Good Times

Normally I would be uploading the Weekly High Five on a Friday. Today is slightly different.

It would have been very easy to do a High Five as it has been another great week on the Photo-Africa Stock Library with a huge amount of new images being added to the various African Wildlife and Nature categories. For this week you can visit the Stock Site and have a look through the various new images that have been added.

As you are reading this I will be at Sossusvlei, Namibia getting ready to get married tomorrow. Adele and I decided to keep it nice and small and we will only have our parents, sisters and one friend sharing the day with us. After quite an 'interesting' year we are looking forward to finally completing the next step that has been coming for a long time.

Instead of the High Five I have decided to include a few random 'people' images of the last few days.

Adele and I the evening that Glen arrived from Australia. This is the third time that Glen has visited us in SA and is this time joining us as our best man / bridesmaid!

Gavin and I sharing a drink after seeing a leopard on drive last week, followed by another three (3!) leopards at Tuningi's waterhole!

Adele, Gavin, Heidi and I at the bar at Tuningi.

Adele and I a few years ago at one of the viewpoints in Madikwe. We have been together for almost five years and have worked together for almost all of that time. Many great memories and many more to come!

I will be back in Johannesburg for a quick stop on Monday before we head off on a short trip to the St Lucia wetlands and KwaMadwala Game Reserve. I have no doubt that in between everything else I will be getting quite a few images and I will upload these as soon as I find the chance!

In the meantime, here are a few of our 'wedding-links' that you can go and check out:

• A Rieviera Garden B&B (Stopover in Upington)
• Helmeringhausen Hotel (Stopover in Namibia: VERY tiny so should be interesting!)
• Wolwedans Dune Camp (Our Wedding Accommodation & Venue)
• Pieter Roos (Our Photographer)
• Manyatta Rock Lodge (After the wedding)

Once I am back I will get back to everybody's emails and comments! Thanks a lot for all the support and as always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time!

Gerry

The Most Beautiful Cat

Whenever you get back from a drive after a leopard sighting there is always a great vibe at the lodge and when you look at some of these images that Gavin recently uploaded to the Photo-Africa Stock Library you can see why.


Absolutely stunning image of a female leopard up on a rocky ledge. If I am not mistaken I think he got this image the day after Adele and I left Madikwe. The day before we had a very brief visual of her and to find a leopard like this is always magic!


If you look at the leopard's body you can see how well their coat camouflages in the bush. If they do not want to be seen you can go for days without even the slightest visual.


I love this image in black & white - it makes the cat stand out against the rocky background. Awesome!

For more leopard images you can click here. Amazingly beautiful cats!

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time!

Gerry

A Different Kind of Shooting

For a change something completely different!

Every single day we go out into the field and shoot wildlife. Normally this includes shutter speeds, apertures and big lenses.

Glen, a friend visiting from Australia, took the following videos last week while Gavin and I went to do a shoot of a different kind. One that involves targets, rifles and pretty big calibre bullets!

We have to do a logbook shoot every month and these two clips show myself and Gavin doing a 30-20-10. This evaluation requires you to fire successfully at three targets at 30, 20 and 10 meters respectively. This all has to happen in less than 15 seconds.

Good fun and a subtle reminder that we work in the wild! No cages. No zoos. No tame animals - This is the real thing!

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time!

Gerry

Birds of Colour

In this week's High Five, Mike asked for more images of some SA birds.

I had a quick look through the Photo-Africa Stock Library and these three images were uploaded by Edmund Fourie during the last week.


This male Southern Masked Weaver is in the process of starting to build his nest in an attempt to impress a female or two. From the new nest you can clearly see where the Weavers get their name from.


Same bird, different angle. It is a pity the wing was just cut off in this image but you can clearly see the amazing colours this little guys has during mating season.


Probably the most photographed bird in Africa - the Lilac Breasted Roller. The name, roller, comes from the aerial display they do during mating season. This is a great capture and even has the little bit of light in the eye.

As all the birds in Africa start 'wearing' their breeding plumage I am sure the guys will upload more bird images to the Stock Site which I will then post here on the Blog.

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time!

Gerry

Where Did They Go?

Just a quick one...

I received the above email from a guest (thanks Mauritz!) who came to visit us at Tuningi. The image shows Gavin and myself looking for lion tracks after finding a zebra carcass and a whole lot of Spotted Hyena walking away from the scene with a large piece of 'take-aways'.

We found the tracks but I guess judging from the body language you can see that we did not find the big cats on this particular morning. The lioness had youngsters and must have moved away into the thick stuff when the hyenas made their appearance. :)

If you have been to Tuningi and have any images like this you can email them to me and I will add them to the Blog.

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

Lilac Breasted Roller

It has been quite a busy day trying to get a lot of the small things finalized before we leave for Namibia on Tuesday morning but I have still been able to upload quite a few images to the Photo-Africa Stock Library.

This is one of the images I uploaded earlier today. It is the same Lilac Breasted Roller that featured as my pick of the week in the latest Weekly High Five. Gavin must have captured him coming out of the nest as we were together when we tried to capture the amazing colors on this noisy bird.

This post has been posted automatically by setting the date and time of when you want it posted which means that if you have have already gotten this far I have been successful! The idea is to do a couple of Blogs like this so that I can keep things ticking over while I am away.

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time.

Gerry

African Sunsets

I have slowly started working through the huge amount of images I have from the last few weeks at Tuningi.

There are still a lot of images to go through but so far I am pretty happy with the results. In the first RAW directory I found these two images which I quite like.

Elephant Sunset

Heron Sunset

Both images were taken about 100 meters apart as the sun was setting over Madikwe. Gotta love the African bushveld!

I'll be back soon with more!

Until next time.

Gerry

Weekly High Five #20

During the last few weeks two new photographers have signed up to showcase their work on Photo-Africa. The images have been rolling in and it is great to see how a small sideline idea I had a few months ago is starting to get closer to what I think it could be.

