Female Double-banded Sandgrouse, Pterocles bicinctus, Etosha National Park, Namibia.
When I travel, I have little time to really delve into the photographs I’ve made. I’m usually too busy charging up batteries, cleaning the gear, and downloading/backing up my pictures before falling into bed so I get some rest before getting up early again and doing it all over. But I do spot-check pictures to make sure the camera/lenses are functioning properly, and if I have time, I’ll scan excitedly through the day’s pictures if I know there were some I was very passionate (and nervous) about getting!
It’s when I’m home that I typically have more time to review/rate and edit my pictures from a trip. Unless it’s a busy schedule, and it certainly has been the past few years. As a result of less time, I end up making a ‘first go’ through the pictures to pick the ones that jump out, to rate/process/share those, and the rest get left in the dark – sitting in the computer with a 2-star rating until I can revisit them. This week, I am putting together an instructional video for Namibia clients coming on our July-August photo tour this year, so I was looking back through all my Namibia photographs, and found some good ones that had simply fallen into the deep darkness of my hard drives.
The main blog image tells a story about the Etosha Pan. A huge dried lakebed, everything in that area around the pan is white – this is not snow here – from a pulverized powder of dust that coats everything, until rains come to wash it away. This image was made during August-September trip and it was a drought year, so the whole area looked like it had a blanket of snow on it, and with the trees and bushes and rocks, it was a gray/brown/white combination. This sand grouse came walking along the road below our safari vehicle. I loved how the pattern of the bird showed how easy it would be to miss it in this environment had it been sitting just under those bushes in the dappled light of morning. But out in the open, it stood out. The light was beautiful and though the bird was watchful, it didn’t recognized our parked vehicle as a threat so as long as we moved slowly, we got our photographs.
Springbok sparring in Etosha National Park, Namibia.
The second photograph was an altercation between two Springbok males, perhaps just testing their prowess and strength – they were sparring over something, for sure. But they were a little farther away than I wanted, even with my 600mm focal length, and since I hadn’t edited the picture with a crop, I had passed over it in my final edits. But yesterday, I rediscovered this one and realized that with a small crop (about 25-30%) the image really told the story of how they lock horns and push again each other. And since I like capturing stories in wildlife, it’s now a keeper in my selects.
The moral of this story is that it pays to go back and review your pictures – and sooner than later! You just never know what surprises there may be in those files!
P.S. If you want to experience Etosha and all the rest that Namibia has to offer, consider joining us this July. Offered through Strabo Tours, visit their site to register or view the links on our site above for details and a gallery of pictures.
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