Sunrise and lions

Canon 5oD with sigma 70-200 f 2.8

A very good friend of mine Gerry Van der Walt gave me a very good tip for taking images of sunrise and sunset. By shooting in AV and pushing up your F to 22 gives you this effect. This photo has not been processed in CS4 .....yet. I think its a great result. Go and see Gerry's work on http://www.photo-africa.com/

The amazing thing about my job is that not one day is the same, for example the sunrises and sunsets we get are just so far apart from being monotonous. I took this image on our way to try and find some lions.

Canon 50D with Sigma 70-200 f 2.8

The lion sightings have been fantastic the last few days, and the early morning light are the key factor. These are the Mituzi lions , youngsters of the Etali female. We found them this morning close to Bush House Lions are probably my favourite subject to photograph. They are sleeping most of the time but when they are active the opportunity for good images are endless. They were on hi alert because of two other male lions being in the same fascinity.

Canon 50D with Sigma 70-200 f2.8

This the Matyea male one of the dominant male coalitions in the North western part of the park. His brother killed this buffalo cow. He only joined the feast when it was almost finished. That evening hyenas finished the carcass.

Canon 50D with Sigma 70-200 f2.8

This is the young male in the first lion image. He is getting very close to an age where he will leave his sister and go of on his own. But being alone can be his downfall because most of the other males in the reserve are in a coalition with two or more males. If he is not carefull he can be attacked by the more dominant and bigger lions in the area. At the moment their area of operation are very small because of the dominant males and females in the same territory.

Canon 50D with Sigma 70-200 f2.8

This is one of the Serety brothers of the North western territory. At the moment they are in direct competition with the Tsholo Matyea coalition. The young Mituzi male got to keep his guard up the whole time. The Serety males really have some wild look in their eyes. Believe me they are some of the most agressive lions I have seen in a long time. I have not seen orange eyes in lions like in these two lions. The weird part is you cant stop looking them straight in the eye. Its like those orange eyes have a hipnotic effect on you.

Till later

Grant

Some random images

Three headed Zebra

Canon 400D 50-500 sigma

To me Zebra makes the most beautiful monochrome images. They are not always the easiest animals to photograph. But the day they play along you get great shots.

I am back at Tuningi safari lodge in Madikwe game reserve. Cant wait to get out there again on Thursday. The sightings have been good the last few days go and see http://www.photo-africa.com I also do a guest post on Photo-Africa tomorrow on black and white photography so go and check it out. When I am back in full swing I will try and post image of the day and image of the week. So here it goes with a few random images.

Baby rhino on guard.

canon 400D with 50-500 sigma

Baby rhino are my favourite animals to photograph , one of the reasons are they can be so curious when mom is looking away, especially the young bulls. This one was running around in a open clearing harrassing other rhino that wanted to have a afternoon rest.

Female and youngster

Canon 400D 50-500 sigma

This is the same youngster with his mother. It is really a shame to think people shoot them for their horns.

Rhino portait

Canon 400D 50-500 sigma

This rhino was cooling down in a puddle next to Thlou dam in Madikwe. That gave me the opportunity to get this close up of his face. Rhino close-ups makes great portrait shots of these big animals. It actually shows a gentle side of these giants.

Buffalo stare

Canon 50D 70-200 f2.8 sigma

These giants are not always gentle. That is one stare you dont want to see when you are on foot in a Mopani thicket. This Image was taken In Kruger in the Mopani thickets surounding Shingwedzi.

Will update you guys soon

Grant

Wild dog hunt....continues

Wild dogs are probably the most successful predator in Africa and the most exciting to watch when they are on the hunt. Madikwe Game reserve is very well known for the wild dogs, and is without a question one of our icons. The reasons they are so successful are:

· They work in a pack system
· There is an alpha male and alpha fermale
· Their stamina for running prey down is ongoing
· They look after one another and always work with a plan.

This specific day we found them early in the south western corner of the park. They just finished of an impala that they chased into the fence. Wild dogs have adapted to fences and use it to their advantage. They know if they rely on the fence like they do on their pack members they can eat. They literally go and fetch the prey item and herd them towards the fence where they then run it into the fence, normally the animal is stunned or dead on impact. So I tend to think they see the fence as one of the pack members. It’s ironic in areas outside the reserve fences are the biggest problem in the declining of wild dog numbers in Africa and here they use it as part of their survival to eat. Wild dogs need a very big area to roam in, one pack needs at least 400 square km.

We left them and we went for breakfast. I told my guests that we will go back there late afternoon for the hunt…BIG WORDS I KNOW!! Luckily it paid off. We arrived at the spot where they were sleeping. They were gone to our disappointment…..but also a good sign. I drove along the fence and in the distance I could see the Wildebeest running towards us with the dogs behind them. We just stayed put while they were pursuing an adult wildebeest. It’s amazing how some dogs are trying to get his attention and the rest will try and bite into the prey and get a grip on it to start the weakening process.
The wildebeest got away and they started all over again, they ran away from the fence and fetched a sub-adult wildebeest.

Now they used the vehicles to corner the youngster. What a sight it was. The youngster managed to sneak past the vehicle but the dogs chased it for about 800m down the fence where they took it down on the side of the mountain. For me in a sighting like this you put the technical stuff away and focus on the content of the scene happening next to you and keep it as reminder on what happened. Go and read Gerry’s blog on Heavy weight fight on http://www.photo-africa.com/

Catch you later

Grant

Wild dogs on the hunt

This image was taken one afternoon in the south western corner of Madikwe Game reserve.These animals are probably the most successful land predators in Africa. This was the Dwarsberg pack. More on this hunt a bit later on......................

Time to go back !!

