2019-10-16: Wordless Wednesday
2018-04-22: Wide Angles Project
My wide angles only project took a bit of an unexpected detour this week, into video editing. I took loads of GoPro stills and video during my 2016 trip to Uganda and Kenya, and never did anything with them. I think I edited one, possibly two GoPro still images. Since the GoPro is by design a very wide angle camera, I thought going through my archives to find some still shots might be fun, but it turned out that compiling a video was more compelling.
I’ve created a short video that follows my journey through Uganda; from Kihihi to Bwindi, onto Ishasha, the Kazinga Channel, the Kyambura Gorge, Kibale Forest and then ending in Entebbe. The still image for the post and the video of the Batwa tribe were shot with my Nikon camera, but the balance was all with the GoPro, generally on a head mount or out the window of a vehicle. Video is not something I’ve ever spent much time on, but it does provide a good feel for what the areas, and a little glimpse into what the gorilla and chimp treks are like. Pardon the shakiness at times and awkward head bobbing; when I was with the gorillas I was taking stills with my Nikon while wearing the GoPro on a head mount.
I hope you enjoy this week’s project. I’ll be going through my Kenya videos for next week.
Wishing you all a fantastic week ahead.
2017-05-05: Feel Good Friday
My images for today are a variety of sunrise and sunset photos from my time in Uganda and Kenya. Every moment of every day brings some new and different to appreciate 🙂
Please visit:
www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.
and
https://shopvida.com/collections/voices/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.
2017-03-20: Monochrome Monday
Happy first day of Spring! My goodness I am certainly happy to say that, and also very happy that it is finally starting to feel like winter has loosened its grip around here. I’m at the point now where only 50% of my lawn is still cover in snow!
For today, I thought I would share a mixed bag of photos from my trip to East Africa.
Happy Monday all, and have a wonderful week!
Please visit:
www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.
and
https://shopvida.com/collections/voices/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.
2017-03-03: WPC – A Good Match
Hanging out with the buffalo is definitely a good match for the egret, but I am not so sure it is a two-way street. The buffalo’s movement and grazing causes insects to scatter, becoming easy prey for the egrets that walk alongside the herd of buffalo. Here the buffalo was wading in shallow water at the edge of the river, and the egret is just catching a ride.
Please visit:
www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.
and
https://shopvida.com/collections/voices/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.
2016-12-29: WPC Path
The end of the year is a great time to reflect on the path that has been travelled over the year, and the ones that you hope to travel on in the coming year. 2016 has been an interesting, and really good year. The photos below encompass some of my thoughts about the various paths that I am on.
There are times when the path is clear; you know where you are going and the way is easily defined. If you have to retrace your steps for some reason, it’s easy to get back where you started.
On some days, the path might seem barren and you feel all alone, but you never know what might pop up ahead.
Sometimes others will doubt that you are on a path at all; they will question your direction and your vision. But you know exactly where you are going.
Sometimes you need to create your own path. You can’t see where you are headed, and if you try to turn around, the way is just as obscured. Going on intuition is the only way forward.
Sometimes the only thing to do is take a break, rest, and return to the path later on. This is especially true when you have no idea what you are doing, or where you are going!
Please visit:
www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.
and
https://shopvida.com/collections/voices/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.
2016-10-17: WPC Quest
If I had a scorecard for successful trekking experiences in Uganda, it would look something like this:
Gorillas treks 2/2
Chimpanzee treks 1/2
Now by successful, I am only meaning that I saw the animal that I intended to when setting out for the trek. We could define successful in lots of ways though: if success meant coming back safe and having fun, I’d be 2/2 on both of them.
One trek felt like a quest more than the others, and that was the chimpanzee trek through the Kyambura Gorge in Uganda. You see, with gorilla trekking, trackers go out long before guests to try and find the animals in advance, so you don’t spend loads of time wandering, and the success rate of seeing the gorillas is quite high. There are no trackers that go out ahead of time for chimpanzee treks, and in Kyambura Gorge, the success rate for seeing chimps is somewhere between 50-60%.
Several times I had contemplated giving the gorge trek a miss, as I was worried about the physicality of it, but decided to give it a go anyways. The gorge itself is around 150m deep, has a river running through it (with hippos) and the pathways along are often steep, muddy and slippery. On more than one occasion, rather than fall over, I sat down at the top of a hill and slid down the muddy path on my butt!
After the initial decent into the gorge, we crossed a very nice, sturdy bridge over the river to look for the chimps along the other side. And as we walked along the paths, up and down hills, through streams and over fallen trees, we passed several more bridges. But when our guide declared it was time to return since the chimps weren’t in the area, we were a good two kilometres from the nearest bridge, and so instead, we had to cross the river by crawling along a fallen tree!
Crossing on the tree wasn’t actually that bad, it was wide and sturdy, and while the bark bruised my knees terribly, I wasn’t scared I was going to slip and fall. But then I reached the other side and learned that to get off the fallen tree, I would have to stand up, bear hug a big branch, and take a step of faith to another tree lower down that was further away than my legs could easily reach… and then finally jump to the riverbank below. I wish I had photos of all that but even my GoPro was safely packed away in my bag. I was terrified taking the leap of faith at the end of the tree, but very thankful for the other people in the group that helped me out and walked me through what I needed to do.
I saw chimpanzees the next day at Kibale Forest, but the Kyambura Gorge walk sticks out for me just as much. As one of my new friends said “You’ll always have a story to tell because of this!”