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

Photo Safari #3

As I am writing this the fires are still raging!

No, not a continuation from yesterday's post but the wild fires in Madikwe. The scenes yesterday was unbelievable as a fire run wild through the north-western parts of Madikwe. During our entire drive we were all more fixated / worried / fascinated / concerned with the smoke, flames and a feeling of complete helplesness that we almost forgot about the three of the Big 5 animals we found during the drive.

Here are a few images of the weeks drives along with a few that I took yesterday - The Day that Madikwe Burned.

Sunrise at Tlou Dam. Always magic and we have been lucky to get quite a few chances to get there early and wait for the shots.

The view from Nik's view, one of our regular drink stops, yesterday afternoon as the Inselbergs burned.

A view from Tlou Dam towards the burning bushveld. Made for very moody, almost disturbing images. We do not ave details on how much of Madikwe has burnt but I will keep you posted as we find out more.

Back to the wildlife...

One of the Tsola-Mateya males. Awesome specimen and shows how every lion has a different look thanks to ths scars on the face. These guys are in the process of taking over from the South. Lots of stories to come.

I reckon I should do a book on 'funny lion faces' - must have a 100 of them! Whenever you are aiming to get that perfect lion yawn you inevitably end up with a few of these. Never the same but always entartaining!

The Dipelo female restring in the late afternoon heat. I quite like the focus on her paw.

A close up of a young elep[hant 'playing' with his tusk. This was right next to the vehicle and I had to zoom out quite a bit to get this shot.

Winter time is always dry in Africa and creates images like this as all the animals congregate at the watering holes. The lions seen above were just out of view to the left.

Nothing cuter than a baby ellie! This little guys wanted to come and investigate but did not dare leave his mother's side. Great scene!

This is 'Bob', the Tree Agama that lives in the tree outside our house at Tuningi. Since Gizmo is not around anymore Adele, Grant, Monique and I have decided he is our new 'pet'. Interesting to watch but not as much fun! :)

Another magical African sunset.

Game viewing has been slightly quiet but as you can see we still get the 'moments'. Once the fires all die down it will be interesting to see how the animals change their behaviour and feeding grounds according to water availibility and the burnt areas. Will keep you posted.

Make sure to check back soon for this week's High Five.

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

Where is it all going?

Have you ever wondered why? Nothing specific, just why?

Where is it all leading?

I am sure that everybody reaches a point in their life where they question what they are doing. Why am I doing this? Will I still be doing this in 5 years time? If not, what will I be doing?
Perhaps this is normal but I find my head going in that direction more and more. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love what I do and the people with whom I get to share a fantastic lifestyle is amazing but I still find myself asking. Why?

Are we all so conditioned by society to always look ahead at plan for 'one day' or is it that come of us are just always thinking about what else we can do? Is it wrong to want more from life? Experience more? Give more? Live more?

I could get quite deep on this one but will wait for a week or so until I get home and reassess quite a few things and plan for the remainder of the year and after that.

Photo-Africa is another of the things that I question every now and then as well. You see,originally I started it purely as my own little showcase for my images which, I am glad to say, has gotten better since those early days. One thing led to another and now the three websites plays host to more than twenty wildlife photographers and gets in excess of 14 000 hits every month. Pretty good for something that only got up and running towards the end of February this year.

Why? Where is it going?

There those questions pop up again. I have absolutely relished the entire ride up until now and am also looking forward to where things are going. I would like nothing more to throw myself into the site 100% and only do this but as with many photographers this is not always possible. Luckily I am in the position to spend a lot of time on Photo-Africa. It has at times turned out to be quite a nice distraction from all the other 'issues' that this year as presented.

One of the exciting things that I am planning is a Birding Photo Competition with pretty nice prizes that will run later this year. More details on this as I finalize prizes and other details soon. I have also started working on my second book - "Wildlife. Photography. And everything in between."

This book will feature a lot of my work from the last four years and also act as a 'wildlife photography manual' of sorts which will include a lot of practical tips and advise. I have completed about 60% of the work and am expecting to have it ready to go by mid-October. As they say watch this space! (I also thought of publishing the Blog as a seperate book. Anybody tried this yet?)

Anyway, time to go. This chain of thought is not finished yet - just put on pause for now! A lot of these kind of questions don't get answered for quite some time and in a way is a good thing. I guess it is up to each of us to find those answer for yourself.

Make sure you check back later this week for the Weekly High Five!

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

Weekly High Five #15

"It was the Africa I had read of in books of travel. All the menageries in the world turned loose would not have compared to the sight I saw that day!"

