Africa – Page 45 – Jennifer Sawicky Photography

February 19, 2018February 20, 2018

2018-02-19: Revisiting Old Work

Before I get into today’s post, I wanted to say sorry for the lack of activity over the past week. I made the plunge to move to a new self-hosted website so I could combine my blog and gallery (something I have wanted to do for over a year now). And while the internet does make everything appear to be instantaneous, moving 4+ years of blog posts, migrating a domain to a new hosting provider and setting everything up just takes time. Especially when you aren’t a web professional! My gallery is very much a work in progress, but the blog is up and running as usual, and fingers crossed my followers have been migrated over properly so someone, besides my Mom, has the chance to read this 🙂

I was hoping to get this posted yesterday, but the Happiness Engineers at WordPress just finished with the behind the scenes work to get my followers transferred to the new site. So this post is better late than never.

Given all the behind the scenes work I have been doing, I am really glad I didn’t choose a topic that required me to get out shooting this week.

The photos below don’t have much rhyme or reason, other than they caught my eye when scrolling through my picture folders with the thought that I might be able to make something a bit better out of it now than I could when I shot it.

I hope you enjoy today’s selections, once I get the gallery up and running, I’ll post a note about that and start looking for some feedback on the redesign.

The steely gaze of a vulture perched on a dead tree. I didn’t do much to this; a little cropping, and a bit of work to bring out the texture in the feathers. April, 2013.

If you are in South Africa in November, when the leatherback turtles begin nesting, I would highly recommend the experience of going out to try to see them. It is such an epic experience; but not the best for photography, especially in the rain. The shots I captured were more proof that I was there then anything, and I really didn’t try editing them originally. Here I didn’t do much other than try to bring some of the texture back to the sand and correct the strange colour cast caused by red-lamp flashlights plus camera flash. For a sense of scale, this turtle is basically the size of a VW Bug; it weighed approx. 600 kilos.

Kalahari the cheetah climbing a hill under a dreary late afternoon sky. I loved the vantage point of the images I shot at this time, but the harsh light made them a challenge to work with. October, 2014.

For the then and now section this week, I chose this image of the Sand River at sunrise captured in 2013 on my first journey to Africa. I actually quite like the original edit that I did, so I tried to interpret it in a bit of a different way, focusing on the warmth and the fog on the updated edit.

Sunrise on the Sand River – original edit.

Sunrise on the Sand Rover – updated edit.

February 7, 2018

2018-02-07: Wordless Wednesday

20180207_WW

February 1, 2018

2018-02-01: WPC – Beloved

I could have gone two ways with a topic of Beloved for the photo challenge of the week. And since I try my best not to post photos of my dog all the time, I went with my most beloved animal of the African bush, the elephant. Now, anyone who has followed my blog for a while knows that I love elephants, so this should come as no surprise. They are my favourite animal to spend time with (besides my dog, of course!).

I selected the images below because they represent all ages and a variety of different habitats that elephants make their homes in. I hope you enjoy.

20180201_WPCBeloved_JSawicky0 — A herd of desert adapted elephants in the Hoanib River in Namibia. April, 2017.

20180201_WPCBeloved_JSawicky1 — A bachelor herd of elephants in the Boteti River in Botswana, May 2017.

20180201_WPCBeloved_JSawicky2 — Mama, Auntie and a precocious little baby seen in the Khwai concession of the Okavango Delta. May, 2017

20180201_WPCBeloved_JSawicky3 — A couple of youngsters wrestling alongside a waterhole at Phinda in South Africa, May 2017.

20180201_WPCBeloved_JSawicky4 — A moment that I will treasure in my heart forever. Being inspected by a baby elephant whilst on a morning game drive. Londolozi, May 2017.

Please visit:
www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.

and

https://shopvida.com/collections/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.

WPC: Beloved

January 31, 2018

2018-01-31: Wordless Wednesday

January 18, 2018

2018-01-18: WPC – Silence

The vastness of the Namibian landscape is what I was drawn to share for the topic of the week, silence. While being out in nature is rarely completely silent, with the rustle of the wind, the chattering of birds, or the sound of distant water just a few of thing things you might hear, it is the lack of man-made noise that makes it so appealing, and so peaceful.

Below are a few images from my time in Namibia.

