Whilst, as a photographer, you aim for the perfect, explainable shots that instill the emotion and action of ‘the moment’, sometimes you capture images where you genuinely have no clue at all as to what is going on. This is one such shot. There seems to be some affinity around a display of the trunk on one’s head and a stance that defy’s logic and reason, but this does not help in any way at all to explain what on earth is going on!
Answers on a postcard please!
12th August marks World Elephant Day and its aim is to bring the world together to help and protect our elephants. Regular followers of Taraji Blue will know that elephants are one of our most favourite animals. We have been privileged to spend many a happy hour in their company, mainly in the National Parks of South Africa and Kenya and we will never grow tired of their company.I thought it pertinent to therefore share some of our favourite experiences of elephants and some of our favourite photos that we have captured over the years.
Meeting the Herd:
At Harpoor Dam in Addo National Park we were speechless to come across one the largest herds of elephants we have ever seen. Despite their bulk and size they appeared out of the bush silently, marching slowly in formation toward the watering hole. I stopped counting at 40 elephants as my heart could take no more. Instead I focused my attention on the tiny babies who were confidently leading the herd across the plains. Ears flapping and tails swinging with excitement they almost tripped over themsleves in glee. We spent a couple of hours with them, before slowly trailing them back towards our camp at a respectful distance. Elated and buzzing with adrenaline we got back to camp and set up a braai under the darkening skies. As the stars came out we heard a rustle to the bushes at our right. Seeking a vantage point beside our tent I peeped on tiptoes to see who or what was sneaking up on us. I needn’t have bothered with the tip toes, because right next to our tent was a HUGE male bull in the midst of the 40 strong herd who’d popped by to say hello once more. Who could ask for a better night?!
Talking with the elephants:
Elephants communicate with a spoken language that they need to learn from other elephants, and with body language that is instinctive at birth. Being so close to these gentle giants you can often hear their rumblings as they communicate to one another as they graze and travel.As they move silently past you, your respect naturally turns to fear. Providing you remain totally silent and still, they’ll not harm you, or even glance at you, but on the rare occasion that you find yourself accidentally invading their space there’s no mistaking their trumpet calls – often used as a sign of distress or as a show of strength. The noise is unmistakable and terrifying. It’ll make every hair on your body stand on end as you brace yourself for the charge.
Mr Crotchety Pants:
It was a lovely afternoon – the sun was beginning to lower and the temperature had become very pleasant. We set out from camp for a game drive and decided to take a nearby loop road to enjoy the last few hours of the day. Barely a few km down the road we saw a HUGE bull elephant standing beside this tree. Due to the low vegetation height we saw him in plenty time and parked a very respectful distance from him to see if he’d walk on. I was the driver that afternoon and really did not want to scare the mother-in-law too much by driving too close (she was in the front passenger seat beside me).
As the elephant started to amble toward the road it became evident that we’d need to wait this out – as there was no way I was going to try and squeeze past him to continue our drive – nor was I too keen on getting any closer. So I popped the engine into neutral and we waited patiently. After about ten minutes we’d started to form quite a queue of traffic behind us and I was worried that, on this single track road, the other drivers might start getting very impatient (unfortunately not many people are that respectful of elephants and will happily drive on quickly by). It was at this exact moment that I recalled how closely packed the row of cars behind us was that the elephant took an immediate dislike to me. He swung to face us head on. Standing in the middle of the dirt track, ears spread wide he raised his trunk towards us. The sense of annoyance was intense. With a very meaningful and not well intentioned gait he started to stomp towards us – throwing out his right front leg to the side as he approached. It became very clear that this was a very unhappy ellie. I had no chose but to start the engine up – something that rattled him even more and he sped up, coming closer every second. My heart was racing and adrenaline was pumping through my body – I threw the car into reverse gear but had no where to go as the car behind was right up my jacksie. I started to gesticulate to the driver behind – but he seemed oblivious – it was only when he saw the elephant through our front window that he realised that hulk of grey was not bad weather in the sky, but a very angry bull. Regardless, I decided that I could not afford to wait any longer – I was petrified. I started to reverse, figuring that the worst that could happen is that I forcefully push the guy behind me back and have a dented rear-end for the pleasure. Thankfully the driver behind got the message – and he too started to reverse into the guy behind him – it felt like the slowest chain reaction in the world.