The quality and diversity of images that is being uploaded to the Photo-Africa Stock Library is amazing and I am proud to be associated to the guys who are out there capturing the beauty and magic of Africa in their images.

I have quite a lot of ideas and plans for the site but I needed to wait for it to grow and gain some momentum. With the way things are going I reckon I might be able to expand and put a few of the ideas into motion quite shortly. I still feel that Photo-Africa is truly unique in that it shows the true Africa through the images that gets uploaded and, more importantly, their are new images being uploaded on a very regular basis.

Adele and I will be heading up to Namibia on Tuesday for our wedding next Saturday and when we get back from the short trip afterwards I will start to focus a lot more on the site and the direction I would like to see it going. So many ideas and possibilities. As they say... "watch this space"!

For now however, back to the Weekly High Five.

For this week's choices I tried to see if it would be possible to actually not include lion images. Nothing against them as they do make the most amazing images, but Gavin and I were chatting and I thought it would be interesting to see what would come up if the King of the Jungle was not in the mix.

There were however, as always, a number of lion images that stood out so before we get to my High Five choices here are a few of these that caught my attention.

Lion Image 1 - Sereti Snarl by Gavin Tonkinson

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Lion Image 2 - Lion Spotlight by Matt Jones

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Lion Image 3 - Golden Grass by Gerry van der Walt

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Lion Image 4 - Wildlife Art: Electric Lion by Gavin Tonkinson

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A couple of interesting lion images so now that they are 'out of the way' here goes with my choices for this week's High Five.

Image 1 - Quintessential Africa by Matt Jones

Great silhouette of an African Icon. The sun and clouds give this image a great natural, moody feel. I am still not sure if I would have liked the sun and giraffe to have swapped sides in the image as then the animal would have had some space to move into but in this specific image it does not bother me too much. Very nice 'African' image.

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Image 2 - Hyena Stand Off by Matt Jones

Great capture of animal interaction. It is scenes like this that makes a visit to an game reserve in Africa worth it. This image shows the two scavengers walking side by side as they size each other up. Under normal circumstances the spotted hyena would have the upper hand as they travel in large clans. You can see how the Brown Hyena has 'fluffed' up his mane to look bigger in an attempt to intimidate his larger opponent. Great image!

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Image 3 - Zebra Art by Will Knight

The image on it's own would have been good but the treatment in PS truly makes this unique. The tones are beautiful and assists the way the zebra pops in the bottom corner. I like!

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Image 4 - Klipspringer Double by Gavin Tonkinson

I am still leaning towards this one as my pick of the week. Getting a quality image of a Klipspringer is quite unusual and this one is pretty much perfect. The second antelope in the background that is also looking back at the photograph makes it work even better. An amazing image of a seldom seen antelope. Brilliant!

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Image 5 - Nesting Roller by Gavin Tonkinson

This Lilac Breasted Roller has been nesting at an old Leadwood tree at Tuningi. We have tried on numerous occasions to photograph the beautiful bird and I reckon Gavin hit this one on the head. The rollers keep on coming back to the nest to feed the youngsters and this image shows him coming out of the nest. The image is simple with great texture and just a touch of colour. Very tough call between this and Image 4 but I am going with this as my pick of the week.

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Great diversity! When you have a chance go and check out the New Image on the Photo-Africa Stock Library and browse through some amazing African Wildlife and Nature images.

I will be in Johannesburg until Tuesday and will be posting a few more images, videos and updates before I go. I will also try and get a few posts written and have them automatically posted each day so will try and do a High Five next Friday of the images that get uploaded during the next few days.

Time now to go and pick up the champagne for the wedding and run a few other errands. Coming from the peach and tranquility of the African bush in Madikwe I am not quite excited about heading to a shopping mall on a Saturday morning! will have to do a few coffee shop stops to make it all worth while!

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

Amazing or Brutal - The Video

If you have been following the Blog you will recall the post - "Brutal or Amazing. You Decide..."

This post showed images of a sighting we had during which a female lion killed a pregnant Red Hartebeest and the events which followed as she discovered the unborn baby inside the female.

The guests who were with me when we witnessed this amazing scene emailed me the link to the video they took during that afternoon which shows the entire episode as we saw it. Thanks guys!!

Read the original post and then you can view the ten minute video below.

It was an amazing sighting and something that till today still leaves many unanswered questions.

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

Weekly High Five #19

It seems that the rain has finally arrived in Madikwe.

Last night we watched as the clouds built up, winds started picking up speed and then finally, after a long dry winter, the rain fell. It was not as much as we had hoped for but at least the dust has been settled and we can now look forward to the next major shower that will bring new life to the plains.

This week has seen a lot of new images being uploaded to the Photo-Africa Stock Library. The diversity is amazing and it makes me again how special the growing collection of images truly is. Some amazing images ranging from lions to birds and landscapes. There has also been quite a few wildlife art images uploaded which is a great new angle to the database of African Wildlife and Nature images.

Here goes with this weeks' High Five.

Image 1 - Lightning by Matt Jones

This was not taken last night, when the first rains fell, but captures the drama perfectly. I still want to take a shot at photographing lightning one day. This image shows the power of an African thunderstorm. Drama, colour, action. In a perfect world I would have liked to see the power lines erased from the image but not a major issue. Powerful image.

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Image 2 - Lion King by Gerry van der Walt

I was initially worried that the background in this image would be too burnt out. In a way I still think so but then again it highlights Africa's largest cat beautifully. Their is intent in his eyes and the background adds to the drama of the image. Perhaps a little more contrast in his face would have added more detail to the image but still a great lion image.

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Image 3 - Wild Dog Art by Grant Marcus

The original image was already a winner and I quite like the 'treatment' this one received. The dog's body creates a perfect diagonal line down to where he is drinking. The frame, which gives it that 'old' feeling also helps you to look towards the centre of the image. The frame in the bottom left corner could perhaps have been lightened just a touch to make the circles in the water more clear but still a nice attempt at create art from a wildlife image.

