Elands Added to the Game Reserve

Guests of our safari photo tours stay in our small lodge on a private game reserve. To further the mission of the conservancy, a small herd of rare common eland (Taurotragus oryx) will be moved onto the land.

The cow-like eland is the world's largest and slowest antelope. Despite its size, it has the endurance to maintain a trot indefinitely and can jump an 8 foot fence from a standstill. Both males and females have horns that spiral tightly, though female horns tend to be longer and thinner. A tuft of black hair grows out of the male eland's prominent dewlap, the loose fold of skin that hangs down from the neck. Adult males also have a mat of hair on the forehead that grows longer and denser as the animal ages. Usually fawn or tawny-colored, elands turn gray or bluish-gray as they get older; the oldest animals become almost black.

Elands are an important food source for many larger predators, especially cheetahs, lions, hyenas, African wild dogs, etc. They have disappeared from large sections of their former range due mainly to over-hunting and habitat loss. The natural population of South Africa’s common eland has been actively conserved for over a century and several large reserves maintain elands in captive breeding and free range situations. The success of these efforts makes it possible for smaller conservancies to adopt small herds and reintroduce a rare species.

Elands are not only valuable as wildlife, they are considered docile and easily tamed. Africa is attempting to domesticate them for meat and milk production. Eland milk has almost three times the fat and double the protein of milk from dairy cows and could prove to be more nutritious and desirable as domestic herds than cows.

Fun Eland Facts

• When walking, tendon or joints in the eland's foreleg produce a sharp clicking sound, the cause of which has not been widely investigated
• It is one of the most adaptable ruminants, able to live in a wide array of environments, from desert to savanna, grassland to mountain. The only environments not suitable for an eland are swamps, forest, and deserts.
• Like its distant gazelle and oryx relatives, the eland can conserve water by raising its body temperature as much as 7° Celsius (13.5° Fahrenheit) on hot days.
• Elands can also vary their diet, breaking off high branches with their horns

The elands are an exciting addition to the Conservancy and we look forward to getting ot know their habits and sharing them with guests as we watch the herd grow.

Shoot into the Light to Add a Golden Halo

The old rule says shooting into the sun is a mistake, but with today’s better lenses and bigger ISO ranges, this boring light technique need not limit our creativity. To create the feeling of dimension in still photos, look for side lighting or dramatic backlighting illuminating a subject. Light from these angles creates highlights and shadows that gives the perception of depth or shows off the fantastic textures of fur and feathers.

To achieve the best results, the light should be behind the subject and a bit to the side.  Ideally, the animal is still lit up on the side facing the camera.  A technique called bracketing can help you get the exposure right before the animal moves.

Bracketing is the process by which multiple photographs are taken of a particular subject with some of the settings slightly modified, such as shutter speed, f-stop, or aperture. Check to see if your camera has an automatic bracketing feature.   Most digital cameras have a bracketing feature and will take three pictures in quick succession while you hold down the shutter button.  More advanced cameras will allow you to let you bracket exposure, flash, and white balance with settings such as the size of the EV step and number of frames customizable.

In the typical setup the first photo will be the way the camera reads the light, the second will be slightly darker, and the third slightly lighter.  If you are in aperture priority mode, the bracketing will change the shutter speed, in shutter priority mode it will vary the aperture.

If the animal is not moving and you have time to review results on the LCD, using exposure compensation (the button with the symbol +/-) can achieve the same as the rapid bracketing. Using the histogram together with the Image Highlights (when the washed out portions flash) can help you decide if you have an acceptable balance of exposed and overexposed halo.  If you like to try HDR techniques in Photoshop, save the different exposures to use later in your composite.

The dramatic backlighting on the black-backed jackal in the sample image highlights  its whiskers and face while the side nearest to the camera is exposed enough to show some color and detail while preserving the overall sunset mood of the photo. 

The next issue of Wild Times will come out in May when we return from our Photography Workshop in Africa with new stories and images.

Safari Clothing: Dress for Success and Comfort

Over the years I have assembled a wardrobe of trusted and proven clothing favorites that go with me on every safari and many of my other trips. These shirts, pants, and shorts are comfortable to walk and ride in and stand up to the thorns and hand washing. Some of the pieces were not cheap, but they last forever. I have a list of suggested clothing on my safari website Packing List, but here I would like to present themes for you to keep in mind when assembling your safari and travel wardrobe.

Go Neutral, not colorful

Camo is not necessary, but neutrals are essential. Pack clothing in neutral colors: khaki, light brown/green, tan. It might look  cliché, but neutrals serve an important function; bright  colors and white will distract and alarm the game.  We do not want the wildlife to see or react to us: nobody wants to face a curious leopard. White may not come clean after exposure to the red dirt. Dark colors usually blend into the bush, but they might start to feel too hot in the mid afternoon.

Embrace Modern Fabrics

Avoid cotton: there are so many good performance fabrics out there now that are better options. Modern fabrics will keep you warm when damp or after sweating, will come clean after a dusting in the red African dirt, keep you feeling dryer by wicking moisture, and will dry and recover from hand washing and air drying ten times faster than cotton. I still have some 100% cotton tee shirts for sleeping or during the heat of the day, but more and more cotton is missing from my pack.

Pockets are Never Wasted

They may not flatter your figure, but a pocket is never wasted. Besides keeping personal items like sunglasses handy, they keep filters, grey cards and other photo equipment right where you can get them. You cannot always move and rustle around in the vehicle without disturbing the animals or other photographers, and small items may drop and roll all over when we hit bumps.

Warmth in Layers – Just because it is called Africa doesn’t mean it can’t be chilly!

You should bring a light jacket that is windproof. Warmth can be enhanced by wearing layers underneath. We travel in the spring and fall so the mornings will be cool especially in the open and moving game vehicle. Good layering will start with polypropylene or light wool under layers, then middle layers like a light sweater over long sleeve t-shirts.

Beware! Typical fleece pullovers are not usually windproof and will not keep you warm unless you wear them under a windproof/waterproof shell jacket. They are also unnecessarily bulky. A better choice is the new improved lightweight (but just as warm) fleece replacement materials that are windproof. These products will often be called “soft shells” and have microfleece linings in them for warmth.

For afternoons the longsleeve shirt and some light pants or shorts will be enough. Fishing style shirts are great because they keep out the sun but are fashioned to be breathable and have lots of pockets. Pants with zip off legs also work well if you need to strip layers in the bush.

My favorite place to shop for travel clothing is www.REI.com. If you are like me, you will find yourself wearing many of your travel items at home as well as on a trip.