Today I felt drawn to play around and create some of my artistic impression images. There wasn’t any real rhyme or reason to the images I selected; just ones that caught my eye, and that seemed as good a reason as any.
I’m working on a guest post for a friend doing an Armchair safari series, and thought I would share the images here as well. I decided that the theme of my post would be sunrise to sunset on safari; showcasing images from dawn till dusk while out in the bush. These are all shot during my last trip to South Africa and were from all of the camps that I stayed at. I would have to plan a lot more in advance while out in the field to have a sunrise to sunset images from a single day (note to self, do that next trip!).
Rather than a highlight reel of amazing sightings, these are just a collection of moments out in the bush.
I hope you enjoy.
6am – Lions. Two of the Torchwood Pride greet each other.7am – Hyena and Impala. A group of impala look on wearily as a hyena approaches down the road.8am – Elephants. A pair of youngsters tussle while the older elephants graze nearby. 9am – Giraffe. A giraffe bull paused in the road allowing me to capture this image while on the way back to camp for breakfast.10am – Waterbuck. A waterbuck heads towards the dam for a drink.11am – Hippos. A group of hippos making their way back to the water to beat the midday heat.12pm – Yellow-billed hornbill. A “flying banana” perched just beyond the deck at camp.1pm – Landscape in infrared. Midday was a great time to wander around camp with my infrared filter and play around with long exposure photos. This was shot from the deck at Lion Sands Tinga Lodge.2pm – Purple Crested Turaco. I tried for ages to capture a good image of this beautiful bird from my balcony, but given they like to be deep in the branches, it really wasn’t meant to be. It was a fun way to spend part of the afternoon though.3pm – Cheetah. We’d only been out on game drive for about 10 minutes when we came across this cheetah, and had the chance to watch her stalking some impala. They spotted her right away so supper wasn’t in her immediate future.4pm – Wild Dog. Spending time with wild dogs always makes my heart happy. We had a good half an hour with them before they took off in all directions, setting out to hunt.5pm – Honey Badgers. I had always wanted to see honey badgers and on my first game drive of the trip I finally had my chance. It only lasted about 30 seconds but it certainly was thrilling, even if all I could get were butt shots!6pm – Leopard. We were heading back to camp for drinks and dinner and came across this leopard heading in to this large puddle to drink. It was a quick stop before the leopard was on its way.
Hyenas are an often misunderstood and much maligned creature, seen as a lowly scavenger, robbing the kills of leopards, wild dogs, cheetah and even lions (given the right circumstances). From all that guides over the years have told me, and my watching many nature documentaries, I know that while they do scavenge a lot, and provide a necessary ecosystem service in that regard, they are also skillful hunters, and have very interesting clan dynamics, led by an alpha female.
Hyenas can be pretty hit and miss on safari though. Unless there is an active den on the property, guides (that I have been with) don’t generally seek them out or follow their tracks. It’s more a situation of randomly running across them, and then stopping to watch for a few minutes before moving on. If there is a den on the property with little ones, it can be a very enjoyable sighting, as the cubs can be quite boisterous and inquisitive. I still recall my first time in the Okavango Delta, sitting just after sunset at a den and a cub came over and started chewing on the tires of the vehicle, getting into it the way my dog used to take to his squeaky toys as a pup.
No such luck with young cubs this past trip, but here are a few of the images I did capture of hyenas.
Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead.
The only cubs I saw on this past trip; a pair of juveniles with Mom, and another hyena hanging around in the background.This hyenas was sniffing around as there was a kill nearby that had been stashed in a tree by a leopard.This hyena seemed to be having quite a good time in the water; it definitely wasn’t warm enough for it to need to be cooling off.A very alert herd of impala, watching the approach of a lone hyena.