Under the Milky Way Tonight

Under the Milky Way Tonight

I took the title from an 80's song I love by The Church - Under the Milky Way.

This is the night sky over South Africa - much different from the light polluted areas that I'm from in Southern California.

While on safari at Ngala Game Reserve we would stop for a cocktail and wine break at each sunset then drive back in the dark.  When we reached a clearing we would stop and star gaze.  And quite literally we star gazed!  With no light pollution we could see millions if not billions of stars.  The Milky Way was obviously visible - here you can see it stretching diagonally across the sky from the bottom left to the top right of the image.

The Milky Way is the galaxy that we exist in.  It appears like a streak across the sky because it is disc like in shape and we are looking at it from within the disc.  It rotates about once every 15-50 million years.  The galaxy as a whole is moving at a velocity of about 350 miles per second.

Another interesting insight is that the Southern Hemisphere sky is quite different from what I'm used to seeing too.  Obviously we were looking at different stars but it was really quite odd.  For instance Orion was upside down.  And of course the was no North Star.  There was, however, the Southern Cross - which is basically the polar opposite of the North Star.

Maybe the most interesting part of this image though is about half way up on the right side of the sky.  See that small cloud-like smudge?  That is the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC for short.  It is another galaxy out side of ours.  It is technically referred to as a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way and it is about 160,000 light years away.  It is pretty mind blowing to see another galaxy in plain sight.

Leopards

Leopards

While on safari in Ngala Game Reserve, Kruger National Park, South Africa, we tracked these two Leopards for a couple of days and finally caught up with them.  They are siblings, brother and sister, according to our guide.  For more on these Leopards check out my previous posts:

Here you'll find these two cuddling with each other.

And here for a Leopard killing an Impala.

Here's a couple more...

Zebra Kiss

Zebra Kiss

Another South Africa shot?!  Yes and I still have more... It's beginning to be quite a task to edit images in a diverse way so I don't bombard you with a month of Zebras and then a month of Leopards.  But it's definitely fun reliving these moments.

African wildlife is cool to photograph any way you cut it but when you capture a moment of affection or violence or some raw activity it's something really special.  Here we found a harem of Zebras in the early morning light.  These two in particular stopped to give us a little show for a minute and I was ready with the camera.

African Penguins

African Penguins

While in Cape Town, South Africa a few weeks ago I attended a tour that took us from our waterfront hotel all around the coast of the Cape Peninsula.  It was a nice tour that basically ended at a beach called Boulders Beach.  Boulders Beach is famous for it's African Penguin colony.  Thousands of penguins are here year round and there is a boardwalk that gets you up close and personal with them.

The African Penguin is smaller than most other species standing at 27 inches.  Compare that to the popular Emperor Penguin standing at 4 feet tall.  In the image above you'll find several penguins returning to the beach after a fishing expedition. They can reach speeds of 20 KPH in the water and dive down to 60 meters for as long as 2.5 minutes. 

The penguins do breed in this area so there are literally nests all over the place.  I noticed a lot of abandoned eggs as well due to either being infertile or because of predators.  Mongoose, birds and other animals prey on the penguin's eggs.

Below you'll find two young chicks beneath their mother.

It's a remarkable place because of how close you can get to these penguins.  I literally stood on the boardwalk and looked down over the edge to the sand below (about a foot away) and watched a couple penguins mating.  It was even more fascinating to watch as the male laid next to the female and put one of his wings over her as to cuddle afterwards.  The African Penguin is indeed monogamous.

An interesting fact: the penguin's coats are white underneath and black on top.  That is because it helps camouflage them from predators while in the water.  When a predator looks up from under the water at them it blends in with the bright sky and when looking down on them it gets lost in the shadows of the deep water.

Brown-hooded Kingsfisher

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

The Kingfishers were high on my list of African birds to see and I found one!  This little guy was in camp at Ngala Game Reserve.  A tributary river to Timbavati River runs right alongside the camp and we would sit and lounge around between game drives watching for wildlife.  I would watch this Kingfisher perched on a nearby tree as it would spend its day swooping down into the water and snatching up fish but every time I approached he was super skittish and flew away.  I was so determined that I left my camera and tri pod set up in close range of the branch that it loved and left it set up there until the Kingfisher came back.  When it did I just snuck up to the camera and started firing away - it didn't seem to care as much then.

The Giraffe

The Giraffe

Next to Impala, the Giraffe was probably the most abundant animal in South Africa.  We landed at Hoedspruit airport for our safari.  We left the airport for Ngala Game Reserve and about 10 minutes into our drive the first animal we saw was Giraffe.  And there were a lot of them - mostly just grazing on the trees alongside the road.  They were amazing to watch.

The Giraffe is the tallest living animal standing at 16 to 20 feet tall.  Their necks alone can reach up to 7 feet long. They primarily eat leaves off of Acacia trees.  Acacia trees have large thorns on them but the Giraffe uses its18 inch tough tongue to reach around the thorns and grab the leaves. 