~ Gerald Mckiernan, 1876

Some days when we head out on morning game drive this is what comes to mind. Even if you have the privilege of doing it every single day, like we do, the magic never disappears. You never get blase about it. You never stop appreciating the natural world around you. There is always something new and exciting. More mysteries to unravel and more beauty to behold.

The Weekly High Five reflects this and this week's selection is no exception and features images that shows but a glimpse of all the wonders you can see in the African bush.

So with that, here goes with this weeks High Five.

Image 1 - Kudu Fight by Craig Muller

Any interaction between animals normally make for a great image. A story gets told and all you have to do is sit back and enjoy. By looking at this image it does not look as if the two male Kudus have gotten completely entangled but it is something that often leads to the death of both sides. One male might get his neck broken and this then leads to the other ultimately starving to death as he cannot feed or move around. Brutal but a part of nature. In the Kruger National Park there is a statue of an event like this. The statue which is located at the Skukuza rest camp is entitled 'Beaten Victor'. Great name, great image.

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Image 2 - Angry Lion by Gerry van der Walt

This image was featured in a previous Blog but I still feel it is strong enough to be included in this week's High Five. This image shows that when filling the frame with your subject you can create a lot more impact than if the image had a lot of background to it. The eyes, which is always a focal point, also creates a 'silent' triangle with the open mouth which keeps your attention jumping betwene the mouth and eyes - success - something that makes this image work. Powerful animal. Powerful image.

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Image 3 - Food Fight by Gavin Tonkinson

This is the same lion, and his brother, as in the previous image. The two males are arguing about the last bit of wildebeest (who wouldn't?). It is difficult getting images like this and I believe that is where it helps to have a guide who can help you to predict the animal behaviour. This situation however did not give much notice and that is why it is an impressive capture - as with any action image in wildlife photography. Considering this was about 2 'o clock in the afternoon with harsh light I reckon the exposure was handled pretty well. Another thing that I really like in the image is the placement of the lion's open mouth. You can almost mistake the mouth as belonging to either one of the two. Any images which gets you to look at it twice, for whatever reason, is on the way to being a winner. Nice action shot of the two Sereti males from Madikwe!

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Image 4 - Blue Waxbill by Craig Muller

In my mind this could almost go through as an action image. These little guys are always moving and you very rarely find them sitting still for long enough to get an image like this. Great work on Craig getting it sharp like this. The background which could very easily have thrown the image a bit has been dealt with very well and is sufficiently blurred not too distract from the finer features on the little Waxbill. Bird photography is difficult but this is very well done.

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Image 5 - 'Podile' by Gerry van der Walt

Poetry in motion. The leopard is truly one of Africa and the worlds most beautiful animals. This is Podile, one of the females in Madikwe. She keeps a territory in the south-western parts of Madikwe and is always a very 'in-demand' photographic subject. Thanks largely to wildlife photographers people have been given the impression that they spend the majority of their time up in trees but contrary to popular belief, leopards spend around 80% of their time on the ground. No one can however argue about the impact of an image of a leopard up a tree. The above image has been framed very nicely with the branches and Podile has a lot of empty space to stare into. What is she looking at? I personally also like the little flick of the tail at the bottom of the frame. Stunning image of an African icon and my choice of the week.

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I quite like this weeks selection and look forward to see what gets uploaded to the Photo-Africa Stock Library during the next week. Leave a comment or email me and let me know which of the above is your favourite and why. Love hearing all your opinions.

This has also been the 99th post on the Photo-Africa Blog. I will probably be uploading the next post on either Sunday evening or sometime during Monday. Not sure if there is anything specific I should write about or focus on. One thought was to do a focus on Podile, the leopard in Image 5, as we spent almost an hour with her this morning. Another thought was to do another Day at Tuningi or possibly an overview of Photo-Africa and some of the best images I feel we have on the site. If you have any ideas or request please email me!!

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

In the Lion's Eye

Just a quick one.

This is another image of the day when Gavin and I sat with the Sereti males. I was playing around with Fast Stone Image Viewer, which is a free program but definitely worth a look, when I saw something in some of the images I did not notice before.

Here is another of the Sereti's 'angry' faces.


And then when you zoom in on the eye...


If you look closely at the reflection in the eye you can see the outline of our Game Drive vehicle and the tree we were parked under!! Small things... :)

Until next time.

Gerry

Random Thoughts

The last year has truly been remarkable.

Just when you think things are kind of on track and going according to plan Murphy arrives to pass one of his laws. Go figure...

I guess we all need to escape from thing in our daily life that irritate us. Frustrate us. Sadden us. For me photography is that escape. Not only the actual process of capturing the images but looking through all the images afterwards as well. Looking from an objective point of view, if that is at all possible, at your own work. Deciding which images to delete. Which to work on. Which to recognise as 'exactly what you had in mind' and save it as is.

