Showcasing the beauty of Mother Nature
Today I thought I would share a selection of a few different safari images. Part of the excitement of being out on game drive is never quite knowing what you may see around the next bend in the road or over the next hill; but, on a South African safari, you’ll probably have the opportunity to see all of these at some point.
I’ve been fortunate to see many rhinos over the years, and it is always a thrill and a privilege to have the opportunity to view them. Sadly, rhinos still face intense pressure from poaching. Many reserves are needing to make the decision to dehorn rhinos in an effort to avoid the animals becoming targets, and seeing rhinos with horns may be less likely on safari in the future. Horn or not, they are impressive animals to be around.
I was so fortunate to see loads of rhino during my last trip to South Africa, including numerous youngsters alongside their Moms. One of the best sightings, which I didn’t get any photo or video of, was a young calf at dusk whining and crying at its mother trying to get milk, but she was laying down having a rest and wasn’t giving in. Everyone on the vehicle was having a good laugh listening to the antics as it quickly grew dark.
This pair was incredibly relaxed with our vehicle nearby, peacefully grazing and gong about their business.
For my Dad’s Father’s Day gift, I adopted a blind rhino named Maxwell, being cared for at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, in his name. Rhino’s were the animal he was most excited to see on our first trip to South Africa, so it seemed like a good fit (and proved to be a very popular gift, as was the elephant I adopted for my Mom for Mother’s Day).
I try to make homemade cards whenever possible, and created these two images to make my Dad’s Father’s Day card. These were done with images I shot my last time in South Africa, using a variety of filters in the Topaz Studio program.
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 hope everyone is staying safe and keeping well.
It’s the start of a new year, and I’ve not come up with any grand plans for the blog. In addition to my full time work, I’m starting graduate school and courses towards a professional designation, so I have decided to leave things open for the time being, until I see what type of time and energy I have. I am hoping to continue on with my Sunday, Monday and Wednesday posting schedule, but I may not end up picking themes for each month, and instead, just go where the mood takes me. I’m just going to play it by ear for the moment.
I’ve continued to be inspired to play around with my artistic impression images, and have a few of those to share today.
I’ve still not had any success with moving over to Topaz Studio version 2. When I have played around with it, I have really liked the flow within the program, but have found it challenging to get photos in and out of the software, with my current workflow. Thankfully, the original version is still working well within my system.
That’s all for today; wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead.
