Following the light in photography and life
This business of being on my own, here in Johannesburg, is for the birds I think. Fortunately Rob will be winging (eish, that is crushingly bad!) her way back to South Africa from Detroit, via Toronto and London later this week, and I will be picking her up at the airport on Thursday morning. Not…
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Why does a coot cross the road? To demonstrate its flair? Marievale, Nikon D500. Nikon 70-300mm. Processed in Lightroom and Colour Efex Pro
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We saw this Spotted thick-knee, otherwise known as a Dikkop, standing behind the car park at the Visitors Centre at Marievale around 10am on Easter Friday; it was still there, but lying down this time, when we left several hours later.
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You knew at once, didn’t you, that this was a female Amur falcon? Of course you did. Well, I didn’t, and though I paged up and down and sideways through Roberts and the SASOL guide I couldn’t figure it out. Until, of course, I posted the image on the SA Birdlife Facebook Group page, with…
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Photographed at the Marievale Bird Sanctuary on Easter Friday. The nest was directly in front of the hide.
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Evidently something of a rarity in these parts: a Grey-headed gull, photographed at Marievale on Easter Friday.
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Little Egret – Marievale. Marievale Bird Sanctuary, Gauteng. I left in the power lines and pylons deliberately, as well as traces of the reeds and the trees, as I wanted to give a sense of the complex environment – not stereotypical, picture-postcard countryside – in which these birds live. Nikon D500, 70-300mm. Processed in…
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Marievale Bird Sanctuary is a small area of wetland, bounded by farms, distant dwellings, power pylons, a highway, about an hour’s drive east of Johannesburg, and – despite its size – home to an astonishing variety and number of birds, waterfowl in particular. The last (and only) time I had been there was about ten…
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Bird photography is one of the most challenging areas of photography, at least in my experience. Finding them in the first place – birds, I mean – and getting them to sit still, or hover in one place, just where you want them, is the damnedest business, never mind getting your images sharp and properly…
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We were standing in our garden one evening, not long after we’d moved in. There were birds in the high branches of the tree that stands outside our wall, on the street. “They look like lovebirds,” I said. “But they can’t be. You don’t get lovebirds in Johannesburg.” But they looked like lovebirds, so I…
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