My first elephant encounter:
So dominant, so overwhelming. You’ll struggle to take a breath the first time a wild elephant walks by. Rooted to the spot you’ll want to reach out, overwhelmed yet unafraid of the magnamity that is this wild beast. You’ll notice details you never have before. The long, seductive eyelashes, slowly fluttering to protect the tiniest of eyes. The whiskers protruding from the mouth, drawing further attention to the stature and age of the matriarch. The minimalist tail, naked but for a few tatty end hairs which the young cling onto.
As the elephant ambles by, you’ll notice the plodding nature of the giant feet and your attention will be drawn to the footprints left behind in the sand, their size somewhat magnified as the youngest of the herd gingerly follow in the elders’ footsteps. It’s almost hard to spot the smallest among the herd. So protective, so loving, the elder females will encourage the young to walk in the centre, ever mindful of potential dangers yet seemingly oblivious to the risks of such small and fragile frames underfoot. Morphing between giddy with excitement and shy and retiring, each elephant calf will transform before your very eyes as they gain confidence with each step and they explore new landscapes.
Read more about World Elephant Day @ http://worldelephantday.org/
Under a beautifully patterned sky, the Three Rondavels rise up from the green floor and river of Blyde River Canyon, Mpumalanga, South Africa. We took a detour on our long trip back to JNB from Letaba in 2013, getting up early so we could fit in some of the sights around Graskop. I’m glad we did – we arrived at this point in Blyde around 9am, sun slowly burning through the residual clouds, and with nobody else at the site. After a pleasant gaze into the horizon we turned back to the car, just in time to pass a huge chattering German tour party descending down the path. Fortuitous timing!
The main viewpoint seems to have moved from when we first visited as romantic newlyweds on honeymoon back in 2002 – but that’s not the only change… our camera equipment and photography skills have improved somewhat. For a before and after see the shots above and below….I’ll let you guess which is which 🙂
One Friday afternoon as we were heading back to camp (in Kruger National Park, South Africa), we came across an incredibly playful group of Impala. They were bouncing, chasing each other, mock fighting, charging and seemingly just really enjoying a rare cool afternoon. We stopped to watch them for a while and it became apparent that there was a ‘path’ that they were all ‘racing’ on, which took them through a tunnel of trees. I decided to set my infrared camera up to try and capture a shot of them running through the trees – but the light was not right. For once, the sun was hidden and the impala were in too much shadow. However, after 10 minutes the sun broke through through the clouds for a brief moment and cast a shard of light into the trees – just as the impala ran through. Heart pounding I took the opportunity to capture a shot (and hoped for the best). This is the image that resulted.
For the majority of my infread photography I use an infrared modified Canon 550D and favour the prime 50mm lens.
Two southern carmine bee-eaters catch flying insects simultaneously, in Kruger National Park. Tough light here as it is nearing 7am in a South African January, there is some air distortion and I couldn’t convince the sun to come a little further round closer to us to better fill the faces. Never mind, glad these chaps found some breakfast that morning 🙂
South Africa is a truly amazing country, and if you get the chance to visit I urge you to do so. Photos from our trip are available in Taraji Blue’s South Africa photo gallery. If you’re planning a visit you might find my trip reports of interest on the Taraji Blue Kruger Park blog.
To kick things off for Google+’s African Tuesday here’s My African Favourite – elephants. No matter the excitement we experience when seeing kills, unusual activity, or new species of mammal or bird, we still end up with a longing to see elephants just doing their thing, keeping close, clearly communicating and exploring the world. There are several species which exist in their own taxonomic order themselves – effectively their own branch of evolution, and elephants for me (since we don’t have living dinosaurs) are the most emblematic icon of the natural diversity we have on this planet, and their tender interactions point to their longevity both as a species and as families.
