Some of them creep you out, others may even kill you. Yet – it’s hard to resist their eery beauty. I never get anywhere close to them … Thus, when it comes to taking pics of spiders, snakes, and similar creatures, a long lens comes in quite handy.
At first glance they all look alike, but then, when you look closer you realize that every single animal has its very unique personality, either expressed through posture, facial features, body shape, behavior or fancy headgear.
I love to take pictures of giraffes and zebras when they are standing in some kind of formation (this includes reflections!). Of course, if they form silhouettes against beautiful backgrounds I don’t mind either. 🙂
Impalas, kudus, klipspringers, nyalas, wildebeest, oryxs, steenboks, waterbucks … alone or in large groups – they are always worth a shot!
Black and white rhinos, elephants and hippos: they are truly magnificent creatures, though quite a challenge to ban on film as the composition can easily get boring and static. Oftentimes, they may also look “classier” (more artsy?) in black and white. This said, I hope you enjoy this selection of coloured pictures as well. My personal favourite: the “turning hippos” (Ngorongoro Crater).
I intended to draw a lot more while in Africa, but I leaned more towards photography. Nonetheless, I found time (while in an awfully bumpy jeep) to make two quick sketches of the wildlife.
Since my sketchbooks are currently being graded by the IGCSE exam board I’m not technically allowed to put any of my work up anywhere yet, but just to assure you that this isn’t a random void in the middle of our portfolio (oops. It’s like a black hole at the moment), here’s a quick preview.
Very revealing, I know 🙂
So this is pretty much how it’s going to work: since no one (not even I. I tried.) can read my writing, I’m going to make a video for each sketchbook (I might actually break it down into units rather than sketchbooks, which would make more sense. It would also be more palatable), in which I’ll try to explain what I was thinking at the time.
These videos will come as an abridged and an unabridged version (abridged first), and for the former I’ll try to limit myself to three or so minutes, probably just enough to flip through the book and give an overview of it. I don’t know how long the unabridged ones will get, but given the size of the books and my tendency to talk off at tangents when discussing my art, it might be formidable.
(If there ends up being no unabridged version, that just means that I severely overestimated my capacity for talking about my sketchbooks, and three minutes turned out to be ample time. I’m just a bit skeptical about that at the moment.)
^ I also have pictures of one of my sketchbooks. If anyone would like me to upload those in addition to the videos, I’ll take pictures of the other two and put them up as well (:
Weavers, bee-eaters, rollers, owls, kingfishers, hornbills, magpie shrikes, secretary birds, herons, ducks, storks, marabous, vultures, cranes, eagles, drongos, ibis, flamingoes, hamercops, champagne birds, kites, … Without exception they are all beautiful, elegant, and never boring. The pictures above were taken in Botswana (Okavango Delta), South Africa (Phinda, Ngala, Kirkmans), Namibia (Sossusvlei), and Tanzania (Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater). You may wonder what my favourite bird is? My honest answer: the African Hawk Eagle. Although the flamingo is a close second. What is yours?
African Wild Dogs – we did not see them for many years; they are indeed a rare sighting. But finally we lucked out and came across two large packs in Ngala, South Africa. One of them counting 19 individuals, the other about 10. We watched them tease elephants, ‘play’ with a group of buffalo bachelors, fight over a recent mini kill (a shrub hare) and scare off hyenas. They are fierce, fast, constantly on the move and highly successful predators. In short, absolutely stunning animals.
Cheetahs, leopards, and, yes, hyenas …
The Hirt Portfolios 