Bulletin 14

02 September 2006

The return of the Bulletins...

It has been a while since the last bulletin, and in that time I have been quite busy working on a number of projects including the new site. In this particular bulletin I am going to share a few images from the past year with you. The bulletin section will resume on a monthly basis for the time being and will adapt according to trips and shoots. I am planning on updating my library of Red Deer shots and for the first time I will be photographing Wolves. If all goes well, I look forward to sharing these images with you.

This is the one that definitely got away. While stopping along the road to Halali in Etosha, a Black Breasted Snake Eagle took off from the side of the road about 5 meters from the drivers’ side of the car. I scrambled to get my gear out of the bags on the back seat (while the eagle disappeared into the distance decapitating the snake in its talons in mid air). Now that would have been a picture!!!

Muttering and cursing I spotted this Kestrel drop into the grass (on the opposite side of the road) and take off clutching something in its talons. I swung up my 500 mm lens and hand holding this took a few (snap) shots through the open car window. At the same time I realised that it was dropping something and I just fired away.

It was only later in the evening that I noticed I had photographed the Kestrel dropping a lizard and was diving after it. Although the image is far to small in the frame to really be of any commercial use, it does remain a memorable shot in my book.

I guess I have learned a lesson out of the whole ‘Lizard Incident’. Whenever I am driving and my camera gear is with me, it is unpacked and ready to be used. It probably would not have made a great deal of difference with regards to the kestrel, but I would have stood a chance of getting a shot of the Snake Eagle and its dinner.

Oh well, so we live and learn.

Elephants! Need I say any more! Although well photographed and covered in great depth by thousands of photographers I will still take the opportunity to photograph them whenever I can. I will never tire of these creatures. I decided to depict them in a slightly more graphic and darker way to the usual ‘tall portraits’.

To your left you have a perfect example of getting a picture in an unlikely place. I grabbed this shot while lying in the middle of a paved road, balancing my big lens on a pavement stone. The background and light make this a special shot.

This is a typical behaviour shot of a Marabou stork ‘washing’ its food. No one seems to know for sure why they do this.

This is probably one of my favourite images. We all learn by imitation, and that is exactly what this youngster was doing. Every time the adult took a drink the youngster would perfectly synchronise its movements. It was like a dance routine. I watched them for a while and took this shot just after the sun had set, so the light levels were not the best but I feel the blurring of the trunks brings the image to life.

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