I decided to work through the last of the sunbird photos I had flagged off, so that I could start on something new in the coming week. Hopefully 4 posts in a row dedicated to just one bird type isn’t too boring. I had hoped that I could include the white fronted sunbird I captured as well, but those photos were taken from the hide and the bird was in a tree quite far away. Sadly, they are completely lacking.
1/320sec, f5.6, ISO 140It looks like this sunbird has a streak of pollen on his chest. 1/320sec, f5.6, ISO 180I include this photo only because I absolutely love the shape her wings have created. It looks like she is drawing a cloak around herself. 1/1000sec, f5.6, ISO 500After all that editing of sunbirds in aloe plants, I wanted to try something a bit different. This photo was taken with the house in the background, giving a stark white backdrop. I quite like the black and white treatment. Thoughts? 1/1600sec, f5.6, ISO 400A male scarlet chested sunbird caught with an open mouth, and covered in pollen. 1/100sec, f5.6, ISO 800A male scarlet chested sunbird stretches for an aloe flower. 1/1000sec, f5.6, ISO 8001/800 sec, f5.6, ISO 800
A scarlet chested sunbird appears to be giving a bee a dirty look. I guess the bee was on the aloe flower she wanted to eat from! 1/640sec, f8.0, ISO400
While at the Zimanga volunteer house, I had a great time in the garden on a few afternoons, taking pictures of whatever birds happened to be hanging around. A pair of scarlet chested sunbirds allowed me to hover around them for close to an hour while they had a meal at an aloe plant. Unfortunately, getting a photo of both of them together was not in the cards, but I do have lots more photos of them to go through and post in the near future.
I saw both male and female black bellied bustards while at Zimanga Reserve, but only managed to capture a few photos of the male, on a couple of different days. Each time, it was on the ground looking for food, and took off after being startled by the approaching vehicle.
Like most bird species, the female is far drabber in appearance, and lacks the black belly. Unfortunately the only photo I have of a female is completely out of focus as it was shot from the moving vehicle.
While at Zimanga Game Reserve with Wildlife Act, our group was fortunate enough to have two sessions in their fantastic bird hides. The first was an afternoon session in the Bhejane birdbath hide, and the second, where these photos were taken, were from a morning session at the Mkhombe birdbath hide. The morning session provided over 900 photos, and not just of birds; warthogs and the vervet monkeys came from a drink as well.
While the vervet monkeys can be incredibly cheeky around a lodge or camp, snatching food and wrecking havoc should they decide to go inside, I find them fascinating to watch and love seeing their antics. Around the birdbath, they were more concerned with each member getting a drink than getting into any mischief (although there was one snacking on the scattered birdseed). I especially loved to see the moms with the tiny babies clinging to their stomachs, and I believe there were either two or three babies in the troop.
Mom inspects the water while the baby peeks out between her arms. 1/1600sec, f7.1, ISO1600The little one on the right was close to falling into his drink! 1/1600sec, f9.0, ISO1600Careful Mom! The baby’s head is dangerously close to the rocks as she leans in to drink. 1/1600sec, f9.0, ISO1600Everyone likes to make silly faces at babies! 1/1600sec, f9.0, ISO1600A vervet monkey leans in for a drink at the Mkhombe birdbath hide. 1/1600sec, f7.1, ISO1250It’s always nice to have a drink with a friend. 1/1600sec, f7.1, ISO1250
On one of my South African trips, I was lucky enough to see this white rhino cow and calf having an afternoon rest. Mama was providing a shady spot away from the afternoon heat for her baby, but they were very quickly startled by our presence and moved off just a moment after I pressed the shutter down.
A white rhino cow and calf resting in the afternoon heat, with a trio of oxpeckers accompanying them. 1/800sec, f5.6, ISO800
The long grass was doing nothing to enhance the photo, and the Jackass penguin has only a limited amount of pale pink colouring around the eyes, so I decided to do a black and white conversion. After a hectic day, unwinding with some editing seemed like a good choice, and the penguin made me smile. Mission accomplished 🙂
1/320sec, f5.6, ISO200 – conversion in Silver Efex
Penguin at Boulder Beach, Cape Town, South Africa, March 2013.
Londolozi is well known for the number of leopards they have living within the bounds of the property, and I was lucky enough to see three of them during my visit. They were elusive at first though, and it wasn’t until our third afternoon game drive that we finally saw our first leopard; the lions stole the show for the first half of our visit.
The photo opportunities were slim based on how the vehicle had to park, and how deep under the bushes the leopard was. Thankfully, the light was decent (unlike when we saw the lion cubs!) so I managed a few obstructed shots.
It was around 4:30 when Talley took a call that a leopard had been spotted with a fresh kill, and even though the viewing was not likely to yield great photos, we headed in that direction anyways, since we had yet to see a leopard.
When we found him, he was deep under some bushes with an impala ram. He had already had his fill, but was still working on pulling the fur off of the impala. The view from the vehicle was obstructed by the bushes, while I managed to get a couple shots and a short video clip, mostly I just watched.
This boy had a full belly, but he wasn’t about to leave his kill for another animal to steal anytime soon. As the light started fading, we left him alone so he could hoist the impala or drag it to a new location to avoid hyenas.
We came across this leopard, as well as others, the next morning. The photographic opportunities and the story of that morning viewing were amazing!
The Camp Pan male leopard with an impala ram, April 4, 2013 at Londolozi.
I’ve just finished a blog post for Londolozi’s guest blog page, and now it is time to get back to keeping up my own page. Except I’ve got a touch of writer’s block.
A different perspective of an elephant – from on top of his back. Lovely Danny carried Mom and I for an amazing hour long safari. April 2013, Livingstone, Zambia. 1/100, f5.3, ISO400, 40mmDuring our transport to Nelsruit Airport, we spotted these lions just as we exited Londolozi’s property. I love that the male is watching the female stalk the impala. Waiting for someone to get him some lunch! 1/400sec, f11, ISO200, 68mm
I’ve been trying to think of what angle to take, what animal to highlight, and right now, nothing is coming to me at all. But these past few weeks, I have been working on a photo book project with my Mom, so I thought I would post a few of the pictures we have selected to include so far.
For some reason, this particular elephant shot makes me think of Dumbo. Such a soft and gentle face. At Chobe Park in Botswana. 1/1600sec, f5.6, ISO400, 300mmThe antlers on kudo are truly impressive. Such a beautiful animal. The timing was perfect as both oxpeckers are looking in the same direction as well. 1/320sec, f5.6, ISO100, 300mmWe saw 10-12 wild ostrich on the way to and from the Cape of Good Hope. We even witnessed two members of park staff free a male that was entangled in some wire and had fallen on the rocks. It was very lucky those men didn’t get injured in helping the Ostrich. Everyone that had pulled over to see what the commotion was started clapping and honking when the Ostrich took off after the rest of his group and the men were safely back in their vehicle. 1/640sec, f8.0, ISO200, 55mmSunrise on my last game drive at Londolozi (for now) 1/1250sec, f9.0, ISO200, 55mm
