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.

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Taken using a Nikon D700 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 400mm, f/4.8, 1/125 and ISO 800.

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.

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Taken using a Nikon D300 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 400mm, f/5.6, 1/125 and ISO 200.

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.

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Taken using a Nikon D300 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 400mm, f/6.7, 1/350 and ISO 200.

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.

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Taken using a Nikon D700 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 260mm, f/4.8, 1/180 and ISO 800.

An old African Buffalo, and old African Buffalo are irritable, grouchy and dangerous. He’s old and has probably been excluded from his herd now and will see his last days to himself. This was one picture of several which we took just metres from us, and when he moved out towards us, we felt it best for us to just move on.

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Taken using a Nikon D300 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 400mm, f/4.8, 1/250 and ISO 360.

Nkuringo was an elderly silverback mountain gorilla from Bwindi in Uganda. I took this in March 2008.

This is a follow up picture of Nkuringo who featured in a recent post here where I’ve a fuller account of our time with him.

He was old and had an injury to his mouth which we later learned had obtained in a fight two years earlier, which consequently made it difficult to eat.

Taken using a Nikon D300 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at 130mm, f/3.3, 1/125 and ISO 500.

An African White-backed Vulture in atypical vulture pose. It’s a picture which I felt led itself quite well to monochrome. This one is captive, which I took in a rehabilitation centre near Limpopo, South Africa. He’ll remain there for the rest of his days, having suffered a broken wing, of which never healed properly.

Taken using a Nikon D200 with a 100-300 f4.0 lens at f/4.0, 1/640 and ISO 400

This is a revise of a picture from a previous post, Elephant Calf Crossing of October last year. Since then I’ve refined it with an improved appearance and made it available as a Giclée fine art print here.

For more on the background of this picture, you can still read about it at original post of last October.

Taken using a Nikon D200 with a 70-200 f2.8 lens with a 1.4 converter at f/8.0, 1/250 and ISO 100

(Clicking on the picture reveals a larger view.)