Hi all…today’s post is a special one for me because it is in celebration of some great friends of mine’s wedding. Prof. Phil Hockey and Sam decided to get married in the Kalahari. The ceremony was held at Xaus Lodge which turned out to be a spectacular choice of venue. As you all probably know by now from reading my blog, the Kalahari is a fantastic place to take photographs of any kind and did not disappoint on this occasion. Even though we had the clouds around at that time it made for dramatic skies and colours. Not being a wedding photographer, it was fun for me to actually have subjects to photograph that I could interact with to get the best shots possible. A great time was had by all so congratulations Phil and Sam from me and the rest of Lochner Photography & Publishing. All the best for your future together.

Take a look at a few of the cool and unique wedding photographs of the newly weds…

Cheers til tomorrow.

Hi all…I hope Monday wasn’t too much of a nightmare for all of you. Well it is over and you are one step closer to the weekend. There is something even better about this coming weekend that you can look forward to…it is a LONG weekend! Next Monday is a public holiday to celebrate ‘Human Rights Day’ so I hope you have all planned to do something exciting and maybe even get away for a bit. Let me know your plans if you have.

The photograph i am sharing with you today is probably going to make you think that you are seeing double but don’t worry, there is nothing wrong with you eyesight. I came across these two bad boys relaxing in the long. comfy, green grass one day. Doing what young-males love to do, they were busy checking out another female not to far from them. I would love to be able to hear what goes through their minds as I am sure that it is not too far off the type of thoughts that would go through any other young males mind, regardless of the species.

Take a look and let me know what you think…

Before I go I was just wondering if any of you had suggestions for me of local book stores or SA Travel shops etc. in your areas that would be suitable to stock my books (excluding Exclusive Books). There are lots out there and I want as many people to see my work as possible so any ideas are welcome. Just send me the contact details if you have them or just the name and I will try find the rest. Thanks guys and cheers til tomorrow.

Hi all…back to the start of another week. I hope you all had great weekends. Today’s photograph I am sharing with you is an interesting one so I hope you appreciate the story behind it. From November to January in the park there are a lot of Bat-eared and Cape Foxes that are running about. At the same time the birds of prey are always circling high above looking for their next victim. I came across this Marshall Eagle that had just landed in this tree with an unlucky bat-eared fox in its talons. It must have been an incredible struggle, that I unfortunately missed, because this eagle rested for about 3 hours before it began to devour its prey. It made short work of the four legs that it got down in about 5 minutes. The rest of the body followed shortly after that. These birds can eat.

Take a look and let me know what you think…

Now more importantly…some more news from my side is that my Botswana permit has been approved so all I am waiting on is one more permit before my next incredibly exciting project can commence. Keep an eye on my blog for the details of this when the time is right.

Then the next surprise is that I have come back down to Cape Town for the next couple of weeks to do some promotional stuff. The biggest of which is the Getaway Show that I will be exhibiting my work at from 25th-27th March. So you must all come and see me there! If there is anyone else that wants to get together with me around this time please feel free to contact me (info@lochnerphoto.com) asap and we will make a plan. The blog will keep going, don’t worry. I have images that I will post every day so you will still get your daily dose of the wild.

Cheers til tomorrow.

Hi all…Friday is here again! This is very good news for most of us. In traditional Friday fashion I have another black and white photograph to share with you all today. It is one of my favourite subject again at the moment-the leopard. This image pretty much epitomizes what I wish I could be doing the whole weekend. There is just something about the way its body is draped over the branch that seems like pure relaxation. In a tree, the leopard knows that is not as vulnerable as if it was on the ground and can therefore afford to unwind a little bit. The chin resting on another little branch as if it was a pillow and the tail completely flopped down behind the thick branch – *sigh*, I want to be this leopard right now. Still not 100% trusting of me, it still has its eyes on me, even if it is through slits.

Take a look and let me know what you think…

I hope that your weekends allow you all to have some relaxing time like this leopard in the tree. Enjoy it and cheers til Monday!

Hi all…so the week is almost coming to a close and I thought it would be nice to share a photograph with you today of one of our typical evenings up here in the Kalahari. This photograph is of Noa and I sitting around the fire one night. The stars are out in all their full splendour as they are most nights when it is not cloudy. If you are a star-gazer and love to spend hours staring at the stars then the Kalahari is definitely a place for you to visit. Millions of them light up the skies at night showing you, depending on the time of year etc., Orion’s Belt, The Three Sisters and the list is endless. There is one last element to this photo that might interest you so take a look at the brighter and bigger white speck in the picture. If you can find it that is in fact a bat that decided it wanted to be in the photograph. I know that some of you like to see a ‘behind-the-scenes’ kind of look into my life here so I hope you enjoy this one.