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Image 4 - Giraffe by Gerry van der Walt

One of the challenges in wildlife photography is to create images that stand out. Images that use different angles to showcase the animal or scene. This image is slightly different to your 'standard' giraffe image in that it is taken from the back yet still shows the animal's eye. What is he looking at? The branches in the left of the frame gives the image a little texture and places the giraffe in a more natural habitat than if it was just the animal's head. Interesting angle - interesting image.

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Image 5 - Leopard Rock by Matt Jones

Simple yet powerful. The leopard could not have been placed more perfectly in the image and the direction she is looking in also works perfectly. The rocks that fill the frame gives great texture and color to the scene while at the same time shows the animal's natural habitat. This is definitely not something you see everyday and is a very special sighting. Great image and was originally my first choice my pick for the week.

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Image 6 - Namibia Dune by Will Knight

Absolutely perfect! I was in the process of uploading the High Five when this image was uploaded to the Stock Site. It shows the dunes in Sossusvlei in Naimibia. The lines and colors capture the beauty of Namibia, 'the land God created in anger', to perfection. I might feel a little biased towards this image as this is where I will be getting married in two weeks but I still feel this image is truly amazing. A late entry but my pick for this week. (This also happened to have been the 2500th image added to the Stock Site!!)

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Another great collection of images. As always I look forward to your comments and feedback! To view these and other image you can visit the Photo-Africa Stock Library.

I am sitting on a LOT of images from the last few weeks and am dying to work through them. The sightings have just been that good that we have been getting home with at least 50 workable images after each drive. I am going to to my best to get these images onto the Stock Site and Blog during the week so make sure to check back soon!

Almost time to head out again.

Until next time!

Gerry

Watching Paint Dry

Apparently watching a lion sleep is like watching paint dry.

This was a comment I heard from a guide while sitting with a pair of sleeping lions. I found this quite amusing as paint cannot just get up at any second, go into stalking mode and attempt to take down an unsuspecting wildebeest that happened to wander too close to it. Something we almost witnessed twice in the last week.

No, seriously. I think a lot of people take nature for granted.


Think about it. Realistically lions do sleep for around 18 hours a day so it is what they do but for a great deal of people travelling to Africa, a sleeping lion might be the only one the ever get to see in the wild. The scene will however always be filled with stories. Where did they come from? Why did they choose this spot? Why do they sleep so much? Does it look like they have had anything to eat in the last few days?

These and other questions will lead you to a place where you will better understand their world.

Do you think that National Geographic and Animal Planet get all their amazing footage by ignoring the sleeping lions and just follow the ones that are busy doing something?


When lions sleep their smell and hearing are still extremely acute and you never know when an animal might stumble into their sensual range (that make sense?). Combine that with the fact that lions are instinctive hunters will will not pass up the opportunity to have a go at anything that could possibly be a free meal.

Is it not therefore worth it to sit back, relax and become a part of their story rather then just stop, look and move on? I believe it is.

When you try to keep up with moving lions this is difficult. You are also normally so busy trying to focus on what is going to happen next that you don't always get the chance to delve a little deeper into all the information that can be shared about these amazing predators.

From a photography point of view sleeping lions are brilliant! You have the chance to position yourself, take light into account and play around with various abstracts and close up while waiting for that one moment of magic when they lift their head and yawn as they start their 'wake-up-rituals'.


During the last few weeks we have been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with lions - both sleeping and very awake. For them the difference is not as big as you may think. They can go from fast asleep to full hunting mode in a matter of minutes. Unbelievable to see!

Take the time. Watch them. Appreciate them. Share in their story. In other words... take the time to 'watch the paint dry!'

I will be back tomorrow with this week's High Five. The guys have been uploading at a furois rate this week so check in at the Photo-Africa Stock Library to see some of the new images that have been uploaded.

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

Who's the Boss?

The game viewing at Tuningi has been phenomenal the last few weeks.

I have so many images that I need to go through that I am not quite sure where to start. We have also started to leave on drive a little earlier which means getting up at 04h30 each day. This makes for a helluva long day and you kinda want to try and get a little shut eye in between everything else. Will hopefully get through all these images in the next few days.

Wanted to just add these quickly. We sat at Tlou Dam watching a pride of five lions, mother and youngsters, at the water when a mother rhino and her calf came in for a drink as well. The light was virtually gone but I was able to squeeze a few images out at an ISO of 3200! Here are some images of the action that followed.

The presence of Africa's apex predator did not bother the female rhino in the slightest. The youngster however decided to take things into his own hands and took them on all on his own.

The young lions tried to move in on the youngster from various directions but they were vary aware that even at such a young age the little rhino had a lot of fight in him.

The little guys was up for the challenge and chased the lions all over the place while his mother did not even lift her head where she was drinking just to the right of image.

After a few charges back and forth the young rhino and lions stood staring at each other for a while. Notice how the lion's mother is still laying down and not really bothering about the activity in front of her.

Great sighting and awesome to see how the young rhino and young lions tested each other while their older, wiser mothers just got on with their daily activities. You got the feeling that they were thinking "Been there. Done that."

I will post more images on the Blog and Photo-Africa Stock Library as I get the chance to work through them!

Michael, I agree. Your tiger image is pretty impressive! Great capture!!

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

Wildlife. Photography. And everything in between.

I am currently waiting for the first copy of my second book - Wildlife. Photography. And everything in between.

I am quite excited about this one as it features more than 250 of my African wildlife and nature images of the last few years, a section on various African Icons (such as lions, leopards, zebra and giraffes) and a basic look at composition in wildlife photography.

I will do a proper write up once I have an actual copy in my hands, but in the meantime I have included a small example of some of the composition tips included in the book.

