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!
Last weekend I was very busy in the office and teaching photography at Thanda. On Monday I went to Pongola to get my car serviced and for a short visit to Pakamisa. On Tuesday and Wednesday I ran errands in Durban where a met a very cute puppy dog. Yesterday and today I played again catch-up in the office.
But, I still got a bit of photography done. At Pakamisa I took some pictures of Isabella working with one of her horses and at the Thanda House Waterhole (next to my home) I got some good pictures of Elephants, of Giraffes and of a young Lioness. I also shot some good-bye pictures of our young male Lion, who will leave the reserve soon for a new home. And in between I posted one of my favorite Leopard shots (taken in 2006) on Facebook.
So, here is my week in pictures. Enjoy them and the weekend 🙂
PS: As a bonus I added a short Thanda Elephants video – four times the regular speed!
Many of you probably wondered why I was posting so little over the last few weeks. I was extremely busy at work and I had not much time to prepare posts. On the other hand I have collected a lot of material for future posts 🙂
Today I thought I share two of my recent Lion portraits with you. Sometimes it is not the photographer who gets it right, sometimes it is the model! Both of these cats got the perfect look!
Enjoy your weekend.
… more about this spectacular sighting soon …
It has been years since I have used a ‘short fixed focus length lens’. Last week, when cleaning my equipment, I picked up my Canon EF f1.4/50mm lens and decided to put in my camera case to give it a try at low light.
And two days ago such a scenario presented itself.
After the sun had set I took this image of our north pride Lions sleeping off a good meal. With very shallow depth of field it creates a special artsy atmosphere. I like it and I think I will use this ‘short beauty’ more often.
Lions at one of Thanda’s waterholes – I was able to play with the light from another game viewing vehicle (thanks to my fellow guide) – despite the fact that I did not have the right lens for the job I like the atmosphere of the scene!
Nine of my Lion images got published in the recent issue of Africa Geographic Magazine. The pictures accompany an article by ecologist and science journalist Cheryl Lyn Dybas titled the LONG LIVE THE KING – LAST ROAR OF AFRICA’S LIONS.
As a partner photographer for Panthera, the only organization in the world devoted exclusively to the conservation of the world’s 38 wild cat species, I had been asked to contribute to this story about the plight of Lions in West and Central Africa. And I was very happy to do so!
An interesting and important – but very sobering – article!
http://magazine.africageographic.com/weekly/issue-88/long-live-the-king/
#africageo #pantheracats #panthera #christiansperka
A night-time portrait of a young Thanda Safari Lioness ..
My image library contain thousands of wildlife images, which I took since I started wildlife photography in 2002. Keeping these images organized and available for people to look at is not an easy task.
End of last year I started a project to categorize all these images in ‘species galleries‘ and also put them online. I am currently working on African Mammals, followed by Birds, Snakes, other Reptiles Insects and Plants. After Africa I am planning to work on images from species of other continents.
Have a look at the first ten of these galleries at www.sperka.biz/sg (African Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, African Wild Cat, Black Rhinoceros, White Rhinoceros, African Elephant, Caracal and Serval).
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).
I will let you know once I upload new galleries. Stay tuned!