One of the most noticeable trademarks of the Giraffe (besides it's pattern) are the Ossicones.  Ossicones are horn-like (or antler-like) protuberances on their heads.  It's one of the best ways to tell sexes apart.  In the image above you'll find they are more knob like indicating it's a male while the image below they appear to be pointier with tufts of hair on top indicating a female.  See if you can identify the other images.

If you look closely at the image below, about a third of the way up the Giraffe's neck you will find a bird hitching a ride.  These are called Oxpeckers and you'll find them on a lot of animals in Africa.  They eat ticks, larvae and other parasites off of the large animals. 

Brown Snake Eagle

Brown Snake Eagle

We were driving through South Africa's savanna when we found a herd of Zebra.  They were huddled around a waterhole and it was great light - I couldn't ask for more.  Then I looked on the other side of our vehicle and perched atop the tree next to us was this Brown Snake Eagle.  Being an avid birder I immediately turned to snap a few shots then back to the Zebra then back to the Eagle.  I was wrapped up in indecision; which do I focus on?

I stayed with the Eagle for a few minutes as it scanned the grassland for some breakfast.  Soon after it decided we were too close for its comfort and it lifted off in search of a new perch.  Luckily my triiger finger was ready!

The Brown Snake Eagle is a large bird of prey being as long as 29 inches, and having a wingspan of over 5 feet. It feeds mainly on snakes and other reptiles as it swoops down on them from a tree.  This is a typical view of them - perched on the crown of a large tree. 

Red-billed Hornbill

Red-billed Hornbill

South Africa has some amazing birds.  In Ngala Game Reserve in Kruger National Park, Red-billed Hornbills are abundant. They are rather large birds (up to 24 inches) easily identifiable by its large downward curved bill.  Some of you, especially those of you with children might recognize this bird as Zazu from the Lion King movie. 

They feed in insects, fruit and seeds mainly.  The Red-billed Hornbill below was foraging in the grass for worms.  Between game drives I would relax at camp watching these Hornbills feed on the lawn in front of me.  I was so ecstatic that they were not skittish. Not pictured here was the family of Warthogs that were sharing the lawn area at camp.

The Hippopotamus

The Hippopotamus

While on safari in Kruger National Park in South Africa we basically stumbled upon these Hippopotamuses.  This is an adult Hippo and a young calf.  After admiring a Leopard a short distance away we stopped at this waterhole for our morning tea and coffee.  We didn't even notice them for several minutes because they knew we were coming before we saw them and they hid underneath the water as we pulled up.  Eventually we saw them surface as you can see below.

They can stay submerged for 5 to 7 minutes at a time and they did while we were there.  Every few minutes we would see them poke just the tops of the heads out of the water, take a good look at us then sink back under.  Our guide explained that the are safe while in the water - they view it as a refuge and that is why they seemed so shy.  We admired their peek-a-boo game while enjoying our morning break.

Here's some Hippo facts.  Hippopotamus originates from the Greek words river horse.  It is the third largest land mammal behind the Elephant and Rhinoceros and can weight up to 3 tons.  Most of the day is spent in the water staying cool and moist while at night they will traverse the land to graze on grass. Hippos can out run humans on land - they have been clocked at 19 MPH.  They are considered one of the most aggressive animals in the world and also the most dangerous in Africa.

We got lucky for a few seconds as the Hippos decided to move a little further away from us into another pool at the waterhole.  There was a shallow section in the water that the Hippos had to navigate over and my camera was ready when they did. 

In the above image, you'll notice the spray all around where it is walking.  The Hippo is urinating and it waves its tail back and forth rapidly to scatter the urine around to mark its territory. They are territorial and quite aggressive while in water.

Also in the above image if you look closely enough just to the left of the bush at the waters edge you will see the top of a Crocodile with its mouth open.  Our guide pointed out that they sit with their mouth open to feed on insects that land in their mouth.

Carra & Kyle Engagement - Villa Del Sol Fullerton

I got to shoot Carra and Kyle's engagement session in downtown Fullerton at The Villa Del Sol.  Business complex by day, wedding venue by night.  It's actually very picturesque though.  Here's some highlights.

The downtown Fullerton area is a well known photography spot because of it's architecture and style.  It's a great spot for shots like this.  This is in a back alley.  A simple red pole on a building.  We all agreed it would make for a nice shot.

Most places have a Spanish feel to them as this place did.

Admiring the ring.  I love it when I have the couple do their own thing as opposed to posing them.  It's a much more natural feel.

Couldn't resist a little archway of course.  A funny side not to this: when we found this spot Kyle went over and picked some pink flowers and gave them to Carra but he did it in front of this pink tree so it didn't show up too well on the camera.  Nice touch though!

I love this series.  And I keep hearing Hotel California in my head...

Pure emotion.

Thanks for this idea Kyle!

And a walk off into the sunset...

Can't wait for the wedding in June!  It will be with Electra Cruises in Newport Beach and my first wedding on a boat!  Congratulations to you both!