Cropping for Impact

This image, of one of the old Batia male lions in Madikwe, was taken from about 3 meters with a 195mm zoom. If you could not get as close or do not have a huge zoom lens you could always consider cropping your image for more impact. Most post processing software...

Rule of Thirds

When you divide your frame into thirds, both vertically and horizontally, you will end up with four points where these lines cross. These power points have been used by photographers and artists alike in order to create more dynamic and interesting images...

Combining Principles

- Power Point: The mating lions have been placed...
- Active Space: Even though this is a portrait orientated image...
- Diagonal: The diagonal branch in the top right corner...
- S-Curves: S-curves and C-curves can be very effective in leading your viewer's gaze...

For a more detailed preview of the book you can click here and I will be back soon with more African wildlife images.

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Gerry

The Tshola-Mateya Coalition

In some of the previous posts you might have read about the Tshola Mateya Coalition.

These two male lions have pretty much taken over the south western areas of Madikwe. They are just under five years old and absolutely massive! During the last few days we have been able to track them down on a number of occasions.

We are still getting to know these two lions and will hopefully get many more opportunities to photograph them as time goes on. Here are a few of the images from the previous two days.

We found Mateya sleeping in the early morning sun yesterday morning. Look so peaceful.

It is difficult to judge the size of these guys without anything to compare it to but they are absolutely massive!

When he raised his head to look at something he must have stood at least 1.5 meters tall.

Mateya is the blonde brother and, as you can see, an absolutely beautiful cat.

This is Tshola, the darker brother. This shot was quite tricky as the early morning light was highlighting only certain parts of him. Still like the result though.

Will be back soon with more images from the last few days. Elephant, black rhino, leopards and wild dogs are but a few of the amazing sightings we have had during the last week!

Until next time.

Gerry

Weekly High Five #18

Things are finally back to normal. After missing two weeks the Weekly High Five is back every Friday!

This weeks High Five features a very diverse range of images. If you have been following the Blog over the last few weeks you will know that there have been a LOT of new images added to the Photo-Africa Stock Library. I uploaded a lot of these from Johannesburg when I was there on leave but the guys have been at it during the last week and the images just keep on rolling in.

I started doing game drives again yesterday and already have a large number of images to work through. I will be getting these up onto the Stock Site during the weekend and will hopefully also post some images and stories on the Blog.

For now here goes with this week's edition of the Weekly High Five.

Image 1 - Lion Face by Grant Marcus

I love the close crop in this image. The ears have been cut off on both sides which does not 'disrupt' the image as much as if just one was missing. The focal areas of the image, eyes and mouth, forms that invisible triangle with the nose in the middle. Powerful use of shapes. The flies on the nose area combined with the open mouth and little bit of grass at the bottom of the frame gives the image quite a rough look. If anything there could have been a little more light on the eyes but then again this would have drawn your attention to much to the top of the frame. Nice images that captures the lion's wild side.

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Image 2 - Mongoose Fight by Gerry van der Walt

This is a much older image but was only added to the Stock Library recently. These Banded Mongoose are shown having a bit of a tussle about food. In an action image such as this it can be quite useful to have a combination of blurred motion and one or two crisp / sharp areas in the image. The closest mongoose who is trying to get away from the aggressor is blurred which makes you 'see' how he is trying to get away. The visibly upset mongoose in the back has a combination of movement (in the paw) and the face which is a little more in focus. The teeth and eye shows you his intentions. I might have liked to have the face a little more sharp but in this kind of images the slight blur works quite well.

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Image 3 - St Josep Lily by Adriani Jones

Stunning close up. The center of the flower is in focus and then the combination of color and DOF makes it fade perfectly to the side of the frame. The slight bit of light in the top right aids in leading your eye along the green line towards the focal point of the image. This is what macro photography is all about. Absolutely stunning.

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Image 4 - African Sunset by Matt Jones

This image is all about composition. The African sky offers you so many breath-taking moments that if you take a few seconds to look around at what aspects of the environment you should include in your image you can end up with something like this. The two hills form a perfect base for the tree to 'sit' in. The tree is placed on one of the power points (Rule of Thirds) and the way the branches are arranged highlights the orange sky by almost pointing your view in that direction. I still pity the brochure photographer I met in the Seychelles who said that sunsets are over-rated. Stunning capture!

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Image 5 - African Wild Cat by Matt Jones

This is the first image of an African Wild Cat that has been uploaded to the Stock Library. These little nocturnal cats are very difficult to photograph but this image works very well. The animal has been placed to the right of the frame and the direction the spotlight is coming from, the direction the cat is looking towards and the direction of the grass in the background all lads your view to the left of the frame. To photograph an animal like this in the evening take some doing and to get it nice and sharp with natural colors is quite special. A special image and my choice of the week.

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A great mix of images. You can view these and other new African Wildlife images on the Photo-Africa Stock Library. By clicking on any of the images on the Stock Site you are helping us to rank the images. When you click on Most Popular Images you can view the images that have been receiving the most hits. Click on your favorites to help them 'climb the ranks'!

I will be back towards the end of the weekend with many more unique African Wildlife Images. The game viewing is good and the photography is fantastic!

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time.

Gerry

Wildlife Photography - Photographing Rhino

Wildlife photography can be challenging at the best of times but every once in a while you find a very willing subject. A few days we had two White Rhino who were happy to oblige.

I have a fondness for photographing Rhino. They offer you the perfect combination of bulk, straight lines and round curves which makes composing your image so much more interesting.

By taking your time, and if the animals aren't in a rush to get away from you, you can take your time and compose your images to try and make the most of the lines and shapes these ancient looking giants offer.

Here are a few of the images I captured a few days ago of the world's largest grass eater.







I like each of these for a different reason. The lines, the shapes.

Somehow it shows the gentle nature of these giants in their natural environment - carrying on with their daily 'business' whether we are there to watch them or not.

Which do you prefer and why?

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time.

Gerry

The Ultimate Wildlife Lens!

