Autumn Chameleon

Hello everyone, hope you're all well and enjoying some winter weather at last. As you may have guessed from the title, this post is all about a chameleon that we found on a private trip into the South African Bush with the lovely rangers from Mongena Game Lodge. The plan of this "morning" excursion was to look for insects and reptiles, basically all the small things that are often forgotten about in favour of the larger charismatic mammals. I say morning as we left very early to watch sunrise in the bush and got back around lunchtime! 

We found many very cool bugs and even a shrew but the one thing I really wanted to see was a chameleon and after much searching in the bush we couldn't find one, being autumn they were starting to go into hibernation so we knew it would be tricky, but on returning to the vehicle what should we find right in front of it but a flap-necked chameleon (Chamaeleo dilepis).  

This poor little chap was very cold and covered in dew drops which strangely made it even more beautiful, so here are some of the photos I took of the chameleon covered in dew drops and looking for some sun to warm up in. 

I was so happy to see my chameleon and be able to spend so much time with it, a huge thank you goes out to the rangers for their perseverance in looking and for their patience while I photographed it. I'm definitely hooked on these wonderful little creatures and look forward to planning another trip soon to go and look for them and spend more time with them and the other wonderful smaller things. 

For now though, time to go. Have a lovely day. 

Bye for now. 

Victoria x

Everyone Loves Penguins!

I'm not sure what it is about penguins, but I haven't met a single person that doesn't love them! 

It has been a few years since I visited Cape Town and the penguins at Boulder's Bay so was very excited to be going back there and going with Chris for the very first time. However, we didn't go to Boulder's Bay this time as some very good friends suggested a different location somewhere much less touristy and very much quieter, in fact it is the same place that I photographed the Rock Hyrax.

African penguins (Sphensicus demersus) are adorable birds also know as black-footed penguins and jackass penguin due to its call, they are only penguin species that breeds on the African continent with the majority of breeding sites located on offshore islands. There are only a handful of mainland breeding sites two of which are located in the Western Cape. Interestingly there is no fixed breeding season for the penguins with breeding peaking in Namibia between November and December and in South Africa between March and May, they build their nests in sheltered locations in depressions under boulders or vegetation. These wonderful penguins pair for life and return to the same nest site year after year with records showing some penguins being together for ten years! 

We visited in April so there was quite a bit of activity and a few baby penguins around being looked after by one of their parents while the other was out at sea feeding. 

Seeing the chicks was a first for me as all the other times I've been it has been just at the beginning of the breeding season or just at the end so it was a real joy to see these little bundles. 

But I also wanted to captured some different images of their lives on this rocky coastline from getting to the sea and getting in it to dealing with the slippery rocks. 

Unfortunately these beautiful penguins are struggling and are currently listed as endangered on the IUCN Redlist with only 18,000 breeding pairs left in South Africa with the population plummeting by 70% between 2001 and 2013. These penguins face numerous threats including oil spills and increased predation, but by far the biggest threat is over fishing. The parents must travel out to sea to forage but are having to travel further and further to find enough fish to feed their chicks due to depleted fish stocks, but many are not able to travel these distances before their annual moult begins. This means chicks are abandoned and often starve to death, but there are people out there rescuing these chicks and hand raising them ready to be released back into the wide. If you would like to learn more about their plight and what is being done please visit SANCCOB.

They are such wonderfully charismatic birds and I could spends hours, days, months watching them come and go and all their antics but we only had a short time in Cape Town and there was much more we wanted to see, but I will definitely be going back for a much longer period soon!

For now it's bye from me and the penguins. Have a lovely weekend, next up will be a little chameleon we found on a visit to the bush. xx

Rock Hyrax

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and are ready for everything that 2015 has to offer. We had a lovely quiet Christmas which was much needed followed by my best friends wedding (link to the photos to follow soon) and a quiet New Year with a few drinks and Chinese takeaway with some friends. After a much needed break it is time to hit the ground running with so many exciting things planned for this year including sharing some more of my favourite images animal by animal and next up is the adorable Rock or Cape Hyrax (Procavia capensis).

