I’ve had a lot going on recently on the editing side for my images and have been experimenting with new workflows and combinations of software. I’ve recently made the move from Lightroom over to On1 Photo Raw, and while it is a big learning curve, I am definitely enjoying the process. I had downloaded the trial of On1 after reading reviews that suggested it might be a better option than Lightroom for Fuji X raw files (I’m in the process of making the jump from Nikon to Fuji; new camera and new software all at once). What impressed me the most with the On1 software, and the reason I took the plunge with it, was I opened up some raw files both from my Nikon cameras and my Panasonic camera, and found they appeared much sharper just from the initial work of the raw processing engine, without me doing anything to the files.
I had flagged this photo to work on, and it is definitely a challenging image. It was shot at 1/250sec, f5.6, ISO 25,600 at 5:15 in the evening and the lion cub was in a deep, heavily shaded thicket. Whether the steps I took are the ones I would do again, I don’t know, but I am pleased with the end result for this one.
The starting point.
I knew I wanted to use Topaz Denoise for my noise reduction, so I moved the image from On1 Photo Raw into Photoshop to do my editing work. Other than the initial raw processing with lens corrections, I didn’t do any editing work on this image in On1 Photo Raw.
I ran Topaz Denoise 6 as a filter from Photoshop, and selected the Nikon D800 ISO 25600 preset, as they don’t have presets for the D600 or D610, and I found the results for the D800 gave me the best image quality.
Image at 200% as shot, to show the noise.Image at 200% after running Denoise 6.Full image after running Topaz Denoise6.
After Denoise was complete, I could have gone back into On1 to do further work on the image, but I decided to stay within Photoshop and instead played around with the new Topaz Studio that I downloaded earlier this week (I’ve been using the Topaz suite for some time as filters from Photoshop, but they haven’t been go-to’s in my workflow).
In Topaz Studio, I selected the preset “Light sharpen contrast under the basic panel as my starting point. I adjusted the colour temperature slightly and added a subtle vignette to the image.
Sharpening was my final step, which is a little tricky when you have an image that is really noisy. I stayed within Topaz Studio and went to Detail to see what could be done.
Using Topaz Detail within Studio, I selected the micro contrast enhancement 1 preset to add a bit of sharpening to the image, without adding back a lot of the noise I got rid of in step one.The final result.
There are dozens of different ways to work on this image. I’m sure I could have done everything in Photoshop, Lightroom, On1 Photo Raw or Topaz Studio, or using a combinations of plugins like MacPhun’s Intensify and Focus or the GoogleNik filters. This was just the way I decided to work on this image, as I look to see how the new resources I have work and how to make them work together. Right now, I am doing my raw processing in On1 and using Photoshop when I want to use other filters and plugins, but I can’t say I have any real sort of workflow using these new tools. It’s all a work in progress 🙂
Let me know if you like the Before and After posts; I’ve done one previously also working on a seriously noisy image. You can find that here if you are interested (and I must say, looking back at that image, the workflow I used here yielded much better results!)
I don’t want to call this a “best sighting” because it feels like I am discounting so many other amazing moments in the bush. So I will say instead that this was a truly special sighting, made all the more memorable by how genuinely excited my ranger was to get to experience this moment.
On our last morning game drive, we decided to head out to the area where this leopard was last seen, in the hopes of seeing her, or even better, her with her 2-1/2 week old cubs. I never imagined we’d find her transporting one of the cubs to a new den site, and that we would have close to an hour to watch her and the little ones.
I’ve posted a few more photos from this encounter so far, you can find them here if you’d like.
The Tamboti leopard moving her cub to a new den site. May 2017. Londolozi Game Reserve, South Africa. 1/640 sec, f6.3, ISO 3200.
The Flat Rock male leopard yawning in the grass. We spent time with him and the Piva male, who were in the midst of a territory battle. The Piva male was recently killed by lions; I can only imagine how interesting the leopard dynamics will now be on the reserve.
