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!

I shot this photo at one of the many dams in the Kruger National Park, it was a bright day out so the colors weren’t the best but I thought it worked pretty good as a Black & White image.

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.

I’ve been trying to capture the movement of the stars since my most early days of photography but I could never seem to get it right!  On a recent trip to the Kruger National Park, the sky was too clear to not try it again!  I found a well secluded spot in a far corner of Satara camp amongst the bushes, away from all the lights from the campsites.  I set my camera up on the tripod while the Hyenas were watching me from the other side of the fence and I shot this photo.  I left my shutter open for 35 minutes which I thought shows a good amount of movement in the stars.  Enough time to go have a shower and make some coffee!

A rare sight in the Kruger National Park, I have only seen them twice in the many times I have visited there and this was the first time I was actually able to get a shot of one standing up close enough and in good light! Shot with a Canon 600mm f4 Lens which I got from the guys at Arrow Photo to use for the week.

Before posting photos of my wildlife shots, I always like to read up about the animals and learn a bit about their behaviour etc.  Turns out, while these guys look really cute and friendly, they are heavily territorial and will attack other intruders with force!  Including humans!  They are also a migratory species of Kingfisher and usually fly back to the Equitorial zones during the dry seasons.  We spotted many of them on a recent trip to the Kruger National Park and these are some of the shots.  Taken with my Canon 400mm lens(2 top images) and a Canon 600mm lens(bottom image) which the guys at Arrow Photo gave to me to try out for the week!  Needless to say it was awesome!

Definitely one of my favourite birds and a true symbol of the African bush.  I can sit and watch these guys for long periods as they dig around in the foliage for food and chat to one another from across the branches.  These are the very birds that are engraved on my wedding ring and featured on our wedding invitations as a symbol of our love of the Africa wildlife.  I shot this photo on a recent trip to the Kruger National Park, I love the setting and display of the Hornbill as he jumps around going about his daily routine.