2018-04-03: WPC Rise/Set

The photo challenge topic of the week is sunrise and sunset.  Here is one of each from my travels in Southern Africa.

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Sunrise on my last dat of safari.  May, 2017.
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A flock of red-billed quelea searching for a spot to roost as night falls over the Okavango Delta.  May, 2017

 

 

WPC: Rise/Set

2018-03-27: WPC Favourite Place

The topic this week and last are very similar for me.  Last week, I told you that I’d rather be on safari and this week I’m going to tell you that my favourite place is being amongst the elephants in the African bush.  I must admit, I don’t really like the concept of a favourite place per se, because it feels like it discounts so many amazing experiences over the years.  But, I have often said if I could only limit myself to traveling to one place the rest of my life (and even so far as if I had to choose only one animal to spend the rest of my days with) it would be in Africa amongst the elephants.

There is just something about being in the proximity of elephants, feeling their rumbles, listening to their calls, watching them interact and go about their days that fills me with such peace and joy.

I hope you enjoy my selection of images this week.

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Elephants playing in the Boteti River in Botswana.
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A large bull elephant at Nxai Pan in Botswana.
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A pair of bull elephants at a small waterhole on Phinda Game Reserve in South Africa.
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An elephant family drinking at a broken water pipe on Londolozi in South Africa.
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Pushing on the tree to shake down fruits in the Okavango Delta.
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Part of a larger herd that I spent time with one morning on Phinda Game Reserve.
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A desert adapted elephant seen near the Skeleton Coast in Namibia.

WPC: Favourite Place

2018-03-20: WPC: I’d rather be…

There’s a simple answer to the question posed in this week’s photo challenge “Where would you rather be?”.

I’d rather be on safari!

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I’d rather be watching the sun set over the bush with a glass of wine in hand, and great company to have a chat with.
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I’d rather be watching the birds from the shade of a lodge veranda.
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I’d rather be looking out at the vast expanse of the universe, listening to the sounds of the bush at night.
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I’d rather be taking the opportunity to discover new cultures.
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I’d rather be out learning and experiencing different ways of life.
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I’d rather be looking at this view over lunch, than working away on my computer. 
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I’d rather be dealing with this type of traffic while out for a drive.
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And of course, I’d much rather be hanging around with elephants.

 

WPC: I’d rather be

2018-03-11: Multiple Exposure Project

I’m really finding creating these composite images to be a fun project for the month.  I’m again digging through my archives to find images that, to me, just work together.  This leopard was a fairly young male that I photographed in the Okavango Delta last May, and the sunset image is from a different trip to the delta, in 2015.

I had initially had another vision for this image using two very specific photographs, but they just didn’t want to play nicely together.

I hope you enjoy what I have come up with this week.

 

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2018-03-05: Monochrome Monday

To start the week, and African Wild Dog at the start of a hunt.  We had been spending time with the pack as they lounged in the shade, and quite suddenly they made the decision to set off.  They dispersed incredibly quickly, and following them through the tall grass was a losing battle.  Thankfully, there were two or three more opportunities to spend with the pack during this particular stay in the delta.

 

2018-03-04: Multiple Exposure Project

This first multiple exposure image of the month is an idea that I jotted down in more than one place over several months, so I am finally glad to have a chance to explore it and create something.

I created this image utilizing photoshop, using some basic layer masks and adjusting the blend mode to suit.  It really is that simple but that are lots of step by step tutorials available if anyone is interested in researching it further.

The lion image that is a basis for the composite was shot in Etosha National Park in Namibia in April 2017.  This young male lion slunk across the road in full stalk position towards a herd of zebra, but as they had spotted him before he even started moving, it really was a wasted effort.  The orientation of the zebra pictures I had from that same time period weren’t quite right for what I was looking to do, so I found one in my catalogue taken in the Okavango Delta in 2015 that worked much better.  The positioning of the group of zebra and tsessebe give the impression that they were watching something in the distance… perhaps even a predator moving through.

 

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2018-02-25: Revisiting Old Work

During this month of revisiting old work, I’ve had the opportunity to take many trips down memory lane, remembering amazing moments in nature and the challenging times trying to work out what to do with my camera to make the image that appeared on my LCD match the thought I had in my head.

What this monthly topic has hammered home is that the gear doesn’t matter, its what you are able to do with it.  The software used to edit images doesn’t matter, its understanding how to make the tools work for you in the best ways possible.    These things get said time and time again, but they really become apparent when you start reviewing a collection of work gathered over time that has been captured and edited with a variety of different resources.

No one looking at my images is going to say “You shot that on this camera body and then you edited it with that software program.  There are times when I have been out shooting with more than one camera and once the images have been uploaded to my computer, I don’t know which image was shot with which body, without checking the info panel!

At the end of the day, the only thing that should matter is if the image moves you in some way.

And with that, here are a few images I have reworked this week.  I hope you enjoy, and please check back next Sunday to find out what the topic of the month will be for March.

A rhino with her calf seen while doing volunteer work with Wildlife Act in 2014.
Not a spectacular picture, but a fun memory for me. I took a day off work and went out shooting for a school project I was working on. It was a fine fall day so I took Spencer with me, and he was overjoyed at having the opportunity to dig in the sand next to the river. October 2013.
My first foray into Botswana included viewing elephants in the water from a boat. An amazing experience!  April 2013.
For my then and now image, I chose this wild dog lounging in the shade, seen while working with Wildlife Act in 2014.
Here is the now version of this image. I think I was much better able to highlight the texture of the fur compared to the original edit.  

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