This is the eighth of the ten promised Zimanga photography blogs.
A Grey Heron fishing in the late afternoon light at the Lagoon Hide on Zimanga Private Game Reserve.
More Zimanga images at https://sperka.info/2015/07/22/reflection-plus-zimanga/
Here is the first of the ten promised Zimanga photography blogs.
These Pink-throated Twinspot pictures were taken at the Bhejane, Zimanga Private Game Reserve’s evening-light-reflection-pool-hide.
More Zimanga images at https://sperka.info/2015/07/22/reflection-plus-zimanga/
Imagine that you are a photographer and you will spend twenty hours in five sessions in superbly built birding hides!
Well, that is what I did in the last few days 🙂 And here are some of the resulting images.
Enjoy this gallery of bird pictures (and also some mammals pictures), which were taken at Zimanga Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa (www.zimanga.com). Zimanga specializes in purpose built photographic hides and the results are stunning.
A paradise for bird photographers!
To showcase this beautiful place I will follow-up this blog with ten more picture blog in the next weeks. Enjoy the images!
… from, where this picture came from. Stay tuned …
I spent another five very enjoyable days at Pakamisa Private Game Reserve and did quite a bit of photography work.
These are only a few of the images I took during my stay!
Photo shooting Arabian Horses,
… taking images of riders cantering on the reserve,
… capturing birds in Pakamisa’s beautiful gardens,
… working with Pakamisa’s kitchen team on pictures for new menu items,
… photographing wildlife on game drives and
…. last but not least capturing the beauty of Pakamisa itself.
Thanda (my South African work place and home) and Pakamisa are my two favorite places in Africa!
For more information on Pakamisa go to www.pakamisa.com.
I was sitting for eleven minutes at Thanda’s South Gate entrance and watched the little bird bath opposite the sitting area. Eleven bird species came down to drink 🙂
Birding fast and furious!
PS: Quite a few people have heard about my car accident last night – I am perfectly OK – If you want to read the complete story go to http://wp.me/P1rzfb-1js
Not everyone is a bird enthusiast. But, most guests do not only enjoy experiencing mammals but also enjoy sightings of colourful birds and large raptors. One of the most fascinating birds to watch is the Little Bee-eater. This small insect-hunter often chooses a convenient branch as its base of operation. From this single location it will repeatedly depart to and arrive from short hunts. If the observer is very lucky, he or she can even observe a “kill” :-).
The collage above is a merger of nine hand-held images of this fast flying bird. The camera was set on ten frames per second to record this sequence.
The picture below shows a Bee-Eater and a Bee!
And it is a good idea to bring binoculars, which are a great safari tool for observing small birds, as one cannot get too close before most birds get scared and leave.
Since I have posted the image of a strangely colored bird a few days ago – now identified as a Village Weaver – a few of you have asked me about how do Village Weavers normally look like.
So here is an image of a Village Weaver pair mating in front of their nest.
http://www.thanda.com/photos.htm#176105
Thanda hosts hundreds of bird species. Many of them are seen regularly on game drive, other are rare guests, and some of them are only here during the summer.
Bheki Ngubane – one of Thanda’s expert trackers – is also a very experienced birding guide. His ability to identify birds by their call impresses many guests greatly. And he is able to call many of them by imitating their call. With his help I was able to assemble the THANDA BIRDS photo gallery on the new Thanda website. It contains images of over ninety different species – with more to come …
Have a look at http://www.thanda.com/photos.htm#176105
At the afternoon drink stop we spotted this Crowned Lapwing watching over its nest. We kept quite a distance not to disturb the bird further and a few seconds after this shot was taken the parent went back to sit on the eggs while the Thanda guest had their drinks at sundown.
For the photographers among you: This images is a “collage” of two shots. One was focused on the eggs and one on the bird. The “dual planes of focus” are accomplished by merging the two images.
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 