Wildlife Shooting Can Be Fun

The annual Hillcrest Camera Club wildlife outing was at Tala this Saturday. I wasn't going to go. I am not into wildlife photography. The closest I get to wildlife is wiping the bird poo off my windscreen. Or watching those 'wild' herds of monkeys traipse through the suburbs, off to Musgrave for a bit of afternoon retail therapy. So actually taking photos of real wildlife was not something I'd thought I'd ever do.

But, there is a big group of wildlife photographers in the club, and they seem keen and taken by their interest. Also, after enduring many photos of wildlife, and thinking that it surely can't be all that hard, I thought I'd give it a go.

The 6.00am start required a dreaded 3.30am wake up for me. Why do I have to live so far from the action, I was asking myself? But everyone else was bright and chirpy, so I figured that any complaints about the earliness of the hour were bad form. It was bitterly cold, but I guess that starting the day on the dam, swirls of icy mist freezing our hands and faces, was always going to be cold. Lucky Bari got many hugs, but I suppose if I could have hugged everyone, it would just have been testament to the shared body heat trick, nothing else!

Later on, once the sun had rose, we decided to move off to the rest of the reserve.

Allan drove us in his TT -actually its a Toyota Tazz, poor thing. But it did the trick. Off we zooted, starting the search for animals to shoot. Pretty soon we met our first animals - some kind of "dishding" according to Allan. I was thinking water buffallo, but being as about clued up as Allan, I chose to keep quiet. We could always shoot now, and find out later what we saw! (Thank gooness for Google) They were in the sun, and the light was bad, so the "dishdings" didnt give too much of a photo opportunity.

Next we spotted two ostriches. A quick recall to memories long created, and we worked out that the black feathered one was the male, while the poor scruffy one was the female. We had to leave her, seeing that her mate was obviously going to look fabulous in black and white. No amount of saturation was ever going to make her look bold and beautiful. She is doomed to sepia, poor thing.

OK, so ostriches have to be the most frustrating birds to shoot. One minute he was eating stuff on the ground, so I zoomed in to get feather detail. Next thing, he lifted his head up and spotted me. I was frantically changing focal length, zooming out like mad, and he waited just in time for me to get in focus, and then he ducked his head again. Sheesh. The fact that I eventually got him in full body mode is worth many awards for patience.

The cute little bucks came next. Once again, Allan and I were guessing what they were. 'Some kind of buck' was the conclusion drawn. I suggested Springbok, Allan seemed to think they were 'some other kind of buck'. Wow, we really were not doing the wildlife gang proud.

Cute buck has a nibble on the grass.

The zebra came next. And at long last we finally got an animal species correct. (Never mind that there is only one kind of zebra.) They were quite amusing - they seemed to know that we wanted photographs, because they posed for a few minutes, heads up, sweet little looks at the camera, swishing of the tails. Then when we didnt bugger off in a cloud of dust, they resumed munching on the grass. So we just got backsides and the tops of their heads for a while.

A few minutes later, after slowly tracking alongside them, we got another sighting. All of a sudden a few of the zebras seemed to grow 5th legs. I dont know if they all got excited at the same time, or if it was just time for the communal pee session, but boy, was I presented with a very good reason to crank up the 300mm zoom and snap, baby, snap!!!

The doodad makes an appearance.

The joke is that Bari had set us all a challenge to take a photo of something unusual, or something from a weird angle, like a close up of a hoof. I hadnt expected to see anything to live up to the challenge....... until I saw the zebra penis. I wonder if I have met the challenge with my photo? I wait with baited breath for the next camera club meeting to see whether I got the most unusual shot of the day. I'll keep you posted.

After the 5th leg excitement, things got a bit dull for a while. Allan and I tried some bird shooting, but seriously, unless you have a papparazzi lens and can actually see the bird's nostrils, you dont stand a chance at getting a good shot. Once again Allan and I were back to impressing with our knowledge. "Some kind of black bird" was Allan's guess. Mine too. It was a cute fat thing, and I got a little catch light in its eye, but it still ended up on the scrap pile of photos. Sorry, birdy, unless you can grow a 3rd 'leg' or 3rd 'wing', I guess you dont ruffle my feathers, so to speak.

