Say Cheese – Part 2

Yesterday I started writing about my afternoon of photography. Check it out HERE…..

We spent a fair bit of time watching a herd of Sable…..

These are such elegant animals and astounding when viewed from the side.

I loved seeing the 2 babies at one side of the grouping….

It was also fun to see the Red-Billed Oxpeckers “feeding” on bugs in the Sable coats….

It probably felt good to the sable as well!!!

I was mesmerized by these animals and they seemed perfectly happy to stand and pose for me, so I took a LOT of shots….

This bull was a beauty……

Now for the funny story…. As we drove along, a herd of 10 or so of Lichentenstein Hartebeest gamboled across the road ahead of us. When we reached their crossing lane, Julian stopped the truck and I started looking for more animals on the side where they had come from. After I fruitlessly scanned the area for a minute, Dolish reached over, tapped my leg, and sheepishly pointed to the OTHER side of the road.

There they all stood wondering why the white woman wasn’t busy snapping photos!!

I happily complied and was rewarded with this shot of an adult male…..

….and this photo of a young bull whose horns were just starting to grow…..

As we have driven thru the bush in the past days, there are a myriad of Wart Hogs hiding next to the road, just waiting for an opportunity to jump out as you drive by. Their sudden burst from hiding can be startling and so far I had only been able to get photos of their retreating butts!!!

I was thrilled to capture this male….

The final shot of the night came just before we returned to camp and, interestingly, the photo looked nothing like the actual scenery. I wanted to photograph a beautiful blue sky with wispy clouds turned cotton-candy pink by the setting sun.

The UV-filter on the lens could apparently see colors that were not available to my optic nerve and the photo came out like this……

There it is….the quintessential African bush photo.

I could not be happier!!

Say Cheese – Part 1

After two weeks in camp, I decided that I needed a photography session in the bush. Julian suggested that we go later in the afternoon, prior to the photographic “golden hour” that occurs one hour before sunset.

Since I hadn’t had a lot of time to practice with it, I pulled out the 100-400 telephoto zoom lens to take some photos and get used to the feel of the lens.

I took a couple of butterfly photos….

….and then a shot of a worker crossing the landing strip…..

WHY was it foggy?

I returned to the pavilion and pulled the lens off. Yep, you could see the fog inside the lens. I was so frustrated and wondered if the lens was harmed in transit.

In a flash of inspiration, I decided to google the problem and see if there was a solution. Due to the limited internet, the search process was slow, but finally I found an answer…..put the lens in a zip-loc bag with silica packs and place it in the sun. Well, that would work, but I didn’t have any silica packs!! I clicked on another answer and saw the word RICE. I KNEW that they had tons of rice in camp because we had been eating it almost every day!!

Poppy happily supplied several cups of rice. I put the lens in with it, sat it in the sun for about 15 minutes, and the lens miraculously cleared. I was SO relieved!!

AND there was another “note to self”….. buy silica packs when we return home.

We set out in Julian’s Land Cruiser with me happily on the raised seat in the back, holding my perfectly clear lens!!

Julian drove differently for this trip. Instead of barreling down the roads as fast as possible (not that the roads would allow for an EXTREMELY fast trip), this time he drove slowly and whenever we met an animal that wasn’t shying away from the truck, he would stop, turn off the engine and let me photograph to my heart’s content!!

The first sighting was a Baboon in the grass. The photo isn’t wonderful but I like that you can see the distinctive outline of his face…..