With one look …

There are big five pictures and there are BIG FIVE pictures 🙂

I recently needed a collage of the BIG FIVE for a presentation and I came up with this one. Being in the focus of these amazing and impressive animals is one of the real thrills of an African safari!

In Africa, the big five game animals are the African Lion, African Elephant, Cape Buffalo, African Leopard, and Rhinoceros. The term “BIG FIVE” was coined by big-game hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot.

www.sperka.com  www.sperka.biz  #christiansperkaphotography #bigfive

PS: For all my blog followers in Germany and Switzerland: In April I will be giving a public presentation (with many of my pictures) during my visit to Europe – all visitors are welcome! Details at https://sperka.info/2017/03/19/e2017

Dugga Boy

Dugga means mud!

Dugga Boy is a nickname given to older Buffalo males who have passed their prime breeding age and spend their days wallowing in mud pools. Dugga boys occur in small bachelor herds or as individuals. They are quite vulnerable and therefore more aggressive than animals in a large herd. This Thanda Dugga Boy had a good stretch before he left the Ubomvu waterhole. Ubomvu means red in the local Zulu language – a very good name considering the red soil in this area!

Picture details: Cape Buffalo | Location: Thanda Safari, South Africa
Canon 1D Mark IV | Canon EF28-300 f3.5-5.6L at 200mm | AV | ISO 2500 | 1/500s | f/5.6 | 1.0eV | WB 6500K | free-hand

Bird’s views!

I am currently learning how to fly a new DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone. These are two of my first aerial images I took with the ‘new toy’. With the new 4K camera it is actually anything else but a toy. The image quality for video and stills is amazing. More to come soon …

A morning view of the western part of Thanda Safari …
And an afternoon view of my home on Thanda. Can anyone spot the Elephant in the picture 🙂

More birds …

I recently did a bit of bird photography … this was one of my favorites … more to come soon …

Picture details: Reed Cormorant | Location: Drakensberg, South Africa
Canon 1D Mark IV | Canon EF500mm f/4L | AV | ISO 1600 | 1/1000s | f/8 | 0.5eV | WB 6500K | free-hand

 

Elephants and Clouds

This week we had some amazing sunsets. I really enjoyed this particular evening as I was watching a few Elephant bulls in front of Thanda House. They grazed around the house for over an hour. As I was watching them the most amazing cloud formations passed by. I captured them with my iPhone 7 Plus. Enjoy these African skies!

Elephants at Thanda House
White clouds …
Orange clouds …
Cloud formation …
Browsing under the evening sky …

 

Lions …

I am currently working on an update of my online Lion picture gallery (http://www.sperka.biz/sg1).

This is one of the images which will soon appear with many others on my gallery site.

Have a good week! Stay tuned for more updates …

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No Power – Three Hours !

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During our last power failure – which lasted about 6 hours – I decided to leave my hot office and spend a few hours at the kuMasinga Hide and at Nsumo Pan on Mkhuze Game Reserve.

In the three hours I sat at the two hides I took mainly bird pictures. I thought I create a little bird quiz from these images.

Can you identify all 11 species?

Have fun and a good week!

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Leopard+

I have just uploaded a few more Leopard images taken between 2005 and 2016. Have a look at http://www.sperka.biz/sg2 (total 74 images).

This is one of many species gallery available online at http://www.sperka.biz/sg

Please contact me at info@sperka.com in case you are interested in publishing any of these images or if you would like to license any image for printing (for personal or commercial use).

These are the newly uploaded images!

Morning stroll ...
Morning stroll …
Change sides ...
Change sides …
Relax ...
Relax …
Rest and drink ...
Rest and drink …
Safe ...
Safe …
Rush ...
Rush …
Next to the road ...
Next to the road …

 

From the archives …

I have just uploaded 74 more Cheetah images taken between 2004 and early 2017. Have a look at http://www.sperka.biz/sg3 (total 189 images).

This is one of many species gallery available online at http://www.sperka.biz/sg

Please contact me at info@sperka.com in case you are interested in publishing any of these images or if you would like to license any image for printing (for personal or commercial use).

These are a few of these new images!

Breakfast!
Breakfast!
Perch!
Perch!
Rush!
Rush!
Hide!
Hide!
Sunset!
Sunset!
Dinner!
Dinner!
Stretch!
Stretch!