Tag: landscape

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2024-11-24: Colour

Today, my eyes were drawn to dramatic, saturated colours, so I selected a few landscape images to edit. While today was a lovely day, with sunshine and blue skies to accentuate the fresh snow on the trees, I often find this time of year lacks in colour, and that, along with the lack of daylight, leaves me feeling rather blah. It’s nice to have these images to look over to perk me up as needed.

I snapped this image while waiting for our guide to pick us up for our morning drive. If I would have had more time, I would have set my tripod up for this, but even though I had to crank up the ISO to accommodate the shutter speed, I’m happy enough with the results, because at least I can remember the dramatic pink and purple skies. So many of the images I have can transport me right back to where I was when I snapped the shutter. I look at this and hear the chatter of early morning birds, smell the freshness of the bush at dawn and feel the slightly cool breeze. Timbavati Private Game Reserve, South Africa. April, 2024.
Sunrise on the Chobe River, during a morning boat cruise. It was such a peaceful morning out on the water. Chobe National Park, Botswana. April, 2024.
Our guide was upset that we spent so long with a bull elephant eating reeds in a channel, that we missed the sunset. But based on this image, I don’t think we missed anything at all. The colours at sunrise and sunset in the Okavango Delta were something I looked forward to prior to my trip, and they did not disappoint. Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
A sunset drinks stop, complete with hippos. Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
I was so happy I was able to capture this sunrise, as I was having issues with one of my cameras while it was happening. I was getting an F0 message on the camera body that had a 150mm-400mm lens, but the error resolved when I switched to a smaller lens. A quick search on the internet yielded the likely cause of the issue, and thankfully one of the people in my group had a small screwdriver allowing an easy fix, but it definitely had me perplexed for a bit. It turns out, the weight of the 150mm-400mm lens over the years had loosened some screws in the body of the camera.
This was taken my last morning in Moremi Game Reserve. Botswana, April, 2024.
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2024-10-06: Landscape Selection

I was drawn to work on landscape photos this week, so I picked a selection from the different places I visited between South Africa and Botswana this past April.

This was a dry riverbed in the Timbavati Private Game Reserve, with a waterbuck grazing and a rock fig growing out of the side of the large rocks. South Africa, April, 2024.
Sunrise in Klaserie Sands Game Reserve in South Africa. This trip was my first time in this reserve, and it was surprising how different the landscape was, compared to the Timbavati that it shares a border with. The area was fenced for a very long time, so the bush was very thick since there were no elephants passing through until quite recently. Klaserie Sands Game Reserve, South Africa. April, 2024.
A lone waterbuck on the floodplain alongside the Chobe River. Despite the fact that I was there at the very start of the dry season, the river was extremely low. It was very different to being in the area in April of 2013 or more recently in November 2022. Chobe Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
Sunrise on the Chobe River, during a beautiful early morning boat cruise (complete with coffee and snacks, of course!). Chobe Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
A rocky outcrop in Savute Game Reserve. It wasn’t the type of game drive where I felt comfortable asking to stop for a lot of landscape shots, so I just put my camera on the fastest shutter speed I could, and then snapped away while driving. Some of them worked, but many did not. Savute Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
Moonset at sunrise in Savute Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
A pair of baobab trees seen in Savute. Botswana, April, 2024.
This area is called Dead Tree Island in Moremi Game Reserve. While you might initially think an area of dead trees wouldn’t be the most photogenic area to be in, I found it strikingly beautiful. I have quite a few images from this area that I flagged to work on in the future. Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
Okavango Delta sundowner drinks stop at a hippo pond. This was a preplanned stop with the camp staff having set up a bar and snacks stop for all the vehicles to visit. It was a lovely evening. Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana. April, 2024.
A lone bull elephant climbing the hill from the dry Boteti riverbed outside of Leroo La Tau Camp. I am hoping to soon pull some images from my first time in this area in 2015 and contrasts them with the more recent ones as the difference in the landscape is quite striking. Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana. April, 2024.

