2019-07-07: Babies in the bush

I’m sure most would have expected me to start with elephants for my first post in a series on babies in the bush; and I was tempted to.  We spent time with so many large herds, and saw so many young elephants, I am spoiled for choice with images.  But, I decided that I would start with something different, and chose to focus on animals with hooves instead.  My timing was wrong to see tiny impala, but I did see a fair number of young giraffe, waterbuck and zebra during my travels.

I hope you enjoy my selections, and wishing you an excellent week ahead.

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This giraffe was acting a bit like a crossing guard for several youngsters crossing the road in front of us.  Not the best images, but great to show the size difference between the babies and the adults.  I only wish there had been an impala in the shot too, to really show how large the young giraffe actually are.
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Fulfilling the cross guard role as another youngster moved from one side to the other.  There were about a half dozen giraffe in this group in total.
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A herd of zebra pause to allow the littlest one a chance to suckle.
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A young waterbuck blending quite nicely with the autumn tones of the bush.  Mom was nearby grazing.
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A zebra and her foal pause to check out our vehicle, before carry on slowly strolling through the bush.
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One waterbuck mama acting as babysitter for a group of youngsters.  They were all lounging close to the dam at Chitwa Chitwa, while other members of the group were grazing or drinking.
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Little and large.

2019-04-14: Around Sunset

It’s quite nice not having a theme this month, as I can select whatever images catch my attention.  Today, it is a selection of images shot at or near sunset.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead.

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A sunset taken in Ongava Game Reserve in Namibia.
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A pair of bull elephants play fighting on the banks of the Boteti River as the afternoon light faded.
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A leopard in a tree at sunset.  The stuff of magic.
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A lone zebra gives us a weary look as the sunset sets behind.
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A leopard in the fading evening light.

2019-04-01: Monochrome Monday

No jokes, funny business or shenanigans here.  Just a trio of zebra images for the 1st monochrome Monday of April.

Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead!

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A zebra foal seen in Etosha National Park.
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We all have that one friend that looks a bit awkward when smiling for the camera!
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This zebra was not at all concerned by our vehicle, and walked up right next to where we were parked.  I think it was using the tree stump as a scratching post after I snapped this.

2018-09-10: Monochrome Monday

Just a quick single image post for Monochrome Monday this week.

A zebra stopping traffic on one of the roads through Etosha National Park in Namibia.  The zebra were very abundant there, and quite chill around vehicles making for some nice opportunities for images.  I’ve had lots of experience with zebra taking off in the other direction as soon as they realized you were looking at them.

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Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead.

2018-09-03: Monochrome Monday

Wishing everyone a great week ahead!

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A zebra appearing shy while having its photo taken in Etosha.  namibia, April 2017.
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A glance over the shoulder by this gorgeous leopard, seen in the Okavango Delta. May 2017.
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A large male lion giving us a bit of a dirty look as we followed him down a roadway.  Londolozi, May 2017.

2018-08-13: Monochrome Monday

I’m a little later than normal with my Monochrome Monday post as I have been playing around with using the MacPhun (now Skylum) Tonality plugin with Luminar.  I must say, I am really enjoying using Tonality again!

Tonality was my go-to for black and white conversion when I was using Lightroom and Photoshop.  I found I could dial in the vision I was imagining much faster than using other black and white methods.  Now that I no longer have Photoshop, I am glad I have a way to integrate the plug-in back into my workflow when I want to.

I’ve started watching some Luminar videos on YouTube by Jim Nix, and one of them really resonated with me today.  It had nothing to do with the image or the edits he did, but just the concept of revisiting old work to re-edit photos, to experiment with new software, filters and combinations of tools to keep your creativity and interest peeked.  A lot of that is why I am enjoying this theme so much, as the lack of familiarity with the software has caused me to think a lot more critically about what I want to achieve, so I can figure out how to do it, but it has also allowed me to just open random filters to see what they do, sometimes to great result, sometimes awful.  If you are interested, you can find the Luminar video by Jim Nix here.

Now on to the images for today.

For this giraffe image, I did an extra step to start, and from Luminar opened Topaz Studio and then the Topaz Remask plugin.  I find Remask is excellent for complicated situations like these tree branches against the sky.  The sky was very grainy, and I wanted to apply some noise reduction, and I thought that would be the best way to go.  I shot this image with my Panasonic FZ1000, which is a very capable little camera, but I do find skies are generally quite noisy regardless of the ISO.  There was also a lot of airborne dust so it could have been that rather than a limitation of the camera.  After I created my mask in Remask, I ran the noise removal filter in Topaz Studio and sent the image back to Luminar, and then onto Tonality for black and white conversion.  If Luminar had an option to adjust luminosity masks so I could isolate the sky, I would have gone that route and saved some steps, but right now its not an option.

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Giraffe in the desert.  Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp, Namibia.

Things were much simpler for the next two images.  I edited both using the Tonality plug in, though I am sure I could have arrived at similar results just using Luminar.  As with most photo editing programs, there are a lot of different paths to get to the same place.  It’s all about what works for you.

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A zebra calf photographed in Etosha National Park, Namibia.
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A black-faced impala spotted in Ongava Game Reserve in Namibia.  Our guide explained to us that any reserves that add impala to their property in Namibia must add the black-faced impala.  This was started as a measure to help conserve the species and allow them to thrive.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my selections for the day 🙂

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