The next big thing to catch my eye was the ostrich egg. It was on the path, just lying there looking unprotected and abandoned. Hmmm, abandoned buildings, abandoned ostrch eggs. Potato - potaato. I was immediately attracted. I hopped out the car for a closer look. Eeek, yes, I hear you gasp in horror. A South African game reserve is well stocked with the Big Five - vicious, hungry lions, cheetahs, elephants etc. So wasn't I being very brave, risking all for the sake of getting the shot? Gasp, gasp? Err, Tala Game Reserve doesnt have the Big Five. Though they have some pretty frisky zebras. Anyhoooo, I was snapping away at the egg, thinking it's obvioulsy abandoned, when suddenly I heard a crack of twigs and a bit of a roaring sound. All of a sudden I had images of a fiesty Mama Ostrich coming at me with her muscular legs and sharp beak racing through my mind. Thankfully the twig snapping was just me standing on a twig, and the roaring sound was Allan blowing his nose. But it was enough of a close shave to have me thinking it was best not to risk my life just for a photo!

The ostrich egg, all abandoned and alone.

The next hour passed by uneventfully. Oh except for the TT nearly succumbing to the wild road, but thanks to Allan's driving skills, we managed to manouver the car out of trouble. Well, I say that with all kindness about Allan's driving, but I think it might have been my prayers to St Christopher, Patron Saint of Bad Drivers that actually saved the TT. Allan seemed to think that adopting a gung-ho method of aiming his car straight at the biggest rocks, and hoping for the best, would save the car. I just prayed to all the Saints I could think of, so I'm thinking it might have been that method that worked, who knows?

Just as we got off the rocky road, and decided it was time to head back for breakfast, it was like all the animals conspired togther and decided to present themselves, virtually in order, on the right side of the light, profiles showing, teeth 'smiling', tails swishing angelically. And now we were in a hurry to get back to the picnic site. What a dilemma! I could hear Allan's hunger pains and "Oh, but I didnt have breakfast" stomach growls.... What were we to do? A true wildlife photographer obviously operates on near starvation, or only eats in shifts, seeing that there is always something to shoot, and no time to eat. But seeing that we weren't quite that dedicated, we obligingly watched the zebras and took a few shots of the warthogs. The zebras were stationed around a scratching post - a communal use tree trunk used to rub their tummies and backs. One by one. After the first two zebras had a rub and we'd oohed and aahed, things got a bit monotonous. One can only tolerate the blissful faces of a well scratched zebra for so long. Allan solved the growing dilemma of 'they'll eat all the breakfast sausages' versus 'we are meant to be getting all the animal shots we can' by quickly videoing the zebra doing its tree rubbing thing. He can do some nifty editting later on, stilling the video into some arty-type shots of the zebras in ecstacy.

When the phonecall came from Voden, to see if we were on our way to breakfast, you'd think it was like a call from the wild. We tried not to wizz past the buck and the buffallo, and snapped a few shots at the warthogs. They were deep in the bush anyway, so things were a bit blurry - you know, all that long grass. I'll have to do an overlay type shot, the hectic life of the warthog, all very Leslie Goodman style.

We were starting to panic a bit when it looked like we were lost and would never find the picnic site. I could see Allan wondering of he'd ever see another egg and sausage roll again, when suddenly one of the Tala landrovers appeared. A quick flagging down and desperate croaking of "Where is the picnic site?" resulted in the cute blonde at the wheel taking one look at us and saying "Follow me, I'm going there now!" Good thing that it was a blonde lady game ranger, because Allan didnt seem to mind that she went roaring down the road, bouncing over the dongas without a care - he just followed in hot pursuit, so to speak!

We were the last to arrive at the picnic site. But thankfully they hadn't decided to send out the search parties. And even more thankfully, there were enough sausages left for Allan. Breakfast was delicious and most welcome.

You know taking all those photos of the dishdings and the doodads is hungry work!

Fresh produce, Sunrise Surprise. Just don't ask me who did it......