With all the over cast weather and rain this weekend I decided to have a look in my archives for some cheerful colourful  photos.
This what I came up with ....

Not much to say just just enjoy any feed back is welcome.

A Closer Look At Life

I have been taking a closer look at the natural world again.here is the result.

Praying Mantis Baby

This Baby Mantis is about 4mm long not sure if it is a leaf mantis or a stick Mantis as it is so tiny.

Here I was looking for bark texture when I spotted this "face" in the bark.

This photo is one of those anomalies that one finds in nature.
Some people will see faces and some wont it just depends on one's imagination

Heat Map

I was experimenting with this type of photograhy when I came up with these colours just so "cool".

Hidden Secrets

Again this tree bark revealed some hidden secrets that white blob is a larvae of some kind.

Here I found this screw in the tree all I can think of the original farmer or miner might have placed it there while prospecting for gold.

Spider & Wasp

In this photo if one looks carefully into the crack on the right a spider and a wasp are faced off, i don't know which one is hunting the other.
One way or the other it will end up as a bad day for one.

Twisted Life

These vines growing in the forest just made for an interesting photo.
This photo is a three shot HDR with the shots 1 F stop apart.

The left over rain from the previous night just an interesting exercise in still life.










For the technically minded the Camera is Pentax K7
The Lens is a Tamron 100mm macroF2.8
Flash gun is FZ 360 with a bodged flash disperser  made from opaque plastic drawing sheet.


All Comments are welcome.

Water Birds And White Rino

 Been a bit slow this week about posting some photos. I have been going through some of the back log I found these from a couple of weeks ago that I completely forgot to post.

This cool customer just watched me carefully secure in the knowledge that there was 15m of water between us.

Avocet

Crested Grebe

Snack Time

 This crested Grebe came floating along then just ducked under the water and surfaced with his fish snack.

Flight of the Intruder

White Rino

White Rino

Mines bigger than Yours

This pair of Barn Swallows were taking turns in perching on this branch. The one on the perch wasn't giving it up at all, so the flying swallow kept buzzing him.

This Rino looks like he broke off the tip of his horn  most likely rooting around for some tasty root or some thing or creating a wallow for it self.




















This pare of White Rino were having a sniffing contest checking each other out, they tend to have rather poor eye sight so they use a very keen sense of smell to aid them.

These two Rinos were just socializing as you can see one has had its horn removed as an anti poaching measure, but unfortunately it seems that the poachers are complete devoid of morals and any sense of pity as they are now killing the Rinos without horns out of spite.

White Rino

To be able to get this close to these magnificent animals to photograph them is a real privilege, they look and behave fairly docile manner until they have a calf then they are the most aggressive creatures i have the honor of being chased by a couple of years ago a female Rino with a calf took exception to my car and chased it for about 500mm at the park speed limit the Rino was gaining on the car so needles to say we got good move on, once the Rino Cow was satisfied that that she made her point she left me alone and the car intact.

Saturday 27 October 2012

Saturday started off very slowly with not many birds about as i headed towards the riverine forest area where cuckoos are known to hang out.The Diederik Cuckoo was around and making a noise it stayed well hidden. This Redchested Cuckoo appeared and called once or twice then disappeared.

Redchested Cuckoo

Colourful Bugs

Some bugs caught my eye they made for a bit of colour on the leaf this photo was the result.

Yellow Stamen

Next was this flower that this amazing array of yellow stamen the red of the flower and the yollow make for an interesting combination of clours.

Greenback Heron

Eventually ending up at the bird hide the action started to pick up with the Greenback Heron putting in his appearance. He soon had a fish then went and hid behind some reads so no photos possible but could just see it through the reads as it beat the fish to death and then ate it. 

Greenback Heron - Takeoff

Purple Heron - Hunting

Purple Heron

The next visitor the dam was the Purple Heron this bird is quite exquisite when the sun shine on it in a certain way the feathers seam to glow gold in colour.

Burchell's Coucal

The Burchell's Coucal put in his appearance he had good look around found a waevers nest that was unattended reached in snatched the chick and then cool as you like just perched on the tree next to the nest. 

This Red Bishop and one that is out of frame then attacked the Coucal .

I you look carefully you can see the chick in it beak .

This bird is truly the neighbor from hell.

Olive Thush

This chap popped out of the bush and just sat on the rock in the sun then flew off he just looks cool.

A Days Bird Photograpghy

Saturday while going to the gardens the weather looked decidedly dodgy, arriving there went down to the river  forest area where I could hear some cuckoos calling. Little did I know what a mornings photography was going to take place.
As the light was not of the best I fitted the flash to my camera and took a few experimental shots to check settings etc.then settled down to wait. These photos are what transpired so please enjoy as I had a great time photographing these birds.

Robin Chat

This Robin was the fist to appear out of the undergrowth.

Crested Barbet

This Punk rocker lead me on a merry dance, while trying to photograph it.

Diederik Cuckoo

This very shy bird flew off each time i tried to photograph it.

Black  Cuckoo

Difficult to see and find.

Juvenile Black Eagle - Launch

This Youngster is still learning how to fly.

Gliding Practice 

Have a great week and lets hear from you and feel free to share with your friends.

A Day of Macro Photograhy

African Bee

A very satisfying day of Macro Photography.
On the right is an African bee that had spent the night in the open. As it was moving very slowly from flower to flower on this succulent, after the sun shone on it, it soon began behaving normally. 

Grasshopper

Red Clivias

I never realized that grasshoppers were so hairy.
As I was focusing on the grasshopper I was just hoping that the hairiness would show up on the photo, it remained very still during the photo-shoot at the end of the shoot with great dignity just stalking off into the bush that he was sitting on.












These Clivias were in great shape and with vibrant colour.

Purple Succulent

It was the colour of this flower that caught my eye and i just had to capture this beauty.