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2024-06-23: Alaska

I had some photos flagged to edit from my 2022 trip to Alaska, so I followed the path of least resistance and worked on those, rather than selecting images from my latest adventure. Back to Africa images next week 🙂

I’m still in awe of how beautiful a trip it was, and how I really lucked out with the most amazing weather you could ask for.

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2024-06-02: Chobe River Sunrise

On our last morning at Chobe Game Lodge, our group had the option to either have a short, early morning boat cruise, or sleep in (we didn’t have time for a full game drive because of our flight time to go to our next camp). I’m an early bird by nature, and try my best to never miss an activity when on safari, so the choice was easy for me. The people that slept in certainly missed out on a beautiful morning on the water.

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2024-02-04: Sunrises and Sunsets

We’ve had some beautiful weather the last few days, and my road is finally clear of icy and easy to walk, so I’ve been getting the dogs out for nice morning walks. The morning twilight and sunrise have been beautiful, but since I didn’t have my camera with me to capture them, I went through some of the many images I have left to edit, and found a selection that shows some of the beautiful colours I have been enjoying.

Sunrise along the banks of the Zambezi River, just outside the town of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. November, 2022.
A misty early morning drive in Hwange, Zimbabwe. November, 2022.
The dawn of a beautiful day in Hwange, Zimbabwe. November, 2022.
A rather spooky looking sunset captured in the Sabi Sands. May, 2019.
Sunset along the Zambezi River, just before taking the boat back to Tsowa Safari Island. Zimbabwe, November 2022.
Zambezi Sunset from Livingstone, Zambia. November, 2022.
A peaceful bush sunset from the Sabi Sands. May, 2019.
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2023-10-22: A simple tree in Hwange

I want to get back into the routine and habit of working on my photos and posting at least once a week, so I started with the first image that caught my eye when looking through my unedited files. I believe this is an umbrella acacia tree, and it stood out amongst the grasses and shorter brush while out on a game drive. It would have been amazing under a clear blue sky, or silhouetted against a sunset. Even under a cloudy sky, it is a magnificent tree, but it was a rather flat image in the colour version.

I haven’t played around with much black and white editing recently, save for a few infrared images I have worked on. I feel a bit rusty with all aspects of editing at the moment, but like anything else, it comes back as you start to use it again. I am much happier with this image in monochrome, though with more time, I probably could have gotten it to a bit closer to what I had in my minds eye when I started out.

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2023-03-19: Stormy Skies

These images caught my eye while I was trying to decide what to work on this week. I do love a dramatic sky, and while the rainstorms I can do without, the clouds at sunset are beautiful watch, as the colours change moment to moment.

Dramatic skies on the Zambezi River. Zambezi National Park, Zimbabwe. November, 2022.
A sunset boat cruise on the Zambezi. I had to balance between sipping my wine and taking pictures.
This cloud was the beginning of quite a thunderstorm. I didn’t manage any still shots of the lightning, as we were far from camp and pushing to get back before the rain, and it didn’t seem right to ask to stop for photos. I caught this image while on an evening drinks stop, just before we collectively decided it was best to get a move on. Madikwe, South Africa. November, 2022.
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2023-01-15: Monochrome Madikwe

It’s been gloomy today with heavy fog, and I needed a bit of sunshine in my life, so I turned to my recent trip photos. While a monochrome landscape may seem a strange choice, looking at the image I can feel the warmth of the sun and remember the fun I had while I played around taking images at midday with my infrared filter on at one of the lovely dining decks at Jaci’s Lodge where I stayed in Madikwe. I specifically shot this intending to give it a monochrome treatment, and I am happy with how it turned out. I’d hoped that an elephant might pop to the water hole while I was shooting, as that would have been interesting with a long exposure, but it was not to be this time.

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2021-05-03: Monochrome Monday

I started working on this photo a couple days ago and got sidetracked, and quite handily, had some time to finish it today for my monochrome post. This was shot as a long exposure with an infrared filter, from the deck of Lion Sands Tinga Lodge (oh, how I wish I was there right now!)

I’m really hoping I can find some opportunities between work and school work to get out and play around with the infrared filter this summer, as it is definitely a technique I enjoy th look of, and would like to get some more skills in.

That’s all for today, hope you have a great week!

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