Showcasing the beauty of Mother Nature
I wish I could provide the type of tree this is, but unfortunately all I know is that I thought it was stunning, and worth taking the time to take pictures of.
This view was off of the pool deck at Simbavati Hilltop Lodge. I spent some time between lunch and our afternoon game drive playing around with long exposure photos using my infrared filter. Each time I capture images like this and edit them, I remember again how much I enjoy them, and how much more there is to learn about the process.
I realized I still have a lot of images from my 2022 trip that I wanted to work through, so I decided to select some images from Victoria Falls, both from the Zimbabwean side and from the Zambian side.
I first visited the Zambian side of Victoria Falls in April of 2013, and the water level was perfect for viewing as there was a strong water flow to highlight the epic scale, but not so much as to shroud the entire falls in mist. My second visit was November of 2022, and there was far less water flowing over the falls and a lot more exposed rock, which showed off the scale of the falls in a completely different way.
On the day we visited the Zimbabwean side, clouds hung heavy in the air, but I don’t believe delivered any rain that day. Our visit to the Zambian side 8 days later couldn’t have been more different, with clear blue skies and fairly significant heat and humidity, around 38C or so, going from memory.
After a few dreary and grey days, I was in the mood for colour again, and these giraffes images certainly fit the bill. The shape of the giraffe is so easily recognizable that they are a great subject for a silhouetted shot, if you are fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time, with both subject matter and weather cooperating.
I was treated to a beautiful sunrise sky this morning when I was out walking my dogs; in one direction, warm yellow, orange and peach tones, and in the other, cool blues and purples. It was such a lovely start to the day. While I didn’t have my camera to take any pictures, I did have a few lovely sunrise shots just waiting to be edited from my last trip.
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 chose to highlight some of the predators that I saw on my last safari. Of course, there is more to predators than just animals; there are reptiles and birds that also fall under this category, but today I am sticking with the four-legged variety.
Predators are what a lot of people aim to see while on safari, but a game drive is so much more than seeing a glimpse of a lion or leopard. It always bears repeating, that the best game drives are the ones that you go on without a strong agenda, and allow the beauty of Mother Nature to unfold before you, and experience all that is on offer.
You never know what you might cross paths with when out on a safari game drive. Between the guides, trackers and all the guests, there are eyes scanning in every possible direction, off into the far distance. But sometimes, the wildlife makes it easy by hanging out on the road or crossing right in front of the vehicle, making them very easy to spot and view.
All of these images are animals spotted on the roadways; these are the types of traffic jams that I never mind being a part of.
Today I felt like doing something a bit different, and went back to some of the images I flagged from my 2023 Alaska trip. All of these images were from an excursion I did, taking a train trip along the White Pass for a day trip in the Yukon. I have shared some images from this trip before (search Alaska if you missed these and want to take a look).
I was drawn to elephants when I sat down to work through some photos today, but when I came online to create my post, I realized I did the same thing only a month ago (which you can find here). As I rebuild my habits for photo editing and posting, checking what I have done recently is probably a smart thing to add early in the process.
Throughout the years of this blog I’ve said time and again how much I love spending time with elephants; and if I could only pick one animal to see one safari, it would be elephants, as they are almost always active and on the move doing something: feeding, drinking or interacting with one another, which makes them very interesting to spend time with.
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.
