Yesterday and today I moved all my stuff into Thanda House. The office is still a “work in process”, but here are a view pictures of my room at the house.
It is certainly a room with a view. The picture with the Giraffe and my car was taken from my front door 🙂
More to come …
PS: The Journey of Giraffe was made up of 18 animals – adults and youngsters!
Today is a very happy day for me 🙂
After many years of planning to work in South Africa I have arrived at Thanda Private Game Reserve and I am enjoying a beautiful winters evening at the Thanda Lodge. I got a very warm welcome from staff members – many still knew me from my previous visits.
Tomorrow I will move into my room and my office at Thanda House.
This is a picture of the view from the porch of guest room No.9 at the Thanda Lodge (where I am typing this blog message right now).
The only sounds I can hear are the birds around the place – heavenly 🙂
From now until end of May I will be preparing my move to South Africa. This will leave me less time than usual for shooting pictures and posting blog message.
Once I have arrived and settled in at Thanda (South Africa) I will be posting again regularly (probably end of June 2012).
Thanks for subscribing to and reading my blog!
PS: I will post as often as possible during the move and let you know how it is going 🙂
Coveted by Lions! ?
That’s how many of my friends see me once I am in Africa, including a cartoonist many years ago :-). Well, I will try to stay off the lunch menu of these beautiful cats at Thanda, my new home and place of work in South Africa.
Over the last few weeks I got asked many times where exactly is Thanda? So here is some more information:
Thanda is situated approximately 220 km north of Durban. The closest commercial airport is Richards Bay and the closest international airport is King Shaka Airport, Durban.
Coordinates – Base Camp: 27° 48′ 23″ South, 32° 06′ 33″ East (View using Google Maps)
It is located in northern Kwazulu Natal, in a sub-tropical, semi-arid area and the climate is very warm with average daily temperatures spanning 20°C – 30°C. Because Thanda is situated so close to the Indian Ocean, warmed by the Agulhas sea current, the summers are not as short as Mpumalanga and the winters are not as cold.
Reserve size: ~14,000 hectare / ~140 square kilometers /~35,000 acres
Thanda hosts the magnificent seven – Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, Cape Hunting Dog, Black and White Rhino, Cape Buffalo and African Elephants – as well as a large variety of general game species (Giraffe, Zebra, Kudu, Impala, Nyala, Wildebeest ….) and many different birds species.
I have started my preparations for the move to South Africa, if everything goes well I will arrive at Thanda on June 7, 2012!
[View all Pictures of the Week 2012]
I was very surprised when, on one of my first game drives at Thanda Private Game Reserve in 2010, this male Leopard crossed our path just as we left the lodge.
In Kwazulu Natal Leopards are usually very shy and are very hard to view, as they are still prosecuted by humans in many areas. Unlike in the Kruger National Park and the surrounding game reserves the Leopards in this part of South Africa have not be habituated to “non-threatening” human presence over many decades.
For more leopard images from my various trips to southern Africa go to www.sperka.biz/leopard.
I will start working at Thanda Private Game Reserve in June 2012.
A personal message
As many of you know I love South Africa and it has been my goal for many years to be able to live and work in this magnificent place.
Well, the dream has come true. I have been offered and accepted a position as Photography Specialist Guide and resident Wildlife Photographer at Thanda Private Game Reserve, one of my favorite places in Kwazulu Natal. On Tuesday this week the South African Consulate in New York approved my work permit and I will be moving to South Africa at the beginning of June 2012.
This means that I will close my gallery in the Arcade in Nashville (the Gallery Crawl on Saturday, April 7, will be the last day the gallery will be open – with a big party 🙂 and I will teach my last photography class at the Nashville Zoo on May 23. I enjoyed my time at the Nashville Zoo very much, first as docent and then as the official photographer and photography teacher. I will miss all my friends at the zoo and all over the USA very much (and I hope that many of them will visit me in South Africa).
My blog, my web-gallery and web-store as well as my website will remain unchanged. In the future the “Picture of the Week” will come directly from the South African bush!