The ultimate wildlife lens - if you don't mind it weighing around 16 kilograms!!

With the idea of possibly purchasing next year, I have been looking around at various telephoto zoom lenses when I found this 'thing'.

The Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8 EX DG. This monster also ships with a dedicated teleconverter that changes it to a large aperture 400-1000mm F5.6 AF Ultra-Telephoto Zoom lens. Focusing distances and focal lengths can be viewed on the lens`s built-in LCD panel while the dedicated Li-ion battery BP-21 is used to power the zooming and AF operations.

I like to believe that the photographer and his way of approaching his subject matter matters more than the equipment when it comes to quality images but I would most definitely like to play around with this baby for a few days.

At a retail price in the region of US$ 34,000 it is slightly out of my lens budget and would be happy to give it a good home should anyone have one laying around! :)

Unbelievable!

Until next time.

Gerry

Elephant Visitors - Brilliant!

Received the following by email. Brilliant!!

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A regular occurance at the Mfuwe Lodge in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia where the lodge was unwittingly built on the elephant's traditional path through to some wild mango trees on the property.

The herd of a dozen or so elephants walk through the lodge's reception area at least twice a day for about 4 weeks and then sporadically for about another 3 weeks to feed on the trees.




No incidents reported to date!

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If you have any other 'interesting' wildlife emails like this that I could put up on the blog I would love to hear from you. Email them to me!

Until next time!

Gerry

Draw the Line

Watching giraffe drink is always fascinating. The way they take forever to get down to that awkward, wide-legged stance never fails to keep your attention.

This particular giraffe was at Tholo Dam yesterday morning and placed himself perfectly for us to capture his strange reflection in the water as well.

From a composition point of view you normally try not to have a horizontal line too close to the middle of your image as it cuts the frame in two. You will normally raise or drop the line depending on where the subject is placed and which 'story' you want to tell.

Again, there is always the exception and in cases such as this it works quite well as you double up on your focal points and keep your viewer's gaze jumping between the two giraffes.

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time.

Gerry

Photo Safari #4

It is amazing to see how your own work evolves.

If I look back at some of the images I captured a few years ago and compare them with my more recent work there is quite a vast difference. This also shows in the amount of images that you take and compare this to ones you can actually use and be proud of.

I guess everybody can get 'lucky' and it is not a difficult thing to see that if you shoot 100 images of an animal you will get at least one decent image. It has to do with consistency. For me the difference is that I feel more and more confident that when I click the shutter the result will be 'acceptable'. Gary Player said 'The more I train the luckier I get.' Absolutely true.

The more time you spend photographing wildlife, or whatever it is that you photograph, the easier composition will become. The easier you will see light and what will work best with a particular scene.

I know that my 'stikre rate' has increased yet this has not lead to me being less critical of my own work. Are you also so hard on your own work? Perhaps too critical?

I am going to try and get new images onto the stock site and Blog on a regular basis now that I have my own Internet, almost as a form of self-evaluation. I look forward to your thoughts and comments on the images so to start with here are few pics from the last two days.

Captured this one this morning. The little Red-Billed Oxpecker on the Rhino's back rounded it off quite nicely. The grass at the bottom of the frame gives it quite a nice natural feel.

One of the old Batia males. Thought I hit this one on the head but when I viewed the image on the PC I saw the sun 'flare' spot at the very top of the image. Is this being too critical?? .. :)

I was trying to capture the crows gathering nesting material and as I clicked the shutter the Yellow Billed Hornbill flew into frame. Interesting result.

I knew that when I took this image of the Tshola-Mateya male that the background was too bright and that I wanted to do something 'arty' with it. Took a while but I quite like this result. Another canvas print waiting to happen.

Will be back soon with more African wildlife images. To view more of my (and the other photographer's work) you can click on my name at the bottom of this post.

As always I look forward to getting your feedback and comments.

Until nest time.

Gerry

Weekly High Five #17

This High Five was very difficult to put together.

During the last week, more than 300 images were uploaded to the Photo-Africa Stock Library. How do you choose five images out of something like that? And then I still posted various images on the blog while I was uploading the images so that makes the choice even more difficult.

I have tried to steer away from the obvious choices as a lot of those have been used in the previous posts so here goes with quite a 'different' Weekly High Five.

Image 1 - Palms & Weaver Nest by Craig Muller

I thought this images was quite clever. Took me a while to find the nest. Clever image that starts off as almost nothing and then suddenly it all fall together. You get an idea of how small the nest is. Sometimes when you look around you see things that most people will not even spare a second glance. Interesting capture.

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Image 2 - Wild Dog Feast by Gavin Tonkinson

Not sure exactly what it was about this image but it stood out above all the other Wild Dog images. Perhaps it was the focal point that gets highlighted by all the dogs trying to get a piece of the wildebeest leg. You can see the social nature of these endangered animals and I reckon somewhere in that was my attraction to this particular one. It' one of those you cannot really put your finger on but you know you like it. Make sense?

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Image 3 - Ellie Trunk by Gavin Tonkinson

This image shows, in am abstract sort of way, how elephants make use of swimming pools to quench their thirst. This particular pool is quite raised and they have to stretch up with their trunk to reach and Gavin captured this very well. The trunk leads your gaze to the splashing water which gives the image a dynamic feel. Almost alien, almost abstract but I like the final result.

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Image 4 - Acacia Blossoms by Gerry van der Walt

This close up of an Acacia's blossoms works because of the depth of field. The focus is where it should be and therefore keeps the viewer's attention on the actual blossoms. These blossoms are some of the first to start 'popping' as summer starts approaching but does not last for too long. Interesting image that captures a small piece of nature and shows some of the beauty of the 'smaller world.'

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Image 5 - Wooden Face by Craig Muller

This is brilliant and again shows what happens when you look around with a creative eye. There are so many of these kind of 'images' waiting to be photographed by a lot of the time we don't notice as we are too busy looking for the obvious pictures. The red / brown color gives the image a nice feeling along with the 'grumpy old man' face in the wood. I love this image and was a close call for my favorite of the week!

