CHRISTIAN SPERKA PHOTOGRAPHY – Page 120 – Christian Sperka Photography

2014-05-15

“Two Years in the Wild” and “Keepers of the Wild” – Presentations in Tennessee

I am looking forward to my visit to the USA in June. After another year in the bush it will be great to see my Tennessee friends again. During my stay I will be giving two different presentations about my work in South Africa. All presentations are open to the public and no reservations are required.

I hope to see many of you on either of these occasions 🙂

“Two Years in the Wild” is the first presentation about my experiences in South Africa and my methods to get good wildlife images. This presentation is open to the public. I will be giving this talk in Nashville and in Cookeville.

When: Tuesday – June 3, 2014 – 6:30pm
Where: Brentwood Photography Group Meeting @ Otter Creek Church of Christ, Franklin Road, Brentwood, Tennessee – http://www.brentwoodphotographygroup.org/

When: Wednesday – June 11, 2014 – 7:00pm
Where: Cookeville Camera Club Meeting @ First Presbyterian Church, 20N Dixie, Cookeville, Tennessee – http://www.cookevillecameraclub.com/

“Keepers of the Wild” is the second presentation about the conservation efforts and challenges for a private game reserve in South Africa and about the rising threat to Africa’s Rhino population.

When: Thursday – June 5, 2014 – 6:00pm
Where: Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, Nolensville Road, Nashville, Tennessee – http://www.nashvillezoo.org/events/lecture

See you in Nashville or Cookeville!

2014-04-252014-09-07

Fine Dining!

Who knows me well, knows that I love fine dining. This is one of the reasons why I am spending so much of my “off time” at Pakamisa Private Game Reserve – also enjoying their safaris on horseback and the very comfortable surroundings.

All of Pakamisa’s food is excellent and many of the menu items are also a feast for the eyes. So during this month’s visit I did no horse/wildlife photography, but I did a food photo shoot. This is very different photographic discipline. Even so, I think the results are not too bad.

🙂 … and an interesting bit of personal trivia:

My godfather was a very successful food photographer in the 60th and 70th in Switzerland. I even served as a Child model for some of his food shots (see collage at the end of the message). Well, I think he would be happy about these images and my work as a “food photographer”!

A Pakamisa light lunch – a tasty combination – Green Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad with Beef Fillet

A Pakamisa starter – a feast for the eyes – Avocado Timbale Topped with Prawns

A Pakamisa starter – a surprising combination – Sweet Corn & Tomato Soup

A Pakamisa desert – the ultimate browny and a feast for chocoholics 🙂 – Home-made Chocolate Brownies with Ice Cream

A Pakamisa breakfast – With the rolling hills of Zululand!

I loved “fine dining” already when I was young 🙂

Pictures by Christian Sperka and Werner Knecht

2014-04-20

Happy Easter!

Frohe Ostern Feliz Pascua Joyeuses Pâques Vrolijk Pasen Buona Pasqua Felix Pascha God påske Wesołych Świąt Happy Easter Glad Påsk Maligayang Pasko ng Pagkabuhay hyvää pääsiäistä 复活节快乐復活節快樂 부활절 축복 받으세요 สุขสันต์วันอีสเตอร์ イースター、おめでとう Phasika elithokozayo Geseënde Paasfees

From me and my special Thanda Easter Bunny 🙂

… which is actually a young Scrub Hare.

2014-04-15

Fun memories :-)

During my recent visit to Pakamisa, in between riding and eating (very well I might say!), I was doing a little work on my image library.

So I came across this shot of me with a Clouded Leopard cub climbing on my head. That stirred some fun memories of my time at the Nashville Zoo, which I will be visiting again in June.

The picture was taken by my good friend Heather Robertson, the head veterinarian at the zoo.

2014-04-08

An Elderly Lady!

This elderly Giraffe lady had a good look at this “noisy animal” before she decided to move off into the bush following the rest of her Journey (Journey is the proper term for a group of Giraffe).

Giraffes are one of the Thanda game drive favorites, especially for younger children, who seem to have a special place in their heart for these long-necked, gentle creatures.

2014-04-05

“Lions hands-on” guest experience

Well, we finally captured our two young male Lions. After a few weeks hard work for all of us, Mike Toft, our veterinarian for this project, was able to dart both of them. They had to stay for three days in a boma (a large fenced in area to hold animals) for Mike to conclude blood tests for various diseases, which came all back negative = disease free Lions :-).

When the final day for their trip to the new home arrived 12 of Thanda’s guests were able to participate in a amazing “Lions hands-on” guest experience.

This is a picture record of this large cat departure!

The two boys ready for departure – Their faces show apprehension for the somewhat uncomfortable procedures ahead.

Mike darting the first male in the boma. The other one was very upset about this and took quite a while before the vet was…

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2014-03-242014-03-24

A Pakamisa Weekend!

I spent another great weekend at Pakamisa. This very special Private Game Reserve combines five star luxury with horseback safari. It is one of my favorite places in South Africa.

Above is a picture from today’s photo shoot. The aim was to get a good image of riders on Horses, close to Giraffes. Mission accomplished 🙂

Isabella Stepski (the owner of Pakamisa) took this funny picture of Slinky, me and Bully on our way to the horse photo shoot and she also captured me on Badger, doing some “horse-back photography”.

And I love this image of the riders returning to the stables at sunset.

Another very enjoyable Pakamisa weekend! www.pakamisa.co.za

2014-03-10

Water, water and more water …

A wet weekend 🙂

Enjoy this “weather report” from the Thanda Reserve Management

“Last Saturday night we had 106 mm of rainfall in less than 12 hours. This wet weather is a welcome respite from the recent dry spell. We were becoming concerned about drying waterholes and fire hazards from long, dry grass. The accumulated rainfall in March is already more than three times the average over the last ten years!

Now all waterholes are brimming with fresh rain water which will carry the Thanda wildlife for many months. However, nature’s blessings in such sudden abundance often require a bit of mopping up. Some of our roads and fence lines became compromised by soil erosion and we have to mobilize all our teams to bring them up to scratch again. And when the sun comes out we will need to monitor the germination of new alien vegetation which takes advantage of the rich moist Zululand soils.

Nevertheless we welcome the African…

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2014-03-06

Two Years in the Wild!

This is a message for all my friends in and around Nashville!

I have been asked quite a few times if I will give a presentation about my work in South Africa when I am visiting Nashville in 2014. So here it is!

The Brentwood Photography Group kindly invited me to speak at their monthly meeting on Tuesday, 3 June 2014.

The presentation will be about “Two Years in the Wild!“. I will share some of my adventures and experiences – with a lot of images 🙂 and I will also talk a bit about my methods to get good wildlife pictures.

Guests are very welcome at the meeting, so if you would like to be there, just mark the date in your calendar.

The meeting will be held at the Otter Creek Church of Christ on Franklin Road in Brentwood. The meeting will start at 6:30pm.

It would be great to see you then!

Click here to download a PDF with the meeting information:

PS: Please feel free to forward this invitation to anyone who you think might be interested in the topic – Thanks

2014-02-142014-02-14

Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day!