Shocking Pink!

Canon EOS 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x Extender MK III @ 700mm, Aperture Priority @ f/8 (1/1250 sec), -2/3 EV, ISO 800, Tripod, JPEG from RAW, Cropped about 40% from Full Frame

As some of you may recall, last month I set off for an African adventure: two weeks in South Africa followed by another five days in Madagascar. Returning exhausted yet safely on September 6th I immediately set to work on ruthlessly deleting the unacceptable from the more than 8,500 images I came back with, then selecting and processing the best of the best.

Although I still have more to get through and process, with now over 100 new pictures added to my portfolio I'm ready to begin showing some of them to you.

With this first post I'd like to take the opportunity to express some heartfelt appreciation:

The last photo I posted here (of an Olive-Backed Sunbird) was chosen for the Weekly Pick, something I didn't know about for a while as by that time I was already in South Africa. Anyhow, belated thanks to the decision-makers for giving me yet another reason to smile :^)

I'd also like to offer my sincere thanks once again to Stu (Porter – WILD4 African Photographic Safaris), who is one of the friends I made here on the NPN and the person who helped me plan and organise my time in South Africa. Had it not been for his experience, recommendations and advice, as well as his support and that of his family, there's no doubt in my mind that I would have returned with far fewer captivating images to add to my collection.

Although we only had the first 24 hours together (Stu left the next day to lead a photo trip in Kenya) he was able to offer me some useful photographic advice and helped me get the first great shots of this trip by use of his duel-flash setup to capture images of a (captive) Leopard in a tree – I'll be posting one of those up over in the Wildlife gallery directly after this, if anyone's interested in taking a look.

I'm also very thankful to Stu's wife Justyna, who was a major help in organizing accommodation in both camps I stayed at in Kruger National Park, and always responded to my (many!) emails in a friendly, professional, and timely manner whenever Stu was unavailable.

Likewise, I'm extremely grateful to John and Ann (Stu's parents), who were my private guides for the duration of my stay in Kruger and both of them, figuratively and literally, went beyond the extra mile to help find the best locations and situation possible for the subjects I was most interested in shooting; I'd actually only arranged for John to be my guide, but Ann joined us everyday (pretty much 12 hours everyday!) in a separate vehicle to drive ahead as our scout and frequently reported new sightings back to us over the two-way radio.

While of course I was far from idle, I truly believe that much of the credit to whatever pleasing images I came back with from South Africa is largely due to the WILD4 Team (AKA the Porter family) and, as such, it's my great pleasure to recommend them to anyone interested in a truly wonderful African photographic safari!

As to this first photo you see here: Seeing as I left you with a Sunbird (my favourite family of birds), I thought I'd start off by showing you one of four different species I was lucky enough to come across and capture in SA - I also encountered and photographed another new species (to me) in Madagascar, but I've yet to begin processing the best of the best from my Malagasy collection.

While this little lady lacks the strikingly beautiful colours of the male Marico Sunbird, she's still lovely to me, and the flowers she chose to draw nectar from are certainly conducive to making the sort of striking image I always try to create, hence the reason why I'm rather happy with this one; the male Marico is coming next ;^)

Great to be back and hope you enjoy this and the other photos to follow :^)