The Cape hyrax also known as a dassie, is one of only four extant species in the order Hyracoidea and the only living species in the Genus Procavia. Despite looking like a small rodent, the closest living relatives of the hyrax are actually elephants and manatees and they have the most adorable little faces and characters.

On an early morning trip to a location to look for penguins, this small group of hyrax where on the rocks just before the main penguin colony and getting there nice and early they were quite curious about that strange thing pointing something at them.

This first image is of two hyrax sitting on the rocks, they have moist rubber soles to their feet which help them with their lives on the rocks and they love basking in the sun!

These next few images are of one rather inquisitive individual who I just adore, so much personality in something so small.

This last image was one I took on the way back from the penguins just sprawled out on the rocks watching the world go by, you can see their rubbery feet which are so vital when climbing around steep rock faces.

I really enjoyed the short time I had with this family but would love the opportunity to return and spend longer photographing the lives of these wonderful creatures around South Africa.

I hope you have enjoyed my images of the hyrax, still to come are penguins and a chameleon, but for now it's time to get back to processing the wedding photos.

Have a lovely day.

Victoria x

Baboons!

Hello everyone, wow where has the last six weeks gone?! I can't believe it's the middle of December already!

Well, things have been very busy with the pop-up shop and Christmas craft fairs but I have been slowly making my way through images taken earlier in the year and putting together my favourite images and planning for next 2015. I will be sharing some of these images with you over the next few weeks, starting today with baboons!

Baboons are not everyone's favourite animals and are often overlooked, but they make wonderful photographic subjects from the babies through to the adults, you just have to spend time in their company. I spent an afternoon with this troupe of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) in the Western Cape of South Africa and the expressions and behaviours were completely captivating.

There is no doubting that proteas are one if their favourite foods, this young one was certainly tucking in!

The young ones are so much fun to watch as they eat and play

But away from all the fun and frolics of the young baboons with endless energy, the adults have some quiet time to relax and take contemplate the world. 

There is always a little time for grooming and eating

and some time to get lost in concentration, this final image I'm leaving you with is one of my favourite from the afternoon. I had such a wonderful time with this troupe and am already making plans to return in the next year or so. 

This year I have taken the time to get to know a few species rather than work with many and it has allowed me to not only learn about their lives and behaviours but also their characters and different ways to capture these. For now we are leaving the baboons behind and moving onto something somewhat smaller, but to find out what stay tuned! 

My Thoughts On The Sigma 120-300mm f2.8 DG OS HSM Lens

I was lucky enough to be able to use this lens during my two week trip to South Africa where my subjects would range from penguins to lions and everything in between. There are numerous in depth technical reviews out there about the lens complete with comparisons, but I would like to offer my thoughts on this lens in terms of use for creative wildlife photography so I will not be covering all the techy bits and bobs, purely my thoughts and opinions on how it handles for producing different images. The reason I have written the article in this way is that I know when I am looking for a new lens, I want to read about how it handles in the field when used by a photographer, see some results and get a personal idea of what the lens is really like rather than reading all the technical reviews (which are great) but they don't give real situation reviews.

If you would like all the technical details for the lens, click on the following link that will take you to Sigma Imaging UK website:

Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM | S specs

I like to do things a little differently and am always looking for new and creative ways to portray wildlife and this includes foregrounds and backgrounds as well as the main subject when composing my shot, so I was itchy to get out and put this lens through its paces.

One thing that really sparked an interest was the f2.8 aperture through the range of the lens and the internal zooming which means there is no change in the length of the lens making it ideal if you are working in potentially dusty/sandy environments. On receiving the lens the first thing that struck me was the weight, it certainly is a beast in that department and I wondered if it would be possible to use it handheld. I received the lens a couple of days before we were due to leave so decided that I would pop out for a couple of hours to get to know the lens before heading off to South Africa.

I took myself to a favourite haunt to see if I could find some snakes, on finding an adder hiding in the gorse bush I decided this would be a good place to start. I wanted to show the adder in its habitat so this meant trying to compose a shot that is looking through the thorns of the bush. Both these shots are handheld, taken in colour and black and white. The focal point is the eye of the adder and with an aperture of f4, the thorns just above the adder are in focusing showing their sharpness whilst all surrounding thorns are out of focus giving the looking through the bush into the snakes world appearance. 

