africa – Page 125 – Christian Sperka Photography

2016-12-18

2 Month Old

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During yesterday morning’s game drive we spotted the newest additions to the Thanda South Pride of Lions (seen for the first time, ever). The mother must have introduced the two cubs (+/- 2 month old) very recently to the Pride. The two youngster were very shy at their first vehicle encounter and went into thick bush to wait for the ‘large unknown animal’ to disappear. I was able to take two images before they moved off. Very soon they will get used to the vehicles, observing their mum’s reaction – or lack thereof – to our game viewers. I am sure there will be great sightings to come!

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2016-12-11

Barbets

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If you like Barbets then this is the post message for you 🙂

I have just uploaded my Barbet images taken between 2002 and 2016.

Acaia Pied Barbet – http://www.sperka.biz/sgb13

Black-collared Barbet – http://www.sperka.biz/sgb14

Crested Barbet – http://www.sperka.biz/sgb15

These are three more new species galleries 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).

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Lots of Giraffes …

I have just uploaded 159 South African Giraffe images taken between 2002 and 2016. Have a look at http://www.sperka.biz/sg15

This is another new 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).

2016-12-04

Girl!

Well the correct answer is that adult female Elephants have more angular foreheads than adult males. The young female in my last post shows this feature unusually clear for her age 🙂 – see https://sperka.info/2016/12/02/boy-or-girl/

Today’s picture shows an young adult male and a female. Observe the difference!

Have a good start into the new week!

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Boy or Girl?

How does one identify if an Elephant is male or female by just looking at its head?

2016-11-29

Just over the fence …

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What do you see when you look out your window past your garden fence?

Well, for me most of the time it is the beautiful scenery, a nearby waterhole and often general game, like Giraffes, Zebras, Wildebeest …

But sometimes I see a cat strolling by …

This week it was a Lioness on her way to get a drink at the waterhole. I jumped into my car, drove around to the waterhole and got a few shots of her having a drink 🙂

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2016-11-25

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the USA – sorry that I am a day late 🙂

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2016-11-16

EYES!

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It has been years since I have created my EYES series of carnivore portraits. I love the strong expressions, especially in the feline eyes, when the color is removed from the rest of the images.

I am currently working on a new selection and this is one of my favorites so far.

Enjoy this Lion King, King of Lions!

2016-11-13

Green, green , green …

Green everywhere! I had almost forgotten how beautiful Thanda looks when it turns green after some decent rain falls. Since the start of this rainy season we had over 150 mm rain and in just a few days the reserve has turned from brown&grey to green.

Even the behavior of many animals has changed almost over night. Where during the drought they had to spent most of their day to find food and water, they now have extra time to chase one another and be just idle once in a while.

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2016-11-07

Art Project Thanda – South Africa 2016

An inspiring week!
An exhausting week!
An interesting week!
An unforgettable week!

Since I have arrived in South Africa four-and-a-half years ago I spent my time exploring and photographing the bush and its wild animals, I was guiding and teaching many Thanda guests about the environment and about photography, I have developed websites and worked on social media. None of that had prepared me for the last week.

Twenty well known artists from the Americas and Europe stayed at Thanda Safari to create art work to benefit the Star For Life organization (http://www.starforlife.org/). I was part of the team to host these creative guests. I spent my week responding to their needs and request, I set up a photo studio in the middle of the bush, I helped the photographers among them to get the right setups and I spent many hours photographing Colette Lumiere, a multimedia artist from New York, in her various installations. And I also took pictures during the event which will become part of a book about the project. What an experience! I will never forget it.

All the work created will be auctioned at the end of next year at Stockholms Auktionsverk (http://artprojectthanda.com/) to benefit Star For Life.

These are a few pictures from this very special week! Enjoy them!

#artprojectthanda

An inspiring week! An exhausting week! An interesting week! An unforgettable week!

An inspiring week!
An exhausting week!
An interesting week!
An unforgettable week!