It’s difficult to distill the last few days of my trip into a few paragraphs, because we saw so much, and had so many amazing and memorable moments, that I don’t really know how to explain it all and frankly, I don’t know if I even have the words to properly convey how it all felt. Returning to Londolozi Tree Camp felt like a homecoming. We were warmly welcomed with hugs, had the chance to reconnect with many familiar faces and were able to relax in what is, without a doubt, our very favourite place on the planet.
We were surprised from the outset, as we had requested our ranger from our previous trip, Dave, when we booked the trip, but then found out he was leaving Londolozi to take some time to travel. I thought the dates were such that he would be finished just before we arrived, but it turned out we were his last clients, and we had three wonderful days with him and his tracker, Judas, to explore the property. Since we had been on safari with Dave before, he knew exactly what we liked, which was to head out and see what happens, and we did just that. At the end of our time, Dave said he figured he had the 6 best consecutive drives of his career. The experiences we had were just that good.
I will be sharing loads more photos from my time at Londolozi in future posts, but for now, here are a few of the memorable moments from the last stop on my African adventure.
Our first game drive, we ended up amongst two male leopards in a territory battle! It was definitely reminiscent of our very first trip to Africa, when we experienced the same thing on Londolozi (with different leopards, of course). We had some crazy 4×4 trekking through the bush, watched and listened to the posturing leopards until the sun was going down, and then went for a leisurely drinks stop before making our way back to camp.
The Flat Rock male leopard walking through the tall grass as the sun was setting. The territory battle was definitely not over at that point.
The next morning we headed out and found ourselves with two female and one male lion, and listened to the male roaring away the morning, calling to his brother who was some distance away. His brother was injured with a broken leg, and sadly, I heard has since died during a conflict with rival lions.
Our second afternoon game drive found us having a leisurely drive around the reserve, until we heard on the radio that a lioness had been found on a giraffe kill with her two tiny cubs. As this was Dave’s favourite lioness, we went to the sighting, and as it started to grow dark, we watched the tiny cubs scampering around under the bushes, and gnawing on the giraffe’s horns and ears. The Mom, the Tsalala tailless lioness, is one that I recall seeing on my previous trip to Londolozi.
Very challenging conditions for capturing photographs. I shot these at ISO 25,600 and still could have used a bit more light!
Our second morning drive, we ended up on some tracks of a leopard that was denning with tiny cubs that no one had seen, but didn’t end up finding her. We did end up seeing another leopard and her two cubs though, and spent an enjoyable morning watching the cubs playing. They spent ages scampering around a swampy pool, climbing on fallen trees, and attacking each other with paw swipes and tail bites. We were even entertained watching Mom join in on the action, chasing the cubs around and pouncing through the grass at them.
The little cub at the back always seemed to be the instigator, biting and swiping at its sibling.The cubs look off towards where Mom was stationed, briefly checking in before beginning the chase each other around the tree.
Our third afternoon drive was a quiet affair at the start; we enjoyed the scenery and some general game, but then came across tracks of the female leopard with tiny cubs, and began looking further to see if we could find a sign of her. Another vehicle ended up having the sighting of a lifetime, seeing her a couple hundred meters from where we were looking, moving one of her cubs to a new den site. We were able to drive past and see her moving one of the cubs within the den, and then set off on her hunt. Photographically, there isn’t much to show for it, but I have memories that will last forever. After that beautiful moment, we thought we were stopping for a sundowner drink, but instead found a private bush barbecue set up for us in a dry riverbed. Two of the camp managers, Phil and Will, were making us a gourmet BBQ dinner, while we enjoyed craft beers in the bush and lots of wonderful conversation. We headed back to camp that evening driving beneath a blanket of stars. It was truly a magical last night in the bush.