In this image, a group of triumphant African elephant wander away, trunks swinging, sated from the watering hole in Kruger National Park. Elephant appear and disappear with astonishing speed – they are huge, but the gentle trees that patter the landscape are usually bigger and swallow these creatures silently. Unusually, I think elephants can be picturesque subjects from both behind and front, due to the oversize nature of their appendages (and those massive air conditioning ears!)
Africa is so diverse, but when you look at the habitat maps (at least for southern Africa) of elephant it’s surprising to see the small range of elephant. Indeed when we traveled to Kgalagadi, despite the wonderful landscapes and amazing setting in which to see cats, birds, ground animals and wonderful stars, Africa somehow didn’t seem Africa without at least a hint of these wonderful – but confined – friends. That’s why elephants are my African favourite on Google+’s African Tuesday today – we’ve just this afternoon arrived back from a long trip in SA including Addo, so hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to add some more.
This is a technical post about what to do when (before!) equipment fails and how to work around difficulties in non-urban locations. Earlier this year we travelled to Kruger National Park with a small group and spent a fantastic two weeks exploring the southern part of the park. We’d been before and have plenty of experience in Africa and isolated locations. The first few days went well technically and thankfully this was the period we saw most wildlife. As the trip went on though, our equipment started to misbehave. In this post I’ll take each occurrence, detail what happened and what I’d do differently in the future.
We usually back up our CF cards to a pair of Freecom Tough Drives before clearing them ready for the next day’s shoot, and use a laptop to do the copy. On this trip, something odd started happening: extreme lockups for 30 seconds or so whether nothing was possible, then a return for 10 or 20 seconds, and back into a lockup. The computer was basically unusable (not helpful for Marie trying to prepare some work materials on holiday) and this was the first time it’d exhibited this behaviour. I suspected an SSD failure but out there not much can be done to work around it – the laptop went back in the boot of the car and stayed there.
Three things to learn:
a) don’t change anything before you go on a trip. We hadn’t, actually – the SSD has been in use for some time, but clearly something updated or the disk hit some issues which meant it performed terribly. Once I got back, I had some success through updating the Intel RST drivers, but even then there are issues with Windows 8 which mean I’ve switched back to a spinning disk for greater reliability in the field.
b) take plenty of storage for your cameras. We were a little pushed by the end up the trip, to the extent of having to use our near-abandoned 1Gb CFs cards on the final days, which with 25mb files coming out of the 7Ds is like using your final roll of film. We just scraped through, and obviously could have started to sift through the early cards to erase clearly missed photos, but that just cuts into your day.
c) take a second operating system. Probably the main learning experience from this particular drive failure is that when you are only using the laptop to do data transfers (rather than Lightroom processing or editing) then it doesn’t matter much what you are using. In future I’ll take a USB stick with bootable Ubuntu installed so that if the laptop drive fails entirely – and this is always a possibility – there’s still the opportunity to use the machine as a bridge between camera and external disk. There are other ways to do this – a Nexus 7 or smartphone can feasibly be a backup with the correct cables and software.
In contrast to the above advice not to tweak and play around with a stable system, one of the major frustrations for me was having a Canon EOS 7D which had performed flawlessly for the previous 3 years but suddenly started freezing once we’d reached Kruger. It would seize up entirely without warning and responded to nothing – even the power switch had no impact. The only way to get back into shooting mode was to remove both batteries from the grip and re-insert them, at which point it’d be available again. This was clearly frustrating on self-drive safari, where things happen quickly and you have seconds to stop the vehicle, pick up your camera, and find that nothing works.
After I returned home I discovered there had been a firmware update a couple of months previously which addressed this problem, and having applied it I haven’t had the same lockups since. However it’s one of those cases where it is worth spending the time to ensure that everything about your gear is clean and in order – and a rare occasion where ‘if it ain’t broke (yet) don’t fix it’ is not applicable: keep an eye on the release notes from your camera manufacturer and if something seems a serious issue, even if it isn’t hitting you yet, consider upgrading the firmware to avoid disappointment on location.
