CHRISTIAN SPERKA PHOTOGRAPHY – Page 124 – Christian Sperka Photography

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!

2014-01-21

Cleanup and Memories!

South Africa 100

Before I left the USA in 2012 I created a slide show with 100 of my favorite images. It was for the last “Art Crawl” at my Gallery in Nashville. I found the material during “cleanup operations” on my graphics system. And I liked it so much that I turned it into a YouTube video slide show.

I hope you enjoy the four and a half minutes of South African Wildlife!

The music is an interpretation of the South African National Anthem. Arranged for me by Don Johnson and performed by the Happy Turkey Farm Band.

Let me know if you would be interested in a version with comments on the images. If there is enough interest I will create a series of videos with audio comments (on wildlife and photography aspects of the images).

2014-01-16

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 29,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

2014-01-10

Finally!

During my December visit at Pakamisa Game Reserve the weather did not cooperate and I was not able to go for a horse ride. But this time everything worked well and I was able to ride a horse for the first time in my life.

Yesterday and today “two portly gentlemen”, Badger – a sturdy Shire Horse – and I, went for two rides around Pakamisa. I enjoyed it very much, even if my “back side” still has to get used to the process 🙂

Two of Pakamisa’s horse trails guides, Fabio on El Dorado (a Boerperd) and Alexandra on Bolina (a Pure Arab Mare) were instructing me well on my first horse-riding attempt. I certainly will be back for more safaris on horseback.

I am spending four days of my work-off-time at Pakamisa. I get a bit of rest at this beautiful spot in the Zulu hills, enjoying the excellent food, sub-merging myself in a cool pool in the hot weather and getting close to wildlife on horseback. What a life!

Click here of more information about Pakamisa Private Game Reserve.

Thanks to Isabella Stepski for taking these pictures.

2013-12-23

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2014

I wish all my friends around the world a

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2014!

When I was living on the northern hemisphere I was used to cold weather during the Christmas season – including pine trees decorated with colorful baubles.

Well, my Christmas at Thanda is very different – hot – humid – and certainly with no pine trees 🙂

So the flowers of the Sickle-bush have to do for Christmas decoration around my place. They look beautiful and I thought I use a closeup as this year’s holiday image!

With my very best wishes from South Africa – Christian

PS: The holiday greetings on the picture are in isiZulu and English!

PPS: And for all the animal lovers among you 🙂 – below is Thanda’s Christmas Holiday image!

2013-12-10

Too wet to ride :-(

I had a great time at Pakamisa (www.pakamisa.com)!

I enjoyed the birding course with Prof. Ian MacDonald, learning a lot about the birds in Kwazulu Natal and – despite the very rainy weather – I got some good bird shots. Staying at this beautiful place in the Zululand hills, enjoying the excellent cuisine and the five star service is a treat. And, as always on Pakamisa, I had the opportunity to take some good horse images.

I was only a bit disappointed that the weather did not allow for my first horse ride. Pakamisa acquired recently a horse which is strong enough to carry a portly gentleman as myself :-).

Well, I hope to be back at Pakamisa soon and I hope the weather will be good enough for my first horse ride 🙂

Picture above: Scarlet-chested Sunbird feeding in the Pakamisa lodge garden.

Pakamisa’s stables.

Two of Pakamisa’s Arabians. Baracka (a mare) on the left and her full brother Jamaal.

“My horse” at Pakamisa. This beautiful crossbred between a Thoroughbred and a Shire named Badger is strong enough for me to ride. I am looking forward to my first ride!

A Ostrich portrait taken in the rain at Pakamisa.

Baby Ostriches grow very fast. The seven youngsters are only three month old, but already almost as tall as their parents.

I (on the left) learned a lot about birds during the course with Prof. Ian MacDonald (on the right).

A Pakamisa bird party. These Weavers and Quelea enjoyed the leftovers from the Ostrich feeding.

A Golden-breasted Bunting chick calling to be fed!

2013-11-28

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my friends in the new world!

2013-10-31

Catching and Releasing a Mozambique Spitting Cobra!

Well, a lot of you got it right! (see previous blog)

I use these goggles when catching or releasing spitting snakes (or if I do know which snake I might encounter). In this case I caught a Mozambique Spitting Cobra (in Zulu:Mfezi) which had strayed into a room at Thanda house late at night. Today I released it onto another part of the reserve.

This collage of images shows the release of the snake. Thanks to Warren Beets for taking the pictures (I could not take any myself – I was busy :-))

PS: I will add a GoPro camera to my equipment set so I can record these sort of procedures on video – from my view-point.