Our final game drive, we set out from camp and quickly came upon a small herd of elephants that had found an underground water pipe and dug it up to have a drink. Here I had an experience with the elephants that is almost hard for me to describe. There was a young calf, probably a year old, drinking with his Mom, and he walked over to the vehicle on three different occasions, stood right next to me, and stared into my eyes. The look on his face could only be described as smiling. He didn’t pay attention to anyone else in the vehicle, and went back to his Mom after each visit. I could have reached out and touch his trunk or his ear, he was so close to me. I was awed after this, and then about 10 minutes later, another mother came by with a calf even younger, and after he took a drink, he came right over to the vehicle and looked into my eyes. He too looked as if he was smiling, and then headed back to his Mom. I’ve always felt very drawn to elephants and consider them to be a spirit animal for me, so this had to be one of the highlights of any game drive I have been on.
When the young elephant kept approaching me, I could barely get a photo he was so close. And frankly, I didn’t want to ruin the moment. Here is the older of the two, tucked behind Mom’s trunk.
After my experience with the elephants, I didn’t think that things could get any better. Dave laughed and suggested we go look for Tamboti, the leopard we caught a glimpse of the night before, so we headed off to the area that we saw her in previously. And there we saw her, carrying one of her cubs, moving den sites again. We were able to follow her, find the location of the new den, and spend time watching the two tiny leopards peek out from the hollow log and play with each other and their Mom on the grass outside. Seeing a leopard at all is an amazing experience, but to see how carefully the Mom walked along with her baby, occasionally setting it down to rest, was a magical experience. The location we were in was very dense, so after hundreds of rapid fire photographs, we moved off to allow another vehicle the opportunity to spend time with the cubs before they settled down to sleep.
This was a dream sighting for our ranger, Dave. I don’t know if I was happy because I was getting to experience this, or happy because I got to watch him experience this sighting. I think it is a bit of both, but to see someone else’s thrill at a sighting, especially when they spend every day in the bush, is truly special.Tamboti moving so carefully through the bush with her cub.Dave could not have gotten our vehicle in better position. Amazing!Two tiny faces peeking out from the new den.
You’d think that would be enough, but we still had one more sighting on that morning drive. We heard another vehicle was following up on lions calling in another area of the reserve, so we went over to give assistance. It didn’t take very long before we found a male and female lion, obviously a mating couple, each lazing about on their own termite mound. They periodically got up and moved to new spots and we followed along. At one point, we parked up against a termite mound to watch them walking down the road towards us, and they proceeded to climb onto the termite mound and mate in front of our vehicle. They were about 2-3 feet from the tracker’s seat (luckily he was in the back with us).
This was just before the bout of mating; I was sitting behind the Dave, who you can see was getting eyed up by this lion. He walked past the vehicle so close, I could have reached out and touched his mane.
It was bittersweet having our last breakfast before heading to the airstrip and beginning our journey back home. The only way I can make myself get on the plane, is to know in my heart that I will be back to the beauty of Southern Africa again sometime (hopefully soon!)
I can say in all honesty, if I could only pick one place to return to for the rest of my life, it would be Londolozi. It is a truly special place for so much more than just the animal sightings.
This leopard was called Piva on Londolozi, and he was an incredibly impressive animal. At 7, he held a great territory and was one of the largest leopards in the area. When I was there in May, on our first game drive we found him having a territory stand-off with another male; and it was so interesting to watch the dynamics of the two animals.
Sadly, I read that this leopard was killed by a pride of lions over the weekend. The circle of life and the battle for space and resources can oftentimes be a cruel one to watch.
The Piva leopard of Londolozi, May 2017. 1/640 sec, f6.3, ISO 500.
The photo challenge prompt of the week is textures. There are a lot of directions that this can be taken; I decided on a combination of animals in their environment and animal portraits.
I hope you enjoy my take on texture.
