For years now, my sister has been urging us to accompany her to southern Africa, a place that she has been traveling to for more than 25 years. She has visited there more than 40 times and is about as expert on the region as anyone could possibly be who does not live there full-time. I could never really get excited myself, however, about visiting the area, mostly because I see it as a wildlife photo adventure, and my primary photographic interest has always been landscape. And while I knew that there was probably good landscape to photograph there as well, safari adventures will always tend to focus on the animals, which is the reason why most people travel such a long way. Nowhere else can you find the wealth of wild animals in one region the way that you can in southern Africa, and the safari tours that have developed are superb for that purpose. I have yet to meet anyone who has returned from Africa and said that they didn’t enjoy it. It is a near unanimous thumbs up from everyone. But it does mean quite a long journey, and I guess that I always saw it as weeks away from the possibility of landscape work. But my sister and my wife persisted, and I begrudgingly gave in, so long as they planned the trip and I didn’t have to think about it. They agreed, so here I now sit, about 3 days away from the journey.
I have had little wildlife photo experience with a few exceptions. At the polar regions, I enjoyed trying to photograph whales, penguins, and polar bears, and in each instance, I had a few photos that I really felt captured those animals quite well. Here in Florida, I have often gone to some of the wetland areas—the Everglades and Wakadohatchee Wetlands—and shot (photographically) the large wading birds, most often during breeding season. Capturing the mating rituals and the resulting newborn chicks has been fascinating and made for some amazing photos. In one instance, I had a wood stork peering at her egg in the nest as I arrived at the wetlands. When I returned about 15 minutes later, her tiny bald little chick had hatched. It made for a phenomenal image. Watching the chicks grow over the next couple months was also amazing and fascinating. But beyond that, I didn’t have much to show for wildlife photos, and I had not taken any bird images for nearly 6 months now.
So, feeling that my wildlife skills were somewhat deficient, and having my grandson here with us for the week, I thought that a photo trip to the zoo would perhaps help hone my skills a bit in preparation for my trip. Although I was aware of it, however, the heat down here in the summer was a killer, and my ability to do much was fairly limited. But I did get some good bird photos, with one of a bald eagle being especially spectacular. It is almost a formal portrait of the animal and quite striking (see accompanying image). I also got some fine flamingo and lorikeet photos as well. I wish that it was not so hot that day so we could have spent more time there, but I think I updated my skills a bit and am ready to go. We will see what I come back with in a couple weeks.
Bald Eagle, Palm Beach Zoo, Florida