Being a photographer at the Maloof Money Cup is definitely a great experience, watching the pros skate and getting to shoot photos with them is such a pleasure!  I spent more time this year hanging out with the guys and gettin to know them a little better.  It seriously helps for the photography side of things and you are no longer just some random guy shooting photos.  I took Braydon and Garrett to see the Lions at a sanctuary just outside of Kimberley…  All the animals on this farm were pretty much rescued from being hunted.  There are many ‘canned’ Lion Hunting farms around Kimberley, it’s absolutely disgusting on every level.  I was really stoked to take these guys to this farm and see that there are still people trying to do some kind of good out there.  Braydon was definitely not too sure about being in the cage with the Lions, as you can see…  Garrett didn’t mind it too much!  Braydon did teach a small Bat Eared Fox about Ozzy Osbourne though…

Cheetah are most certainly a treat to see in the wild, if you’re lucky enough that is!  We haven’t seen them often in the wild and on the rare occasion that we have, they’ve usually been far off in the distance with no photo oppertunities.  While on our trip through Botswana recently, I spotted these 2 from a long way off…  They were relaxing in the early morning sun on top of a Termite mound.  It was picture perfect so I decided to take the road that would lead us right next to them but as we approached, they got scared and ran off!  I really thought we had lost them but we managed to keep our eyes on them as they went from Termite mound to Termite mound and finally close enough for me to snap this shot with my 400mm lens.  I think it was a mother and her not so young cub. Pitty about the collar around her neck.

I recently camped at “Ihaha” camp in Chobe National Park, right on the banks of the Chobe River.  Early morning drives were always a success as the daytime animals started getting ready for whatever may lie ahead.  Troops of Chacma Baboons would come down from their tree-top sleeping places to get some sun and grooming time in before heading off to find food in the bush.  I always like to turn my car off and sit and watch them for a while, it can be quite comical to watch the young enteracting the the adults, the photographic oppertunities are actually endless.  These guys were just a few km’s from where we camped.

Seeing a Leopard in the wild is probably one of the best things you can experience when on a Safari.  The only time it’s not so fun is when there are 300 tour operators loaded with tourirsts, all trying to get a glimps of the elusive cat.  We were soo lucky in Chobe when my wife, “Sarah” spotted this Leopard sleeping just on the side of the dirt track.   We were there for a long time, just enjoying the moment and shooting photos.  It’s always nice to see how excited other people are when you show them what you have spotted…  It was nice to not have one tour operator vehicle in site!

We came across these Jackals while driving through the Makgadikgadi National Park in Botswana.  The morning light was perfect so we spent quite some time watching them scuffle over some old Zebra bones.

It’s always been said that the best time to photograph wildlife is either in the early morning or late afternoon when the light is low and the shadows are less.  This is totally true,  but when you don’t see anything all morning and you are still driving around closer to mid day, your next best option is to hope for some clouds…  I shot these photos of a male Lion on the side of the road while on our way to Skukuza from Satara camp.  If it wasn’t for the clouds, the shot would have been terrible!  There was a female close by but she was pretty much out of sight.  They were definitely a mating pair and I’m quite sure if we were to have hung around for an hour or 2, there would have been many more shots to be had.  I shot these with my Canon 400mm lens at F5.6.

One of the many “rules of thumb” when photographing birds is that they are best shot against a blue sky.  However, if it happens to be a cloudy day you can never go wrong with a nice contrasty Black & White image.  That is just my opinion though.  These 2 Vultures were sitting in an old dead tree, as Vultures usually do and started grooming one another…  A sight I have not often seen!

On our last trip to the Kruger National Park we came across these Hyena walking in the road.  They looked like they had had a rough night, probably stealing some food from a pride of Lions or something.  One of them was walking with a Zebra leg dangling from his jaws.  It was a comical sight as the leg swayed on the joint as the Hyena walked down the road with the other Hyenas following closely behind.  I turned my car side ways so that I could get my 400mm lens facing them as they approcahed and these are the shots I captured.

There’s a big difference between seeing and Elepahnt in the Kruger National Park and encountering an Elephant in the Kruger National Park…  Especially when it’s a young bull in hot persuit of a group of females!  I can honestly say, we had an encounter with this guy!  We first spotted him walking through the bush towards the road, he soon had his trunk in the air to find out what we were all about.  The first rules on most of the brochuers is to give these guys their space, especially when they’re in musth.  Their sexual drive can find them getting very angry, very quickly!  We watched this guy get closer and closer to the road and then realized he was coming to cross, exactly where I was parked!  I started my engine and backed up a safe distance for him to cross…  Ofcourse, he decided not to cross but rather follow the road in our direction!  We endedn up backing up for about 2km’s until a tour guide showed up and managed to scare him out of the way!  It was a cool encounter to say the least!

Most people go to the Kruger National Park to photograph or see the Big 5…  I go there to see and enjoy everything!  I was sitting at one of the many water holes in the park waiting for something interesting to make it’s presence when I noticed these little butterflies fluttering all over the place and landing on the grass next to the road.  It was a fresh early morning and the light was just perfect, giving the little guys a kind of glow.