20170425-P1020564 — A hilltop sunset in the middle of nowhere. The wind was blowing and sandstorms had been whipping through the area, but it was incredibly peaceful.

20170426-P1020631 — The Skeleton Coast. Vast desert and the Atlantic Ocean as far as the eye could see.

20170427-DSC_0994 — I find there is nothing more peaceful and quiet than being outside and watching the stars. I shot this from the deck of my room at Ongava Reserve, but being outside alone, at night, in the bush isn’t the smartest idea, so I only took one quick photo and went back inside to my glass of wine.

Please visit:
www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.

and

https://shopvida.com/collections/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.

WPC: Silence

January 16, 2018

2018-01-16: WPC – Weathered

The photo challenge topic of the week is weathered, and I have chosen to share some landscape images captured in the Namibian desert. There, it was easy to see the effects of wind and water on the landscape, both from the ground and from the air.

I hope you enjoy my selections.

20170424-DSC_0583 — While driving through the desert, we came to this spot where the wind and water had carved the sand and soft stone into beautiful shapes.

20170424-DSC_0589 — The tallest of these sand sculptures only came up to my knees.

20170424-DSC_0591 — Some day, these too will be gone, reduced to grains of sand blowing in the wind.

20170425-DSC_0612 — Devil’s Thorn growing in the rapidly drying desert.

20170427-P1020867 copy — Mountaintops weathered flat by the wind. Somewhere between Hoanib and Windhoek, April 2017.

Please visit:
www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.

and

https://shopvida.com/collections/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.

WPC: Weathered

January 9, 2018

2018-01-09: WPC – Growth

The first WordPress photo challenge topic of the year is growth. There are lots of directions that this can be taken, but I’ve decided to use it as an opportunity to show off some of the younger generation of animals that I saw on my last safari. The wild is a dangerous place for youngsters, with so many species having mortality rates above 50%. I hope all of these animals have been able to grow strong and healthy.

20170428-DSC_1271 copy — A rhino cow and calf seen during a late afternoon game drive on the Ongava Reserve near Etosha National Park in Namibia. We were very fortunate to have several rhino sightings during our trip. Namibia, April 2017.

20170514-DSC_5658 — This lion pride was very busy, with 6 small cubs, all of whom were suffering with mange. I am hopeful they all made it through the winter months. South Africa, May 2017.

20170516-DSC_6765 copy — I have few photos of this sighting, as the light was falling rapidly and the cubs were deep in a thicket. But their antics were too adorable not to try and capture. So while their Mom fed on a giraffe kill, these two scampered around, wrestled, and attempted to climb the tree behind them. They even had a few moments of playing with the food. South Africa, May 2017. (1/250sec, f5.6, ISO 25,600)

20170516-DSC_7224 — We came across these elephants just after setting out from camp early one morning. They had discovered an underground water pipe and had pulled it up to get to the water. Elephants of all sizes were enjoying a drink as the sun came up. Being amongst the elephants is definitely one of my favourite things; I could have happily spent the whole day with them. South Africa, May 2017.

20170517-DSC_8421 — Right after leaving the elephants seen above, we saw this. I don’t think it gets any better in terms of an amazing sighting; we were able to track this beautiful leopard all the way to her new den site, and then spend time watching the tiny cubs explore their new home (a hollow log). South Africa, May 2017.

If you would like to see more images and hear more about my time at the camps these images were captured at, feel free to check out: 2017-07-16: Highlights of Little Ongava, 2017-08-15: Ngala Tented Camp and 2017-08-27: Londolozi Game Reserve

Please visit:

www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.

and

https://shopvida.com/collections/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.

WPC – Growth

January 8, 2018

2018-01-08: Monochrome Monday

Happy Monday to all! For my first monochrome Monday post of the year, I decided to share not only my favourite animal, but an image that I recently printed for a display in my home. I love surrounding myself with images that evoke memories of wonderful times and fantastic adventures. I reuse old frames over and over again, some needing to have duck tape on the back to hold everything together, but it allows me to update images whenever I want. I have loads of photo displays throughout my home, from beautifully framed large-size matted prints, to unframed 5″ x 5″ cardstock images arranged in groups of 25 images. As I move throughout my home, I’m taken back to beautiful places and inspired to plan the next adventure.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead.