Wild Dogs – Jennifer Sawicky Photography

March 24, 2021March 21, 2021

2021-03-24: Wordless Wednesday

March 22, 2021March 21, 2021

2021-03-22: Monochrome Monday

Continuing on with the wild dogs, here is a pack greeting after they had all just awoken from an afternoon of napping.

Have a great week everyone!

March 21, 2021March 21, 2021

I saw a video clip on the Africa Geographic Facebook page a couple of days ago of a sighting of a wild dog pack, including loads of puppies, crossing a road. I’ve never seen wild dog puppies (yet!) but I have been fortunate to have frequent sightings of them. Watching that clip made me want to return to Southern Africa immediately, but since that isn’t feasible, going through my catalogue for the few remaining unedited wild dog photos will have to do.

I had a couple brief sightings of wild dogs last trip, here are a few of the images. More to come later in the week 🙂

July 12, 2020July 12, 2020

2020-07-12: Wild Dogs

Much like elephants, I have posted many, many times about my love of wild dogs. They are amazing animals to spend time with, and the more I learn about them, the more I like them.

I was super fortunate on my last trip to see two different packs at two different camps. The sightings were very different; one had us with them as they awoke from a day of napping and set off on the hunt, and the second had us finding them late morning, getting ready to rest away part of the day in the cooler shade of a dry riverbed.

I look through my images and dream now, more than ever, of having the opportunity to travel back to my favourite places again sometime soon.

I’ve posted lots of other wild dog images in the past. You can find them through a keyword search, or check out one of these posts. Some of these go right back to the very start of this blog 🙂

A pack of wild dogs resting in a dry riverbed. Even if this was the only sighting you could have of them, it is absolutely worth it to try.

April 5, 2020

2020-04-05: Sunrise to sunset during safari

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 — 6am – Lions. Two of the Torchwood Pride greet each other.

7am - Hyena and Impala — 7am – Hyena and Impala. A group of impala look on wearily as a hyena approaches down the road.

8am - Elephants — 8am – Elephants. A pair of youngsters tussle while the older elephants graze nearby.

9am - Giraffe — 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 — 10am – Waterbuck. A waterbuck heads towards the dam for a drink.

11am - Hippos — 11am – Hippos. A group of hippos making their way back to the water to beat the midday heat.

12pm - Hornbill — 12pm – Yellow-billed hornbill. A “flying banana” perched just beyond the deck at camp.

1pm - Infrared Landscape — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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.

January 5, 2020

2020-01-05: Artistic Impressions

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.

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November 27, 2019

2019-11-27: Wordless Wednesday

September 29, 2019

2019-09-29: Photo Art – The Magnificent Seven

This post was originally going to be the big five, but I had images of cheetah and wild dog that I wanted to play around with, so the magnificent seven it is.

One of the reasons I wanted to focus on my photo art this month was to try and learn a bit more about Topaz Studio version 2. I’ve played around with it a bit, and watched some tutorials, but for the workflow I am using, at this stage I will be sticking with version 1. The issue that I was finding is I can’t get files to make a round trip using On1 Photo Raw. I can get the file into Studio 2, and work on it, but the only option for saving is an “Accept” button, which with the workflow I am using, appears to do nothing. I select it, but the file doesn’t get saved, exported or anything else. New software versions are typically a bit buggy, so I’ll give it a few update cycles and then play around with it again and see what happens.

One of the great things about photo editing tutorials is getting the little reminders for things that are outside of the normal workflow. In this case, the reminder was to play around with blending modes when using AI Remix, Impression and textures. For example, the cheetah image below was edited using (amongst other tools) a filter in AI Remix called Neon Rise. But changing the blend mode from normal to luminosity kept the amazing texture that the filter offered, but eliminated the wild and crazy colours for something far more subdued, and suited to the image.

I hope you enjoy the selections below. Wishing you a fantastic week ahead.

You can find some of these images in the Photo Art section of my gallery.

July 29, 2019July 28, 2019

2019-07-29: Monochrome Monday

I’ve had the amazing good fortune to see wild dogs on all of my trips to Southern Africa. I don’t think I could ever tire of spending time with these amazing animals; seeing the interaction between different members of the pack is always an interesting experience. On this past trip, I had two different sightings; one where the dogs were active and out in the open, and the other, where they were lazing away the morning deep in a thicket.

Here a few of my images from these two sightings.

Enjoy!

DSCF1232 — Alert and at the ready. Lion Sands River Lodge, May 2019.

DSCF1250 — Always a good idea to check on who, or what, might be sneaking up on you from behind.

DSCF1268 — Two of the pack members greeting each other; the behaviour of our pet dogs at the dog park is so similar.

DSCF1275 — Taking the path of least resistance; a pair of dogs set off down the road.

XT3X2631 — A pack of wild dogs resting deep in a thicket at mid morning. This group was seen in the Timbavati, whilst staying at Kings Camp.

May 11, 2019

2019-05-11: What I’ve seen this week

Here are some images from the past week of my travels, staying at two properties; Lions Sands River and Tinga Lodges. I have had a wonderful time being back in the bush again! It’s tea time shortly and then off to see what the afternoon has in store, so I will keep this brief.

I hope you enjoy my selections!