Safari - Impala Antelope

Impalas are medium-sized antelopes that wander the savanna and woodlands of eastern and southern Africa. I snapped this photo in Kruger National Park, South Africa in 2009. You can see the needles sticking out of the impala's face from the barbed trees surrounding it. Impala's are very beautiful animals with very unique markings. If you go on safari you will see a lot of impalas and many times with other animals among the herd. While on safari I typically have my 70-300mm zoom lens mounted on the camera. You aren't going to get a picture like above without one. I have a second camera with a wider view in the event I need to get a picture of something closer to me, like an elephant. You need at least a 300mm lens if you are going to capture good photos of a rhino. It is difficult to get close to them.

I took this picture on the site marked below

 

Panorama - Fall Colors

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.

 

Safari - Crocodile

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

 

Safari - Vervet Monkey

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!

 

Night Photography - Winter Storm

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.

The Badlands an Aerial View

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"]