Agama Lizard, Kenya, September 2016. I like the contrast of the colourful, scaly agama lizard against the drab brown tree trunk and the spiky thorn branches.A lioness walks through the desert in Namibia, April, 2017. Desert environments can seem one dimensional from a distance, but they are full of an amazing variety of textures. Sharp rocky outcrops, weathered wood, shifting sand, sparse vegetation and of course, the landscape occasionally dotted with animals and birds.Dense fog, dry grass, the pitted sides of a termite mound. Oh, and a cheetah too 🙂 South Africa, May 2017Soft fur, spiky whiskers and a whole lot of slippery slime. A leopard cub plays in a very swampy area of the bush. South Africa, May 2017.The wrinkly skin of the elephant is mimicked in the tree branch shadows falling above the eye and on the ear. Kenya, September 2016.
The experience on my last game drive of my previous holiday is something I have wanted to post about since I got home. I am glad I have finally had a chance to go through the photos, select my favourites, and relive the experience.
We spent the last two nights of our trip at Londolozi, where we had the pleasure of having the team of Dave and Judas guiding us through the bush. For anyone that missed it, I posted a few highlights from this trip previously: http://jennifersawicky.com/2015/06/29/londolozi-highlights/
On our last game drive, we had yet to see a leopard at Londolozi; and being that the property is known for amazing leopard sightings, our ranger was hoping we would see one before we set off for home. We started a leisurely morning drive with a group of three rhinos, and then moved on to a herd of elephants in the most gorgeous morning light. If that was all we saw that morning, I would have come home happy (me and elephants, everyone knows my love of them by now). Dave took a call about a leopard sighting quite some distance away, but a very unique one, a leopard that had been treed by a pride of lions. Dave put us on the sighting wait list, and we continued on with our drive. During a drive through a dry riverbed, we spotted an owl; while the light wasn’t favourable for photographs, I was still thrilled.
Still waiting our turn, we stopped for a coffee and watched a pair of giraffes grazing on acacia leaves. A hare hopped by and paused long enough for me to take a few photos before carrying on its way. Coffee finished, we took the call that our turn was coming up, and we made our way over to the area. As we drove into the area, two impala rams were facing off, rutting season being in full swing, and the noise they were making was absolutely incredible.
When we arrived, a female leopard called Mashaba was high in a tree, with the Tsalala lion pride lazing around near the base.
A full grown leopard in a very scrawny tree!The group of lions waiting below.Her eyes were on either on the lions, or scanning the distance for other threats.One of the young males of the Tsalala pride.
We weren’t there long though when the lions picked up the sounds of the nearby impala, and one by one, they slowly moved off.
Lions on the move.
As soon as the last lion was out of sight, Mashaba quickly made her way down the tree and disappeared, so we went to find out what had happened to the lions.
By this point, she had been in the tree for several hours. She must have been tired of that perch.Getting ready to begin her descent.Stopping to scan again.In the tree tops.Such amazing agility.Pausing to scan for further threats.Heading for lower branches.On the move.Checking again that the coast is clear.Leaping to safety.
Viewer discretion is advised…
We found the lions a short distance away, and the impala rams were no longer. The pride of seven took down two impala at the same time, and devoured them in less than a quarter hour. I was concentrating more on still shots, but I did take a few video clips, which I have included more for the sound than anything. Mostly the lions fed relatively peacefully, without coming to blows with each other over the choice pieces.
Family dining.The group made short work of two adult male impala.Tug of war!Trying to grab a chunk to take away (at least one of the lions moved off with a large chunk of impala to enjoy in peace under the bushes).Such intensity while eating.This was how we left the group; not much left to their meal at this point.
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 🙂
We were very lucky to see the pangolin so active. Our tracker Judas had only seen them stationary before, and he has spent most of his life in the bush.Yup, that’s a pangolin sticking its enormous tongue out.I gave a black and white edit a try, in the hopes that might bring out more detail.Searching the in the ground for food (not rolled into a complete ball).
Flash helped a little bit with the difficult lighting conditions, but everyone used it very sparingly, so as not to scare the VIP.
