Finally, I got to see the Cheetahs!

I arrived at Rietvlei Nature Reserve just after 06:00 on 16 December 2017, and it started like most of these visits do…, seeing zebra.

Three zebras moseying along!

I have been visiting Rietvlei Nature Reserve for many years, and several years ago, Cheetahs were reintroduced to the reserve. Since then I have been hoping that I would be able to spot them. I only once got to see them, and it was very fleeting. I am on the Rietvlei Photographers WhatsApp group, and I started receiving many messages that the cats had been spotted. I made my way over and eventually got to see them. Since that time I had been hoping that I would get to find the cats by myself. That opportunity finally presented itself.

Cheetah mom and cubs (about 80m away) Latitude: 25° 52.983'S, Longitude: 28° 17.646'E

I was on my way to the Otter Bridge (Latitude: 25° 52.888'S, Longitude: 28° 17.722'E) when I looked to my left, and on this mound I could see what I thought was a log. But, as I moved the log kept on changing shape, which is quite logical, since I kept changing the angle at which I saw this log. But then, the log seemed to look suspiciously like it had what to my poor eyesight, looked like cheetah ears. I stopped my car and took my Sony camera with a 150-500mm Sigma lens on it to see what I was looking at, and there it was; not just one cheetah, but FOUR! I moved my car around so that the driver’s window faced them, and settled in for the long haul. I stayed in that position for two and a half hours, until they all moved to the other side of the mound and I could no longer see them. I didn’t want to stay there in case they left on the other side while I waited this side for nothing. So, I decided to move on and then return this way a little later.

On my meanderings I came across dandelions—not a code word for fancy lions—and black wildebeest.

Dandelion

Black Wildebeest

On my return to the Otter Bridge, approaching from the opposite end, the cheetahs were about to cross the bridge. I stopped in one of the parking spots with a good angle to see the cheetahs, and they certainly did not disappoint. They passed within feet of my car. What an amazing experience!

Mom and cubs about to cross the Otter Bridge!

One of the cubs!

Mom and two of her cubs!

After getting this rare opportunity to be so close to them and to photograph them I decided that it was time to go home. My day had just become an amazing day!

To see more of my photographs, please visit my Flickr account!

Partial Solar Eclipse and CNN

There was a partial solar eclipse over Southern Africa, Antarctica and part of the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans today. Many people did not know about it, but luckily I did. It started this morning between 06:40 and 06:45, and I made myself home in the Coots Corner Bird Hide at Rietvlei Nature Reserve, since it is the perfect vantage point from which to watch the sunrise. I sat there for approximately one hour and forty minutes. I took a total of 33 photographs from the start of the eclipse to the end.

I started to tweet on my Twitter account about the eclipse and I then started getting a lot of notifications of retweets and favorites! At the time of taking the photos I wasn’t able to upload any photos to Twitter or Facebook, etc; so, I improvised and snapped a photo of the LCD screen while the camera was aiming at the sun, using my Sony XPeria Z3 Compact. I immediately tweeted the photo onto my Twitter account.

Used my mobile to take a photo of the back of my camera in order to tweet it.

I received a lot of activity on this photo on my Twitter page. Out of the blue I received a request from Derek van Dam, meteorologist at CNN and CNN International, via his Twitter account, whether he could use this image on his next weather section on CNN. I gave the go-ahead, but I couldn’t see it, so I quickly called my wife to switch the TV on to watch it. She was in time to see it on CNN and that looked like this:

My photo from above on CNN! Yay! I’m famous!

It was really cool to see the image of my photo on CNN, later on Twitter. Funny how things happen sometimes. And it can’t even be called a real photograph!

Anyway, I took some of the photographs of the eclipse and created an image with a series of the eclipse from beginning to end.

The settings of my camera changed from the beginning to the end as the sun became consistently brighter. See the photos below. Please note that I pulled the info below each photograph below from my Flickr account.

By the time of the photo above, the sun was sitting fairly high and it was very bright. I could no longer get a defined outline of the sun because of the brightness! I felt a little stuck at this point, and so my mind went into overdrive! I have the Sony SLT-A37 with the big lens on it, but I do not have an ND filter for it. However, my Canon D1200, which I use for close ups and landscapes using a small lens, has an ND400 filter, but it won’t fit my big lens. So, I had to improvise! For the next four photographs of the sun, of which three can be found below, I simply aimed at the sun while holding the smaller ND400 filter in front of the big lens, and it worked!

And so another day, another weekend comes to an end! Now we have to wait for the next eclipse, which will be a total lunar eclipse on 27/28 September 2015. For South Africans, you will have to be awake in the very early hours of the morning on Monday, 28 September 2015 at 02:11. The total eclipse will start at 04:11, maximum eclipse will be at 04:47 and the full eclipse will end at 05:23.

For more of my photos, visit my Flickr account.

