Hi all…I hope you all had great weekends. I know I did up here in the Kalahari because we have been getting a lot of rain recently. For those of you that know the park, this means that there is a lot of greenery around. I love the park when it is like this, probably because we rarely see green around here. The photograph I am sharing with you today is of a flock of Wattled Starlings with some of the amazing green background I have been talking about. It makes such a great contrast to the normal colours we see here and works nicely in this photo, complementing the yellow behind the eyes of the birds. As most of you are probably aware, birds in flight are tricky to capture clearly in one photograph. I like this one because of the mixture of blur and clear parts of the photograph. It obviously demonstrates the feeling of the birds flying and the smaller the bird-the quicker they fly.

Take a look and I hope you enjoy it…

If you haven’t tried to get up to this park in the ’emerald season’ (or when there is a lot of new green around because of the rain) you really should as soon as possible. It is a different experience entirely. Cheers til tomorrow.

Hi all…thank you all so much for my birthday wishes. Social Networking platforms (like this one) are so great for me because I had birthday wishes coming in to me through so many different ways: sms, e-mails, facebook wall posts, blog comments etc. I loved all of them so thanks again for making me feel remembered out here in the Kalahari. In anticipation of the weekend, as I am sure all of you are looking forward to, I am sharing one of my special black and white photographs with you again. This one I think speaks for itself so all I am going to tell you is that the subjects are the two young males from KIJ KIJ lazing on the dunes, soaking up the morning rays of sun that managed to puncture through the clouds. For those keen photographers amongst you, it was taken with my Nikon D700 using the 70-200mm lens. Have a good look and enjoy it because I really love this one.

Here they are…

Enjoy your weekends folks and don’t forget to get yourselves outdoors! Cheers til Monday.

Hi all…it has definitely been a week of cats and their behaviour so far and seems like it is continuing with today’s photograph too. The one I am sharing with you today is of another beautiful big male resting next to a tree, having a good shake of his head. I like this one because his mane is blurred because of the action happening to it but the rest of his face is still pretty in focus. His lip also looks funny with the little bit of pin sticking out as his head shakes it around. I don’t know if you guys can see this much detail but his coat and the bottom part of his dark mane look really great and in good condition. He is a good-looking male that’s for sure. The little bit of green grass that he is lying on under the tree is also a welcome change to my photos so I enjoy this part of it as well.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Cheers til tomorrow.

P.S. tomorrows blog might be delayed a bit as it my birthday today and I can hear my friend JACK calling me, later 🙂

Hi all…the photograph I am sharing with you today is of some different cat behaviour – other than stalking. As you can see it is of a couple of lions mating. This ritual is known for being loud, quick, repetitive and unsuccessful. Mating of one couple generally lasts for about four days.  Copulation lasts about 30-70 seconds and is repeated once every 25 minutes during the four day period. It is an intense period for them as they dedicate all their time to it and do not even eat. I mentioned that it is loud as the lions roar for different reasons: the male roars when he ejaculates and the female because of the pain she feels when the male withdraws from her. He has backwards-pointing spines on his penis that scrape her. It sounds like a pretty gory story but works for them I guess. Nature is crazy that way. There are so many various animals with weird and wonderful behaviours that they have developed over time. Anyway, hopefully there will be some little baby lions (cubs) running around here soon. On a different note, I really like the green dotted around them in this photograph as this is pretty rare up here.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Have a wonderful day further.

Hi all…as I mentioned yesterday, today’s photograph that I am sharing with you is another sneaky stalking cat. This one is of a lioness in the longer grass creeping up on her prey. I like this one because of the angle I was able to get on her when taking the photo. You can see the intensity in her eyes focussing on what she is about to launch herself into. I also like the little shadows that the grass is casting on her face because it makes her camouflage a lot more effective. Her coat blends in to the colour of the dry grass and you can barely see her in it. These animals really know what techniques work for them and she definitely knows that this one using the grass if very effective for her to get close to her prey. Unlike the cheetah and leopards, lions need to get pretty close to their prey which makes their stalking really important. They rely on it more because they are not as fast as the other cats at sprinting after their prey over long distances. Their power is what makes them such effective hunters because once they latch on to their prey, the fight is over.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Cheers til tomorrow.