On a whim after seeing Charlie Hamilton-James’s fabulous shots of cheetah in infrared we fancied a try and had bought a little Olympus XZ-1 (“Little Yellow”) due to reports of the infrared blocking filter being pretty ineffective. Experiments in the far north of Finland with Little Yellow and an infrared pass filter were interesting (see below) – however the slow shutter speeds required, the resulting high noise from a smaller sensor camera, and the fact that you have to pre-focus before attaching the black filter made it clear that this wouldn’t really work in somewhere as fast paced as Africa. While preparing for the trip we decide at the last minute to splash out for a DSLR infrared conversion – as existing 18mp+ users we picked up a second-hand Canon EOS 550D (“Big Blue”) from Protech Photographic. Great service from both companies – the camera had been on both round trips in less than 10 days and was ready to roll.
However, this meant little time for testing, and even though we’re used to using Sandisk Extreme CF cards in our DSLRs, the 550D’s SD card slot tripped me and for some reason I went for normal Sandisk SDs. It wasn’t until later in the trip that we realised that while the RAW capture rate was fine, any attempt to capture HD video (yeah, in infrared) was thwarted as the cards just couldn’t keep up for more than a second or two.
Action: know your equipment, think about your needs, don’t scrimp
Meet a Montezuma Oropendola, they are, quite simply, one of the most impressive and incredible birds that I have had the pleasure of spending time with. Not only are they a joy to look at, they are also incredible to watch.
The thing is, you hear them before you tend to spot them. Despite them being quite big birds, it’s not their bulk which attracts your attention in the treetop canopy, it’s their many display sounds which range from the crackling of sheet lightning to the most bizarre gurgling, all of which is designed to attract females. We were fortunate enough to be in Costa Rica during their breeding season and we spent many a happy hour in our treetop cabin watching their elaborate courtship rituals which involve the male swinging forward on the branch to display his beautiful yellow tail feathers whilst gurgling as loud as he can. Heck – even I was attracted – this is seriously attractive stuff! However, I was not the intended audience, and if the display is not up to scratch, females will choose to mate with a superior performer. The stakes are high!
Costa Rica is a truly amazing country, and if you get the chance to visit I urge you to do so. Photos from our trip are available in Taraji Blue’s Costa Rica photo gallery. If you’re planning a visit you might find my trip reports of interest at https://blog.tarajiblue.com/region/travels/costa-rica/
As the sun sets, an empty river boat returns to dock on the narrow spit of land that is Tortuguero, Costa Rica, closely followed by a barely visible silhouetted bird in flight.
Tortuguero National Park is located on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and covers an area of 77,032 acres (31,174 ha). Tortuguero is bordered on the north by the Barra del Colorado Wildlife Refuge (with habitats and climate similar to Tortuguero), to the south by the mouth of the Parismina River and the Cariari National Wetlands, the town of Tortuguero at the mouth of the Tortuguero River, and the Dr. Archie Carr Wildlife Refuge, which is a biological station to carry out turtle tagging program run by the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (Now known was the Sea Turtle Conservancy). The park has worked with the neighboring village of Tortugueroto help its inhabitants understand that preserving their natural resources is the key to encourage eco-tourism. It’s a stunning place to visit – as a tourist you can watch the sea turtles lay eggs in the evening, take a dawn boat ride to spot Boa Constrictors lazing on tree branches, sloths hanging from branches and monkeys bounding through treetops, then in the afternoon you can take a kayak out by yourself to explore the narrow waterways of this incredible place.
We loved Costa Rica – it was a largely unplanned and last minute holiday, but one which was so enriching and we cannot wait to return. Until then, I have shared all kinds of trip reports, reviews and hints and tips on the Taraji Blue Costa Rica blog – so if you fancy visiting, why not check it out?
Photos from our trip to Costa Rica have recently been re-processed wiht new software and re-released. You can view our new Costa Rica photo blog here.
A spider monkey splays its body across a fern-like tree, making it difficult to work out which limb is which.
Geoffroy’s spider monkey is considered endangered by the IUCN, as it’s primarily distributed amongst the narrow tracts of rainforest in Central America and is susceptible to habitat loss through deforestation. This is seen from the riverways around Tortuguero, Costa Rica.
Additional images from our trip to Costa Rica can be viewed in the Taraji Blue online photo gallery.
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