Uploads, Images and Questions

I have been uploading images to the Photo-Africa Stock Library for almost the entire day and have not even reached halfway! I am currently uploading a lot of Riaan's images and once done I will upload new images from Gavin and then myself as well.

It is great to have so many unique images to add to Photo-Africa. I have had a helluva time looking through all the images as they get uploaded and have been amazed at the diversity of images and stories being added. You would think that there are only so many ways in which to photograph a lion but I am glad to say that my belief in the variety on Photo-Africa has been justified.

I have decided to do the Weekly High Five as soon as I have uploaded all the images, which will probably be towards Sunday, but in the meantime I will keep on posting some of the 'highlight images' on the Blog.

The idea behind this was triggered when I looked at a few of the images and wondered "How in the world did that happen?" You never know what you are going to get when you head out on safari and the images on Photo-Africa has proved to be the same. You never know...

With that in mind, here are a few of the images I enjoyed or made me 'ask a question' while uploading today.

Whose tail is he carrying? Perhaps wildebeest?

You gotta love the way these dogs form a circle.

I was with Gavin when he spotted this interesting lighting on the zebra in Madikwe.

How did this lioness loose her eye?

Forget how this lion got up there. How is he getting out??

What happened when the approaching buffalo herd got closer?

One of the Sereti males from Madikwe. Still my bet as one of the dominating forces in the future.

The three Sereti brothers. What were they all smelling?

Love this shot. Looks like a classic.

Great leopard silhouette. Think Riaan got this one while still working in the Sabi Sands.

Interesting 'action' capture. Perfect timing.

This was taken at Tlou Dam in Madikwe but not sure who they were. Perhaps the Etali youngsters? Great action capture that shows perfectly how playful these little guys can be.

Not just a great buffalo image, but what is he thinking?

You gotta wonder what happened next.

Great image. I personally love the way the lines and light highlight the tails.

One of the cutest images I have seen in a while. Very tiny little cheetah cub peeking out from behind the tree.

Interesting capture. The water and color creates a great abstract.

Almost like they have been summoned.

Great lines with the big guys walking down the road.

Just the one paying attention. Great shot.

Any thoughts on this one?? :)

The same lion as in the above image as seen in our rear view mirror. Poor guy was looking for shade!

I reckon that apart from composition and technical quality, if a wildlife image can make you ask a question it has that something extra that puts it above the rest. Why? How? What?

Will be back soon with more images as they get uploaded. To view all the newest images that have been added to the Photo-Africa Stock Library you can click here.

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time.

Gerry

Back Online with Lots of New Images!

Finally. It feels like it has been months since I last posted anything on the blog.

Adele and I are back in Johannesburg. It is still always a strange reality to come to the city when you are on leave. We have the privilege of working in the most amazing natural surroundings and to find yourself in the hustle and bustle of the city where everybody is rushed and worried about the next meeting makes you feel like you are watching a movie in fast forward.

The last few days have been extremely hectic and I am almost over the flu. Luckily just in time as we only have one week in Johannesburg in which we have to finalise all the details for our wedding on 1 November and also complete a helluva 'to do list'.

So far so good.

I have started a lot of the smaller updates and changes to the various Photo-Africa sites and will hopefully be uploading all of these around Monday next week. Will keep you posted on the Blog. One of the things on my list is to upload a huge number of images from the various photographers in Madikwe. As you have probably gathered, we live in the most amazing environment, but the Internet is still a touchy subject.

A number of the guys have given me CD's filled with new images that I will be uploading over the next few days. As I upload each photographer's images I will post a blog with a few of the images that I enjoyed.

I will still post the High Five on Friday but this gives me an excuse to post more great African Wildlife and Nature images on the Blog as well! I noticed that Craig Muller also uploaded a whole bunch of new images that looked very interesting. Pop by the Photo-Africa Stock Library to check them out or visit the Blog again later this week for the High Five.