The whole process gives me time to 'switch off' and let my mind work it's own way through whatever needs working on. People who promise something for a long time and then do not deliver. Dreams that do not seem to work out as vividly as you hoped they would. Having your life change in a matter of days due to a single phone call. Planning something for the future and having the afore-mentioned Murphy come in and get involved. This list I suppose could go on and on.

What can you do? For me the answer right now is photograph. The way everything stops when you look through the camera helps put things in perspective. The way you plan your composition makes you see how things fit together - what aspects to include and what to ignore. Trying to get the perfect balance of blacks and whites.

Everybody has some sort of meditation or escape form whatever life throws at them, or I hope so at least. Some days it feels like you just cannot get the right shot - the same as in life. Other days you are pleasantly surprised by what you thought was not actually going to work when you clicked the shutter - can't wait for one of those again.

This year so far has been 'interesting' and I use the word very lightly. At some point the shots need to start working. The exposure needs to be perfect. The composition must all fall together. I could keep going here but I suppose you get my drift.

Anyway, with that off the chest moving on. Here are a few of the images I went through today, all from the last two days, that I liked for various reasons and, I suppose, is a result of my own personal 'meditation'. (I am not always this philosophical so just to clarify... it helps me think about stuff!!)

Saw this floating piece of Datura on the water at Tlou Dam and quite liked the abstract relfection it created. Perhaps I could puch the blue a little but still quite nice.

This is the other end of the Sereti lions - without the sharp teeth. Plain and simple. Not much else to say really.

A female ellie throwing mud on herself at Tlou Dam. This has been one of the better sightings and photographic opportunities of the week. Did a lot of 'meditation' with this breeding herd!

This was early this morning at Tlou Dam in Madikwe. Always a beautiful time, we walked to the edge of the water to get a few images. The plane passed over the scene as we arrived at the dam and ended up being the perfect 'frame' for this image.

I suppose that's about it for now. I will upload the Weekly High Five later tomorrow otherwise sometime during Saturday. Make sure to check back for that one. At this stage I might have a few days off at the beginning of next week which means I can really get stuck into the ever growing number of raw files and get more of them up onto the Blog!

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

An Afternoon with the Sereti Males

If you read books on Wildlife Photography you almost always get told to not photograph during the hours around midday as your images will not work. Also, if you read books on Animal Behavior you get told that lions are nocturnal and sleep during the day.

Do not always believe what you read!!

After our guests checked out Gavin and I got a call from our electrician to say that he saw a large male lion on a wildebeest kill up on the North Western fence line earlier that day. On a whim we decided to get in the cruiser to go and check it out. On the way we passed our guests who were stuck behind a herd of ellies. Ellis, if you and your mom are still wondering - no... we did not go to the pub. Here is what happened just after we left you.

As we arrived we found the Masu male, a single walking lion in Madikwe, on a wildebeest kill. The funny thing was that the dead wildebeest must have been chased into the reserve fence as it was half stuck. With the temperature pushing 30 degree Celsius the four year old male decided to use out vehicle as cover and almost crawled completely under the vehicle. I was able to get a few short video clips on my Sony T100 and will look at getting these on YouTube and link them to the Blog.

Long story short - after trying to get rid of the lion under our Land Cruiser Matt, also a contributing photographer on Photo-Africa, arrived to try and get the dead animal off the fence. It caused a dander to the lion, possible damage to the fence and with the afternoon game drives coming up the kill would have been better off away from the fence and the lion would probably be way happier guarding his kill in a bit of shade.

I will probably do a Blog with video clips later on but after hooking a tow-rope on the kill and dragging the kill away from the fence line the Masu male decided he is not going to let anybody take his kill from him without a fight.


Keep in mind this is a wild lion!! It was amazing to see the strength of one male lion as he pulled against a Land Drover Defender. After stopping the vehicle for a while the lion fed and the kill was finally pulled underneath a thicket where the lion was now quite happy to go and crash in the shade and get up for the occasional bite.

While all of this was happening a very interested male lion popped his head up not 200 meters from all the action. It turned out to be two of the three Sereti males. These young males, who you will have read about on previous posts, were on a wildebeest kill of their own and made for quite an interesting array of possibilities? Will they accept the Masu male so close to them? Will they risk getting into a fight with the older male? Will they possibly accept him?

Gavin and I decided to stay with the Seretis for a while to see if any answers to these questions pop up. None did, but we were in for quite a show of intimidation and fighting.

