Fig 1. Lumen Angelus - Angel of Light

While looking through my archive of photo’s, while preparing a portfolio for submission to another website, I came across this photograph of a Whiskered Tern taken at Marievale Bird Sanctuary, Nigel in South Africa.

I absolutely love how photography can surprise you like this!  Although this was taken quite a long time ago now, in 2007; I remember this day clearly.  It was a cold grey miserable windy day at Marievale and there was really very little action happening.  The wind was strong enough however for the terns to hover into the wind like this.  For a brief moment, the sun came out and shone upon this Whiskered Tern and I managed to capture the moment.

It has of course been overly-dramatized in Photoshop for effect, but still today this image speaks to me on many levels.  Having been shot quite a long time ago, I have learned so much more about photography and Photoshop and I recognize so many flaws with this image.  Yet it appears to transcend all of that and it still manages to convey emotion and drama.  Somehow being more experienced hasn’t helped these creative moments, and inspiration like this has been fleeting of late. Does it mean to say, one should forget what one has learned; just go out there and shoot for the moment; ignore the rules and the pundits and simply let the creativity flow?

For me these kind of moments are few and far between but I certainly cherish them when they come along, and love to be reminded of them when I find an old image in the archives like this one.

Do you have any special ‘Aha’ moments that you’d love to share. Drop me a line. I would love to hear from you.

Fig 1. Lumen Angelus - Additional EXIF Info:
Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IIn
Lens: Canon 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM
Extender: Canon 1.4x II Extender
Focal Length: 560mm
Shutter Speed: 1/3200s
Aperture: f/5
ISO: 200
Date Taken: Jan 24, 2007, 7:28:24 AM

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Copyright Ian Weatherburn Photography.

Fig 1. Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk - Portrait

While on holiday recently at Jaci’s Safari Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve, we came across this beautiful Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk.  It was perched on this wonderfully textured log, in beautiful afternoon light surveying it’s territory.

Birds have a notoriously large working distance, especially for aspirant photographers; but this Goshawk was fairly relaxed and allowed us to drive around it to get to the better side of the light.

Fig 2. Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk - Take-Off

After taking a few portait shots, we waited a few minutes until it took off into the air spreading it’s wings beautifully and bidding us farewell, and onto our next wonderful sighting in the Madikwe Game Reserve.

Fig 1. Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk - Additional EXIF Info:
Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: Canon 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM
Focal Length: 400mm
Shutter Speed: 1/640s
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 250
Date Taken: Aug 13, 2011, 3:33:56 PM

Fig 2. Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk Takeoff - Additional EXIF Info:
Camera: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
Lens: Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM
Focal Length: 170mm
Shutter Speed: 1/1250s
Aperture: f/9
ISO: 500
Date Taken: Aug 13, 2011, 3:39:41 PM

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Copyright Ian Weatherburn Photography.

An Eye for a Throat - Kruger National Park, South Africa

Free desktop wallpapers are now available on my Facebook page. You’ll find a high-quality, high-resolution wallpaper image that you can download which is available in a variety of sizes to suit all desktops. You will however, have to join my page by liking it first to gain access to the download links.

This weeks’s image is of two Zebra stallions fighting over the rights to mate with the mares of the herd. As you can see the fights can get quite vicious, although seldom do critical injuries occur. It’s great to see Zebra’s interacting like this as far too often all they are doing is simply standing around chewing grass.

This wallpaper download will be available for a limited time only, so head on over to my Facebook Photography page. It’s available from the ‘Free Wallpaper’ tab on the left-hand side of the page.

Links:
Ian Weatherburn Photography - Facebook
Click here to download a free desktop wallpaper of this Zebra fight

What a great week it has been photographically speaking; on two different fronts! 

First I achieved a mention on the Facebook pages for Africa Geographic and Safari Interactive Magazine with a link to my portfolio of images taken in the Maasai-Mara in Kenya, September 2010.

Then I am honoured today to appear in the first edition of a local online Wildlife Photographic Magazine.
Check out the August edition on the Wild Photo Mag website where the Editor, Andre; interviewed me about my Wildlife photography.  Page 35 of the magazine is the start of my interview, but be sure to browse through the rest of the magazine as there is wealth of information on landscape, macro and other photography in general by some very accomplished photographers and authors.

It was really great sharing my thoughts and experiences with the guys from Wild Photo Mag, and hopefully some of my answers inspire others to get out there and start putting their own wildlife portfolios together, even just for the fun of it - which is ok you know. Being a new magazine, I really wish them the best of luck with this endevour. It’s not easy putting a magazine together and keeping up that momentum; but they certainly have a great subject matter and a wealth of expertise to draw on - the South African Photographic community is incredibly talented!

My trip to the Maasai-Mara in September 2010 was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. You can read more about that experience here, but suffice it to say that if I look at the quality of the images that I managed in the short space of time that I was in Kenya, I am extremely proud of those achievements.  I’m also in awe over the quality of sightings that we had when I was there which undoubtedly contributed to my good fortunes photographically speaking.  To be able to share those images with the Africa Geographic and Safari Interactive community was really very special, as these are two high-class publications with a vast readership.

I was also a little taken aback by Wild Photo Mag’s request to do an interview to be honest. I am not a professional photographer but as you can read in the interview, I take photographs simply for the love of it.  Therefore I was not sure what I had to offer to the reader?  However, I’m really pleased with how it turned out and honoured by Andre’s editorial comments in the article.

As always it’s a pleasure sharing my photographs and thoughts with my readers. Thanks for taking the time to be part of that interest.  If you are interested check out my other photographic web sites and online albums or drop me a line. I would love to hear from you.

http://www.ianweatherburn.com
http://www.facebook.com/ianweatherburnphotography
http://500px.com/ianweatherburn
http://mrstickman.deviantart.com