Today I uploaded more than fifty of Neal Fischer's images. Neal has some interesting close ups of the smaller things in Africa, but here are a few images I liked while I was uploading them.

Very well done abstract. Not exactly sure how he got the background so black out in the field but very well done.

This White Rhino is seriously into marking his territory. They rub their feet in their dung and urine and then walk away while leaving a scent trail all along the borders of their territory. Nice capture.

The Lilac Breasted Roller must be one of the most photographed birds in Africa. This image was slightly different and shows this little guy with a very different facial expression.

A Pied Crow in flight. These guys have been very helpful in showing us a few kills the last few weeks. The scavenge and congregate in huge numbers around any major kills by predators such as lions and leopards.

Giraffe with a very curious look on his face. Always a great attraction on safari.

Exposure is strange in this one, but I love the way the lioness is looking at the male. Their is a story in their somewhere.

Interesting capture that, by the amount of teeth missing, looks like one of the Batia brothers.

Very nice capture. Leopards are still one of the more difficult to find species in Madikwe but the sightings have definitely been picking up over the last few months. The last week in particular was fantastic for leoaprds in the wetsern parts of Madikwe. Hopefully this will lead to more leopard images finding their way to this site.

This image was captured in the middle of the Madikwe Game Reserve. This old chapel can be found Vleishfontein which is where the current Parks Board offices are situated. Great use of sepia tones to compliment the old feel of the image. (Should look at getting more history on this?)

Those are just a few of Neal's images I uploaded today. You can view more than fifty of his new images by visiting the Newest Images on the Photo-Africa Stock Library.

Other than all the changes and uploads my book has been coming along very nicely. I am pretty much done but am struggling to find quotes on lions, rhino and a few other species. If you have any nice websites or quotes on Africa and it's animals I would greatly appreciate it if you could email me!

A quick shoutout to Zaheer Adam, a regular visitor to Madikwe, who dropped me an email after visiting the Blog. Thanks for the mail - greatly appreciated! There is so much news with regards to all the Madikwe lions you mention and I will do my best to do a Blog with some of the latest updates. Let me know when you visit Madikwe again.

I will be back again tomorrow with more new images form the other Photo-Africa photographers.

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Gerry

A Short Break

I did not think it would be possible but I have been able to do sixteen Weekly High Five posts without missing a single week. Pretty impressed with myself!

Things have gotten quite hectic the last few days, along with a nice bout of the flu, and I am very much looking forward to heading to Johannesburg next week Wednesday for a couple of days. Adele and I will be finalizing a number of things as it will be the last time we get to any form of civilisation before our wedding on 1 November up in Namibia.

I also have a huge list of exciting updates, along with over 300 new images, that I want to try and get uploaded to all three Photo-Africa sites. New links, new photographer pages, new partnerships and of course a lot of new, authentic African wildlife images.

I have decided to take a few days off from the Blog while I start working on a number of these updates and rebuilding some of the pages on the Photo-Africa Home Page and Photo-Africa Stock Library.

I will be back on the Blog around Thursday next week and then on Friday I will do a special edition Weekly High Five which will feature around 15 of the new images that will have been uploaded by then.

Thanks for all the support thus far and I hope you will visit next week when all the new additions and updates gets uploaded. In the meantime you can still visit the Photo-Africa Stock Library for many new wildlife images.

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next week.

Gerry

Brutal or Amazing. You Decide...

NOTE - I have done a follow up post on this story. To read the update click here! (May 2009)

You never know what's going to happen.

That is the mindset we normally have when we head out on drive or on a walk. That is what keeps it exciting. It's what makes you want to learn more. See more.

The wonders of nature keeps you captivated at the best of times but once in a while you see something that makes you realise that there are no scripts in nature. Things happen that surprise you. Shock you.

I had a moment like this two days ago.

These moments make you realise that no matter how many books you read or how many times you see the same event play out, we can never truly understand what goes through an animals mind as they live out each day in a struggle for survival in the African bush.

