The «Wildt’sche Haus» am Petersplatz in Basel. Architect: Johann Jakob Fechter.
Photographed with the PANO function on my iPhone
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May 5th, 2015
February 20th, 2015 
We have been visiting the African bush for years and we try to take every opportunity we can to get out there. There is a sense of stillness and excitement when one is in the bush that is quite unique. The buzzing ‘silence’ sets one’s senses working overtime: sight, sound, smell, taste and even touch are getting a fair share of work in the bush.
We have experienced all sorts of bush lodges and we have wanted to visit the Sabi Sands Game Reserve for years. The region’s reputation for good game viewing is well established. We had read the books, watched the documentaries and followed the progress of famous leopards over the years. Last year we decided it was time to visit Londolozi Game Reserve, part of the Sabi Sands. Photographing the animals and in particular the leopard was high on the priority list.
On one of our first rides into the bush we met with an older leopard male, just waking up out of his afternoon nap. Londolozi is a private game reserve and the rangers may go off-road and follow the game into the bush when appropriate. We were able to get really close and have an almost personal interaction with this male. I had a good opportunity getting the images I wanted.
Getting to see and, in particular photograph, leopards was high on our wishlist. We were very lucky to see leopard on more than one occasion. The rangers take great care when they approach animals and the animals are well habituated to the presence of the vehicles. This is of course great for photography and game-viewing.
On our last full day at Londolozi we were treated to a spectacular display of a male and female leopard courting and mating. For thirty minutes we witnessed them vocalising to each other, walking around, flopping down and eventually also making sure the species continues to thrive. As Londolozi has a strict visiting policy (max #vehicles = 3) for any sighting, we released our spot for another vehicle after we had our fair share of taking images.
The excitement of the bush is that you never know what may appear just over the next rise or behind the next bush. On one of our morning drives we visited a hyena den. At least one mother, an older cub and two younger cubs were present. Hyenas evoke many responses but cute is rarely one of those. We definitely had the cute response when we saw following scene.
The two cubs were chasing each other like domesticated puppies, playing and fighting over a piece of bark. They were having the time of their lives, we did too. For at least twenty minutes, they ran around the termite mound and raced past the vehicle and one of them gave one of the tyres a playful bite. Because it was overcast this morning, I set my camera in manual mode (by histogram check). Light conditions being the same for the time we were there, I didn’t have to reset the light settings on my camera. It was a very special encounter.
We left the scene as the smallest and cutest one glanced at us as if to say: “Oh … were you there ?”. During an afternoon drive we came close to a group of giraffe and our ranger decided to give this group of eight giraffe a closer look. He parked the vehicle and invited all of us on board to get off and follow him in single file as we carefully approached the herd on foot! This is generally strictly forbidden in most game parks. It was really special to be on the same ‘level’ as the game, although that is not entirely applicable in this case. The eight giraffe all looked at us then turned and slowly continued on their way moving into a thicker part of bush. Since we were positioned with the sun in front of us, I processed this image to make it even more dramatic.
The past year has been one of the worst with regards to the poaching of rhino in South Africa. On average three rhino were (and probably still are) poached per day. We were very pleased to see that these animals were still present here. Private patrols have been effective in helping to protect these magnificent animals.
We were also lucky to see a group of three grazing rhino, also known as a ‘crash’ of rhinos. It was very special.
In all of our years in the bush I have seldom seen cheetah. It was therefore very special to come across this beautiful female cheetah. It was later on the morning drive and she was in hunting mode: constantly looking around. She then jumped on a fallen tree to have a better view of the surroundings.
I asked our ranger to move the landrover, to better position the vehicle in relation to the sun position. In the below image the sun is more behind us and she gave us a stunning viewing position.
At one stage she suddenly accelerated away from us in pursuit of a steenbok, a small antelope. The chase was brief, the little steenbok escaped and after that she searched for some shade to recover from the sprint.
Often when one sees buffalo there are only a few animals in view. If there are more they are usually hidden deeper in the bush. We entered the open plain in the middle of the Londolozi concession and we were in the middle of an enormous herd of buffalo grazing, resting and socialising. Amazing.
Lions are always a big attraction. Despite their reputation, one mostly sees them lying down and doing pretty much nothing. They usually rest in the heat of the day and generally only become active as the light goes. Our sighting was no exception.
They yawned and stretched and changed lying positions. Nevertheless, I was able to capture proof of their reputation. Note the teeth in the following image.
A complete BIG 5 experience when the elephant is added to the list. We saw them a number of times in the reserve, placid and relaxed. A good sign as it indicates they have been leading a peaceful life in the reserve and not chased by poachers.