Hi all…welcome back to the start of a new week. I hope the weekend was a good break for all of you. I really don’t intentionally try to have themes for the week of pictures but this week seems to have one anyway. This first photograph is of a leopard (love them) stalking its prey. As you keep viewing my blog through the week, you will see a few more stalking cats photos so keep coming back to look. I like pictures like this one because it demonstrates how incredibly well these animals are adapted to their environments. This leopard is really well camouflaged which is obviously to make hunting a little easier for them. They are also astonishingly good at stalking. The way they move so slowly, low to the ground and silently is impressive, all without taking their eyes off their prey. Their coat matches the colour of the Kalahari ground/sand and their spots look like the little shadows cast by the shrubs and rocks. All I can say is good luck to any animal that is the unfortunate target of one of these great cats.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Cheers til tomorrow

Hi all…it is that great day of the week again that everyone looks forward to, Friday. My photograph I am sharing with you today is one of those menacing ones that not everyone would be excited to see in real life. The Cape Cobra, like in my previous post about this snake, is not a snake to be messed with. They have a powerful neurotoxin that they inject into their prey. Like you can see in this photograph, they are often found in trees looking for prey (mainly small birds like Sociable Weavers). This is not a snake I like to come across too often but is beautiful in its own right. The bright yellow colouring of it makes it pretty easy to identify and spot so you should be able to get out of a potentially bad situation if you come across it. Like I have said before, please always be aware of where you are walking etc. when you are in places like the Kalahari. You are the visitors remember.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Have a great weekend and try getting some time outdoors. Cheers til Monday

Hi all…so today’s photograph is a little bit of a different one. It is again featuring one my favourite big male lions in the park but this time, it was taken with the rising moon. This kind of shot I do not get very often because of the rules of the park and when we have to be back through the gates so that also makes it a bit of special one to me. Obviously the moon does not cast as much light as the sun so I had to light the lion in the foreground so that you would be able to see him in the photograph. I like the warm colours the moon gives to the picture and how they are pretty much the same colours as the lion. To me the photo just looks more balanced because of this. My advice to all of you is when the full moon is out , even if you are back at your camp, get your camera out and start playing around with lighting subjects and using the environment around to create something unique. This is the only way to learn what you are capable of which is the way I did it.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Cheers til tomorrow.

Hi all…so sticking with the ‘cats’ thing this week, which was actually unintentional, I have another leopard photograph for you today. This one I like because of the intensely orange part of the background. It is such an intense colour that you almost lose the leopard totally in the photo. Usually I wouldn’t like a photo like this when the background drowns out the subject but this one is cool because the orange captures your attention but then the leopards jumps out at you as well after that. I also think it that it is quite nice that half of the photo is in shade/shadow of the sun going down and the other half is still ‘on fire’. I love everything about these cats and this photo shows off their muscular, powerful shoulders well and their wispy tails.

Take a look and let me know what you think…I know not all of you might like this one.

Enjoy.

Hi all…so it looks it is shaping up to be a week of cats from this park (lions and leopards) which I have a lot of photographs of and would like to share with all of you. As you can imagine, when you spend as much time here as I do, you create quite a large stock of photographs like these in this week’s posts. So today’s photo is one of my all-time-favourite animals…the magnificent leopard. If I believed in reincarnation I would want to come back to life as one of these great animals. This beauty is just busy relaxing in one of the trees in the shade it is providing, out of the crazy heat during the daytime. There a lot of really good ‘leopard trees’ around the park. For those of you who don’t know what ‘leopard trees’ are: they are trees that have low, thick branches that leopards can drape themselves along comfortably. This one sure seems that it is in a very comfortable position and did not go anywhere for a while.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Cheers till later, i think today is a good day for a double post!!