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Image 6 - Rhino in a Row by Riaan Kruger

This shot could have been just another rhino image if the shutter was clicked a few seconds later and the closest rhino was out from behind the grass. Too often I find that people don't take an image because there is a piece of grass in the image. This goes too show how you can actually make it work for you. There is no doubt as to what animal you are looking at. The focus is perfect on the closest rhino and fades beautifully to the back of the image. The grass gives the images a very nice natural feel and you can almost feel the wind blowing through the tall grass as these ancient-looking beats graze across the images. I like this and, even though a difficult choice, my favorite of the week.

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You see. I reckon this is quite a different group of images. If you look back at the various posts while I was uploading you will see the great diversity that nature has to offer and that is what makes this so difficult. I suppose that is also what makes it so interesting.

Art. Documentary. Action. Close Up. Emotion. Beauty. Which one of these defines wildlife photography. I suppose the answer would be all of them but it is also then up to each photographer to find their own style. Their own way of portraying the stories they see and how it makes them feel.

Can you grow over time and 'create', because that is what we do, better images? Can you work on it and create your own style? I think the answer is yes... if you want to!

I believe you need to be willing to learn, take criticism and use this to steer your own work into a new direction. This is damn difficult but, I would like to believe, possible.

If you have any comments on these and other images on the Blog I would love to hear from you.

What do you like? Why?

What don't you like? Why?

What would you have done differently? Why?

This is how we all learn and get better so with that in mind, as always, I look forward to hearing from you and reading your comments.

On a slightly different note, I have been able to set up my own Internet connection at the lodge which, so far at least, has been working pretty well so hopefully I will be able to post more images, more blogs and try and get to more of your blogs as well! Thanks to all the regulars for your support and comments. (And thanks again to Mike from FenPhotography for help and input on how to get the new look going on the Blog! Really appreciate it!)

Until next time.

Gerry

Nature's Black & White Canvas

Do you know of any contemporary wildlife art currently being produced?

This is something I have been thinking about recently. Nature is beautiful as it is and, in my mind at least, wildlife photography can be an art in itself. I know there are people out there who might disagree but if you spend enough time out in the field and look at your results over time you will see how your images can go from 'happy-snappy-tommy-tourist' type pics to something with a lot more substance.

Even some photographers with really big cameras and lenses sometimes struggle to capture the essence of nature. It is not the same as photographing landscapes, portraits or a still life. It takes patience, an understanding and appreciation of your subject, luck - and when all of these factors fall together along with 'that special something' you get images that transcend the normal wildlife photographs and becomes something more.

Yes content is important but there is so much more.

Let's take a zebra for example.

This icon of Africa asks, cancel that, demands to be photographed. The lines, contrasts and character of these animals makes them the perfect candidate for wildlife photography. With their black & white lines you can utilize almost any kind of light to create an interesting image. I am not referring to just another wildlife image but something special.

By zooming in and cropping this zebra quite tight, the image immediately takes on a more interesting (read art) kind of feel.

It might not be everybody's cup of tea and is not always the kind of images that you see in coffee table books but I believe this is quite an interesting image. Blown up with the right frame this could be considered art. Don't you think?

Then you can take it one step further and isolate, highlight and showcase only a small a part of what nature has given us to work with.

Don't you think the following image, blown up onto an A3 size canvas, and with the correct frame could look absolutely beautiful on a wall or in a studio somewhere?

I reckon it could work!! I spent a couple of minutes on this close up of a zebra's skin with the idea of 'creating art'. Again, not something for everybody but I believe nature has given us the content if we are only willing to 'see' it.

There are so many ways in which to portray wildlife and nature and I think sometimes people are afraid of experimenting. Over the next few weeks I am going to spend a little bit if time and see how I can take nature's canvas and represent it as art.

One of the ideas in the back of my mind is to start printing more canvas images, combine them with the right type of frame and see what I can create. Perhaps a market in there somewhere? With the amount of new content and images we get out in the field everyday there has to be a few masterpieces waiting to happen.

Anyway, just a few thoughts! I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

Thoughts from a Long Time Ago

Adele and I are back in Madikwe.

It has been a very busy week but looking back it is actually quite amazing how many things we 'ticked off our list'. Even though it was 'leave' and this normally goes hand in hand with some sort of relaxation, this time we were busy every single day. We only took one week off, compared to the normal two, and in between all the wedding arrangements, which all went pretty well, I also got time to update all the Photo-Africa websites, upload a lot of new images and also finished my book but more on all of this later.

This specific post was not planned and, as you can see from the above image does not really concern wildlife, it was only when I received an email from a friend that I thought I just had to post this.

In a previous lifetime, that is how long ago this feels, Adele and I worked on board the Queen Mary 2 where we managed Fitness, Nutrition and Rehab for the Canyon Ranch Spa. It was an amazing time during which we met great friends and saw a great deal of the world. Will I ever do it again?

Never!!

The ship is a strangely wonderful place which puts bizarre demands on strains on you. You can either learn from this and get to know yourself better or you can crack under the strain. The industry in which we find ourselves now is similar, though not as intense. At least here you have nature around you which helps a great deal.

On the ship you can go for months without seeing trees and grass.

Anyway, a good friend emailed and forwarded me a piece that I wrote during out time on the ship. To be honest, when I read the email I could not remember it at all but then as I approached the end I remembered.

As with anything in life people will influence you and that is what I was writing about at that stage. So here goes with a bit of a flashback which, in a way, still holds true today.

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Each of us, over time, develops our own understanding and sense of purpose of the work we need to do and where we want to go in life.

In the same manner we each construct our own mental map of the world which includes huge blank areas to be filled with experience. Given enough time and using the opportunities that life presents us we have the potential and possibility to fill this map with solid connections, meaningful relationships and fulfilling achievements.

