Author: Christian Sperka

Christian Sperka is a wildlife photographer based at Thanda Private Game Reserve, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. Over the last 11 years, Christian has traveled the world photographing animals in wild game reserves of South Africa and Namibia, the jungles of Costa Rica, in Yellowstone National Park in the USA, as well as zoos in Europe and the United States. His work has been featured in wildlife magazines, in books and in many zoo publications. He actively supports wild cat conservation, working as a partner photographer for Panthera, the world's leading organization devoted to the conservation of all wild cat species (panthera.org). From 2009 to 2012 he has worked as the official photographer and photography teacher at Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, Tennessee, USA (nashvillezoo.org). Christian is also a qualified South African field guide. He now works as specialist photography guide on Thanda Private Game Reserve in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa (thanda.com).
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Live Show for Photographers

Vision Art Q&A

Today I did a live (online) show for photographers at Light Vision Art Q&A. If you would like to hear what I had to say (and see me :-)) go to http://sprc.st/a1nUF. My part in the show starts about 7 minutes into the one hour program. Thanks for all the participation and the questions.

Enjoy the show!

Please share this message with any photographer friends for yours. They might enjoy the program.

LightVision

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To strengthen the genetic pool…

What a joy to take pictures of a ‘new arrival’ after my return from Europe.

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Thanda welcomes the arrival of a new male Cheetah, which originates from Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in the Western Cape. He is a spectacularly handsome creature and possibly the largest Cheetah we have ever seen. This male was introduced in an effort to strengthen the genetic pool at Thanda and this was done in conjunction with The Endangered Wildlife Trusts’ Cheetah meta population management programme. Many thanks to Sanbona and EWT for all the assistance and effort.

To help him to get used to the Thanda surroundings our new Cheetah will spend a while in a boma and he will wear a radio collar, to ensure that our wildlife team can keep an eye on him as he settles into his new home.

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Pictures by Christian Sperka – Specialist Photography Guide and Resident Wildlife Photographer – Thanda Private Game Reserve

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Stunning

  
It is a long drive from Johannesburg to Durban, but there was some stunning South African scenery along the way – Now I am back on Thanda!

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Bloody Face!

  
One of my favorite animal portraits – This Lioness just finished her Giraffe dinner (first course!) – The Lions must have killed the Giraffe just minutes before we arrived, judging by the color of the blood.

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Contrasts

Warm – Cold | Rough – Smooth | Right – Left | Happy – Sad | Cramped – Spacious

A day of contrasts – Coming from the cold of a German autumn to the warm temperatures of a Pretoria summer – changing from the smooth ride of my dad’s Renault to my rather rugged Fortuner – moving from the right side of the road to the left – being happy to be back in South Africa and being a bit sad to have to leave my family and friends in Europe – enjoying the space in the Gautrain from Johannesburg Airport to Pretoria after the 11 hour ‘torture’ in a economy plane seat, which is far to small for me:-)

Well, I love change and these contrasts are rather invigorating. The hot shower, a Peking Duck for lunch and my mum’s poppy seed cake for desert helps to improve the spirit even further!
From tomorrow Wildlife will be back on the ‘posting menu’ 🙂

PS: Today’s pictures show me on the Gautrain.


  

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An iPhone travel journal – Day 9 – The Last Day

Wednesday – The Last Leaves

After an excellent lunch with my older brother and my parents in Switzerland I took a few Autumn images on the way to Germany. This tree is loosing its leaves fast as Autumn turns into Winter. And I will be leaving Europe in a few hours. See you next year!

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An iPhone travel journal – EXTRAS

I have only published one iPhone image per day on my travel blog. Some of you have asked me if these are all the pictures I took. Well, here are some of the EXTRAS.

Today, I will be flying back to South Africa. I am a bit sad of leaving Europe and my Family already, but I am also looking forward to getting back to South Africa and home to Thanda. I am planning to return in May 2016.

I hope you enjoyed this short travel blog, which turned a bit into a ‘great eating in Europe’ blog :-). It was interesting to work exclusively with my iPhone 6 Plus. It gives one a lot of freedom (not carrying a lot of equipment and having great editing tools instantly available), but it also showed me the limitations. A good experience.

I will post the last pictures of this trip this afternoon!

Autumn Colours
Autumn Colours
Zofingen, Switzerland
Sempach, Switzerland
Sempach, Switzerland
Oberteisbach, Germany
Autumn Colours
Autumn Colors
The Moon
A 1954 Radio – For the Football World Championship
Oberteisbach, Germany
Oberteisbach, Germany
Flowers
Form the car, driving in Germany
Another Cow Portrait
Cows Stables
Restaurant Rebstock, Germany
City Hall, Laufenburg, Germany
Cows on a Field, Germany
The Muenster in Bad Saeckingen, Germany
Organ, The Muenster, Bad Saeckingen, Germany
My favorite dessert – not a light affair 🙂
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