I’m focusing on photo art this month, and decided to start things off focusing on giraffes. The easily recognizable shape of a giraffe meant that no matter how far I took the editing, the shape of the animal would still be recognizable as a giraffe.
Since I don’t have any natural talents in drawing and painting, creating these painterly interpretations from the photographs that I take is my opportunity to set aside the need to keep an image looking realistic, and instead focus on what the image is saying to me.
I hope you like my selections for the week; check back next Sunday to see the next instalment.
I took this image in a lot of different directions before coming up with this final edit. It is almost starting to resemble a photograph of a giraffe painted on the fabric.The rosy tint and soft focus effects give this image the feel of a vintage photograph.Even though they are enormous animals, giraffes have an amazing ability to blend into their surroundings. I wanted to highlight the camouflage nature of the coat in this edit.This giraffe image reminds me of some of the animal paintings I have seen in old stately homes.
It’s no secret that I love elephants, and that I love editing elephant images in black and white. Here are a few from my most recent travels. I hope they brighten up your Monday 🙂
This little elephant was precocious and kept all of us laughing and smiling as he played with sticks and branches, tossing them over his head.A mama guiding her young calf across the road to join the rest of the herd.Another adorable youngster; this one was very inquisitive and spent lots of time near the vehicle, seeing what we were all about.A large bull elephant in musth. Our guide was very cautious as this guy approached us on the road, but the elephant turned off into the bushes, after giving his head a dramatic shake at us.Drinks stop while Mom graves.
Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend, and is ready for the week ahead. I found a lion image from a previous trip that had been edited but never shared, so I found a couple of others to put together this grouping.
I hope you enjoy, and wishing you a fantastic week!
This image was from 2017, when we had prolific lion sightings and had the pleasure of listening to their roars cutting through the night. On this past trip, I didn’t hear a single lion roar, but the lion dynamics can change significantly on properties over a few years.This young male was seen in the late afternoon lounging next to a waterhole at Kings Camp in the Timbavati. Doesn’t he look majestic? You can find this image, along with lots of others, over in my gallery.This lion and his brother were moving at speed through the property that Chitwa Chitwa has traversing rights to. We were fortunate to have an opportunity to view them before they crossed the boundary, and could no longer be followed by our vehicle.
Instead of my weekly monochrome Monday post, I decided to share some of my favourite elephant images, in honour of World Elephant Day.
May these beautiful animals roam in peace 🙂
My favourite baby elephant, testing to see if sand is good eating. 1/640sec, f9.0, ISO 2000
Elephants galore in this multiple exposure image.
Elephants marching one by one.
An adorable baby elephant trying to make itself look big and threatening.
A herd of elephants in Amboseli.
A pair of elephants moving down a road.
Elephants are my favourite animal to spend time with on safari, so feel free to search my site for elephants to find other posts about these majestic giants, or take a look at the gallery.
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!
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.A stretch and a yawn, then she moved about 5 feet before laying down again. 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.
I’ve had the amazing good fortune to see wild dogs on all of my trips to Southern Africa. I don’t think I could ever tire of spending time with these amazing animals; seeing the interaction between different members of the pack is always an interesting experience. On this past trip, I had two different sightings; one where the dogs were active and out in the open, and the other, where they were lazing away the morning deep in a thicket.
Here a few of my images from these two sightings.
Enjoy!
Alert and at the ready. Lion Sands River Lodge, May 2019.Always a good idea to check on who, or what, might be sneaking up on you from behind.Two of the pack members greeting each other; the behaviour of our pet dogs at the dog park is so similar.Taking the path of least resistance; a pair of dogs set off down the road.A pack of wild dogs resting deep in a thicket at mid morning. This group was seen in the Timbavati, whilst staying at Kings Camp.
I saved my favourite for last for my final instalment of July’s topic – Babies in the bush. I was actually so spoiled for choice with images of baby elephants that it was difficult to select which images to share. I’m not complaining, it is definitely a good problem to have!
On all of the properties we visited, the elephant sightings were prolific; so much so that a couple of our guides even commented about the volume of elephants sightings that we were having, and how lucky we were. There were moments that no matter which direction you looked, you were surrounded by elephants. And when we carried on down a road to see what else we could see, around every bend in the road, there were more. Being in the presence of these magnificent animals brings me such a feeling of peace and joy, so you’ll never hear me complain about seeing too many elephants while out on safari.
You can’t help but smile while watching baby elephants. They have so much personality, and are often very precocious and curious. You’ll often see them mock charging vehicles trying to be big and tough, playing with sticks and branches in the bush, tussling with their little friends, having a temper tantrum when something isn’t going their way, or playing shy, hiding between Mom and other larger, more confident elephants.
I hope you enjoy my selections for the week 🙂
A bit of follow the leader down on of the roads through the bush.If this little face doesn’t make you smile, I don’t think we could be friends 🙂Pausing for a quick drink of milk in the middle of the road.Some images just beg to be edited in a different way. For this one, instead of trying to enhance the sharpness, I went the other direction, and worked to highlight the dust, haze and softness of the image. This is one of my favourite images that I have worked on in the last couple of weeks, and I think I’m going to have to find some wall space and have this one printed. You can find this image on my gallery page.A herd of elephants digging in the dry riverbed for the water hidden underground. Look at the tiny baby tucked up against its Mom; still small enough to clear under her belly.There were several occasions on this trip where I ended up in the midst of enormous elephants herds; it didn’t matter which direction you looked, there would be many elephants to watch and take pictures of. Here is one of those moments with elephants as far as the eye could see, with lots of youngsters in the mix.A pair of youngsters playing while the rest of the herd grazed all around them.It’s a special treat to see elephants that are tiny enough to still be taking cover under their Mom’s tummy.
