Travel Theme: Grey
Here are my photo’s for the travel theme- grey.
CEE’S BLACK & WHITE PHOTO CHALLENGE: HANDS, FEET OR PAWS
Lions at Night
During my last trip to South Africa, I was lucky enough to watch lions at night not just once, but on four separate occasions. I have wanted to post these photos for a while; originally I held off as I printed two of them as a gift, and didn’t want to run risk that they would be seen on screen before the prints showed up in person (they looked AMAZING, if I do say so myself). I’ve finally had the chance to work through all the photos I had hoped to edit. A few of them are also on my Smugmug site, links are provided for anyone interested.
I hope you enjoy, and have a wonderful evening.
Martial Eagle
On our second day in Damaraland in Namibia, our guide Chris was doing his best to locate the desert adapted elephants for us to view. We were driving through a dry riverbed, going in a direction that seemed to be completely opposite to where the elephants tracks were headed. Since I couldn’t make heads or tails of the ellie tracks that crossed back and forth, this way and that, I kept my eyes out for birds and other animals.
A short distance from the vehicle, I spotted a martial eagle perched in low branch above the sandy riverbed. Chris quickly stopped the vehicle so I could get a quick shot, assuming as I did that the bird would be gone in a moment. Lucky for me, the eagle was very interested in posing for photos that morning, and sat still while the vehicle moved ahead, and then moved past it, so I could get photos from all angles. I do really seem to have great luck with bird photos when I least expect it (and we did carry on to locate the ellies too).
CEE’S FUN FOTO CHALLENGE: TEAL OR TURQUOISE
When I saw teal or turquoise pop up for the colour challenge, I knew I would post this photo. It’s something I posted before, but the colours work perfectly, and who doesn’t love a baboon gazing at the ocean?
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Colour – Bright Green
Here is my photo for Cee’s new Colourful World challenge. The colour of the week is lime or bright green. This little bee eater, perched amongst the bright green leaves of several different types of plants, seems a good fit.
African Harrier Hawk
Partway through our game drive on our last morning at Chitwa Chitwa, I spotted a fairly large bird in some trees a short distance from the vehicle, and our guide Surprise quickly realized that it was a hawk that had been successful hunting. We headed closer but the hawk was definitely not too comfortable with our presence and headed for a new tree as soon as we got too close. After that happened twice, we moved on to allow him (or her) to enjoy breakfast in peace.
It was such a cool sighting and I am very grateful I was able to capture it.
Have a great evening!
Vulture Silhouette
If you been following my blog for any length of time, I think you’ve probably noticed that I enjoy silhouette photos. Especially of birds. While staying at Chitwa Chitwa, we stopped for a sundowner and just as I picked up my glass of wine, I noticed the vulture in this tree. Actually, there were two, but the photo of both of them didn’t work out so well (perhaps if I had the 150mm-600mm then…)
I’ve included here both the cropped image as shot, with only a pass of Nik’s output sharpener as my editing, and one that has been further enhanced with both Silver Efex and Colour Efex. I’d be interested to know if there are any preferences. I like both (or I wouldn’t post them!).
Have a great evening.
Pangolin
When I was at Phinda, talking with my guide about the animals and birds I hoped to someday see, I mentioned my interest in seeing a pangolin. I don’t recall if he said “It’s never going to happen” or “That won’t happen here” but the message was pretty clear, sightings are incredibly rare (not the first time I had heard that). In fact, from speaking with many guides and trackers, there are lots who spend every day in the bush, and go years without seeing one, if they do get the chance.
Still, I hoped that perhaps one day I would be so lucky.
Fast forward to the very end of my trip, on the last evening game drive. We had been looking for leopard without any success, but still enjoying a lovely warm afternoon in the bush. Radio calls went back and forth, and it was determined that the tracks we had been following and trying to decipher were in fact far older than previously thought. Then another call came in. I know I won’t get the exact wording right, but Dave said something like this to us (with a wild look of excitement on his face) “There’s a really nice, once in a lifetime sighting, but it’s pretty far away. Are you guys interested in going to see a pangolin?” Well, I nearly jumped into the front of land rover to start driving there myself, I was that excited, and regardless if every other member of the group had protested, we were going to that sighting!
When we got there, this pangolin must have been feeling like a rock star. People were out of the vehicles (keeping a respectful distance) taking photos, and the atmosphere was a bit like a party. Vehicles were coming in from all areas of the reserve, and what makes the sighting even more impressive is a guest on another vehicle actually spotted the pangolin, not the ranger or tracker!
The sighting was also wonderful as we ran into Freddie, our tracker from our previous visit, and had a few minutes to catch up 🙂
In case you have never heard of a pangolin before, here is a bit more information:
And now for the photos! To save captioning everyone with the note “Not the best quality”; unfortunately for the photography aspect, the afternoon rapidly turned from beautiful to overcast, then by the time we stopped for a sundowner, lightning was beginning to play across the sky. I’ve done the best I could with editing to show the amazing texture of the scales, as the light just wasn’t there. It honestly doesn’t matter though – I saw one 🙂