On Thursday afternoon we headed down to the southern part of Madikwe to try and pick up on lion tracks that some of the guys had early that morning. We drove around the area for a while but did not find any tracks. As we moved on, a few minutes later we found a dead Red Hartebeest in a dried up pan.

The female antelope has not been opened up yet and upon further investigation we found a female lioness on the opposite wall of the pan. She was still out of breath and must have just finished killing the Hartebeest. Lions kill by strangulation and takes quite a physical toll on them - hence the heavy breathing.

As the lioness got up and moved towards her prey we settled in to watch the scene unfold. Lions are normally quite methodical in how the open and start feeding on a carcass but what followed blew our minds.

As she reached the carcass she started opening the antelope from the stomach area. Nothing unusual so far.

The first goal is normally to open the belly area and pull out the stomach.

So far everything was going pretty much 'by the book'. Adele joined me on the drive and was watching the scene unfolding through the binoculars. My guests were also watching the scene through their video camera and binoculars.

As she continued, the lioness got hold of what we thought was the stomach ans started pulling it out. As she stood up to get a little more leverage Adele said "That is not the stomach!"

The Red Hartebeest that got killed was heavily pregnant!

Now I have seen a lion kill where the prey was pregnant but normally they would just carry on feeding as if nothing was wrong.

This is where the scenes that followed had us all dumbstruck.

Once out of the mother the lioness very gently placed the foetus on the floor and spent quite a bit of time smelling and investigating the unborn Hartebeest.

Her body language was strange for a lioness in her situation and it seemed that she was clearly perturbed by what has just happened and kept on looking around as if to look for help.

After a while she kept on feeding and started removing the stomach contents, all the while seeming to make a concerted effort to stay away from the foetus.

After a while, and not feeding at all, she returned her attention to the foetus and very gently picked it up by the nose.

She stood, with the foetus in her mouth, for quite some time looking around in all directions as if checking for something. After a few minutes she started walking off towards a thicket very close to her kill.

She stopped again and very gently put the foetus on the floor. All the time looking around and looking quite tense and nervous. She then proceeded to nudge the foetus with her nose, gently rolled it over and picked it up on the back of the neck as if it was one of her own cubs.

She continued looking around and slowly moved towards the thicket.

She carefully walked towards the thicket where she proceeded to place the foetus very carefully at the bottom of the thicket. She nudged it a few times with her nose still looking around all the time as if she was expecting either help or danger.

After another few minutes she slowly returned to the carcass where she did not continue feeding but in stead looked around again and then slowly laid down where she fell asleep.

This was definitely one of the most extraordinary moments of lion behavior I have ever witnessed. What was she thinking? Why did she react the way she did?

We always have to be careful of projecting our own emotions onto the animals we are watching but this situation made this extremely difficult. Did her 'mother instincts' kick in? Was there still a heartbeat that she could feel? Was she trying to protect the unborn Hartebeest?

It is questions like this that always make you realize we do not know everything. These questions makes you realise once again the special privilege we have of being able to witness the things we do. You can read as many books or watch as many videos as you want but you never know what will happen when you are out in the field.

This sighting was something that caught us all off guard and will stay with me for quite some time. I do not know if I will ever understand exactly what happened but in a cruel, beautiful way we witnessed a piece of African magic.

It is moments like this that you truly feel how special nature is. There are no laws or rules in nature that is set in stone. Nature will carry on in it's own way whether we are there to play witness or not.

Let's hope we can have the privilege to share this magic for many years to come.

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time.

Gerry

PS: I have added a post which links to the video footage that my guests got of this event. Click here. G.

Weekly High Five #16

There have been a lot of new images added to the Photo-Africa Stock Library this week and again featured quite a few images of lions. The 'king of beasts' will always continue to draw the attention of visitors to African Game Reserves and WIldlife Photographers alike. This week I have chosen two lion images along with a landscape, rhino and abstract image.

Here goes with the latest 'Weekly High Five'.

Image 1 - Arguing Lions by Gavin Tonkinson


This image makes great use of framing and solor to highlight the focal area. These two lions where sharing a wildebeest and, as always when the food runs out, had a few 'friendly negotiations' about who is getting the last bits. The females snarling face has been placed perfectly next to the male and the red color of the wildebeest's ribs heightens the emotion of the scene. If you have every seen a scene like this you will now how difficult it is to get great images as there is so much happening and a 'food fight' can start and end in a matter of seconds. Patience and a steady hand can make for great images like this.

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Image 2 - Black Rhino and Calf by Grant Marcus


The very endangered Black Rhino (or more correctly Hooked-Lipped Rhino). Difficult to see and even more difficult to photograph. This image works very well and has a nice contrast of eye contact from the mother staring at you mixed with a dynamic feel of the youngster wanting to move away to the right of the frame. With these dull grey animals you can very easily loose impact but in this case the background has been blurred nicely through a good choice of aperture. Nice image of a rarely seen animal.

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Image 3 - Eating Lion Close Up by Gerry van der Walt


When you see a lion feeding in the wild there are hundreds of different ways you can approach the scene from a photographic poiunt of view. This image shows just another way to capture the brutal beauty of nature at work. By getting in really close to the action you create a more surreal image rather than the full on blood and guts which you are always tempted to shoot during a scene like this (I mean this in a good way). The image works as the teeth and eye have been placed on the power points and creates an invisible diagonal line which make any image more appealing to the viewer. I also quite like the nose twisting very slightly to the centre of the image as the lion bites into the wildebeest. Interesting close up and different way of shooting lions on a kill.

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Image 4 - River Landscape by Craig Muller


Where wildlife photography has a lot to do with being at the right place at the right time, landscape photography demands a bit more planning. You can take your time in finding the right scene, best angle and plan the image out - not always the case with wildlife photography. This image has been planned very nicely. There are two 'entrance points' which both leads you to the other. You can either start from the blue sky and follow the river down or vice versa. The two cliffs has also been placed in the correct position and creates a dynamic feel by your view going from the highest point down and to hte left of the frame. Nicely planned and executed landscape image.

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Image 5 - Baboons in Leadwood by Gavin Tonkinson


I like this image as it is plain and simple. A lot of the times we try and do too much with an image and feel we have to keep on adding more elements to make it interesting. Not always the case. The two baboons in the dead leadwood tree gives the tree a little bit of life and the tree with blue background makes for a very striking image. Difficult choice this week as I like the landscape image a lot as well but I think I am going to go with this this one for my pick of the week.

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As always I look forward to hearing your comments and choices of this week's images. It is always difficult choosing just 5 images from the many that are uploaded each week so for more amazing images make sure to visit the Photo-Africa Stock Library. You can also view more of the photographers work by visiting the Photo-Africa Home Page and then clicking on the link which will take you to their own personal page on Photo-Africa.

Update on Madikwe Fires

As you might have read in a previous post there have been serious wild fires running rampant through Madikwe. The wind has not been any help and has been swirling the fires in various directions.

By last nigh most of the major burns in the north western part of the reserve was under control. As we were sitting outside out house we noticed a orange glow on the horizon due east from the lodge. We jumped in the vehicles and immediately went to check it out. After checking with Parks Board we were told that they were aware of a fire in that area. We drove along one of the main roads where the fire would hopefully stop. Our concern was that if the fire jumped the road it would be heading directly towards our lodge. Luckily this did not happen and so far this morning everything seems under control.

Here are a few images I took with my small Sony T100 last night around 10pm as we drove around to check the wild fires.






It has been quite a stressful few days with all the fires but you have to deal with it and move on. Will keep you posted as the next few days go on and as we receive information on how much damage was caused.

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry