Jun
26
During dusk at Linyanti in Botswana, we’d already lined up some elephants approaching single file, but given we were likely to see these again, we decided to visit a lone male lion which has just appeared instead. The light had become appealing at five-thirty, and we’d been with the lion for barely ten minutes when a leopard took his place at the base of a nearby termite mound.
As one person has said; this was a gift from the leopard, out in the open, unobscured, and in the early evening sunlight too. And just when we were thinking how nice it would be if he were to sit on top of the mound, he promptly jumped up and sat on top of it. I’d seen a few leopards, but never had the privilege to photograph one in setting such as this.
Taken using a Nikon D700 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 400mm, f/4.8, 1/125 and ISO 800.
Jun
22
This young male lion has paused and is looking back to check the progress of the rest of his following pride in Moremi, Okavango, in Botswana in May of this year. The compact stance formed by his foreshortened view appealed to me. I think this may lend itself to a black and white variant someday.
Taken using a Nikon D300 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 400mm, f/5.6, 1/125 and ISO 200.
Jun
14
This year I had nine images make it into the semi finals, a good result, but but not quite close enough, unfortunately. One of these entries was of a Nile crocodile chasing down a wildebeest which was entered into the Animal Behaviour category.
This was my third year entering this competition, probably the most prestigious of it’s kind worldwide. I’ve just heard back from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition organisers to discover all of my entries made it past the first round, and nine made it through to the semi final round. That’s a good result, but it still feels so close to miss out on a final for at least one of these images. It’s still encouraging though, and I have my fingers crossed for 2011!
Caption: A wildebeest stranded mid-river during a crossing over the Mara River in Kenya last August battled for almost two hours against a dozen crocodiles. At one point he almost escaped, only to be dragged back. It was quite an emotional scene for us to witness. Sadly for the wildebeest (and us), the crocodiles won in the end.
Taken using a Nikon D300 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 400mm, f/6.7, 1/350 and ISO 200.
Jun
06
A Leopard sits atop a termite mound near dusk at Linyanti, Botswana. It was a pleasure to meet this leopard lying at the base of an ant-hill. Just when we were thinking how nice it would be if he were to sit on top of it, he promptly jumped up and sat on top of it.
I’ve seen a few leopards, but never had the privilege to photograph one in setting such as this. It was beginning to get dark and he was against the sun, so we were relying on slower shutter speeds and compensating for the backlight. It was kinda tricky, but we got there :)
I’ve just returned from two weeks in Botswana. We visited the Central Kalahari, the Okavango Delta, Linyanti and Chobe. If I was to return to one place then it would be at Kwando, Linyanti. If two, then I’d add the Delta.
Taken using a Nikon D700 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 260mm, f/4.8, 1/180 and ISO 800.
