Nature
You will find this scenic surrounding on the property of the Shiva Vishnu Temple in Parma, Ohio. The temple is located on Ridge Road. This is a merge of 6 photographs from pictures taken with the camera tilted on it's side.The panorama was created by doing two separate merges. Three photos made up the left half, and three photos made up the right half. The resultant two pictures were then merged to create the panorama you see above.
One of the scariest sights to see are the crocodiles laying in wait ready to chomp into their victims and drag them under the water. Whenever you see a body of water you just need to start looking close and you will eventually see them. They are good at blending in and/or looking like logs floating in the water.
The above pictures were taken with a Nikon D90 at 300mm. The picture with the croc in the water was taken much later in the day at ISO 1600.
The first picture with the croc on the reddish soil was taken in Kruger Park at the map location below
Nikon D200 - ISO 3200 - f/7.1 - 135mm
We saw this sneaky Vervet Monkey at Nkuhlu Picnic site in Kruger Park, Mpumalanga, South Africa. From the tree tops he would watch over the picnic tables ready to bounce down to grab his favorite foods from unsuspecting diners. In a blink of an eye he grabbed the food and was back up in trees out of reach. Throughout the picnic site crying children were heardwanting their snacks back that this thief grabbed from their hands so quickly that the reaction to the theft came seconds later after the children realized their goodies were gone. It was actually pretty funny as long as you weren't the victim!
My wife and I returned from India to find 14 inches of snow covering our driveway. During the next few days I captured some great snow photos and video.It is these kinds of days that I am glad we own Subaru's.
I visited the Badlands National Monument in July 1973 and was struck by the stark beauty of the place. So much so that I decided I need to see the Badlands from the air. We paid for an aerial view via a helicopter ride with cameras in full force shooting Kodachrome slides and Super 8 film. What an amazing ride in the Bell 47G-2 helicopter, flying into the canyons and then darting up flying just over the tops of the formations.
The Badlands are located in southwestern South Dakota. The entire area had once been a great sea that receded, and then erosion began to take place. For thousands of years Native Americans called this area home. In more recent times the sad stories of how this awe-inspiring area was lost to a once great nation of people is truly something that is hard to comprehend. While I was there captivated by the scenery, it wasn't all that long ago that others had lived their entire lives here and saw much more than the rugged beauty of the peaks.
When we first arrived at the monument we took a picture of the sign. The concrete base of the sign remains today, but the sign has changed. Once a nation monument it is now a national park. Below is a picture of the sign that we took in July 1973.
Below is that same sign from the air taken from our Bell helicopter.
More aerial views of the Badlands.
[mapsmarker marker="47"]
On Safari in South Africa I saw the Yellow Billed Hornbill each day I was out on a drive. The bird is sometimes referred to as a flying banana. In the dry season in southern Africa the birds favorite foods are termites and ants. Based on the termite mounds that I saw they certainly need a bird like this. It prefers the climate of Sub-Saharan Africa. Watch the video below to see the bird in action. At the end of the video clip the motion in the background is from a monkey.
Nikon D90 720HD Video Yellow Billed Hornbill from Bhaga Video on Vimeo.
[mapsmarker marker="42"]