Category: Africa

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Wire-tailed Swallow

Along tag along on our river cruise! This wire tailed swallow had built a nest somewhere on the boat itself. 1/1000sec, f4.8, ISO800
Along tag along on our river cruise! This wire tailed swallow had built a nest somewhere on the boat itself.
1/1000sec, f4.8, ISO800
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African Pied Kingfisher

Decent photos of kingfishers elude me to this day! This is as good as it gets, so far. An African Pied Kingfisher along the Chobe River. 1/400sec, f5.3, ISO100
Decent photos of kingfishers elude me to this day! This is as good as it gets, so far.
An African Pied Kingfisher along the Chobe River.
1/400sec, f5.3, ISO100
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Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters

I couldn't have timed this better had I tried - I love the symmetry of their position and the shadows being cast by their beaks. 1/400sec, f5.6, ISO100
I couldn’t have timed this better had I tried – I love the symmetry of their position and the shadows being cast by their beaks.
1/400sec, f5.6, ISO100
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Penguin

Penguin

The long grass was doing nothing to enhance the photo, and the Jackass penguin has only a limited amount of pale pink colouring around the eyes, so I decided to do a black and white conversion. After a hectic day, unwinding with some editing seemed like a good choice, and the penguin made me smile. Mission accomplished 🙂

1/320sec, f5.6, ISO200 – conversion in Silver Efex

Penguin at Boulder Beach, Cape Town, South Africa, March 2013.

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Safari Sunset

Safari Sunset

I set this photo as my desktop wallpaper a couple days ago, and that seems as good a reason as any to share it. This was taken on our first game drive at Londolozi.

1/800sec, f4.5, ISO100, April 2, 2013

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Leopard

Leopard

Another photo from the vault. The direction of the sunlight made the original black and white conversion I did in Lightroom look washed out. I re-edited this with Silver Efex pro, and the harsh highlights have been minimized without losing detail.

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Elephants at Chobe

I decided to go back and re-edit some old photos, as I wasn’t inspired to get out and shoot this weekend. Here is a photo taken at Chobe Park in Botswana while on a boat tour.  I see lots of possibilities for editing it.

Base image, with only basic Lightroom adjustments for chromatic aberration and lens profile correction. 1/250Sec, f10, ISO100 April 8, 2013 at Chobe Park, Botswana
Base image, with only basic Lightroom adjustments for chromatic aberration and lens profile correction.
1/250Sec, f10, ISO100
April 8, 2013 at Chobe Park, Botswana

To me, the elephant at the far left of the photo looked out of place.  I cropped it out, and edited the photo with Colour Efex adding a polarizing filter effect.

Edited with Colour Efex Pro

Edited with Colour Efex Pro
Edited with Colour Efex Pro
Edited with Colour Efex Pro

For the edit above, I used the same polarizing filter effect, but cropped in just to focus on the elephants crossing their trunks.

Edited with Silver Efex Pro
Edited with Silver Efex Pro

Finally, I did a black and white conversion with Silver Efex Pro, on a cropped version of the photo showing several elephants with their tusks in alignment.  I added in vignetting and a border to help obscure the elephant far right that was heading out of the water.

Thanks to my landscape photography instructor Jim for reminding us to always look for the picture within a picture. 🙂

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Zebra

The weather on the weekend was not conducive to having my camera out, and none of my indoor projects have inspired me this week.  So, I decide instead to experiment with new software on a photo I have worked on before.

I've edited this photo a few times, but recently purchased Silver Efex and wanted to see the difference in using that compared to Lightroom for a B&W conversion. I am very happy with the results.
I’ve edited this photo a few times, but recently purchased Silver Efex and wanted to see the difference in using that compared to Lightroom for a B&W conversion. I am very happy with the results.
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Birds in flight

I’ve not been having much success in crafting regular posts these days.  I had planned on dedicating a post to birds in flight, but many of the photos I thought I would use do not look as crisp as I would like, and are now in the reject pile.  Besides, it seemed a bit discriminatory towards those birds I have had the pleasure photographing that do not have the gift of flight.

So instead I’ve put together a rather random selection of birds to feature this week, and fingers crossed I will have both the time and inspiration for something more next week.

So without further ado…

A vulture coming in to land, South Africa, April 2013
A vulture coming in to land, South Africa, April 2013
Cormorant in flight over the Chobe River in Botswana, April 2013
Cormorant in flight over the Chobe River in Botswana, April 2013
A penguin at Boulder Beach, near Cape Town, April 2013
A penguin at Boulder Beach, near Cape Town, April 2013
A group of bee-eaters along the Chobe River in Botswana, April 2013
A group of bee-eaters along the Chobe River in Botswana, April 2013
I have no idea what type of bird this is! The photo was taken in January 2011 while on a Caribbean cruise. Several of these birds flew next to the ship for hours at a time.
I have no idea what type of bird this is! The photo was taken in January 2011 while on a Caribbean cruise. Several of these birds flew next to the ship for hours at a time.
An ostrich near the Cape of Good Hope, April 2013
An ostrich near the Cape of Good Hope, April 2013
Egyptian Geese at the Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, April 2013
Egyptian Geese at the Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, April 2013

 

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