These guys might have been a bit more tense than usual due to the presence of another male lion and they were quick to show us how the felt as we moved closer to them. A lot of their aggression was aimed at each other and you could see clearly that the only times a coalition of males will argue is about the last scraps of food and mating rights. They caught us off guard the first time but we were ready when they flew into each other for a second time.

Both Gavin and I were able to get amazing images of these two going at each other and will hopefully get these up onto the Photo-Africa Stock Library towards the end of the month. (Yes - Internet still an issue!)

We spent the next three hours with these large cats. They did not ease up on the aggression and here are a few of the 'faces' they pulled at us during our afternoon with them. For those of you reading for the first time remember - all the images in the Blog have been taken in the wild!



You can see they were pretty tense but it made for the most amazing photography! Gavin and I had a blast capturing these guys on camera. Between the two of us we filled 4 memory cards so still a lot of images to go through!

You might recall a Blog where I mentioned that the Seretis have the most amazing eyes of any lion I have ever seen. We were parked about 3 meters from them so while they were feeding on the wildebeest I was able to get a few close up images of their eyes.


I still think these guys are going to play a very big role in Madikwe and will be one of the dominating coalitions in the reserve. They are very large for their age and seem to have an aggressive streak which will give them the edge when they start competing for territory.

These two have been away from their brother for a few days as he has been very busy with the Etali female.


Three years is very young for a male to be mating with a female of around 7 years and shows that even she can recognise that these guys might be the future.

It is also interesting too note that a few days before the above images were taken the Etali female was seen mating with the Masu male. She is obviously keeping her options open and it is going to be very interesting to see how things develop over the next couple of months.

Will she back the three young brothers or will she hook up with the single walking Masu male?

It was an amazing afternoon and one that reminded me why we do what we do - both from a Field Guiding and Wildlife Photography point of view.

I will keep you posted as things develop and will hopefully get more images onto the blog in the next couple of days!

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry

Photo Safari #2

It is a strange thing to go out into the field every morning and every evening and not feel like you are getting anything worthwhile to photograph! Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love what I am doing but somehow, in my mind, it feels like the 'perfect' photographic moments are just not presenting themselves!

The sightings the last few weeks have been pretty good yet it feels like the truly magical moments have been eluding us. Make no mistake, it is not that I am not enjoying going out but it feels like every time I want to click the shutter the animal turns away, the light is bad, there is grass in the way or something like that.

As I cannot consider any of my current images for the High Five as they have not yet been uploaded, I have have selected a few that I have captured over the last few weeks in another 'photographic safari' kind of post. All of these images, and the other new ones I will capture until 24 September, will only be uploaded to the Photo-Stock Stock Library at the end of the month so if there are any specific ones you would like to purchase please let me know and I will upload those for you!

The Etali female resting after feasting on a wildebeest. She was int he thickets and had to wait for for 'the look' before taking the image.

Almost drove over this happy couple - one of the Batia brothers mating with the Sereti female. Great sighting first thing the morning but the light was quite flat. Got an interesting sequence as he dismounts and will hopefully get these posted soon.

Found this hyena drinking water in a little puddle early one morning. She was also not camera friendly and I had to wait for quite some time to get her face in the shot.

As we came around the corner this Martial Eagle was just wrapping up a hunt. He caught a Tree Squirrel and we waited for a while to see if he would start to feed. No action so we left him with his meal.

Close up of a Zebra. Have been seeing a lot of these guys so playing around with different angles and lenses.

This was a great sighting. The herd first drank at Tlou Dam and then chaos erupted as all the youngsters got involved in a serious bout of mud bathing.

Absolute bliss!

They were making a huge mess! Great to watch as these four almost mimicked each other. Have quite a few images from this sighting. Will post more soon.

Nice sighting of an African Hawk Eagle. Still seriously thinking of getting a large prime lens... cash flow!!! :)

Female Kudu. There was not anything special about this scene but the light was spectacular! Had to play around with a few images of her enjoying her breakfast.

We were very far from the scene and I had to stretch my Sigma 50 to 500 all the way to maximum zoom. Light was going and quite a tough shot but still not too bad. Would have been nicer if the bushes behind the rhino was not there which would have made him stand out more.

One of the Batia males walking away from our waterhole at Tuningi. The black and white feel felt like a good choice for the last image on this post.

I reckon not too bad over all but still feels like it could be better! Is it wrong to be too critical of your own work?? Is it wrong to always try and get a better image? Better exposure? Better composition?

I do like the images I have been getting the last while but it feels like there is something missing. Over the last few weeks I have been quite keen on trying to capture animals in motion but there have been very few opportunities. Soon....

Anyway, time to get going. Almost time to head out again and 'look for the magic'! :)

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time.

Gerry