Photographic Africa Blog, the Dung trail, Wildlife and nature Photography

Serengeti National Park, the endless plain where sky meets grass.

2012-01-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

Serengeti Wilderness camp

This is where grass meets sky and Wildebeest does the introductions

The vast grasslands that seem endless, butyou know it has to meet the sky somewhere, this is the Serengeti. If the Ngorongoro is a salad bowl, then theSerenget is the buffet, and it operates like one as well. Meal times for theSouthern short grass plains in the Southern Serengeti and Ndutu is fromFebruary through to April when the long rains would bring the huge herds whoare following the growing grass; who have responded to the rains.

This is surely the best place in the world to observe Cheetahs hunting.

There is a great diversity of animals in these grass plains, even the aquatic Hippo

In these parts Lions climb trees, so when looking for you mate ... tree are a good place too look.

We had some great light.

Serengeti Wilderness camp is located in thecentral Serengeti , During our entrance to the park we noted a few smallherds of Wildebeests. Not taking much notice of this wecontinued, before we knew it we were well within the largest congregation oflife that I had ever experienced. Notjust the hundreds of thousands of wildebeests but also the zebra, Thompsons andGrants gazelles. With this huge number of prey moving through, there is apopulation of predators that move with the herds and all the year roundinhabitants.

Lions seem to love rocky outcrops

the ruff and tumble life of being a Lion cub

where there is something to eat there will be something to eat it.

We reached the camp very late in theevening, upon our arrival we were met and escorted to our tents, which werelarge and well equipped with proper beds, linens and en-suite bathrooms. . The Wilderness camp only moves every threeor four months and as such is able to offer these larger tents and otherwonderful comforts while still being a real bush experience.

The game viewing we experienced up to nowhad been phenomenal and lady luck was not going to hold back for the last threedays of our trip, we saw cheetah and lions everyday, with our one leopard sightfor the trip happening on our second day. But these things you can seetypically on any safari, I wanted to see the wildebeest. I was not disappointedwith numerous herds that make up the greater migration being spread all overthis area of the Serengeti. They were just passing through with the third daythere being less than the day before. We could see and smell the rain furthersouth of us that is the driving force behind this annual migration.

Leopards in tree ...

and Lions in tree's ...

There were some highlight sightings, wemanaged to get too see a cheetah in full stride, lion cubs playing at sunset andgreat photographic opportunities with the migrating herds with storm clouds.

Serengeti National Park as a Photographicdestination

· Again two camera bodies are amust.

· The Serengeti and Ngorongoroare unique ecosystems where the surrounding landscapes are so different to anyother place on the continent that it would be a sin to photograph the animalliving here by cropping in close to only see their faces. This can be done inTarangire or Southern Africa where the bush is thick.

· I shot as wide as possiblewhile still being able to see what the subject animal is, I wanted to show theanimals in their natural habitat.

· So in this regard the 100-400excelled as I could compose my images with this in mind. As you are not able tomove off the roads using a fixed focal lens would be tricky. (Although, byprior arrangement off-road permits can be organized in some areas)

Ngorongoro Conservation area

2011-12-28T22:13:00.001-08:00

Its Africa’s Garden of Eden

The road and view while we made our waydown to the Crater floor

You hear and read stories of this place,and all that you have seen and heard cannot give you the same feelings or emotionsthat your first glance of this very large natural and unbroken caldera givesyou. Its Africa’s Garden of Eden, I see it as a very big salad bowl, with allthe creatures that eat salad living there and all the critters that eat thethings that eat salad … it’s a complete ecosystem in a Bowl!

The amount of life in this reasonably smallarea is astonishing

All our Lions in the crater were some distance from the roads, here this male was resting in the shade of this small rock out crop, with its Zebra kill also hidden in the rocks.

We spent the night on the crater rim andwoke up to what can only be described as the best view in the world. We all setoff rather excitedly down to the crater floor, I have had numerous emotionsduring my time on this beautiful planet, but I had never had the sensation ofarriving in Africa for the first time. This must be one of the most specialexperiences, of travelling to the Dark Continent. Having grown up here I wasalways jealous of people visiting our great continent – seeing it through fresheyes. . Driving onto the Crater floor was a truly awesome experience; somethingI assume would be close to coming to Africa for the first time.

The Ngorogoro has a very good and healthypopulation of Hyena

The game viewing down here is nothing shortof amazing, we saw seven different Black rhino, elephant, 2 different cheetah,3 lions sighting and numerous hyena. To the point that if I could choose what Icome back as in the after life, its definitely not an impala or anything that’s eats green stuffand definitely not in the Ngorongoro Crater.

Ngorongoro Crater and conservation area asa Photographic Destination

Wow where do I begin,

I used both lenses somuch taking close ups and wide landscapes.
OK here, ideally, I needed a a second camera body, I missed a few goodshots of a cheetah running because I was moments before was taking a“cheethascape” (landscape with a cheetah), and I could not change the lensesfast enough … so we learn, now you will not make that same mistake. So two camera bodies is a must for thisplace.
The backdrop of the crater rim wall isfeatured in every single one of my images, which is the best background youcould ask for as a wildlife photographer.

WILDEBEEST - a.k.a the GNU

2011-12-22T01:49:00.000-08:00

The Wildebeest

“A large, bearded antelope of the Acacia savanna and short-grass plains. Deep-chested and short – necked, High shoulders and thin legs … head: broad, blunt muzzle, Horns, cowlike, smooth, with enlarged boss, wider and much thicker in males … coat: short and glossy with vertical strips of longer hair: A beard and lax or upstanding mane. Colour: varies with subspecies, gender (males darker), season and individuality; ranging from slate grey to dark brown; lighter and darker below; black face, mane, tail, and stripes, bearded black (except White – bearded species)”

Smaller than an African Buffalo, Bigger than a gazelle. The Gnu is the most numerous member of the important sub-family of the long faced Alcelaphine antelopes that includes Impala, Topi and Bontebok, Hartebeests and the rare Hunter’s Hartebeests. A “Social Grazer” who, like a social drinker, congregates in response to local distribution of key resources, in the Gnu’s case, short grass pastures and water.

As African myth’s go, this creature, the Gnu was created by God in an effort to use up all the remaining bit and pieces used when he created all the animals that now roam these vast grasslands, forests and savanna’s.

From the book: Serengeti, the Great Migration, text by Harvey Croze ... I found this while on location in the Serengeti and have yet to find some thing more descriptive of this beast and its annual pilgrimage behind the rains in its quest to find fresh grazing.

Migrating Thunder

Tarangire National Park - “Explorer Mobile safaris

2011-12-20T23:10:00.000-08:00

The land of Baobab’s and Elephants …

After we met each other over a wonderful dinner at the Mount Meru Game lodge in Arusha the day before, we set off towards Tarangire National Park which lies to the west of Arusha. It’s a 1 and a half hour drive to reach the main entrance gate of Tarangire, we took a little longer stopping to change some money and pick up some drinks for the following days. We were going to enjoy a Wild frontiers Explorer Mobile camping safari, staying in private sites with all the hard work done by the staff – like safaris of ‘old’ - we always arrived to a hot meal and prepared camp after a long day.

Very comfortable camping ...

positioned nicely under big Sausage tree's

Always plenty of life by the Tarangire River.

We managed to see a pair of, wait for it. Sleeping Lions, nothing new here. Seems lion in East Africa like counting buffaloes as much as their southern African counterparts. Tarangire is famous for two things, its Baobabs and its very large Elephant population. We saw numerous breeding herds traversing the sparse and arid areas toward the Tarangire River. This river flows for the greater part of the year because a huge ‘sponge’ supplies it, known as the Tarangire marsh. This captures the water through the rains and releases it during the dry season. So droves of animals are found along its banks during the arid winters.


Dik Dik are fairly common through out the park, but can be tricky to photograph

A Zebra running from another stallion close to the Tarangire marsh

Apart from the numerous antelope and Elephants, we saw great variety of predators, we had a Lion sighting everyday and managed to get a reasonably good viewing of a pair of cheetah.

Tarangire as a Photographic Destination

I am a sucker for Elephants and big trees, and this place has this in surplus
Here I found I used my 17-40 more than I did the 100-400. Purely as I want to show the diverse landscape.
The bush is more what you would expect in Southern Africa.
Our trip was great as we arrived here before the big rains had arrived and we saw plenty of animals by the Tarangire River. After the rains there would be plenty of water everywhere and the bush would be much thicker, so timing your photo-safari here needs to be done with people on the ground, getting here at the right season in critical.

Lake Manyara National Park, a lake on the edge of the Rift Valley – we just passed through.

The view of the Lake and the area that is the National park.

Our next overnight was at the Ngorongoro Crater, but first we popped into one of the Rift Valley lakes, which has a large percentage of its shoreline as a national park. Lake Manayara National park is a thin slither of land between the sodic lake and the giant escarpment wall of the Great Rift that stretches through from Mozambique right through East Africa into the Red Sea. The entrance to the national park is a tropical jungle, which is not fed by rainwater but rather hundreds of little springs that flow out at the base of the Rift Valley wall. The water originates from the Ngorongoro Highlands and flows through the volcanic rocks and when it reaches the valley floor it exits as mineral rich water, which sustains a growing rice farming community outside the National Park gate.

We saw Giraffe, Buffalo, Zebra and wildebeest against the very interesting backdrop of the lake.

Dust devil as a back drop ...

The park is a stark contrast to the surrounding thorn veld, in a mere 10km you have two very different habitats, from a lush tropical forest to vast and arid scrublands that numerous nomadic Maasai wonder through looking for grazing for their cattle and goats. What amazed me was that even out here where these ancient people don’t grow crops they can still produce alcohol. They do this by keeping bees, we saw numerous logs hanging from trees and these are the traditional bee hives of the Maasai. I regret not trying the very sweet beer … next time!

Lake Manyara as a photographic destination

Firstly we were only here for a few hours over the heat of the day, so game viewing was never going to be amazing.
However we saw a ton of birds, especially in the thick forest entrance to the park and along the lake edge.
So I used my 100-400 here predominantly, If you are into your birds this is a great place for it and well worth bringing that 500mm here.
In the thick and shady forest a quick lens is needed a f2.8 and f4. But you could also get away by pushing up your ISO in your camera to allow the use of a slower lens.

Serengeti play group ...

2011-12-15T04:39:00.000-08:00

I am going to be away for the rest of the month, my first holiday for the past six months of intense JHB traffic and long hours in the Office ... all this is now over, Leana, Tian and I are off to Cape Town to visit the family and in January we start our new life back in the bush ...

So wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and you all in the new year ...

All these images and more can be found on the Photographic Africa IMAGES website

Equipment taken to Tanzania ... and why

2011-12-13T23:40:00.000-08:00

Tanzania Northern circuit Photographic Equipment

Pride of Serengeti Lions, waiting for thecover of darkness.

In preparation of the two photographicSafaris going to Tanzania in 2012, Migration Hunter 3 –14 August and Predators of theSerengeti - 11 – 20 March. John and Debbiesent me packing for 7 days through the Northern Safari circuit; It was part ofan educational with other agents to East Africa. This was my first visit tothis geographically rich area.

Young Baboon in Tarangire National Park waiting painstakingly for some more thorn pods to be dropped from the foraging baboons in the tree

We visited the key natural ecosystems, suchas the Serengeti and Ngorongoro conservation area. We also visited Tarangireand Lake Manyara National parks, two of the lesser-known parks of the northernsafari circuit.

Our group of Agents … with an Elephant inTarangire National Park

I was unsure what to expect from this tripphotographically, there were a number of things that I needed to consider whenpacking for such a trip.

1. Weight of my photographicequipment, was my biggest concern.

2. Distance from the animals, thisinfluenced my telephoto lens selection.

3. And consideration of the guestsI was to be travelling with.

Cheetah being followed by a Grants Gazelle

The equipment that I took and why

· Canon 50D, it was the camera Iowned at the time of traveling. I likedthe 1.6 crop factor that I got with this camera. Also the speed of 6 frames persecond would mean that I would not miss a lot of the action.

· I decided to rent a Canon100-400mm L f4.5-5.6 IS USM this hasbeen a rock solid lens for many wildlife photographers over the years. Yes a500mm would be more ideal, but for points 1 and 3 above this fits the billperfectly.

· I also took a Canon 17-40 f4 LUSM, for the wider shots and landscapes.

· I also took at bean bag, minecontains teddy bear beads which make it water proof, basically if it gets wetthere won’t be a bean crop. But I could have easily brought it empty and filledit in Tanzania with rice, this would have saved more space.

· I also took a clamp mount withmy tripod head, this worked a treat on the game viewing vehicles rail bar onthe roof.

· My aluminum tripod.

· 4 x 4gig cards and a externalhard drive and my Mac book pro.

Pelican at the one picnic site within Ngorongoro crater conservation are

These Rock Hyrax any found on most kopjesthrough out the Serengeti

I will do an equipment review at the end ofthis 5 part series of blogs about the Northern Safari circuit for the photographically orientated! up on photography in East Africa. In the next post we will be on ourway to Tarangire National park, to photograph big trees and Loads of elephants.

"Jambo" welcome to Tanzania ...

2011-11-23T23:33:00.001-08:00

Wild Frontiers has three photographic safaris departing to East Africa in 2012 that I will be leading, 2 of which are to Tanzania. A country I have not visited, so too get me up to speed they sent me packing for 9 days throughout the northern safari circuit, which basically encompasses the two mecca’s of an East African safaris being the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park. We also visied two of the not so well known parks, Tarangire and Lake Manyare.

Very typical Tarangire Landscape, poeple from Southern Africa will be very familiar here ... if it were not for the stark contrast in the bird life ... for having such similar bush the birds are so different

Boababs are central to the Tarangire ecosystem ... and how I just love big tree

View of the actual Lake, from out side Lake Manyare National Park

The Ngorogoro Crater ... a complete ecosystem in a big Salad Bowl

Off to photograph the creatures eating each other and the salad, the road down to the bottom of the crater

The thick forest entrance of Lake Manyare

Tarangire is such a special park had it been in any other country it would be the big draw card, but its playing second fiddle to the more popular parks of Tanzania. More on this later…

I will over the course of the next few weeks break down my trip into bitable bits … I will highlight special sighting, packing advice and hits and tips on get great images on a budget.

For Now I will tease you with the first bunch of images that I have pasted on Facebook and add a few more aswell … enjoy

this was only looking west! ....

Only on two occasions did we find rocks that did not have lions on/close/next to them ...


this sighting is going to get its very own blog post ... nuff said!

yes top speed of 110km per hours (depending which book your reading) ... but its how quickly they can get to that speed, this was the only time I wished I had a 500mm

Hyena are my favorite predator, so by default Ngorogoro is now my favorite place to see them ... they were every where. The ultimate punishment is to come back as a gazelle in the crater ...

the one and only Leopard sighting ...

First Lion sighting in the Serengeti ... BOOM!!! magic

Just love the constant back drop that the crater offers photographers ... no blown out skies at mid day when this cheetah was looking for a meal!

Dassie = Robyn ... hahaha

First Black rhino in the Crater ... we ended up seeing 8 in total, all some distance from the road

The haze of Lake Manyare in the background ... not all will like the composition, I dont care ... I do!

Migrating Thunder ...

I enjoyed taking pictures of animals as we drove through the various herds ... I did so with a slower shutter speed, wait for this blog post!

I am so looking forward to March and August when I lead the first of Wild Frontiers photographic safaris back into the region ... there are still a few places left

Themed Safari: Predators of the Serengeti - 11 - 20 March 2012
The core feature of this safari is to photograph the predators of the Serengeti eco-system. We have timed this safari for the period when the wildebeest are calving in the southern area of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Conservation area. They have followed the rains south to have their young when the new shoots of fresh green grass are sprouting in this region of the Great Rift Valley.

With so much inexperienced prey around, predators and prey interact daily. Resident territorial predators start hunting in Ernest, while Nomadic predators that have been following the herds move through these local territories and there is often interaction with the resident predators.

Download our Itinerary

Themed Safari: Migration Hunter, In search of a crossing - 3 - 14 August 2012
It is a photograph on everybody's wish list, to capture the annual Wildebeest migration as they crisscross the plains in search of grazing. With numerous rivers acting as natural barriers to the moving herds, it's an epic sight as thousands of wildebeest pack the side of one the many riverbanks blocking their path. As the numbers grow the pressure at the front gives in and the crossings start. With predators hunting on each bank, crocodiles lurking in the water and strong currents, it's a treacherous journey.

These crossings don't happen everyday, and getting into the right areas at the right time is vital to try to successfully photograph this epic event. This is our main photographic target, but photographing all aspects of this annual migration will not be avoided, and do remember that although we are picking the one of the best times of year to travel and witness this, sightings of this nature are not guaranteed.

Download our Itinerary

For any further information on our Photographic Safari's please email: photographic@wildfrontiers.com or etienne@wildfrontiers.com

Kwaheri

Etienne Oosthuizen

Presenting Tanzania as a Photographic destination.

2011-11-03T04:17:00.000-07:00

I am presenting this on behalf of Wild frontiers Photographic ... see you there

What Elephants do for food ....

2011-10-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

... Like stand on two legs

Yes its possible ...

The Elephants have been spending alot of time of thevalley floor, a good indication that their water in the Zambezi Escarpment hasdried up. As the Mopane trees are still carrying alot of leaves and the youngerand smaller elephants are still making the evening trek across Jeki andChakwenga plains to feed on these trees, but these return each morning forwater.


The Lower Zambezi Flood plain with its large Winter thorns

The larger and older bulls don’t make this nightlyjourney, as they have learnt skills and tricks to be able to get to the leavesand pods of the various tree species found close to the Zambezi. These aremostly made up of Acacias, Umbrella thorns Acacia Tortillis and Paper barkthorns Acacia sieberiana. But its the Winter thorn Faidherbia albida, thequintessential Lower Zambezi tree, found on both sides of the river. Madefamous in Mana Pools national park in Zimbabwe.

Elephant just relish these trees and their pods.

These trees are currently carrying a heavy crop ofnutritious pods that a variety of animals relish. Its only the baboons andElephants that can reach these delicacies of the Zambezi flood plain. Theseother animals like Impala and kudus benefit from the occasionally dropped podfrom the messy eaters like baboons and Elephants.However unlike the baboon theAfrican Elephant needs to do a bit of gymnastics to reach these pods. MostElephants can do the normal stretch, a few can do the Tripod, but to date Ihave only found one elephant that can do the 2 legged maneuver. There are otherthat can do it, but I have only seen the one.

The pods that started it all

Those that cannot reach make a plan

Any thing is used just to get that little bit higher ...

The first time i became aware of this feat of Bio-physics was on a cover of abook, dedicated to Mana pools. Its not something that i thought i would ever see,so it went to the back of my mind. Then Levy one day on return from a walk saidthey had found an elephant that stood on two legs. Three weeks later Leanashowed me a photograph that she had taken of a standing elephant taken whileshe was in camp. It was only when I was also on a walk and didn’t have mycamera with me when I saw a bull elephant do this “party” trick. It was thatafternoon that I followed him with a patient group of guest. I had theelephant, I had the light, it was under the right kind of tree just tall enoughso the conventional method of obtain leaves was not possible. The guests werejust going to have to be patient with me. An hour passed and the only goodthing that happened was the light changed from bright yellow to a deep yellow.The guest still did not understand why i was just still watching this onespecific elephant while there was a group of 13-15 a 100m away.

Then it happened, starting to sway from side to sidewhile he was looking up at the leaves and pods, he moved his back legs closerto his front legs so he looked like a bit of a mushroom, then with minimumeffort a small push from his front legs and he was up.

A magical Moment, right light, right place and the right Elephant ...

Reaching searching forthat branch he had eyed out earlier. He grabs it. During all this the only timehe seems to not have control was on his way down, he pulled that branch andwith a loud crack it snapped.I am still amazed every time I see this, each walkI look for this bull, and he has not disappointed me yet, on one walk we sawhim do it 6 times in succession. he missed the branch 5 times. It doesn’t seemto take up alot of energy to be able to do this. Also the fact we have onlyseen this one bull do it, suggests it is a learnt behavior. I have seen anotherbull try it, but without success, (sure he will come right soon). At Chiawathey also have a bull that stands, so they are definitely around. From aphotography forum, Outdoorphoto where i have posted this photo, seems guideshave seen this behavior in the Kruger and Greater Kruger area. So its not justsomething that occurs in the Zambezi valley.

This story was also in many of UK's newspapers ...

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/841229-meet-the-elephant-who-stands-on-two-legs
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1312653/Elephant-balances-legs.html
http://www.peopleforum.cn/redirect.php?fid=13&tid=38089&goto=nextoldset

Regards

Etienne Oosthuizen

Note: I have posted this before, but with the creation of the new Blog deleted it ... so this is a re-post of an updated version.

The Art of Backlighting - updated

2011-10-27T03:56:00.000-07:00

Last year I did a blog post on thissubject, as a guest blogger for then Photo-Africa (Wild-eye). I have sincecompleted a photography diploma and feel that I have a much betterunderstanding of the topic. So I thought I would “update” that post!

Classic Backlighting

Back lighting … what is it?

In layman’s terms it’s taking aphotograph into the light, be it natural or artificial. As a Wildlife photographer I will talk mostlyabout the natural Light … with one area of exception, more on the later …

Leopard against an sunning Bush-veld sunset

Natural Back Lighting, we aretalking about the Sun here as the source of light, but to a lesser degree themoon and stars can be used, but this is more in the realm of the Landscapephotographers …

Wildlife photography and the use ofbacklighting …

I feel that when shooting into the lightthere are two facets to this, basically directly and indirectly.

Directly: Shooting directly into thelight source (the sun in most cases)

Points to consider

1. Eye safety, be very careful when shooting into the sun a telephoto lens canmagnify the rays of light doing damage to your lens or worse you eyes.

2. meter off the brightest part of the image in front of you.

3. Keep the images simple.

4. Use a lens hood to reduce lens glare (excess light entering your lens,causing halos)

5. The idea is to have the details in the light area’s of you image, so Igenerally underexpose, as much as 2 full stops. (what is a stop?)

6. Shoot backlit images when the sun is close to the horizon. Sunset andsunrise!

7. Make sure your subject is above the horizon.

Some examples of DirectBacklighting:

Great example of direct back lighting, and an image that I had imagined in my head for year prior to this moment

Reflective light off the water adds another dimension to the image

The sun was still a little high, resulting in the overall orange glow and the fact the the Oryx are below the horizon complicated the exposure. I had to expose for them, resulting in the sun being over exposed.

Another classic

Indirectly: Shooting against lightbeing reflected off a surface or object.

This reflection can be off water,dust and vegetation … any thing that can reflect light!

Points to consider

1. Look for fury animals

2. Be aware of animal behaviour,elephants drinking, hippo coming up for air, Zebras fighting and animals dustbathing.

3. Look from rim light, that silverlines the outlines animals when the light is behind them, works great with thefirst point of fury animals.

4. Shooting at a slight angle into thelight will result in a refection against the vegetation.

Some Examples of IndirectBacklighting:

Dust being kicked up allows for this image being silhouetted, as the sun is still very high and the buff being well below the horizon. I was photographing from an elevated position (back seat of the open cruiser)

Another image which allows back lighting while the sun is still high.

another image that I had pre-visualized, The light was coming in from the side at 45 degrees, just enough to be caught by the individual water drops.

Again light coming in from the side, caught this time by the fur ... the light caught by the grass is another great bonus

Dust silhouetting the Oryx as the fight in the Central Kalahari

One of my most popular images

All backlit images tend to result inSilhouettes. Which composed appropriately can result in some striking images. Silhouette is when the subject is completely blackened out; by havingthe animal against a pretty sunset usually does this.

Artificial light: Spot Lights

As a wildlife photographer, you are not able to set your subject up with nice studio lights. You are able to ask your guide to get another vehicle spotlight into a position to have it create a light source for some night time back-lighting.

Old image where a spotlight the added back lighting ... but I added the flash to show the leopard in colour ... now I would not have taken this image

another

I dont however like photography at night, especially on animals. Even thou I use to do it, I feel the spot light and excessive flashing can be detrimental to the animals ... This is a personal view which is not really backed up with Scientific studies, purely from personal observations ...

On a personal note:

I have found great pleasure in getting behind the animals on themove, they kick up a lot of dust and this becomes the backdrop on to whichI photograph the silhouette.

I use a technique I learnt while trying to photograph animals atnight with a white light. What I dois meter off the brightest part of the image and then under expose by awhole 2 stops. I did this at night to increase my shutter speed so toreduce blur.

Sidelighting at dust ...

The results were the my blacks where pitch black and myhighlights where just right

When metering meter off the brightest part of the image in frontof you, this is the usual technique for silhouettes. I like to playwith my photography; with digital it is possible to do this.

Get out there and experiment

Etienne …

Art Publishers 2012 Wildlife calendar

2011-10-25T00:27:00.000-07:00

So I got my first image into a formal Calendar, the Art Publishers 2012 Wildlife calendar ... HERE

My image is March and it's the "Zambezi Temper" image that has turned out to be very popular, Here are some image that I took of the calendar last night ... excuse the quality, taking a picture of a picture is never good.

They edited the Image a little differently to how I have ...

My favorite images

2011-10-19T03:00:00.000-07:00

Been going through alot of my image these last few months as I have been creating the new Photographic Africa Images website ... so I though I would post some of my favorite images from over the years ...

... and any of these are part of the Photographic African win a print competition ... see details here ...

How to download you free low res images ....

2011-10-18T00:50:00.000-07:00

Few poeple are having a bit of trouble down loading there images for the competition, so I thought I would do a post ... just to show how simple a process it actually is ....

View the competition details here ....

steps ...
1. go to the website - http://photographicafrica.photoshelter.com/

2. search and select an image that you would like to enter into the print competition.

3. Under the orange "Add to cart" tab there is a option to "Down Load image" - clic on this

4. this it will bring a "pop up" box where you can sign in, below this there is the option of "if not a
Member" JOIN .... click this

5. It will take you to a sign up page .... sign up and down load your image ...

All I ask for in-exchange for this free service is that you link the downloaded image back to the Facebook Page

Win a signed canvas print from Photographic Africa Images.

2011-10-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

So Here is an opportunity to choose from any of my images and get it for Free as a large canvas print ... It this first prize competition that I (Photographic Africa) have done, I think its a cracker ...

How to Enter:

Register with the Photographic Africa Images website.
Down Load your favorite Image that you would like as a print from Photographic Africa Images.
“LIKE” Photographic Africa’s Facebook page.
Upload your selected Image to on Photographic Africa Facebook page
Add your Name and the Text “Win a canvas print Competition” to the description of the Image.
Get as many likes as possible for the image you Uploaded & win you your Image as a Signed Canvas Print

Important Links ...

PhotographicAfrica | Images - Register and Download your future canvas print.
Facebook - Like and post the image here ... remember the most likes get the print.
Newsletter - Register to find out when the winner is announced

Term and Conditions:

The Competition Closes on 30th November 2010 and the winner will be Announced on 1st of December 2010.
The image with the most likes, wins the signed loose Canvas print.
If the winner is not a current fan of the Facebook page, the Image with the secound most likes will win.
Only Images downloaded from Photographic Africa Images website will be considered as a valid entry
Postage Cost for delivery of the Print is not included as part of the prize.
The Canvas print will be sent unframed and unmounted, this is to keep postage costs down. So local mounting will be necessary.

Hints and Tips:

Choose a striking Image
Don't select an Image that has been chosen already
Tag your friends and Family ...
Share the link of your chosen image on your Facebook profile
and pages

If there are any further questions please drop me an email at
info@photographicafrica.com

Photographic Africa IMAGES

2011-09-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

A little background ...
So after 5 years I have finally done it, created a home specifically for my photography ... I did call it Etienne Oosthuizen Photography originally, but settled on Photographic Africa Images. This is to keep every thing connected ... So the main Photographic Africa site is the central hub from which every thing is linked from. I am eventually going to create the whole Photographic Africa experience in a way so that it seamlessly moves between the Main site, the Blog and the Images page. But that will need to wait for the new year ...

The Idea was to create a site specifically for my images, not necessarily a portfolio site highlighting my best work, more a place for all my work. It is also a online backup storage, a great feature of Photo shelter.

I had to work within the "limits" of the Photo shelter's templates, I know this would not be the route most photographers would have gone. However I was not looking for a portfolio site, I just wanted a site to show case my work in a clean way, the most important thing for me was ease of use and specifically ease in finding you required image as quickly as possible.

Featured galleries:

On the home page there is a collection of galleries, that are divided in to distinct catergories ...

By area or region:

The Southern Bushveld ( South Africa - Greater Kruger and surrounds)
Zambezi Flood plains (Zimbabwe and Zambia)
Desert and Delta (Botswana and Namibia)
Africa's Great rift Valley (East Africa - Tanzania and Kenya, I actually have not been there "yet" but I am going in November)

By animals Grouping:

Big Beasts (Elephants, Hippos, Buffalo, Rhino, Giraffe)
Carnivore (the predators, meat eaters)
Plains Game (antelope and there close kin)
The other little creatures (all the rest)

By species: (this is mostly in the gallery section)

All individual species listed
I have grouped some animals (reptiles and Birds)
Birds - still to upload: ( I will be separating some of the birds groups broadly as well ie. Birds of prey)

I have created a few portfolios as well:

Wildlight - Amazing lighting situations that I have captured animals in (personal favorite)
Natural Movements - Animals in action
African covers - mostly portraits of animals, these would be images I would like to see on covers of magezines
Few more to come: African stories (one image showing a story) Natural Art (creative images)

Search: All the images are really well key worded, so you should by just using the search function find your desired image rather quickly ...

All the images have been titled in a way that will hint at where it was taken. First the species name, the location and then the country.

On the menu bar you will notice that their is no home "tab", this is because the main header "logo" is the link back to the home page ...

I hope this little break down gives you a better understanding on how to use the new site to find or browse through my years of taking photographs on the great Continent of ours. Please do visit the Facebook page and leave your thoughts and comments about the new Image site.

Some comments about the new site so far ...

"Etienne, great job on your new website. I followed just about every link in your newsletter and found great stuff everywhere it sent me. Kudos on the new design. Since I live in Kenya, maybe we can connect next time your are up here." ... AfricanPhotoArt

"Etienne, I really love it :) That landing page grabbed my attention and the pictures are all displayed so beautifully. The site is truly about the pictures and that is so nice to see - not reams of chatty text" ... Africa Geographic

"Hey Etienne...Really like the layout and the dark back ground makes all the colour photos punch. well done mate" ... Marinovich Wildlife Photography

"Easy to use, looks great and stunning photos Etienne. I like the way you classefied the galleries" ... Afke Timmermans

Keep them coming .. Yours in African Photography
Etienne

A wild life in shades of Grey ...

2011-09-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

I am a little unsure if I should create a Black and white gallery for my new Stock gallery website ... here are some that I worked on today ... should I?

Rhino Friday ... every reserve has a Rhino Run ...

2011-08-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

With so much on the news of late, I thought I would lift every-bodies spirits and show you all the other side of a rhino life ... when its not in the papers ...

Eric (my Tracker) and I were the first humans to welcome this little guy to the world ... Eric is not an emotional man, But there is alot to be said about a Shangaan with a tear in his eye ...

I am apposed to naming wild animals (with human names Tom, Dick or Harry)... its humanizes them, instead I much prefer local names or name in reference to an area.

5 Rhino's in one sighting amazing yes? ... not really I am fortunate enough to have seen 16 White Rhinos together in Umfolozi in Natal ... The most Rhino's I counted on a single game drive was 49 (Kruger National Park 2007)

One of my favorite Rhino images ...

I have worked as a guide coming up to 10 years now, across 5 countries and in numerous reserves ... one tell tale of all these was they had a road named "Rhino run" ...

This was number 49 ...

Little calf meeting the territorial Bull ... more than likely its father

Rhino can be tremendously trusting ... This inquisitive sub adult walk right up to my Landrover ... I was chuffed I had the wide angle on at the time ...

Ooooh they just love the mud ...

Turns into a party if you have a friend ...

The two species of birds we often see with the great beasts ... The oxpeckers (feeding on the blood contained inside fed ticks) and the fork tailed drongos (insects and other little creatures flushed up by the Rhino moving through the Grass) ...

Baby Rhino are tiny ... about the size of a medium warthog

and soooooo cute ....

Add caption

White Rhinos being alot more gregarious that their Black cousins ...

Buffalo ... my new found appreciation for not so photogenic animal

2011-08-17T02:59:00.000-07:00

Most visitors to Africa would have heard about the Big 5 and as such these 5 legendary animals are often high on the viewing list. It the Buffalo that of all these animal does not live up to the hype in the modern safari industry ... often I hear poeple talking that it should be replaced with say a zebra or Giraffe. The history behind the big 5 comes from the hunting industry, which put these 5 animal, Buffalo, Rhino, Lion, Leopard and Elephant on a pedestal as the most dangerous animals to hunt and quite often hunters would be most wary of Buffalo ...

From a photographic Safari point of view its not the most photogenic animal, firstly its hard on camera exposure meters, being such a dark animal ... they also have a very odd shape which does not lend itself to great compositions ...

As my Facebook fans would know I am in the process of editing through my many GB of images for my Photo-shelter site, and I have picked a few stand out Buffalo images from the past 5 years ...

Sydwell (tracker) and I can tell you a few stories about this particular animal ... lets just say we are lucky to be able to do that

Big herd pulling through Sabi Sabi

Buffaloes little helper ...

with good light 80% of the job is done ...

I am a big fan of dust + sunlight which just = magic


Very typical Lower Zambezi scene ... but only in the east of the park, in the west the bush is much thicker ...

my love for dust ...

Can you spot the crocodile ... this turned into such an amazing experience (which I do not have photo's for), That croc end up going for a lone bull right at the back of the herd, in am amazing show of strength the buffalo picked up the croc with its horn and threw it some 5m ...

Wildlife photography - its all about the image

2011-08-12T01:55:00.000-07:00

So I watched this programe on TV last night that really gave me an insight in two the different types of wildlife images and how to take them (I used these my self but never had formally thought about it) ...

Picture is not just a picture ... it does have a thousand words embedded into the pixels, but creating those pixels take some thinking ... you will never improve you photography or specifically your wildlife photography if you just "point and shoot" ... yes we dont really have any control over or subject matter and what they doing, but we do have control over the story we are trying to create ...

Basically the show classified wildlife photographs into three broad groups, creative, story telling and portrait's ...

PORTRAITS

This is the most common type of photograph seen, but there are some ground rules or guidelines (which can be broken at any time) ...

Generally you need the animal look straight at your head on

or from behind


Key is always to have the eye's in focus and try to get that glint in the eye, makes the animal come alive ... bit difficult like in this Leopard photographed on a rainy day

Having the image symmetrical, always helps with portraits ... here I have placed the leopard smack in the middle ... generally this is a boring comp, but works here

Don't be scared to add some environment to your portraits ...

Story telling ...
Seems self explanatory, but generally I find it difficult to create a story with one single image ... but I try ... Some times you require three or four images to get your story across ... see here

This was my first ever Leopard kill, which took Thumbela (the leopards name from Sabi Sabi) more than 40 minutes to kill this very big male warthog. The pig squealed for the whole duration, not a very present experience, the noise generated alerted the resident hyenas who came running in ... unwise move, this is one of very few leopards I know that was not scared to "sort out" Hyenas

A new male into a unknown territory with in the Sabi Sand game reserve, hunting impala ... When I later worked at Mala Mala, it came to light that this the son of the Bicycle crossing male and the Kapen female...

Very few people relise that male leopards have a barb or barbs (have not checked personally) on its penis ... so when the "pull out" it can be a particularly painful experience for the Leopardess ... hence all the aggression

People game view at Sabi Sabi ...

CREATIVE

Being creative with images is often a personal thing as most poeple dont appreciate that particular image as you do as the photographer. There is a lot of way of being creative and I suggest you keep an eye on Gerry Van Der Walt website Photo-Africa ... he often post really informative suggestions to creative Wild life photography ... and has a really cool weekly video...

Slower shutter speed to depict movement

tight crop with a slower shutter speed to show the power speed and aggression of leopards mating

One of my favorite images ... slowing the shutter speed down is the easy bit, but key is to have the eyes in focus, which will require to to pan with the subject at the same speed

very tight crop of elephants crossing the Zambezi

very popular image from the last few days on Face-Book ... Silhouettes are always eye catches if the sun joins the party and delivered a stunner ... try to get a uncluttered background ... just imagine if that was possible here.


Again like a silhouette which is a kind of back lighting ... a little fill flash and create a amazing image, Here I used the fill flash on Photo-shop CS5...

There is alot to be said about photoshop and it place in wildlife photography, its like talking about religion and politics ... but ultimately why are you taking the picture ... to make your self happy? then whats wrong with spicing up a image?

How ever dont create an image and state that this is natural you only lying to your self! I go by the rules set down by so many photography competition ... so minor tweaking.

New Lion images from the Lower Zambezi

2011-08-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of working through close to 500GB of images taken from the last 5 years, Sorting through the various files you come upon some gems, that I have not necessarily shared.

I reminisced while going through a particular file, that is close to my heart ... Lion/Zambia/Lower Zambezi/2010 ... It was by far my most spectacular year in the bush.

We did not have a particularly high population of Lion in our area, truth be told we had 4 ... for about 30 thousand hectares of area that we transverse. I was curious why the Lion population was so low in an area teeming with prey, after numerous inquiries with authorities I was no closer too finding out what was the cause of this low Lion population.

The two Males

... and the Girls

After reading a paper (See HERE) on the effects of elephant culling had on the Lion and Hyena population in Manapools National Park in neighboring Zimbabwe. This got me thinking and started chatting with the Guides and staff that have been in the Zambezi valley for years. A interesting piece of information came out, in the Late 90's this area had a lion pride numbering about 27 animals strong ... so why the dramatic decline? As this area did not have any commercial hunting or controlled elephant culling? How closely linked are Lion and Hyena numbers to the a elephant population and why?

Meat or the need for it is the common nominator with Lion and Heyna's, and elephants has lots of it. In the paper it showed how trophy hunting and national parks culling provided vasts amount of meat and how the Heynas out completed the lions, which intern resulted in a drop in lion numbers.

Know the lower Zambezi does not have commercial hunting happening with in its boundaries, neither has it done any culling ... but with the opening of the park in 1983 roads were opened up, which allowed greater access in and out of the park. Not only for visitors but for commercial poaching operations ... aha ... and we have our meat.

Poaching in the park spiked in the late 80s and early 90's ... The telling difference between Manapools and the Lower Zambezi is that the Lions dominated the elephant carcasses, hence why the Lion prides were so large in the late eighties.

In 1995 conservation Lower Zambezi was created, Conservation Lower Zambezi is a Zambian non-governmental organization committed to the conservation and sustainable use of the local wildlife and natural resources of the Lower Zambezi through environmental protection, education and supporting local community development.

They had an immediate effect on the poachers, over the next few year the poaching number started to drop. In 2009 there was close to 40 elephants poached in the lower Zambezi, in 2010 we only lost 13 ... WOW!

The effects this had on the disproportionately large lion prides was dramatic, suddenly their was no longer free meat lying around in the bush and a mother nature created her own cull, the Lion population plummeted to its current low but stable situation. In the west of the park the Lion population is steadily growing with a good number of cubs being born in 2009. In the east we have our four, 2 males and a mother with her sub-adult cub ...

One on the very last sighting I had in the park was watching the sub-adult Lioness alone ... her mother away with one of the males, lets hope thats a start to a wonderful future ...

I intend on leading a photographic safari to the Lower Zambezi national park in 2012, hopefully to photograph the lion of this wonderful corner of Africa.

Photographic Africa new monthly Newsletter ...

2011-08-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

For the latest news on ...

New photographic safari destinations
workshop dates
Photography while on safari
Free photographic Safari presentations
Safari journal updates
Equipment reviews
Destination reviews

In the field photography hints and tips

Latest photographs
Specials on photographic prints
Wildlife Stock photography
Photography Competition hints and tips
Photoshop techniques
Feature inspirational Photographer
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Our newsletter is sent out once a month and you are able to unsubscribe at any time ...

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Get your * FREE * August desktop calendar

2011-08-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to provide free calendars, as it a avenue for me to play and experiment with photoshop in a expectable way ... so I will provide these once a month, running from mid month to mid month and downloadable from FACEBOOK (you will first have to like the page - Naturally) There is a new Tab called Free Wallpapers. So the I have uploaded the first Image to the Photographic Africa's page, this wallpaper will be here till the middle of August then I'll upload the new image for September (which will be there till mid September - you get the idea)

AUGUST 2011 desktop calendar ... downloadable HERE

The first Photographic Africa desktop Calendar ...

