Okavanga Delta – Sandibe

Another wonderful day in the Okavango Delta on the Eyes on Africa trip I am co-leading with Grant Atkinson. One of our clients, Beth Stewart, captured a unique angle of a male lion, called Blondie. With this quartering head shot, Beth departed from the normal straight-on shot to emphasize the power in his muscles as he glided through the reeds. Upon reviewing this image with Beth, both Grant and I screamed BLACK AND WHITE. So, Beth sat by my side while I walked her through processing this image using Lightroom, Photoshop, and Nik Software. Hats off to Beth for a great capture.

Funny thing about Blondie, he has a very short main and a short tail. As such, the females will have nothing to do with him…..poor guy. I hope his time comes.

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A Few Feet Can Make a Huge Difference

While leading my last photo safari in Botswana we came across a young leopard cub in a tree with her mother just inches away from her. I decided to focus my attention on the young cub. At me pulled up to the sighting, I took the first photograph below. Despite the angle, I like the pose of the cub. I asked GEE, our driver, to pull 2 feet forward and turn the truck slightly to the left. Shooting from the lowest possible angle, I was able to get blue sky and more of a full body shot. Which do you like?

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Nikon D810, Nikon 400 f/2.8 FL, ISO 250, 1/250 sec at f/2.8

One of the nice things about being on a private photo safari with me is using guides that know how to get you to the right place at the right time. They are also very eager to help you on positioning the truck for your desired shot. They clearly want to be part of the solution and take pride in being part of the final image. For this event, GEE as our driver and Gates was our tracker. My hat is off to both of you for your tracking skills.

Cheers and happy photo’ing