If last week was rhino week on Photo-Africa, looking at the images this week it must be lion week!

This is not intentional at all.  You see, when I sit down to write a blog one of two things happen.  I either have an idea of what I want to write about and then choose an image to go with it or I browse through my images, find something that catches my attention and then hope i can find something to say about it.

Last week happened to feature almost only rhino images as it just so happened that we spent a lot of time photographing them so they made it to the blog.  During these shoots most of the conversation with Andy Biggs and Grant Marcus tended to focus on what we were shooting so that also helped me choose topics for blog posts.

This week was slightly different.  When I am guiding, not photographic guiding, I do not always have the opportunities to choose my subjects or wait for the shot.  This will depend largely on the guests I have on the vehicle and during the last week it seems that lions were the norm.  I suppose that’s just how it goes.

For the next two weeks I will be out there with a few very keen photographers which means I will have much more time and freedom to dictate the kind of images I get.  Sometimes you have to wait.  Sometimes you have to move around.  As long as people understand the goal – it’s all good!

This is the exact same reason I am very excited about the photographic safari I will be leading next year.  The freedom to shoot what I want to shoot and assist other photographers in getting the shots they want.  All from the luxury and privacy of our own lodges and private vehicles.  I have just released the details for two of these safaris and you can view more info on each by using the following links:

- Masai Mara & Lake Nakuru
- Wild Dogs of Madikwe

Apart from working with some great photographers I am looking forward to sharing some amazing moments out in Africa with new friends and keen photographers.  Exciting time ahead!

I will be releasing details of more safaris during the next few days which includes destinations such as Kenya, Namibia and Botswana.

As they say – watch this space!

Have a good weekend.  See ya on the flip side!

Gerry

If you are a wildlife photographer and you were not inspired by Morkel’s guest post yesterday you need to check your pulse!

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is without a doubt a photographer’s paradise and all credit goes to Morkel for capturing some amazing images to showcase one of the truly wild place in southern Africa.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts and images!

I have never had the privilege to visit the KTP but have already started looking at dates for the not too distant future.  It is no longer a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’.   For now I am going to have to settle for the Pilansberg Game Reserve where I will be spending a few days next week.

On Monday morning I will be leaving Madikwe for a two week break, which feels way overdue.  The most exciting thing about my few days off is that I will be unplugging completely!  No blogs, no Facebook, no Twitter, no email!

Yeah… nothing!  I have no doubt that Adele is going to be very excited about this!  I’ll most definitely be taking my camera with on the trip but that is about as hi tec as I will be going.

It’s definitely not due to a lack of work, it’s just that when you step away from things for a while you gain a bit of perspective.  You fill up those little creative buckets.  You get a chance to focus on the things that are really important.  You get a chance to return to everything with a new vigor and renewed enthusiasm.  A notebook and pen is the only work related items I will be taking along as ideas seem to pop up at the strangest times!

Apart from a few blog-free days during January, when I was on Bangkok, this will be the longest period in almost three years that Photo-Africa will not be updated.  Not too worry, as the week after next I will be back with a lot of new posts, new images and a lot of page updates and new sections on the site.

Just in case you need your wildlife or photography fix during the week, here are a few sites you can visit with a whole lot more in the links list on the right of this page.

Grant Marcus
Grant works at the Tuningi Safari Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve and, through his stories and images, takes you on a virtual safari.

Morkel Erasmus
A regular guest blogger on Photo-Africa, Morkel explores Southern Africa in high dynamic range.

Kerry De Bruyn
Kerry shares her fine art and wildlife images thoughts on her blog.

AfricaFreak
This is the ultimate African safari guide where you can find safari info on anything ranging from photography to interesting wildlife facts.

Bush Warriors
These guys do a fantastic job of creating an awareness to stop poaching and the bush meat trade. They also run a great Photo of the Week competition.

You could also take a few moments and sign up for the Photo-Arica newsletter as I will be sending out the first edition in week or so.  These newsletters, which will be circulated once a month, will include info on upcoming workshops and photographic safaris as well as travel and photographic tips.  You can find the link to sigh up at the top right of the blog.