I am looking forward to working with my friends at Thanda, one of the most beautiful private game reserves in South African (http:/www.thanda.com). I will have to learn a lot of new skills, as I am new to the field guiding part of my job, but I will enjoy that very much. And if you wonder where I will be living: In the middle of a game reserve, in between Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Buffalos, Rhinos, Cheetahs and Wild Dogs!
Thanks for the support from all of you who helped me in changing my life from an being an IT Executive to becoming a South African Field Guide and Wildlife Photographer.
See you in South Africa!
Another scenic shot of one of my favorite places in South Africa.
This is a sunrise on Thanda Private Game Reserve in Kwazulu Natal.
Picture Data: Camera: Canon 1D Mark IV / Lens: Canon L IS 28-300mm at 200mm/ Mode: AV / Shutter Speed: 1/3000s / Aperture: f/5.6 / ISO: 400 / Exposure Correction +/-0eV / Metering: Central weighted / White balance: Auto / Center point focus only / Time: early morning / cropped to approx 50% / Freehand from vehicle
[View all Pictures of the Week 2012]
Most of the time you see a picture of a lion with an open mouth the animal is either yawning or flehming. It may look threatening and intimidating but it really is neither.
The young lioness in this pictures shows that she is quite upset. She is growling at two young males (one of them in the picture), which were part of a different pride, who walked quietly past her in a show of dominance.
This scene was part of an encounter of the juvenile offspring from two prides on Thanda Private Game Reserve (2 males and one female on both sides). This happened while the adult females of each pride were absent.
During the time we watched the encounter there were no open hostilities, just lots of territorial marking behavior, many growls and fierce facial expressions (as the one in the picture 🙂
But the next day the males of both prides showed obvious signs of a night battle (wounds from claws on his shoulder – see the picture below).
More about lions:
Both males and females defend the pride and its territory against intruders. The male(s) associated with the pride must defend their relationship to the pride from outside males who attempt to take over their relationship with the pride. Females form the stable social unit in a pride and do not tolerate outside females. Membership only changes with the births and deaths of lionesses, although some females do leave and become nomadic and/or form a new pride. Sub-adult males on the other hand, must leave the pride when they reach maturity at around 2–3 years of age.
Picture Data:
Picture 1: Camera: Canon 1Ds MIII / Lens: Canon L 4.0 500mm / Mode: AV / Shutter Speed: 1/500s / Aperture: f/4 / ISO: 400 / Exposure Correction +1eV / Metering: Central weighted / White balance: manual K6500 / Time: midday / Freehand
Picture 2: Camera: Canon 1D MIV / Lens: Canon L 3.5-5.6 28-300mm at 210mm / Mode: AV / Shutter Speed: 1/4000s / Aperture: f/5.6 / ISO: 1600 / Exposure Correction +0.5eV / Metering: Central weighted / White balance: manual K6500 / Time: mid morning / Freehand
For more Lion pictures got to
www.sperka.biz/lion (for African Lion)
www.sperka.biz/lion2 (for African Lion in zoos)
www.sperka.biz/lion3 (for Asiatic Lion)
These two Cape Hunting Dog puppies were playing when they were rudly interrupted by the photographer 🙂
The picture was taken at Thanda Private Game Reserve, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa.
Enjoy the picture!
For more Cape Hunting Dog (or African Wild Dog) pictures go to www.sperka.biz/chd
About Cape Hunting Dogs / African Wild Dog:
The Cape Hunting Dog (Lycaon pictus) is a large canid found only in Africa, especially in savannas and lightly wooded areas. It is variously called the African wild dog, African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, painted dog, painted wolf, painted hunting dog, spotted dog, or ornate wolf. This dog is the only canine without dewclaws which are the claws that are on the inside of the front feet.
The Cape Hunting Dog has a the highest biting force of any extant mammal of the order Carnivora, although exceeded by the Tasmanian devil a marsupial carnivore.
Litters can contain up to 19 pups, though ~10 is the most common. The typical gestation period is 70 days. Females will disperse from their birth pack at 14–30 months of age and join other packs that lack sexually mature females. Males typically do not leave the pack in which they were born. In a typical pack, males outnumber females by a factor of two to one, and only the dominant female is usually able to rear pups. The species is also unusual in that some members of the pack, including males, may be left to guard the pups whilst the others, including the mothers, join the hunting group.
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 