Whatever your belief system and approach to life, any internal framework will, on a long enough time frame yield acceptable results towards your final goal. Whether you are training for a sporting event or working on your financial situation; if you keep going at it long enough you will get better results; you will make more money.

Working in a confined, protected environment for an extended period of time can either make you fulfil you potential and get you closer to your perfect mental map or it can crack things open and make you realize that yours is not the only mental map around. People with different backgrounds, different experiences and different levels of education will never see the same mental map.

Some people are happy just to go about their everyday life activities, stay in their comfort zone and not attempt to get involved in other peoples decision making processes. These people never challenge themselves mentally, physically or spiritually. This carries with it the certainty of never having to carry out a lateral shift into an entirely different framework.

A different group of people are quite happy to operate from their own mental map which, being all they know, forms the platform from which they attempt to influence others, attempt to lead or convince people that theirs is the only way of doing things. Through self-reinforcement these people convince themselves that they are correct in their way of operation and thinking. They are not open to change as their mental framework does not allow for this. This way of thinking will eventually, and probably regularly, lead to conflict.

It is very unusual (and quite refreshing) to find someone who is confident and believes in their own mental map and yet is able to really listen to, intellectualize and ultimately attempt to understand and experience someone else’s framework. Is this what makes someone sociable? Is this what makes someone a good leader? Is this makes someone easy to talk to or a good listener?

Working together in a confined and emotionally charged environment requires a certain amount of resilience.

You share the same experiences with many people yet the way people interpret and react to these experiences ultimately gets decided by each person’s internal framework. How do you see the situation? How do you react in that situation? Can you accept someone else’s way of dealing with the situation without compromising your own mental map?

On the ship people are all put into a position which requires a certain mental framework. A lot of the time people can deal with it for a few months, a few contracts or in some unusual cases a number of years. During this time you almost have no choice but to accept the environment around you and comply with any challenges that this might make on your own way of seeing things. Is it not plausible that a confined environment will start affecting your framework and the way you perceive life in general?

Some people, when faced with such environmental conditions get comfortable by not having to challenge themselves anymore. These people might relish the small world they find themselves in and try to act out a framework that they have created for themselves and try to reinforce this by acting the part they would like to portray. They start defining themselves by what they do and not by who they are. They hide behind their job. They hide behind their friends. They hide behind the positions that they have been given and now define who they are. They hide behind the world they are in, even though it is fake and temporary. The thought of leaving this fake world and returning to a more normal life is frightening as this would require a complete shift in framework and a reassessment of who they truly are.

If a person is open to the environmental influences on their way of doing things, yet confident enough in their own personal framework not to be affected by it they might walk away with new rewarding experiences and lessons learnt that will not only strengthen their belief and conviction in their own mental map of the world but expand it as well. You do not need to be defined by what you do or by what your job description is. A cleaner might be able to teach you more than a manager if you are willing to listen and learn.

Bach did not need to understand the churches underlying doctrine; he only had to understand how to make music soar. We are not expected to understand everybody else’s mental maps or framework under which they operate; we are only capable of being true to ourselves and our own experiences.

All of our conceptual worlds are definitely not created equal.

Small worlds may offer a safe haven for small lives, but they leave little room for exploration by the more adventurous.

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There you go. My thoughts from a few years ago. It was a great time and we learnt a lot about ourselves. This is also where my passion for photography really took off (with Glen who will be visiting for the wedding in less than three weeks!!) and I learnt a lot about the basics! Did not do any wildlife back then, no grass remember, and am sitting with a huge number of portraits, city landscapes, ship images, abstracts, etc that I still need to get uploaded to some or other website. Any suggestions?

I reckon to sum it all up in one sentence you could say "Live for the moment but plan for the future." I still feel that this holds true and even though we get 'let loose' more often than on the ship it is still an interesting thing to see how different people deal with and define themselves by what they do. Anyway...

As we settle in back at Tuningi we only have three weeks before heading back to Johannesburg and then on to Namibia for the wedding. Starting to get excited now! :)

I have already pulled off this weeks High Five images and will probably post this either later today or then tomorrow. With so many new images having been added to the Photo-Africa Stock Library it is kinda difficult to only choose 5! Check back tomorrow for the Weekly High Five!

As always I look forward to hearing from you and thanks for all your support!!

Until next time!

Gerry

Safari on Honeymoon - From Termites to Elephants

Yes it is this time of year again wind, fire and dust! We all thought that the winds would have subsided by now, but no it is getting worse and worse. Quite a large section of the north western parts have burnt down and a lot of grazing have been destroyed. Hopefully we will have a very good rainy season and the park will be green again. Most of the black monkey thorns, Acacia burkei, are in flower and have new leaves so the elephants are taking full advantage of that and quite a few have been pushed over to get to the new growth at the top, but hey not all is lost we still have excellent game viewing.

We all thought that with the amount of burnt areas we are not going to see any animals. Well, elephants and black rhino just love’s the char grilled branches!

Now that summer is here we leave at 6:00 in the mornings so wake up calls are made at 5:30am. Not all guests agree with this arrangement, I mean especially when you have solved all the worlds problems over a few bottles of wine the previous night……………need I say more! The last two weeks the sightings have been really good. All of our guests have seen 4 of the big 5 during their stay and some days we got 5 out of 5. Coming on safari it is not always about the big animals and it is difficult to explain it to a guest that sat on a plain for 14 hours to come and see a lion, and now you are waffling on about termites. The small things counts just as much as the big things, everything forms part of the bigger picture. One evening we were watching a Mozambican nightjar as he was changing gears and took off. As I was driving of I heard a rustling in the grass, so I backed up and in the spotlight there he was, a Pangolin! This was my second one in 8 years! I called it in on the radio and the guide in front of me, Neil also a Photo-Africa photographer, was there in 10 seconds! The whole park was up in arms about this rare scene.