I really wasn't sure if it would be possible to get a sharp image handheld given the weight of the lens, but I am incredibly pleased with these first images and it really started to get my thoughts going about what I could produce during my time in South Africa. Although it is worth mentioning that I only worked handheld with the lens for around 5-10 minutes, any longer I would recommend using a tripod. With these great initial results it was time to go and put this lens through its paces properly. The first stop was the Western Cape for penguins, baboons, lizards and whatever else we could find and time to start getting really creative.

Two very different images both with bokeh backgrounds, this lens produces beautifully dreamy bokeh as seen in the black and white image and also slightly harsher bokeh as seen in the colour image. For me the background to an image can make it or break it so being able to produce two variations of bokeh is fantastic, the smooth creamy bokeh adds a real softness to the pair of penguins on the rock together, whilst the harsher appearance really helps set off the silhouetted penguin walking along the slippery rocks.  For both these images I used the fencing to rest the lens on. 

Away from the great bokeh that can be created, you can also have perfect smooth backgrounds which really make the main subject pop out from the photograph. 

Both of the above images illustrate wonderfully the smooth backgrounds that can be achieved perfectly at f2.8 making the main subject jump out of the image whilst at the same time giving the image depth. With the rock hyrax (on the right) the ability to blur the foliage in the foreground such that is merges with the background has truly made this image what it is, giving the real sense of the animal peeking around from behind the rocks and plants. For close-up portraits this is an incredible lens and offers so much flexibility for being creative with foregrounds, backgrounds and everything in between. 

But what about picking up a small subject in its habitat? This is where the ability to limit the focal distance using the USB hub really comes into play as you can set two custom settings, so I set one with a limited focal range specifically for photographing animals in their habitat. By limiting the focusing range, the autofocus wasn't continuously searching. The other option was to manually focus, but as there was no-where to set-up a tripod my only option was to balance on the fence and use autofocus in this situation. Ok, the penguin was a little easier, but the lens really had no problems at all picking up the rather small lizard in amongst the rocks. 

Ok, so the lens has performed beyond expectation in the above situations, now for some action shots. It's one thing to be able to have time to set up and compose a portrait, but when it comes to a penguin jumping, crashing waves or even a baby baboon on the run, then it's a different kettle of fish altogether. You need to be quick and you need for your equipment to respond in a very short space of time, with the crashing waves I had the chance to take photographs over and over...... 

But, with the penguins it was a different matter. I found one penguin standing on a rock that was being battered over and over by crashing waves and knew the image that I wanted to capture, but getting it was another matter. This is one of my favourite images, the penguin is in focus with the foam from the waves being frozen in time as it crashes over the little guy. Then there was getting a penguin jumping, something that took several attempts and several different penguins but I got there in the end! I am excited to say that this lens performed very well in both these circumstances capturing the moments I wanted perfectly. 

Baboons, particularly young ones, are definitely a challenge as the move quite erratically and fast. I was busy watching/photographing three young baboons playing when this little one came running passed eating a protea flower. I have to admit I didn't think I would be able to capture this little guy in focus, but the lens focuses quickly (and almost silently) to capture the action when you need it. 

Great, very impressed so far. Very responsive, quick focusing, so many creative possibilities to be had. However, all these shots were taken on very bright sunny days. Next stop on the trip was to be a different challenge, off to the bush in search of some bigger animals, the light would be more tricky and there would be less time and opportunity to compose the shot. I am lucky that I have visited South Africa several times, but this time I was looking for something very different from my photography. The first challenge was shooting late afternoon with animals that were constantly on the move, elephants and rhino! I have some wonderful close up shots, but the two I would like to share with you are taking a step back, showing the animal in their habitat and giving them space in the frame. 

The reason I picked these two images is because they show a different aspect to the other images in this review. I could have easily zoomed in to 300mm but opted to take a step back and show more of the habitat. Even though the aperture was set at f2.8, being further away from my subject more of the area comes into focus, but it gives me a fast shutter speed to allow a sharp image handheld. Although these images were taken late afternoon there was still enough light and luckily it was shining on the animals themselves. What happens once the sun goes down and you are left with the last remnants of light? Well, at f2.8 and with an ISO 500, I'd say the lens performs pretty well! 