After a long six weeks in the bush and some amazing sightings, I am sitting on a huge number of RAW files that I will be playing with when I return from my ‘no technology’ week.  I’ll leave you with this one from a few days ago.  Golden afternoon light makes any scene come alive but in Africa it just seems better!  (Click on the thumbnail for a larger view!)

So until next next week, somewhere around the 19th, be good!

Gerry

For me, in the beginning, it was about pretty pictures and a love affair.

The affair began simply enough–on the final night of a last minute-two day safari to the Masai Mara–in a safari truck filled with student tourists, parked next to an acacia tree housing a lazy leopard.  The cat had no intentions of getting up, and we had to leave the park.  A duvet of stars spread out above me, and the primal roar of lions echoed in the distance-my heart was instantly stolen.

And so commenced my wildlife photography.  I was a ‘people’ photographer, now hooked on a continent, and also quite obsessed with spotted cats and cameras. At the time, I was a good people photographer.  I could capture “moments” and portraits.  Shooting wildlife?  Never crossed my mind. But, the obvious way to get back to Africa was on a safari, taking pictures.

The trips to Africa began, and the first days in the bush after long absences were like a Wild West shoot-out for me.  Sleeping lions?  Rat-a-tat-tat-tat went the shutter.  Impala herd?  Three gigabytes gone.  Zebra stripes?  More pixels exhausted. Hundreds of fish eagle portraits, dozens of midday shots of giraffe; I filled every second on the vehicle with shutter noise. Each time I returned to the US from a safari, I’d scour my images.  I am a decent editor, so I knew which ones to choose. Everyone loved them. My mother thought they were the best compositions on earth.  My father beamed.  I had parties and showed my friends who ‘ooohed’ and ‘aaaahd.’  But somewhere between my third and fifth trip, something inside me changed.  I was no longer satisfied with my images–ironic, as I’d taken them. I had stunningly pretty pictures of Lilac Breasted Rollers, and leopards in trees.  There was nothing wrong with the images. They were well lit, and well composed. Sure, the cats were different, and spot patterns were unique, and the light varied a bit, but a leopard face was a leopard face.  It hit me. I had these shots already.  At the time, I didn’t know how to fix that.  I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I am a photo editor by day; a photographer all the time. I know what makes a good photograph, as I’m surrounded by the highest standards, the best images and the best photographers in the wildlife photo industry-on a daily basis.  Unlike most photo editors,  I also know what it’s like to be a photographer: emotionally attached to images and experiences.  I know what it’s like to look at my own images that are “almost there”, and I know all the excuses I use to keep those files from the trash bin.  But, as an editor, I know there’s another pro out there who actually already has the shot I almost got-and has already won some award for it.  The combination makes me my own worst critic.  Which, in hindsight, was the reason I kept going back for more.  I was missing something in my own images, something that others had figured out how to capture.

It takes time to begin to learn that photography, if you want it to be, is more than just an exercise in shutter depressions.  It is more than just taking images.  For me, this lesson was an accident. Five trips back and forth to Africa, and a few key experiences later I began to understand the nature and satisfaction of the photographic wildlife game.

Two years ago, I spent two consecutive weeks in Zimbabwe with the unique opportunity to follow African Wild Dogs. I had no interest in the dogs as a subject (and secretly figured that I’d be able to see a spotted cat at least somewhere during that time), but the opportunity was in front of me, so I went along for the ride.  For two full weeks, morning and afternoon, I followed dogs.  We napped with them in the heat of the day, and raced alongside them at dusk; we watched while they greeted each other as the sun came back over the horizon.

I was forced by circumstance to ignore every other photographic subject, and forced to quell the urge to take ‘pretty pictures’ of everything we were speeding by.  I was forced to relax, and forced to focus.  I was forced to give up the need to constantly shoot, and was forced to figure out when to shoot.  We had one subject-it was my only choice.  The first week, was filled with pretty portraits of dogs.