A baboons Tail ...

2011-08-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

One of my first ever images to be published, is also a image that put a smile on your face the moment you see it, but I have never explain the story to you in detail ... and going with the saying a picture is worth a thousand words ... I have done a photo story of the events that day ... enjoy ...

still friends relaxing ...

... and the fun starts ...

what goes up must ...

Caught out on a limb

oops now what ...

why you hanging on me ...


three's a crowd

what you looking at ...

Must come down ...

this was a clever Idea at the time ...

My First Landscape HDR ...

2011-07-26T02:00:00.000-07:00

So I have merged three images ....

To create this ....

See more about this with Hougaard Malan ... HERE ... (and with much MUCH better examples)

PHOTO TRAIL: Golden Leap

2011-07-25T00:20:00.000-07:00

PHOTO TRAIL: Golden Leap

I recently joined the new Photographic social site 500px.com, I have uploaded my portfolio of 15 images, with more on its way. My first image to get chosen as a Editors Choice is Golden Leap.

Click on image to view

... THE TRAIL BEGINS ...

Photo Location:
Lower Zambezi National Park, Old Mondoro bush Camp

Photo story:
We had this troop of baboons roosting close to camp and each morning before they ventured out to forage the adults would sit and warm up in the early morning sunlight. I had planned to spend the early hours of sunlight with them, to capture the internal politics that come with a every troop of baboons. I positioned my self, so I would take back lit images and waited for the action to start. I noticed this one female sitting on a termite mound she had her youngster with her. I reasoned that little things warm up quicker than big things, so anticipating that the young baboons to get active soon. I shifted my camera to focus on them. Soon they were jumping and playing in the early morning light. I photographed a moment when one youngster jumped to a tree.

Photo specs:

    •    Camera: Canon 50D
    •    Lens: Canon 400mm f5.6 L USM
    •    Aperture: f5.6
    •    ISO: 200
    •    Shutter speed: 1/500 sec

... PHOTO PROCESSING ...

Raw Processing: Camera RAW 6.0

Image as it was taken.

I generally do the same things to all images, but because of the unique lighting that I have with this image, I really wanted to highlight the light being caught in the young baboons fur.
The clarity adjuster gives off the appearance that its sharpening, but it does not … it merely pushes the mid tone contrasts. So some sharpening will still be required. (I sharpen Last)
I Adjusted the colour temperature and tint … I wanted to bring out the rich green light coming throughout the tree's.
I have stopped using just the contrast controller and much more prefer the tone curve adjusters, they give you much more control with your contrasts between highlights and shadows.

I don't like using the saturation controller to give images some "spark" … the Vibrance controller dose exactly this with out the image looking unnatural.
I cropped the image.

All adjustments with out sharpening

Editing in Photoshop Proper: Photoshop CS5

Where is that UNSHARP mask ...

    •    With this image I was happy with it as is, after the adjustments in Camera Raw 6.0
    •    I only need to do the final sharpening and add my Copy right.
    •    To sharp images I use the Unsharp tool, Yes that does not make sense to use an unsharp tool but it works … trust me.
    •    You will find it under FILTERS >>> SHARPEN >>> UNSHARP MASK
    •    There are three setting's to play with Amount, Radius, Threshold
    •    As a personal rule, I keep the radius and threshold the same for most images at 2.2 and 3 respectively …
    •    NOTE: don't push the Radius to much it starts to look very artificial.
    •    So I only really play with the amount added.

the final image ... as posted HERE, click to view

Put in my copy right and I am Done …

NOTE: There is a 101 ways go going about this process and achieving the same results, and I am sure I have not followed the correct processes. This is however How I do things.

A Leopards story ...

2011-07-22T01:24:00.000-07:00

I have been fortunate enough to witness a secret behaviour that happens through out Africa and only recently been captured on film. When I was younger I remember watch a John Varty Leopard documentary, where John and Elmon Mhlongo (his tracker) where about to film their first leopard mating behaviour, when for some unknown reason his film equipment caught on fire. Even thou it happens every day the secretive nature of leopards makes sure not alot of poeple get to see it.

This is a blog post I have wanted to do for years, just never got round to sitting down and completing it. These are my view's and experiences, so my observations might very well not correspond with the scientific literature.

Sand River Male pairing with Little Bush Female.

She followed him for a week

I had some really good Leopard while guiding at Sabi Sabi, here Cameron is with his guest with full view on the action.


She would approach him and rub up against him.

The mating system for leopards is overlap promiscuity. Females will mate with males that over lap her home range with.

For such a intimate affair, they can get very violent.

The average length of time an adult male and female are together is for about 5 days. Female and male will spend this time together and they will mate numerous times during the day, From my experience they tend to rest up during the heat of the day. The female never far from the male, she will follow him even if he leaves her Territory which could mean conflict with her neighboring females.

I have witnessed a single male being followed by 3 females, and he mated with all three over a period of 3 days. They kept the distance with one another. This happened close to Selati Camp in the Sabi Sabi private game reserve.

The aggression settles down


and again ...

He was safe all up to the point of dismount that the claws came out.

Trying to get him excited, interestingly with Lion the males start the mating behaviour.

I zoomed in while pressing the shutter, this resulted in the zoomed effect.


... dangerous affection ...

The End Result

A normal leopard gestation period averages about 101 days where 1 to 5 baby leopards are born in a rocky den, drainage line or thickets. Assuming the babies survive, they will become sexually mature in 2 to 3 years.

The Little Bush (Sabi Sabi) female with her first ever cubs (that we know about) which Eric (my tracker at the time) and I found not far from Little Bush camp.

I did not get the opportunity to photograph her cub's, or any Leopard cubs ... my one Leopard cub photograph. Secretive from a young age.

My portfolio on 500px website

2011-07-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

With so many photographers join the 500px site, I had a look and investigated it. They amount of social sites and sharing plat forms on the internet today, I have grown very wary of new ones. But 500px is a professional looking site and the way they layout your photographers, really is stunning ...

I am going to up load 5 images of a particular theme at a time, I have started with Elephants ... cause you know me, I JUST LOVE em .....

You can view my portfolio ... HERE

Elephant cry

2011-07-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

I posted this image on Facebook and asked poeple to describe their emotions when looking into this Elephants cows eye's.


A remarkable old Girl

The full story behind this cow, I captured this image while on a canoe safari. We had drifted right in the herd busy crossing a small side channel of the Zambezi. All the elephants made way for us, except this old cow. Lots have been written about elephants with out tusks being more aggressive, from this days experience I would agree.

"Remarkable how nature looks after its self"

Every now and then a recessive gene comes along that prohibits tusk growth, or they simply just dont grow. I have seen big adult bulls with out tusks. Its becoming more prevalent today as these elephants actually stand a better chance of survival because they not carrying any Ivory.

Please let me know what your emotions is when looking at this elephant cow .... HERE

A thrist for Survival ...

2011-07-19T05:10:00.000-07:00

Why ... ?

