Highveld Thunderstorm

Dem Daisies

Leopard Silhouette

Finally, a clear night for a bit of trails photography!

Published,...... Finally ! ! !

Finally.......... My photography has officially been published in a great field guide by Lee Gutteridge.

Lee's first edition of his field guide "The Bushveld" came out a few years ago and concerntrated mainly on the Waterberg region of South Africa's Limpopo Province.

Since then he has brought out another field guide on the Okavongo and Rock Paintings in Southern Africa. This 2nd edition on the Bushveld includes the Kruger and surrounding Lowveld area, well known to many safari enthusiasts.

Lee approached me early last year looking for new images for the new edition and hopefully some of the less seen critters with which a was proud to oblige. There are a number of my images that were used, but my images of a Cape Grass Bird and Aardvark have to be my favourite.

If you are interested in obtaining a copy for yourself you can contact Sarah at sarah@natureguidetraining.com

Limited Editions up for grabs.

Hi guys and girls,

I have been playing around with a few of my images and have come up with some high contrast black and white shots that I would like to put out there if any of you are interested. The size of each print can be found under the image and can be printed on canvas, high gloss or matt super fine photographic print paper.
Each print will be personally signed by me.
The cost of each print is ZAR 1,180.00

Drop me a line via E-mail at garethinthebush@gmail.com and let me know what you are looking for.
I am looking forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy the images.

Up Hi     ( 1400 x 850 )

Coming Chameleon   ( 1200 x 750 )

Take Off    ( 1200 x 750 )

Ol' Bull      (1200 x 750 )

Toddler   ( 1200 x 750 )

The Chase    (1200 x 750 )

 




Get Out there and Keep Shooting!

 

Sundew chowdown !

I decided to get a bit of Macro done and focused my lens towards my pet Sundew. These little guys are part of the family Drosera, comprising some 194 species in the carnivorous plant family.

Unlike the Venus Flytrap, which has a trigger mechanism that helps trap their 'prey', the Sundews have leaves that are covered with tiny hairs, each with a drop of mucilage at their tip. This mucilage is where the Sundew gets its name, as it looks like dew drops have settled on the plant.

This sticky Mucilage helps trap the insect to the plant and aids with the digestive process as it is full of enzymes that break down the food source for the plant. The resulting nutrient soup is then absorbed by the leaf.

Very, very cool plants.

Get out there and Keep Shooting ! ! !

Just like "The Silence of the Lambs"! ! !

Those of you who have seen the movie "Silence Of The Lambs", may remember this little fellow. This is the Death's Head Hawk Moth (A. lachesis.). They are often seen raiding Honey Bee hives for their honey.
The moth has an unfortunate reputation, and is associated with folk tales involved in evil and the supernatural.

Death's Head hawk Moth from above.

Death's Head Close up

                      
Seen these guys at Safari Lodges before, but didn't think I would come across one at the coast. Very, very cool to see.

Get out there and Keep Shooting! ! !

New survey and a Dry Dock ! ! ! !

Please checkout the survey below and answer the questions when you can.Thanks for the support.

Click here to take survey

Below was an image I captured in Cape town at the V&A waterfront of a ship in a dry dock. The contrast in Black and White came out better then it did in color.  Might just hang this up on my wall!

Get out there and keep Shooting!

Hout Bay Night Skies.

Last night, I had the opportunity to create some really interesting images with StarstaX, which is a great multi-image stacking programme free off the net and very easy to use. I had at my disposal a platter of texture and color as I was shooting from a bouldered beach at sunset and to top it off we had a couple of guests staying with us at Tintswalo Atlantic who just got engaged at the time of the photo, so I thought I would add them to my "platter".

This image was created with 240 images @ 12 sec. each. Then layered in StarstaX and finally edited in Photoshop. Let me know what you think.

Get out there and Keep Shooting!

The Hunting Grounds.

Hi Guys and Gals,

I have just edited another quick video on a blog that I posted back in November 2010 of a hunt between a pride of 3 male lion and 5 lioness, and a male buffalo. I hope you enjoy the footage and please comment and let me know what you think?

Get out there and Keep Shooting ! ! !

Something New. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hi Guys and Gals,

This is something new that I would like to play with in the future. Eventually, once I get the hang of it I will hopefully be able to share a bit of what I've learnt as a Wildlife Photographer and as a Field Guide working in Southern Africa's Top Private Reserves. I am looking forward to getting this process polished up so that it will be content and visually interesting, and hopefully something that you can learn from.

The following is my first try at it and shows some of my images that were taken during my time a leopardhills in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve in South Africa. Feel free to crit  as this is still a learning process for me.

Thanks and Enjoy!

Get out there and Keep Shooting! ! !

Running with the wind

This is an image I caught whilst photographing a pride of 11 lion ( 3 Males and 8 large females) hunting a lone bull Buffalo in the Kruger Park early one morning. The Buffalo was rite on the males rear end, but they were to close for me to get them in the picture so I cropped it down to just the male. I blogged about this earlier last year and forgot about this image.

Get out there and Keep Shooting! ! !

Bushveld Princess.

Lovely 8 month old Leopard cub. She gave me hours of perfect Leopard cub interaction.

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon 100mm - 400mm EF-L f 4.5 - 5.6
Aperture: f 5.6
ISO:  200
Shutter:  1/200 sec
Very low light and shutter speed, used a beanbag to steady the camera.

Get out there and Keep Shooting ! ! !

Highveld Electrical Lights !

Lighting is definitely one of my favorite photographic subjects, and although I haven't quite captured the perfect images yet, I am very pleased with what I have caught so far. These images are from an electrical storm about for years ago. I must have taken about 300 images that night and as it was my first time trying to capture lightning I was fiddling around with settings the whole time. Since then I have refined my lightning photo's, but these are from my first go at it.

Get out there and keep Shooting ! ! !

Good 'ol Dugga Boys

Dugga Boys.................old, usually lone male Cape Buffalo are affectionately called this because of their habit of wallowing in  mud to cool off and rid themselves of irritating, biting insects. Dagga, South African Slang for mud or cement, hardens on these animals skins, thus giving them their name.
I found this old bull in the Kruger taking a midday wallow to cool himself off in the hot Southern African sun.

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens:  Canon 100mm - 400mm EF-L f4.5 - 5.6
Aperture:  f11
Shutter: 1/320 sec
ISO:  250

Get out there and keep Shooting! ! !

Kalahari Boys

 Found this coalition at a waterhole in the Kgalagadi quenching their thirst after a long hot day in bush.

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens:  Canon 100mm - 400mm EF-L f4.5 - 5.6
Aperture: f 6.3
ISO:   200
Shutter:  1/200 sec

Get out there and keep Shooting!!!

The Little Things.

Sitting around, Canon in hand looking for little tit bits at the Sanctuary Retreats Management Houses in Maun while waiting for our paperwork to be finalized for our work permits.

Nothing seemed like it wanted to expose itself to my lens and I started getting a little frustrated, so I lit a cigarette and opened a beer while I waited.

Putting out my Cherri of the cigarette I noticed this tiny little chap and quickly changed lenses and added my 5x Diopter to the lens.

This little snail measured about 2mm in length and was definitely a mollusc that I never seen before.
I messed around with flash and bouncing light off a A4 piece of paper to direct light and try and defuse it a little. These are some of what I got.

 

Get out there and keep Shooting!