pause long before they were off again, exploring the ravine.
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What goes up, must come down.  
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There was some rather serious tail biting going on just after a shot this image.  Mom does not look too impressed!

2018-05-28: Monochrome Monday

I thought it would be nice to start the week with some big cat cuteness.  I spent a morning watching this gorgeous leopard family in a swampy ravine; Mom mostly resting and watching as the youngsters climbed trees, played in the swamp, ran around in random circles and terrorized each other.  We were all laughing and smiling at the antics of the cubs, and I am glad I came away with some photos to share of the moment.

I hope you enjoy!

 

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A recognizably dirty look as one cub gets all of Mom’s attention, and the other seems none too pleased about it.
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Watching the world from a perch on a high fallen tree.
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Diving for her sibling’s tail.
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One tries for a peaceful drink, while the other takes a bite of tail.
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Mom joined in on the fun as well, chasing the cubs up the hill.  I’m not sure if the cub was attempting escape or a kick to her head…

2018-05-06: Topic of the month – Painterly Effects

To some, using software to make a photo look as if it were sketched or painted may seem like an abomination.  Photographers often go to great lengths (sometimes at great expense) to create sharp and crisp images that show the viewer exactly what the scene looked like.  But what about those times when that beautifully crisp, perfectly exposed image doesn’t convey the feeling of the moment?  Or, heaven forbid, what if you goof up on the exposure, or mess up the focus a bit, but the moment was great and you still want to do something  with the image?  These are just some of the reasons for exploring painterly effects with photography.  I’ve edited photos in the past for all those reasons and while I don’t post them too often, I do have a gallery of my favourite Artistic Impressions or Photo Art images.

This week, I was inspired by a vintage style travel poster I have had hanging up for around the last 12 years or so.  I see it every time I walk towards my sitting room; this week I was struck by the interest in creating a photo series inspired by it, whereas most of the time I just look at it and think “I really want to go to the Serengeti someday”.

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A quick snap of the poster that inspired this week’s editing.

I decided to do a series of Big 5 animals; I can imagine these in a vintage travel brochure advertising visiting the “Dark Continent” to see the wild and ferocious Big 5.  I edited all of them using the Topaz Simplify filter through the Topaz Studio program.

I hope you enjoy!

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