Taken with a Canon 400D with a Canon 100-400mm f5.6 L IS USM

Earth shots Photograph of the day

2011-07-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

One of my images has been choose for the Earth shots Photograph of the day

Zambezi Stretch

Every year the winter thorn tree drop hundreds of valuable pod onto the Zambezi flood plane, which feeds the numerous inhabitant through the winder months, this particular elephant could not wait for the pods to fall.

Equipment: Canon 50D and 70-200 f2.8

Photograph Taken in the Lower Zambezi while I was guiding and managing the Old Mondoro bush Camp

VIEW the photograph at Earth Shots ... HERE

Photographic Africa

2011-06-21T06:54:00.000-07:00

If you have been following the Facebook page, I have recently joined South Africa's Traffic problems for the next 6 months of so, going to and from my first office job. How ever this does open lots of new doors and possibilities, I am in the process of developing a unique photographic safari operation through Wild Frontiers travel ... Things will only be come visible in a few months time when we launch the product locally, in the mean time keep up dated via FACE BOOK.

PHOTO TRAIL: Black Skies

2011-04-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

Photo Trail: Black Skies

Dark Skies: the final Image

Photo Location: Central Kalahari National Park, Deception Valley

Photo story: This photograph was taken fairly late in the afternoon and I was shooting into the sun. I was actually photographing some gemsbok (Oryx) in the background with the Springbok in the foreground. It had rained the day before, so the soil was moist and the condition must have been just right to get the termites excited. The termite alites (flying future King and Queen termites) were a pure bonus for the afternoon. This is a great example on the benefits of being adaptive as a wildlife photographer. I could have easily ignored the amazing event happing and carried on photographing the Gemsbok.

I titled the photograph "Black skies" as there are a multiple of predators that suddenly became very active to take advantage of the influx of protein rich food, from Birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians. This small insects have a huge task ahead, and they up against the wall from the get go. With night fall coming in arriving quickly, the skies darkened on the out come of all these termites taking flight.

Photo specs:

Aperture: f5.6
ISO: 100
Shutterspeed: 1/400

PHOTO PROCESSING

RAW processing: I prefer to do most of my processing in Photoshop RAW, I knew I was going to convert the image to a Black & White.

The Photograph as it was taken, no processing

I increased the contrast and Clarity, I like a contrasty B&W photograph.
I added some sharpening, as I wanted a clearer distinction between foreground (termites) and background (Springbok)

CS5 RAW converter

With added sharpening, contrast and it has been cropped

As the I took the photograph at a 100 ISO, I did not apply any noise reduction.
I cropped the photograph, I wanted to remove the white sky at the top of the photograph, as it contradicted the title.
I opened the Image in PS CS5

PS CS5 processing:

Photoshop CS5, applying the Black & White layer

Once it was in PS CS5, i created a Black and white layer.
CS5 gives to the options to change various colour channels.
I darkened the Yellow channel, which is basically the grass throughout the whole photo. As the termites and Springbok were not in the green channel it left them unaffected.


Plain conversion to Black & white layer

Darkening the yellow layer, in the B&W conversion

I increase the contrast by a tad some more, this also made the image a little darker.

With a little more contrast

There is a 101 ways go going about this process and achieving the same results, and I am sure I have not followed the correct processes. This is however How I do things.

INTRODUCING the Photo trail …

2011-04-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

The photo trail, is a new section to the Photographic Africa blog, the Dung trail … where I will explain and give a step by step break down on how I captured a specific photograph and how processed that photograph once I have loaded the RAW image on to my computer.

Quick Equipment facts: what I use …

Canon 50D
17-40mm L f4 USM
70-200mm L f2.8 USM - which I have sold
400mm L f5.6 USM

13" Mac book pro
4 gig of RAM
2.4 GHz intel core 2 Duo

Photoshop Creative suite 5

So as you can see, I don't have the top of the line Equipment. What I have done is chosen the most bang for my buck.

NOTE: I am also completely self taught and have had not formal training in either capturing the photograph and How I process it. So I am sure there are better and more streamline ways of doing various things.

Grey Kalahari

2011-04-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

The Central Kalahari in Shades of Grey, with a splash of Colour.

Granite Secrets

2011-04-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

On the edge of the Lukimbi concession flows the Malebane river, a river that flows when it rains. Has over the years has cut through the soil exposing the underlying Granite rocks, a fortress of stone that provide a safe place to hide young cubs. This is what we found on one of our afternoon game drives, A leopardess resting and surveying the area, while her young little one were playing in the rocks behind her. Unfortunately we were unable to see her cubs.

one from the Archives ...

2011-04-18T03:55:00.000-07:00

... Leopard ...

One of my very first Leopard images, taken in 2004 with a Canon 300D on a crappy sigma 70-300 mm zoom. I am posting this as I am off to Lukimbi Safari Lodge in the Kruger for the weekend to go and freelance there for a few days. This is where this image was captured on my very first game drive there.

Elephants of the Lower Zambezi ...

2011-04-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

An intimate look at my favorite creature in my favorite part of the world, that precious stretch of river the Lower Zambezi...

Fund raising for the Zambezi floods ...

2011-03-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

Conserving the Lower Zambezi

"Photography is the most powerful conservation tool on the planet" 

CLZ              being a non profit organization and always requires  funding,             especially this year with the Zambezi river  flooding. I am             going to provide 5 photographs taken during  my time managing             and guiding at Old Mondoro, the Lower  Zambezi's only Bush             Camp. I will post 20 iconic Lower  Zambezi images on the             Photographic Africa Face book page,  from which people can             "like" their favorite. The top 5  "liked" photographs will be             provided to CLZ, who will  auction them off in an effort to             raise funding.

 We  are still looking for a printing company  to come on board and once the 5  photographs have been selected to have  them printed off for us, if you  know of a printer or you are a printer  that would like to get involved  with this conservation effort please  get in contact with either my self  of Kerri from CLZ.

If  you know of a         conservation or research projects that require  images for their         research and conservation effort please Contact  me I will gladly         hep. If Photographic Africa does not have the  images you require         I will gladly  join you on location to  capture the images you         require. This is subject to availability.

To View all 20 images go to The Photographic Africa website ... HERE
To vote for your favorites, please go to the Photographic Africa Face book page ... HERE

Predators ...

2011-03-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

I have been reworking the galleries on Photographic Africa website, and here is a small selection of fresh photographs ... View the full Predator Gallery

Oryx & the other creatures of the Central Kalahari

2011-03-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

The Gemsbok population of the Central have become my most favorite antelope to photograph, for many year I had the Greater Kudu as my favorite antelope. Oryx, have a noble features to them and their will to survive in this hostile environment. I have just returned from my second trip to the central Kalahari Game reserve and was given numerous gifts of Gemsbok in great light.

Introducing the Dung Trail ...

2011-03-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

I after much consideration and activating my blog with Blogger ... This goes hand in hand with Photographic Africa's new News letter also titled the Dung trail ...

The blog is an area where I will show case my images from the latest photographic trips and experiences.