Photography – Page 25 – Jennifer Sawicky Photography

August 28, 2019August 27, 2019

2019-08-28: Wordless Wednesday

August 26, 2019

2019-08-26: Monochrome Monday

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 🙂

DSCF2572 copy-Edit — 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.

DSCF3044 — A mama guiding her young calf across the road to join the rest of the herd.

DSCF3718 — Another adorable youngster; this one was very inquisitive and spent lots of time near the vehicle, seeing what we were all about.

XT3X3671 — 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.

XT3X4281 — Drinks stop while Mom graves.

August 21, 2019August 20, 2019

2019-08-21: Wordless Wednesday

August 19, 2019August 18, 2019

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!

20170515-DSC_6425 — 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.

XT3X2731 copy-Edit — 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.

XT3X4033 copy-Edit — 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.

August 18, 2019

2019-08-18: Birds – The ones that are hard to get

Everyone that enjoys watching birds and photographing them knows that there are some species that are harder than others to get images of. I love the challenge of trying to capture that elusive clear image of a bird that tends to hide in the densest part of the treetops.

Locally, we have beautiful birds like the Western Tanager; a bird that I have only seen a handful of times, and photographed only on a rare occasion. The incredible yellow plumage on the males makes them targets for predatory birds, so sticking to dense areas makes a lot of sense. I admired the beautiful song of the Hermit Thrush for years before I finally saw a small brown and white bird singing, and had my first clue to discover the identity I had wondered about for so long.

While traveling, I kept up with trying to ID and photograph birds hiding in treetops and thickets. Some were deep amongst the leafy trees foraging for fruits, some were naturally shy and trying hard to stay out of sight, and sometimes, it was just unlucky positioning of the vehicle, and having to shoot through branches and grasses, before the bird flew away.

Here are a few of my shots of some of the more challenging birds spotted on my last trip.

DSCF1698 — I’ve had success with images of African Hoopoes in the past, but this trip, I seemed to spot them only when they were behind a bunch of branches, or as they were flying away.

DSCF1668 copy-Edit — A Purple-crested Turaco. Such a stunning bird, which I was fortunate enough to see at two different camps, but only high in the treetops, feasting on tiny fruits. This was the best shot I managed over a couple of days trying!

DSCF1171 — A green pigeon devouring figs. There were so many birds in this giant tree, and I had to stand underneath to take pictures. It was a dangerous place to be, and I nearly got pooped on more than once.

DSCF1658 copy-Edit — Another glimpse of a Purple-crested Turaco.

DSCF1650 copy-Edit — A green pigeon pausing from its afternoon meal.

XT3X3406 — A white-crested helmet shrike. Sadly, I only saw this species once, and this is the best of the images I could get. At least you can make out the yellow, wattled eye ring.

XT3X4124 copy-Edit — A chinspot batis that I spotted outside of my room at Chitwa Chitwa. I went out on the patio and was lucky to get this shot before the bird flew deeper into the trees.

XT3X4130 copy-Edit — A black-backed puffback, also spotted from the deck at Chitwa Chitwa. The late morning and early afternoon hours between game drives are great times for bird watching from the comfort of your room 🙂

XT3X4233 copy-Edit — My views of adult bateleur eagles are usually of them flying away, and not managing any shots. This is as good as it gets, so far. There’s always next time!

XT3X4352 copy-Edit — A different hoopoe, in a different tree, but still obscured by branches.

August 14, 2019

2019-08-14: Wordless Wednesday

August 12, 2019August 12, 2019

2019-08-12: World Elephant Day 2019

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 🙂

An adorable baby elephant trying to make itself look big and threatening.

Elephants galore in this multiple exposure image.

A herd of elephants in Amboseli.

My favourite baby elephant, testing to see if sand is good eating. 1/640sec, f9.0, ISO 2000

A pair of elephants moving down a road.

Elephants marching one by one.

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.

August 7, 2019

2019-08-07: Wordless Wednesday

August 5, 2019

2019-08-05: Monochrome Monday

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!

XT3X3065 — 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.

XT3X3046 — A stretch and a yawn, then she moved about 5 feet before laying down again.

XT3X3101 — 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.

August 4, 2019

2019-08-04: Hornbills

As mentioned last week, I am going to focus on birds for my Sunday posts during the month of August. I had some really interesting bird sightings during my recent travels, and I am looking forward to editing and sharing some of the moments.

I decided to start off with hornbills; the only reason being that a hornbill was the first bird image I took when I got to the bush, so it seemed a logical enough place to start. I posted a few hornbill images back in June as a wordless Wednesday post; you can find those here.

During my travels, I saw 5 different species of hornbill, including several sightings on two different properties of the endangered southern ground hornbill. Our rangers shared some fascinating information about these birds; the southern ground hornbill has helpers to raise their chick; these baby-sitters put in several years of assistance duties before they take on the responsibility of mating themselves.

DSCF0740 — A family group of 3 southern ground hornbills foraging in the early morning near Lion Sands River Lodge. South Africa, May 2019.

DSCF2477 — This hornbill was also in a group of 3, seen while staying at Kings Camp in the Timbavati. The group were spread over over several different trees and fallen branches. May, 2019.

More common to see while out on game drives and the red and yellow billed hornbills (or banana head and chill pepper as they seem to be called quite often :)) Our rangers also explained some interesting facts about the breeding habits of the hornbills; I am not 100% certain if this applies to all the African hornbill species, but during breeding, the female will lay eggs into a tree hollow, and then allow herself to be sealed up inside the tree cavity with only a small opening to allow the male to pass food in to her and the chicks once they hatch. The female removes all her flight feathers during this time and allows them to regrow while nesting, and as such she is completely reliant on her mate for her survival, as well as the survival of their offspring. Such trust!

A red-billed hornbill showing off some serious flexibility. I’m pretty sure there are yoga poses that look like this 🙂

XT3X4152 — A yellow-billed hornbill perched against the clear blue sky.

DSCF0254 — A pair of red-billed hornbills spotted at sunset.

These last two hornbills are less common (at least for me) to see while out in the bush. I’ve seen the grey hornbill and crowned hornbill each on only one other occasion. Both of these were spotted while out on game drives from Lion Sands River Lodge.

Tag: Photography