And then, I started to shoot.

I became driven; by the shots I missed, and the shots I didn’t have yet, by the behavior I was learning but had not yet been smart enough to capture.  I wanted the chase, the kill, the greetings, the licking, the frolicking and the blurred motion. I wanted dogs on green grass, and puppies and play.  My editor side kicked in-I was going to be brutal to myself-if it wasn’t 100%, then “DELETE.”  There was a tomorrow, and I would try again.  If I could say,  “I already have that shot,” then I needed to look for new ones, and new ways.  I didn’t want pretty shots.  I wanted compelling ones.  I wanted ones that others didn’t have.

And that’s when it hit me.  The feeling I’d been missing in my images was now clear: there was no Intimacy, and there was no Time.  I’d never taken the time.  I had been a ‘drive by shooter.”  It finally clicked-this time in my brain.  This was how I wanted to shoot; in horizons lined with black storm clouds, in the wind and pouring rain; in air too hot to breath, and mornings too cold to get out of the sleeping bag.  The only way to truly capture behavior is to witness it in all situations.  The dogs were dealing with their environment, and the only way to tell their story, was to be doing the same as them.

It’s a simple equation.  Time.  If you are not there, you can not capture it, and if you don’t spend the time, you won’t know HOW to capture it.  Time teaches behavior, and behavior teaches anticipation.  Anticipation of behavior, let’s you better position yourself for the possibility of shot you don’t already have.

The beauty of photography is that it is completely subjective.  There is nothing at all wrong with ‘pretty pictures.’  But, if you want to create a solid body of work, or a thorough portfolio of a subject, you must push yourself further.

Find a subject-like it or not-but, stick with it.  Shoot that subject at night, shoot it in the rain.  Shoot your subject with a long lens and a macro.  Shoot it at slow shutter speeds. Get on the ground.  Get in the air.  Use a pole cam and a remote.  Study what others have done, and then try everything they haven’t.  The more you work one subject, the better your images will get.  Spend the time, go back again and again and you will reap the rewards.

I’ve finally graduated from the portraits, and pretty pictures.  Today, getting the images I want, means day to day with my subject.  I didn’t know that until I actually did it, and for me, living on a continent 14 hours away, makes it a much more difficult task. Two years and many trips later, I’m still not done with my dogs. I don’t yet have all the moments that I want.  But, I do have a solid, intimate portfolio of a highly endangered species that has not only taught me how to shoot, but how to fall in love all over again-cats might just have fallen to number two-I never did see that spotted cat in Zimbabwe.

Thank you to Gerry who has given me the space to tell this story. He asked me last week to post something here today.  I’d given him this subject, but taken no note of the date. The irony is, that today, May 13th, the June issue of BBC Wildlife Magazinegoes on the stands.  Inside, you will find 7 spreads of my Wild Dogs.  I showed the dog portfolio on a whim, and BBC thought they were strong enough to run.

So, if you didn’t believe before, time (and effort!) does help you create better images.  It put mine on the pages of a publication that was once an unattainable dream.

Keep shooting-it’s worth it.

Karine Aigner

Karine’s Links:

• Website: Karine Aigner Photography
• Blog: Karine’s Blog

I’ve always had a love for nature and the world around me and photography just opened up my eyes even more to the wonders of this world. To me there is nothing more special than capturing unique moments in time and having them there forever for the world to see. Photography is such a powerful medium because it allows me to show others how I see the world, not how they see it, and that is a gift I never take for granted.

Wildlife photography is a whole lot more than simply clicking a shutter button, it’s about telling a story by capturing the character, expressions and very nature of an animal. If I can stir an emotion in the viewers of my images then I believe my job is done.

I have a few simple golden rules that I not only apply to my photography but also to my life as a whole.

- Patience is the key to obtaining anything you set your mind to.
- Persistence sure does pay off.
- Practice makes perfect.
- Never set yourself up for disappointment.
- Take what is given to you and be grateful for it.
- Make mistakes, lots of them, but better yet, learn from them.