The last 5 days I had a honeymoon couple and 2 ladies joining me on my vehicle. They were great fun and they saw the most amazing things. Apart from all the big stuff we saw, we had great sightings of all the antelopes and the smaller things in life like the string of stars( small white flowers) and luckily the termites were very interesting to! The honeymooners arrived by plane. And the first thing they saw was white rhino on our way to the lodge, I knew then that they were going to see the most amazing animals and it was their first safari. On the afternoon safari we saw the old boys the Batia brothers and loads of elephants. The Sereti females were with the Batia’s for a while, but have now been relocated to different reserves and now the Batias are alone, so these old lions are going to find it a bit difficult getting food.

The next morning we went south to avoid the traffic up north. The morning started of very quite just a lot of wind and then we bumped into two white rhino right next to the road, they got quite a fright but luckily they moved in the opposite direction from the cruiser. Half an hour later in an open clearing we saw some black rhino, female and calf.

She was a bit skittish but we could clearly see her and the calf and all the distinct features of the black rhino. After breakfast I took Gary and Suzzy to some lions where they were feasting on a wildebeest.

On every drive something exiting happened. Going out is always different no matter where you go and it is always a challenge looking for game even for the guests. In the afternoon myself, Gavin and Zede were tracking lions on foot, after walking in a few circles we found them. They saw us long before we saw them. Every time you get lions on foot it sounds like a Harley Davidson starting up and gradually picking up revs…….great feeling!


After the revs you see that golden beast mock charge you, then you swear in all the languages you know. The best expression is FOERTSEK, FOERTSEK, FOERTSEK and clapping your hands until they become num and more shouting, 99% of the time it works.( Foertsek means bugger off ) After we found them then what, the chances that they can move off is great so I pulled the short straw to stay with them while Gavin went back to fetch the vehicle. The five minutes I was alone with them was something special, just the fact that they allowed me to share their space and be that close to them was incredible. When we left that sighting we got a call on the radio that there were some more lions, the Tshabas, at Tau dam. Very unusual for them to come this far south. Their territory are in the north western section, but we think they got chased by the three Serety males, a very powerful coalition. We got there with the sun just disappearing on the horizon.


While watching them two big dagga boys came to drink ( old buffalo bulls that have been kicked out of the herd ) The six lions didn’t pay to much attention to them because their tummies were full to the brim. On our way back we saw some elephant but just ignored them, because they get quite edgy at night with the spotlight. Driving along looking for that elusive spotted one I saw some big eyes reflecting back on the runway, thought it was our lucky night then two more sets popped out, then I knew it was spotted hyena making a move on some wildebeest but they lost interest very quickly and strolled of into the darkness. Another great day in Madikwe. So we went home for dinner and a few drinks and reminiscing about the great sightings we had so far………

After the 5:45 coffee we went in pursuit of the leopard again with great determination. Driving along Diperoro road ( meaning waterfall in Tswana ) I found some fresh leopard tracks and feces, they were heading towards our neighboring lodge. I called Lucas and he said a young male was there at the water early in the morning, and he went towards the valley, not good for us. But, not losing faith, we carried on to the elephant boma where the Serety female is held. Lots of big male lion tracks around the boma………….got a call the wild dogs are busy killing a kudu, so we turned around and went there straight away. I told my guests to hold on and of we went, a real Ferrari safari for the next 15 minutes but it was worth it. They killed a kudu but when we got there it was finished, they were busy picking clean the bones, wild dogs make sure there is nothing left for any of the scavengers. We stayed with them for about 20 minutes before the first vehicles came in to the area, that’s one thing about the south if you get a good sighting you can spend some time with the animals before the next vehicles moves in, reason is there is not a lot of guides operating in the south.





The afternoon we went to Thlou dam to see the Etali youngsters, two young lion brother and sister. We just enjoyed the scenery with the lions on the wall and the ellies drinking water. After the elephants left it became quite when all of a sudden a big herd of buffalo approached us from the east +- 100 of them. There motives were clearly visible and that was to drink.

The lions didn’t even move a muscle with all the commotion going on. That was a great sighting at the dam. Thlou dam is known for its good sightings in the dry season. We moved on for sundowners. Being so relaxed knowing we saw some amazing things thinking it can not get any better we got a leopard in a Leadwood tree, unfortunately quite far from the road in a burnt area ( can not off road in burnt areas ) But hey we saw a leopard that’s good enough !

The next morning after drive, oh we saw 4/5 again…..just thought I’d mention that. I took Gary and Suzzy on a bush walk after breakfast and told them with the briefing that chances of seeing anything are slim, so we are going to concentrate on the smaller things, but you never know what is lurking out there. I was busy making them a toothbrush from the kwarrie bush and we discussed elephant dung and then all hell almost broke out.

A herd of elephants came thrashing thru the bush about 80 m from us. We immediately backed of and got on the right side of the wind. One bull came towards us, I stood my ground and stood him off with the guests safely behind me. What an afternoon! We skipped the afternoon drive, instead we went to a bird hide for the afternoon and saw some animals we never saw on drive like the Caracal that came down for a very reluctant drink. We also saw elephant, jackal and spotted hyena. The 1st of October was our last morning drive and we just thought we were going to take it easy. Started of slowly but ended with a big bang. Driving along Wonderboom road I saw something in the distance lying in the road, it was a leopard as we got closer he looked at us once and kept on cleaning himself and got up and strolled of into the thick bush never to be seen again for the day in typical leopard fashion. That made up for the other night when we only saw the silhouette in the tree, Gary and Suzzy could really see now that was a leopard, spots and all.

Coming on safari for your honeymoon is a great treat, just do it on the first leg of your honeymoon, because it is hard work……………… all the early mornings I mean.

I ‘ve got a saying, when you come on safari always expect the unexpected and you won’t be disappointed.

Hope you enjoyed the recap of our 5 day honeymoon safari at Tuningi.

Till next time

Grant