So there you have it, my experience and thoughts on the Sigma 120-300mm f2.8 DG OS HSM lens in the field. 

In summary:

Creative possibilities - many, many possibilities for creative images at any focal length, this is in part to the option to have f2.8 through the whole range. The lens itself will allow for fantastic bokeh effects and smooth backgrounds.

Responsiveness - Personally I found the lens to be fast focusing, very very quiet.

Ease of use - very easy to get to grips with, connecting the USB dock allows for easy customisation in several of the settings including speed of focus for autofocus and limiting the focal distances. Not being a particularly techy minded person I wondered how easy it would be to change these settings, trust me it's very easy to understand and change. You can set up two different custom settings.

Low Light - performs very well in low light levels, still picking up the subject well.

Design - personally I find the design works very well for me, having the zoom system internally so there is no change in the length of the lens is perfect for the smaller person!  

Any drawbacks?

For me the only thing was the weight, but it was still possible to achieve sharp in-focus images handheld, that is in part due to the great image stabilisation system. If you are using it on a tripod the weight would not be an issue (plus I'm only a small person!). 

So, I love this lens and if you looking for a multi-purpose lens with good focal range and great creative potential I would definitely recommend this particular lens. I hope you have enjoyed my different take on a lens review! I will leave with one last image of a lion. 

South Africa Part 2

Hello and welcome to part two of our South African adventure! At the end of the last post I left you with a few photos from our last few quiet days in Cape Town, after which we jumped back on the plane and headed back to Jo'burg for a couple of days before heading off to Meagen and Matthew's wedding.

After gathering some food, it was time to head off to the Blue Moonlight Lodge for a couple of days to celebrate the wedding and take a game drive, so here are a few photos from the game drive and the beautiful wedding, where I took the photos of the girls getting ready.

You can see more of the photos from the day here: Victoria Woolley Event Photography

After a wonderful few days of celebrating, it was time to say good bye to the family for a few days and head of to Mongena Reserve for a few nights with mum and dad, and chance for the four of us to celebrate our respective wedding anniversaries together. On arrival we had a bite to eat and discussed activities for the next few days, then after a quick unpack it was time to head off on our first game drive and what a way to start, rhino, elephant and even a caracal!

We decided as well as the drives we should take a bush walk and tracked a rhino and find some cool bugs, which led to a conversation that would see myself and Chris take off with Jessie the following morning for the best part of four hours in search of the smaller things, insects, small mammals, reptiles, basically whatever we could find and we were certainly not disappointed. Top of my list was a chameleon, but having no luck we set off to the dam and found some damselflies, butterflies and even a mother mouse and her babies but still no chameleon. But our luck was in and as we got back to the vehicle there it was small, cold and covered in dew drops right in front of the adapted land cruiser, not entirely sure my excitement was fully understood but I could have happily spent the next couple of hours with this little fella! So, here are a few photos of that encounter and some of the other cool critters we found on that fantastic morning in the bush.

Not one to miss an opportunity, I also wandered around the grounds looking for anything else of interest and managed to find a few lizards that were very obliging when it came to having their photos taken! Here are just a couple of them.

If you would like to see more of the images from this amazing trip just click on the link below which will take you to the album on Facebook.

South Africa 2014

I would like to take the time to extend a huge thank you to the amazing, dedicated and enthusiastic rangers at Mongena and in particular Jessie and Dafnika for all their help in finding everything that they did, it was an incredible morning and thoroughly enjoyed! I think that often when people go on safari, be it to South Africa or any other part of Africa they don't take in all the smaller species that are so vital to the ecosystem, we all love lions, elephants rhinos etc, but the invertebrates, reptiles and small mammals are so fascinating I cannot wait to have the chance to go back and spend more time looking for and photographing these smaller animals.

For now though, I am back home and there is no rest for the wicked as in less than a week I will be opening up a pop-up shop with my mum in Frome and there is lots to do! More about that in my next post, for now time to go and get wrapping and pricing!

Thanks for reading, hope you have enjoyed my instalments from South Africa. In my next post I will be sharing my thoughts on the Sigma 120-300mm lens with images.

Bye for now!!