If you’re not willing to be patient as a wildlife and nature photographer then you’re doubtfully ever going to succeed at it. Even if wildlife photography is merely a hobby for you, don’t you want to be the best you can be? Capturing those special moments in time does indeed require lots of patience, lots of mistakes and lots of failures. Many photographers may wait years or even a lifetime for that prize winning image but they wait.

There’s a lot to be said for planning but more often than not with wildlife photography you can plan as much as you like and still not achieve what you set out to do. After all it’s really up to nature to come up with the goods, you cannot force an animal to do anything. You simply have to be there, ready and waiting, camera in hand for when the moment does happen and believe me those moments happen when you least expect it. If you have a specific image in mind that you want to achieve, it could take you years of waiting for that moment to transpire but your patience and persistence will pay off one day.

But make no mistake, if you’re travelling halfway around the world to capture images of a rare and endangered species then for sure you have a lot of planning to do like obtaining permits, visas, flight tickets etc and also getting someone who knows the area to guide you in and out, but that’s only 50% of the job done, you may get there, spend weeks waiting and not capture a single image or even a glimpse of your subject or you may arrive to an entire trip that’s rained out. That’s the game unfortunately and it does carry with it its frustrations but if you simply give up when you don’t achieve something then how do you know that your next trip is not the one when it happens?

The more you practice your wildlife photography, the better you will get at it and if you’re not making mistakes you’re simply not trying hard enough. Only by making mistakes can you learn from them and be better prepared the next time something special happens. There’s no reason to beat yourself up about missing a special moment because you did not know your camera well enough or did not have the right lens. Instead accept the failure, learn from it and you’ll be better prepared the next time.

Beginners to wildlife photography can learn a lot in a short time by going on a photographic safari with a professional company who have guides and photographers who can advise you and teach you some of their tricks right there in the bush. You may only ever need to go on one or two photographic safaris and learn what you need but some people may need a lot more trips, it really depends on how quickly you learn but it’s a great starting point.

With today’s high speed cameras you’ll often be out in the bush with other photographers and when something happens you’ll hear those cameras rattling away like machine guns but that’s not always necessarily the best thing to do. I have high speed cameras and in the past I used to shoot like a tyrant at high frame rates and return home with thousands of very similar images to sort through but this merely makes the selection and deletion process that much harder. Instead I purposely slow down my shooting rate to capture less images but each one is quite different from the next and almost all are in perfect focus. By shooting slower it also forces you to think a little more about the image you are capturing, you look carefully at the composition, you look for potential obstructions or distractions in the image, you make sure you’re not doing silly things like cutting off the animals feet, you look for any potential faults in your image while you’re still there and not when you get home. Also by shooting slower you always know for a fact that you have space in your camera’s memory buffer for the next image, when everyone else around you has filled their buffers and are waiting anxiously to take their next shot, that’s quite often when something special happens and that will be your prize for shooting a bit slower.

Most of all have fun with your wildlife photography, it’s such a privilege to be able to live in South Africa and have access to so much wildlife photography opportunities so when you are in the bush enjoy every moment with and without the camera. When nature does choose to give you a special moment to capture on film, capture it, be thankful and enjoy the moment, you may never see that same thing ever again. If a camera is nowhere nearby, just enjoy the moment and take the memories home with the highest megapixel camera in existence, your human eye.

Mitchell Krog

Mithell’s Links:

• Website: The Living Canvas

Mitchell’s Biography:

During the last few years Mitchell has achieved much recognition with his images, he has had his works published in a number of publications locally and internationally and has received numerous awards and commendations for his images. Mitchell regularly contributes photography articles and images to photographic and lifestyle magazines as well as media outlets and various web sites. He has a strong background in environmental and conservation fields and this gives him a solid understanding and appreciation of the threatened ecosystems and environments which he so often has the privilege to photograph. He has a firm belief that it is difficult to save what cannot be seen and has often used his images for motivating environmental causes.