Take a look and let me know what you think…

Cheers til tomorrow when you can come back and take a look at my black & white picture for the day.

Hi all…busy day here today so my apologies for the delay in this post. Not up at my usual time but my life is pretty unpredictable as you can imagine so here it is. Still trying to dodge these crazy stinkbugs flying around and getting in everywhere, we were able to spot this lovely leopard early in the morning. We went out and, when the sun wasn’t quite up yet and the dew was still on the grass (which is pretty long now by the way), we came across this leopard sitting in the middle of a big patch of long grass. I know I have said this before but I cannot get over how much my photographs like this one do not look like they were taken in the Kalahari. It looks like this leopard is busy contemplating life in the middle of a lush meadow that should be somewhere woody and cold but no…it is in the Kalahari Desert. I love this one because of the unusual colours.

Take a look and let me know what you think…

Cheers til tomorrow.

Hi all…so you are probably thinking that I have finally gone mad up here in the Kalahari with the title of this post but I haven’t…yet, so don’t worry. ‘The big stink’ I am talking about is the plague of stinkbugs that we have to deal with here at the moment! It is absolutely crazy. There are millions of them!!! They come out every night and fly towards anything bright, even the fire we sit around. They are making night photography hell. They get caught in your hair and fly into your ears, nose and mouth. Above all of this they STINK! So hopefully the birds, bats and rodents will take care of these bugs as fast as possible because it is really unpleasant and frustrating having to deal with them. The joys of living in a tent in the bush ;).

Take a look at this…

So spare a thought for me here in ‘the big stink’. Cheers til tomorrow.

Hi all…I hope you all had great weekends. I know I did although this meant that we had to spend a lot of time out in the park over the weekend which takes it toll on the body. We are tired today as I am sure most of you are too. So in honour of getting through this Monday relatively unscathed and a bit more cheerful, I have decided to again share TWO photographs with you today. They are both of things that bring a smile to my face so I am hoping that they will do the same for you. The first is of a rainbow lighting up the sky in technicolour over the duneveld. We have been seeing lots of these spread across the sky because of all the moisture and rain we have been having. I also love how the sun is just catching the tops of the dunes as some of the rays manage to get through the clouds. This was taken with my Nikon D3 and Nikon 70-200mm f2.8.

Take a look and let me know what you think…

The next photograph I am sharing with you is of my favourite subject to photograph at the moment – the magnificent, shy, graceful, beautiful and illusive leopard. This little one I found the one night when it got dark just cruising around like they do. Love the eye-contact as this is something I always strive for in my photographs.

Enjoy it…

Cheers til tomorrow guys!

Hi all…hooray! Today is that favourite day of the week again for most of us-Friday! It has finally come and in sticking with tradition…here is another photograph from my special black and white collection for you. This hyena is demonstrating exactly how I feel most Fridays and I am sure I am not the only one. However, it is times to tap into those energy reserves and get out and about. For me this means doing my daily thing of driving into the park but you guys should try get outdoors somehow as well or you could take a leaf out of this hyena’s book and relax. Back to the photograph, this spotted hyena was in good condition. You can see by the good condition of the teeth and coat.

Take a look and let me know what you think…

Have a great weekend everyone, whether its relaxing or adventurous. Cheers til Monday.

Hi all…it seems from the numbers that visited my blog yesterday that you all like leopards as much as I do. Thanks to all of you that are following this and that are interested in what I am doing. It makes me that much more motivated to get out in the bush every day.

Today’s photograph is not of the lovely leopard unfortunately but something just as good. In this photograph there are 4 cheetah. I found them chasing down, and eventually cornering, this one cheetah (middle one) that was obviously an intruder to their territory. All that chasing and fighting soon became too much to bear in the heat of the sun so they decided to go find some shade rather.  It was a tense situation and, judging by the body language of the middle cheetah, is was tense for it too. I am sure it was relieved to get out of there which it quickly did when the others turned to find a resting place.

Take a look and let me know what you think…

Cheers til tomorrow.