Rietvlei Nature Reserve–2015-05-30

Rietvlei Nature Reserve is one of my favourite places to visit. It is close to home, and there is enough to see. Early mornings provide for great sunrise photography. One thing is for sure; every time you visit, you will not get to see everything it has on offer. There are some animals there that I have never seen, such as the cheetah and otters. Anyway, here are a few pics from this visit, and if you want to see more go to the album on my Flickr account.

When I walked out of this bird hide, I simply turned around, liked what I saw and took the shot. For some reason, this is my wife’s favourite.

This Waterbuck was hoping that I couldn’t see him.

A beautiful Common Fiscal.

Another visit to Rietvlei Nature Reserve–2015-02-07

I arrived at Rietvlei at about 6am, but hardly got to see any animals this day. I saw a few springboks, blesbucks and black Wildebeest in the distance, but nothing up close. I got close to zebras, but they were on the wrong side of the car, exactly in line with the sun behind them. The landscape photographs were as a result of testing out a new 2nd camera.

For some time now I’ve been wanting a second camera. My main camera is the Sony A37 with the Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM lens. This is almost a permanent configuration. I really don’t like to have to change lenses when the big lens is just to big for closer subjects.

Here in South Africa, our First National Bank (FNB) has a loyalty points system called eBucks. The more you use your credit and cheque cards the more points you get. Then, when you have enough points, you can use them to purchase stuff from partner stores nation wide. eBucks also has its own store through which you can buy all kinds of stuff. Then a couple of weeks ago I wanted to check the status of my eBucks. While I was on their website, I decided to browse around their online store and found that they sold cameras and lenses. Because of my good rating with them, I could also get 40% of anything I bought using eBucks alone. I realized that I could buy one of the cameras with the eBucks I had at the time. They only had Canon and Nikon cameras in their store. So, I ordered the Canon EOS 1200D.

Feeding Bee

Hardware
Camera:	Canon EOS 1200D
Lens:	Canon EFS 18-55mm
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/5.6
Shutter:	1/800
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	55mm

 

Amur Falcon

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/1250
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	500mm

 

Landscape

Hardware
Camera:	Canon EOS 1200D
Lens:	EFS 18-55mm
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/5.0
Shutter:	1/1600
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	46mm

 

B&W Landscape

Hardware
Camera:	Canon EOS 1200D
Lens:	EFS 18-55mm
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/4.0
Shutter:	1/4000
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	27mm

 

Created with flickr slideshow.

Rietvlei Nature Reserve - 2015-02-07

1st Photos of 2015–Rietvlei Nature Reserve–New Year’s Day

Well, who would’ve thought that I’d start this year with photographs from Rietvlei Nature Reserve (RNR)? To tell you the truth, I hoped that the opportunity would come up, and it did! Initially I wasn’t going to be in a position to go do a photoshoot. The day started off a little gloomy and the plan was to go visit my mom for New Year’s Day at the Alzheimer’s home where she is being cared for. We packed a picnic and arrived there at midday. We had a lovely time, but because we were up on New Year’s Eve through to 01:30 on New Year’s Day (NYD), we were somewhat tired.

Originally, we were going to have an evening braai (barbecue) at our home when we got back from visiting my mom, but on the way home my wife said that she was too tired to bother with the braai and that she was going to have a nap when we got home. Did you hear that? That was opportunity knocking and I grabbed it with both hands. Even though I was awake before everyone on NYD, I just couldn’t let this opportunity go! Sure I was also tired, but “hey!,” I had an opportunity to go hang at RNR for a couple of hours. So, I spent more than two and a half hours there from 16:00 to around 18:40.

I didn’t get to see or photograph a lot of birds or animals, but I enjoyed it nonetheless! So, without further delay here they are…

European Bee-eater

 

Pied Starling

 

Unknown bird – Any ideas?

 

African Wattled Lapwing

 

Zebra shaking its head

 

Diederik Cuckoo

 

Created with flickr slideshow.

Rietvlei Nature Reserve–2014-12-20

This morning I was up at 05:30 in order that I could get ready, feed the animals, and then to leave for the Rietvlei Nature Reserve, which is only 7Km (4.35mi) from my house! Having arrived at the reserve, I started doing what photographers do at reserves…, take photographs! Having taken about 25 photographs, I realised that the battery of my camera was dying. So, I did what any photographer would do at this point. Open the equipment bag and get out the second battery. It was at this point that I realised that my second battery wasn’t charged! How it came to this point I do not know. I have been very good at keeping a charged backup battery! All I can think of is that somehow at some previous shoot, I use the backup battery and forgot that I did. Then when I got home I only charged the battery that was in the camera, thinking that it was the only battery I used.  Here are a few of the photographs I shot.

Yellow-billed Duck

 

Zebra

 

Little Egret

 

Blesbuck calves

 

Springbuck

 

Created with flickr slideshow.