African

All posts tagged African

Ugly and cute at the same time?

Posted by Steve Boer on March 6, 2015
Posted in: Nature, Photography, Scenery, Travel, Wildlife. Tagged: , , , . 5 Comments

The young ones at least, I think fall into the category of ugly and cute at the same time. These were interesting creatures. I like the way the mother is standing in a protective pose in between where we were in the jeep and her babies.


If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

Africa – Oribi Gorge Zip Line

Posted by Steve Boer on February 22, 2013
Posted in: Nature, Scenery. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

One of the most exciting things we did while in South Africa was riding the zip line at Oribi Gorge. It starts at the top and there are 10 runs zig-zagging down to the bottom. Some of them are almost a kilometer long and it’s possible to get going up to 100kph. If you ever are in the area I highly recommend doing this. There’s a couple of videos after the pics as well.

Zip line in Oribi GorgeCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/100, Aperture: f/11, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 22mm

Yo, zip! - Oribi GorgeCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/50, Aperture: f/11, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 10mm

 
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

Africa – Victoria Falls

Posted by Steve Boer on February 21, 2013
Posted in: Nature, Scenery. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 6 Comments

One of the scenic highlights of our trip to Africa was getting the chance to see Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. As usual, being part of a tour group, we didn’t have as much time to spend there as I might have liked. However, it was more than enough time to get completely soaked from all the spray coming up from the falls. Fortunately I had a plastic bag that I kept over my camera at all times, other than the few moments it took for each shot.

Victoria Falls Black & White HDRCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/4, Aperture: f/22, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 18mm

Victoria Falls WideCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/4, Aperture: f/22, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 40mm

Victoria Falls - Devil's CataractCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/2, Aperture: f/22, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 18mm

 
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

South Africa – Penguins

Posted by Steve Boer on February 18, 2013
Posted in: Nature, Wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This will be the final post in my South African wildlife series. Penguins. A lot of people are surprised to hear that there are penguins in Africa, but it’s true. We visited Boulder’s Beach in Simon’s Town on the southern cape which is home to a large penguin colony. It was really windy when we were there and I was afraid of getting sand in my lens, but I did manage to take a few shots of some penguins.

Penguin thinks he can flyCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/1000, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 400mm

I got your backCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/3200, Aperture: f/16, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 365mm

 
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

South Africa – Bugs

Posted by Steve Boer on February 17, 2013
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I got this caterpillar photo near the same old stump as the skinks from a couple posts ago. It had crawled up to the edge of a leaf and just didn’t have anywhere to go after that. The spider pictures were from our time in Kruger. They were literally everywhere, along side the pathways and in the bush. Fortunately not too much going across pathways, I guess they were well-travelled enough. The garden orb spiders were the most common and they were pretty big too. Up to a few inches in diameter.

Nowhere to go from hereCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/80, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 400mm

Garden Orb spiderCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/500, Aperture: f/16, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 400mm

Golden Orb SpidersCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/500, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 400mm

 
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

South Africa – Hippopotamus

Posted by Steve Boer on February 16, 2013
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I want one of these for Christmas…. I can’t help thinking of that dumb song whenever I look at my hippopotamus photos. We were blessed with the apparently somewhat rare sighting of a hippo on land. I guess they don’t leave the water very often. That one was actually along the banks of the Zambezi river in Zimbabwe. The other one was on one of our game drives in Kruger. These are another deceptively dangerous animal. At one point we had stopped in our jeep close to a little lake, and as soon as our guides realized there were hippos in it, they made us all get back in and they backed up a hundred yards or so. They are very territorial and aggressive.

Hippo with EgretCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/200, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 1600, Focal Length: 275mm

HippopotamusCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/500, Aperture: f/16, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 400mm

 
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

South Africa – Skinks

Posted by Steve Boer on February 15, 2013
Posted in: Nature, Wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

For the first week we were in South Africa, we stayed with our friends who are volunteering at the Seed of Hope community development organization (see bottom of post for more info). In their back yard was a big old stump that a bunch of skinks had turned into their home. I set my camera up on my tripod and sat behind it for a good half an hour or so just waiting for them to forget I was there and come out from hiding. It eventually paid off, and I got a couple of good shots.

Skink getting some sunCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/30, Aperture: f/16, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 400mm

Two Skinks on a logCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/50, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 400mm

 
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

South Africa – Warthogs

Posted by Steve Boer on February 14, 2013
Posted in: Nature, Wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

Today’s animal is one of those creatures that could be considered cute and ugly at the same time. The bumpy, tusked faces certainly aren’t attractive, but you can’t deny the little ones are cute. There weren’t many of these guys that would let us get very close. However the one mom with her two little ones gave us a stand-off for a while. She wasn’t going to let anything come to close to her babies.

Camera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/400, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 400, Focal Length: 350mm

Trio of warthogsCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/400, Aperture: f/16, ISO: 400, Focal Length: 400mm

Male WarthogCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/500, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 125, Focal Length: 390mm

 
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

South Africa – Antelope

Posted by Steve Boer on February 13, 2013
Posted in: Nature, Wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Today I have four members of the antelope family. The first is a kudu. I love the way she can totally direct her ears to hear from different directions. The blue wildebeest we saw a handful of one day. They were nice, but didn’t let us get too close. Trying to hide in the grass is a waterbuck with a nice big set of antlers. Finally is a group of impala, referred to as the McDonalds of the jungle, not only because they are ‘fast food’, but they actually have what looks like the arches on their behinds.

Kudu listening in two different directionsCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/250, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 1600, Focal Length: 250mm

Blue Wildebeest Waterbuck in the grass

Group of Impala on the moveCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/1000, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 400mm

 
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

South Africa – Birds

Posted by Steve Boer on February 12, 2013
Posted in: Nature, Wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

I had a tough time getting many good bird photographs in South Africa. Even at the 400mm long end of my lens they were always a little too far away and I had to crop most of my images. Also, the sky was overcast most of the time during the safari segment of our trip, so it was hard to get anything but a dull white background. I tried some panning shots when we were on our Zambezi River cruise (technically Zimbabwe, not South Africa), and got one image I kind of like even though most of the birds are not sharply focused.

Lilac-breasted RollerCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/400, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 400mm

Birds in flight over the Zambezi riverCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/40, Aperture: f/16, ISO: 400, Focal Length: 180mm

Weaver working on his nestCamera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i, Exposure Time: 1/500, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO: 250, Focal Length: 400mm

 
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!