Monday, February 21, 2011

Sabi Sands Wildlife Photography Workshop



Nothing beats daybreak in the bush.


For the past few months we at Africa Unlocked have presented the very popular C4 Images and Safaris wildlife photographic courses in Hoedspruit in the Lowveld. This past weekend we have had the wonderful opportunity to host the course on a private concession in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve adjoining the Kruger National Park, an area encompassing more than 2 million hectares! This acclaimed region didn’t disappoint as within the first two game drives we managed to log up all of the big five!! Quite a feat considering the course only officially started on the Saturday morning, well after our second game drive!



A group of White Rhinos mud wallowing in perfect light.


It’s always such a pleasure hosting likeminded and very enthusiastic photographers and from my side a huge thank you to you all who made the stay in the “Sands” so enjoyable. In order to maintain our high level of personal attention all future courses will be limited to small groups only.


The apex of any safari - An elusive leopard only metres away from the vehicle.



Night drives creates the perfect platform to view the big cats in action.

Some comments from the participants:


The course was very educational and I found the subjects help full. The course material was also very use full afterwards.
The instructor has excellent knowledge of the subject. - David Bertram


The course was very educational and I found the subjects helpfull. The course material was also very use full afterwards and the instructor has excellent knowledge of the subject. - Christiaan Willemse
I can honestly say that the course was very helpful especially the following subjects:1. Light and types of light helped me a lot2. Different functions of the camera especially when shooting a fast moving subject3. I learnt a lot about the camera that I use, functions that I never knew exist or have never used before - Neels de Kock

We will be hosting another course during the first weekend of April. Click here for more details or contact us directly for more info and to secure your place.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Praying Mantis Eating Spider

Some birds are supposed to eat spiders and spiders eat insects, right? Well seems like they don’t always follow the rules. After witnessing a very unique scenario almost a year ago of a spider eating a bird I thought it was quite interesting yesterday to witness another instance of this spider in an example of predation. Unfortunately this time the poor arachnid was the one being scoffed by a very ambitious Praying Mantis. So there you, go another example albeit on a small scale, of the complete opportunism of predators.