This disturbingly still elephant was simply taking an afternoon nap.
Our visit was a very satisfying experience – I was going home with a slightly overwhelming number of images to keep me busy for a while.
Lesley was keen to meet Elmon Mhlongo, one of the longest staying and knowledgeable rangers at work at Londolozi. He is the famous tracker from the Londolozi Leopard documentaries filmed by wildlife filmmaker John Varty. Here flanked by Lesley and yours truly.
Last but not least, we were very impressed with how Londolozi treats its staff and gave us a tour of the accommodation village and how operations work behind the scene. Staff is living on and in the camp site boundaries. Offices, a school for the kids and an advanced study centre are part of the community providing all the facilities for staff and families. Sustainable development and community involvement are well implemented at Londolozi. We were both very impressed by the village tour. It gave true meaning to the meaning of the word Londolozi: “Protector of all living things”. See more images of our trip here: Londolozi Photo Gallery. January 30th, 2015
I am working through files from old trips. In recent times I learned a ton of new and improved processing methods. The files I am working now are from trips in 2008 and my ‘dark-room’ skills were definitely not as tuned as they are today. When going through the folders and processing this leopard image, I thought it was time to post it here. The image shown here is from a scene in Kruger park, near Paul Kruger gate. As we were leaving the park to go home, there was this traffic jam, cars packed around a tree with 2 leopards. One leopard, the mother, had just dragged an impala up the trunk of a tree. This young female leopard was impatiently moving in trees around the tree where the mother was eating. She gave a nice glare at all the fuss going on at the roadside. December 11th, 2013
Last weekend I went out to shoot at a bird-sanctuary near Zürich. Anette Mossbacher from BPN accompanied me. October 13th, 2013
Save the RhinoJohn Varty, filmmaker and owner of Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa, wrote an open letter to Cyril Ramaphosa, now Vice President of the ANC in South Africa. John basically wants these poachers, mainly form Mozambique, be treated as invaders. The whole issue with Rhino horn is that the horn is made of keratin, the same material as our finger nails. If keratin has medicinal value (it hasn’t), biting your nails will have the same effect. Leave these animals alone ! Please join the efforts to stop this slaughter. As we speak, nearly 800 Rhino have been killed this year alone. Goto the link below and sign the petition. Avaaz has a good record of creating awareness on political levels with encouraging results. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_Rhino_Poaching_in_South_Africa_1 Below is the actual letter that John Varty sent to the South African government:
August 12th, 2013
Yesterday we went to a macro workshop, organised by Markus Bissig. Markus is a gifted photographer and he also has a passion for cooking. Spending a lot of time in the kitchen, he ‘saw’ how simple objects could be used as great subjects for photography: in a macro kind of way. He uses an industrial studio in Uster, where some well-known kitchen tools are collected to be used in this great workshop. He, as he says it, has a fetish for the Rösti Rasp. With light, composition and a macro lens you can come to some surprising results. My favorite of yesterday was a setup whereby I positioned some olive oil drops on a mirror and reflected a red-lit rasp above the mirror. The images are somehow a bit abstract but there is a lot of fun involved making these kind of images. The result is shown above. More of the kitchen-macro images can be found here… July 29th, 2013
This weekend I have been playing with the new fractalius plugin for Photoshop-Elements. I have been experimenting a lot with birds and with buildings and this one came out quite well. Perhaps I find some setting that might even work for people, although revealing the eyes on humans is looking a bit weird :). This image from the Kinderdijk windmills was created during our Netherlands tulip tour.
July 27th, 2013
After much debate, I finally decided to take the route I should have gone long ago: get a fractalius plugin. But since I am a MAC user, this plugin is not available for a MAC installed copy of Photoshop. What I do have is a VMWare installed copy of Windows XP, where I occasionally use Breeze Browser to get some additional information from an image. The above image is rendered with a glow100 filter, from the image below. NB:
June 13th, 2013 On our way to Spain, we made a stopover in the Camargue, at the Rhone Delta west of Marseille. 
December 5th, 2012 Normally I glance over advertisements, but tonight Triodos Bank grabbed my attention with a TV commercial. A simple question: “what do you want to change ?”. A simple question. And I yelled: “I wish that rhino-horn becomes worthless”. The commercial appealed to go to their website and express your wish. I did and it was posted. I have no ties to this bank, but I was moved by their question and motivated to wish and do something. Asian medicine is still convinced that rhino horn powder cures a wide variety of diseases and today their horn is valued more than gold. The animals are slaughtered in the African bush at an alarming rate. In South Africa alone, the number of animals wasted this year is somewhere near 600. To cure what ? I wish that future generations can still watch this:
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