Briana Quinceanera

Briana is 15!  She celebrated her birthday with a traditional Quinceanera bash.  We started at Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church and then on to the Double Tree in San Pedro.  Here's some highlights...

Happy Birthday Briana!

Leopard Siblings

Leopard Siblings

Here is the second in a series of Leopard shots from my South African safari last week.  We tracked these two Leopards for two days before actually finding them.  Coincidentally, while tracking them the day before, we found another Leopard (which you can see in my previous post) and we got to witness it kill an Impala within 20 feet of us - an experience words cannot describe.

So the next day we stumbled across these two Leopards a couple of miles away that happened to be the original two sets of tracks we were tracking.  So the day before we get a kill (which is super rare) and this day we get two Leopard siblings (male and female) who were still enjoying each others company (which is also rare).  Leopards are mainly solitary animals so after a length of time they set off on their own.  Our guide pointed out that it was rare to see siblings this old still tolerating each other.  In fact they were quite affectionate as you can see above.

Thanks for reading.  More to come!

Back from Africa!

Leopard

I'm back from South Africa after nearly two weeks.  I'm exhausted after the 21 plus hours on a plane but I'm still reeling from excitement.  This trip was one of the most amazing experiences in my entire life - a must do.  Add this to your bucket list!

After a few days in Cape Town, my wife and I stayed at Ngala Game Reserve near Kruger National Park, which is an open range for the wildlife to enter and leave as they please.  The Leopard is part of the famous big five (which we were lucky enough to see all five on this trip).  The big five consist of the Leopard, Lion Buffalo, Elephant and Rhinoceros and the phrase is coined from hunters who said these were the most difficult and dangerous animals to hunt on foot.

We had a game drive every morning and evening.  A couple of days into our stay there we tracked and eventually found this Leopard.  Our guide, Mbhani We Zulu (goes by Barney), and tracker Innocent (his real name) spotted some Leopard tracks and we followed them them for nearly an hour and a half determined to find a Leopard (which are fairly rare to find).  Barney and Innocent would stop the vehicle and investigate the tracks in the sand several times during the course of time.

When the tracks disappeared, Innocent, armed with nothing more than a radio, left us and walked off into the "bush" to try and pick up the Leopard's trail.  We drove on ahead to meet up with Innocent further down the road as it looped around.  In the process of our drive we located the Leopard.  Innocent had not caught up to us yet as we followed the Leopard for several minutes across the savanna.

Barney maneuvered the vehicle within very close proximity to the Leopard - who seemed almost disinterested in us.  We were constantly within about 20 feet of the Leopard as it worked its way across the land.  We would drive over bushes and trees to keep up the pace.

All of a sudden the Leopard stopped in its tracks and turned its head slightly.  A moment later Barney pointed out an Impala not much further ahead of us.  We stopped the vehicle and watched as the Leopard crouched down and froze in the grass - all the while the Impala having no idea what was about to happen.  My heart was racing as we all anticipated an attack.

Moments later the Leopard took two leaps and was on top of the Impala.  I didn't anticipate anything like this happening in front of me and wasn't prepared either.  It was an awesome yet very emotional experience - I sniffled through some tears as I snapped away on the camera.  The Impala held its ground while the Leopard lunged at its neck and wrapped its paws around it to hold it still as it suffocated it with a bite.

After 30 seconds or so the Impala weakened and slumped to the ground dead.  My wife and I both cried during the take down - being an appreciator of all life it was a hard thing to watch.  Words can't describe the event that we had just witnessed.  But during the whole ordeal my wife managed to get video and I was snapping away (pictures of the attack soon to follow).

Something I will never forget...

Off to South Africa!

My wife and I are finally off to South Africa!  We leave this weekend for Capetown then on to Kruger National Park for a few days of game drives.  We are super excited!

Some of the places we will be visiting are Table Mountain, 

http://www.sa-venues.com/table_mountain.htm

Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden,

http://www.gardens-to-visit.com/2009/02/kirstenbosch-botanical-gardens.html

Robben Island (where Mandela was held),

http://www.south-africa-tours-and-travel.com/apartheid.html

and Cape Point.

http://www.capepointroute.co.za/moreinfoOther.php?aID=112

I'm really looking forward to Cape Point and shooting the Penguin colony they have there.  Just today I heard an interesting story from an acquaintance who was there a few weeks ago that said while at Cape Point, even though there were signs that said "no picnicking", they picnicked and had some unfriendly baboons raid their food.  Apparently the Cape Point Baboons are like bears and will raid anything to get food over there (if you want a good laugh just Google some videos).  Have you seen the size of a Baboons teeth?!  I'll make sure to not have food on me while I'm shooting them...

While in Kruger National Park we will be staying at Ngala Private Game Reserve.

http://www.eyesonafrica.net/south-african-safari/ngala-lodge.htm

Ngala means lion in Shangaan.  Hopefully that's what we will find!  In the past week I've been really excited and doing a lot of research.  I found a blog for the wildlife sightings here that is pretty cool.  We will have a game drive at sunrise and sunset each day.

So stay tuned...I'm sure I will have tons of images for you in a few weeks!

Macro Heaven

So I'm borrowing this macro lens from a friend and I can't put the thing down - I love it.  For those of you who don't know what a macro lens is, it's basically a lens that allows you to get super close to a subject and still focus on it so you get a super shallow depth of field (meaning I can focus on a pin point and have the rest blurry).  It's also for shooting very small subjects.  As you see below, most of these subjects are very small (with the exception of the shell).

Here's a taste of what I've been shooting all week.

This is some kind of Trochus shell from a Southern California beach.

One of my favorites so far - they look like gummy worms.  This is commonly referred to as Coral Jade.

Geranium. 

And of course one of the funnest things to shoot...water drops.

Thanks for stopping by!  There's more to come.