This has been an amazing week at Londolozi. In spite of a cold front which swept through South Africa, we have had beautiful days with stunning viewing of wildlife. For me personally it has also been an amazing month as we have just moved into the brand new Londolozi Photographic Studio which is now up, running and filled with new guests every day. I am thoroughly enjoying the new space and working with all of the photography enthusiasts who are coming through to work on their photographs, rent camera gear and print their pics. Just take a look at the pic below to get an idea of what this incredible new space looks like…
Londolozi Photographic Studio
With this new space, we have also setup a brand new Fine Art Site which is closely tied into the Londolozi Blog. You may have also noticed that we have new Lightbox display for all of the images on the blog. These lightboxes contain more information about each image, the photographer as well as the option to ♡ your favourite images and curate your own gallery. If you have a Londolozi Live profile (Register for one in the top right hand corner) you will find your favourite images by clicking on your profile pic and selecting My Favourites.
All of your favourites will also be curated into your very own gallery of images which you can view on the Fine Art Site under the Favourite Gallery Section. You will earn points and badges if your gallery is showcased in future blogs, so please feel free to curate images that really speak to you. More to come on the Fine Art site in the coming weeks, however here is the first gallery (Editors Picks) for this month.
It is not just in the Photographic Studio and on the Londolozi Live platform that changes have been happening, but out here in the bushveld as well. As mentioned above the wildlife viewing has been stunning and over the past week there have been many interesting sightings that have taken place. Have a look at my selection of pictures from the last week or so.
Enjoy this Week in Pictures…
The Lunar eclipse which took place on the 27th of July 2018 was a site that all were excited to view and photograph. The shadow that you see over the moon is caused by the moon’s movement through the earth’s shadow.
The red/orange colour that you see in this image is due to the refraction of sunlight by the earth’s atmosphere. If the earth had no atmosphere the moon would be completely dark during the eclipse.
On Tuesday afternoon whilst driving through the muddy Manyelethi River we came across a large breeding herd of elephants. These two calves took advantage of the herd pausing to feed to start playing the mud.
Elephant calves don’t venture too far from their mothers; as the herd moved slowly passed our vehicle I was able to capture this shot of one of the calves through a beautiful natural frame between its mothers trunk and front legs.
Lately the Nstevu Lionesses and the Birmingham Males have been mating. This lioness is the only one of the six sisters who we have not seen yet producing cubs. She sat alongside this Marula tree and watched her sister mate with one of the Birmingham males.
After mating this pair of lions settled down to rest at the same time as the two rhinos in the background. This was an extremely exciting sighting to have as I had never seen two of the big five animals in such close proximity. Rare to say the least.
A young giraffe taking a break while her mother feeds nearby. Although left here to rest the mother will never be move out of sight of her young one.
At night Black storks sometimes form communal roosts in favoured roosting sites (e.g. sandbanks or trees), which may attract individuals from a wide area. Whilst watching the Nkoveni Female leopard in the image below, these Storks settled down to roost for the night. I managed to capture the silhouettes as the sun was setting. This is the same roosting point mentioned in TWIP from last week, and is just above where the Nkoveni female leopard has been stashing her cub regularly, so photographic opportunities of the leopard and the storks in the same sighting have been regular.
The Nkoveni female waiting for her cub to respond to her contact calls as the light begins to fade. Unfortunately we were unable to stay with her after the light disappeared but she did manage to rejoin with her cub as we found tracks of the two together the following morning.
Whilst on a bumble with a couple of staff members, we bumped into these two two White Rhinos having a drink at a full pan. We had originally set out to photograph leopards; not having success we were still able to capture some shots of these rhinos and their reflections as a great second best.
A startled Zebra takes a break from grazing as another Zebra sounded a distress call. Notice how her ears are pointing in two different directions so as to take in the sounds from both in front and behind her.
Whilst having a sundowner at a crossing point in the Sand river I noticed this Foam nest frog in a shallow pool and decided it would be a great opportunity for a low angle shot.
One of the Nhlaguleni female’s cubs uses the cover of this Jackalberry tree to look out for her mother who left them there earlier in the day.
After some time the leopard cub got a little restless and decided it was time to make her way down the tree. Before descending the cub stops at a fork in the tree and scanned the area for any dangers. Luckily for me I was in the perfect spot to take this shot through a gap in a nearby tree which created a lovely depth to this picture.
After descending down the tree, the cub spotted some impalas nearby and was clearly very interested, even though it will be some time before she will be able to take down one on her own.
Great work Kylie the studio looks amazing and I really like the new light box displays giving far more clarity to the photos.
Love your pics this week Kylie. Stunning images of elephant and rhino. The creative hub look fantastic. I love the new gallery feature on the blog. It is addictive.
Kylie your images this week were outstanding!! Initially I thought the elephants were my favorites until I proceeded and found others that were also stunning. Your new studio looks like it’s off a movie set. Staff and guests alike will completely enjoy their surroundings. Great blog this week. We appreciate you!
Kylie, What a beautiful work studio. We love TWIP and Daniel and I are looking forward to coming back soon. Thanks again for all your help during our stay. Best to you.
Andrew & Daniel
What a fun blog, Kylie! Thr new photo studio is awesome; we enjoyed our recent tour. And I am enjoying the new Fine Art Gallery, inspiring me in my editing at the moment!
Wow! Your photography studio looks great and I look forward to using it. Enjoyed viewing your photos this week- question, is NaNs for shutter speed a code in Canon cameras, or just no shutter speed given. Photo galleries are beautiful!!
These photos are beautiful Kylie!! I’ve also really enjoyed creating my own photo gallery of my favourite photos from the blog!
Great Pics. Can’t wait to see the new studio next month!
Interesting idea with the Lightbox Favorite Images Kylie. Curious if you guys have ever thought of creating a way for past visitors to post some of their own photographs from Londolozi visits, perhaps on their profile pages?
Great blog & photos. Look forward to working with you in the well-deserved new studio next July.
The new studio looks amazing!
Stunning photo’s Kylie and your new studio is outstanding!