Nkumbi View

Our holiday came to an end and it is time to go back to the lodge and see what exiting new memories we can make. We had a wonderfull time in Kruger. Sighting wise it was a bit quite but none the less we saw some amazing things....like a whole herd of Sable antelope. The park is so green and lush, that also made the spotting a bit more challenging. We also saw some hair rasing things like two impala that got killed by a contractor speeding through the park. I did report him to the section ranger of that area and he will get whats coming to him !! Oh and that is my father in law inspecting the crime scene !!

We are leaving Johannesburg in the morning for Madikwe. So hear is a few images of the week we had in kruger.

We started way up north in Pafuri and made our way down to Lower-Sabi. We saw some spectacular buffalo bulls in the Northern parts of Kruger. Some of these boys I dont want to meet on foot, the stare says it all !! The light did not always play along for the photography side of things .......but my F2.8 70-200 did the trick !

The baboons also made sure we got our fair share of action.....as you can see junior was more than determined to get his breakfast.

As we drove out of Olifants camp the one morning we drove past some vultures in a dead tree where they where drying there wings in the early morning sun after the thunderstorm we had the previous night..They probably had a long days flying a head as well.

Well that was just a short recap of Kruger. Will update again when I am back in Madikwe

Take care

Grant

The battle of the rhino war continues........

Ok one more blog before we take the long road. I was reading an article on rhino poaching last night and realized once again South Africa sits with a great dilemma. The more people are aware of this the better. So I decided to do something on Rhino poaching

Sometimes the horns are hacked off while the animals are still alive.
The means of killing the rhino are done by assault rifles like AK-47 and 303 rifles. The use of these rifles started thanks to the liberal wars in Africa in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. It left a legacy of AK-47 rifles in the hands of poachers. That enabled the start of the commercial poaching. In the modern times of today they are implementing helicopters with drugs like M-99 to tranquilize the animal and work quietly. Rhinos are very sensitive to this drug and can easily be overdosed. Now the question “where do they get the drugs” if only registered and qualified wild life vets have access to these drugs?

It is January 2010 and the horrific news continues, 14 rhinos have been poached thru out South Africa up to date. Where will it stop, will it ever stop? The rhino numbers plummeted down from 65000 in 1970’s to about 3600 black rhino in the whole of Africa. That is about 90% down from what they were. The rhino horn is a very lucrative market. The horn is being sold at between R12000-R25000 per kilogram. The biggest market is East Asia and China. Average weight for rhino horn is about 8-11kg. It is sold in powder form. The sad part is that medicinal wise, it is worth nothing. Rhino horn consists of Keratin, compressed hair. It is the same substance as our nails or hair, they can just as well chew on their own nails or suck on their hair, they will get exactly the same effect: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

I think because it is a cultural and probably money driven act it will never stop unless we as conservationists do everything in our power to stop it. I also feel that 5 years in prison is by far to a light of a sentence for such a crime. So Zimbabwe surprised everybody in October 2009 when a poacher was sentenced to17 years in jail for killing a female rhino. WELL DONE ZIMBABWE!! I have asked myself the question so many times………….. why use rhino horn?

I have read that the reasons they use rhino horn are:

· The horn comes from a powerful beast
· The horn is erect, straight, hard and long
· His skin is tough like armor
· It’s a very phallic symbol
· The rhino have balls like baseballs

How ridiculous but that is what they believe in, even in today’s modern world of medicine. In an article by Judy Lelliot, the Minister of water affairs and environment, it stated that an average of 36 rhinos have been killed in South Africa each year ( 2005-2008 ). Last year alone 125 rhino were killed.
2009 poaching:
· Kwazulu Natal :21 where 2 were black rhino
· National Parks : 41
· Provincial Parks : 33
· Private Reserves: 30
Yip these numbers are scary I know, and this is the ones the parks know of. Kruger National Park are employing the help of the army and police to assist in the problem. All of us that live in reserves can be of great help just to keep our eyes and ears on the ground. Even you guys out side the parks can be of great help. Earlier this year self driving tourists reported suspicious signs to park authorities and they apprehended the poacher. We should not turn a blind eye to this and think it will never happen in your area…..It is already happening!!

Let’s keep our rhino safe

Grant

For more info go tohttp://www.savingrhinos.com and http://www.rhinoresourcecentre.com

Holiday time !!

This is the Mica pride at Vleischfontein waterhole

We just left Madikwe Yesterday to come and face the traffic of Joburg, and we realized why we live in the bush. Its time for our two weekly holiday. Gues where we are going for a whole week...................Kruger National Park! I know its a busmans holiday but I just cant get enough and besides it is so different going by yourself. You can really just relax. If you want to spend three hours with an Ashy tit you CAN ! ...by the way that is a bird. There will be more photo opportunies arising. What is nice about kruger is you can drive and drive or go and sit stil at a hide at one of the water points and just relax and enjoy nature. In Kruger I also go out with this thought : Always expect the unexpected !!! That is what I always tell my guests, the unexpected could be something WOW !!. The WOW I am hoping for is a leopard stretched out on a big branch of a Marula tree. :)

This image was taken in Aug 2009. A mature territorial White Rhino bul killed this 3 year old sub-adult. His mother was in oestrus and the youngster refused to back of and in the process got killed, yip nature is cruel but so fascinating. The vulture action was amazing !
So we are leaving Saturday morning very early. We are going to start up north at Pafuri, Crookes corner and make our way down south to Lower-Sabi. I will try and post on the blog where we have reception, other wise will update you guys when I get back.

This was the last pups the Dwarsberg pack had last year and they are all doing VERY WELL. Five survived out of the seven pups, not bad considering the amount of lions we have.

So I am off, hope fully I will be able to give updates as we go !

Grant