Apart from the rhino in the first photo which was in Solio game reserve near Nanyuki, Kenya, all the animals shown were photographed in Lewa game park in the foothills of Mt. Kenya.

These animals are truly magnificent: primitive, primaeval and awe-inspiring. It is a privilege to be able to get close to them and to witness their raw strength and powerful beauty. As with many grazing animal in Africa, a cleaning service for ticks, fleas and other general irritants is performed by the orange-beaked oxpeckers which can nearly always be seen in attendance.

 

Every evening in the late autumn, clouds of starlings arrive over Arezzo & other cities in Italy to roost for the night. There are huge numbers of them and as they arrive, they put on the most incredible show. Gathering in ever changing groups, they swoop and swirl through the sky, forming into any number of shapes and patterns that are constantly changing. It all lasts about ten minutes at dusk, after which they are in the trees, chattering away. Each pattern lasts a fraction of a second – the killer whale shape formed momentarily from shapes in the two shots before it, and then was gone. Same with the over-balancing man.

An Italian photographer won wildlife photographer of the year a while ago for shots like these taken in Rome – ok, his had the added drama of a prowling peregrine falcon.

 

When we were staying on the coast at Roger & Carol Jessop’s place (see the link to Roger’s Art of Africa site), Roger found this fellow on the drive and brought it in for us all to look at. Chameleons are docile creatures, quite unfazed by being picked up. However, they do always seem to manage to keep one of their beady eyes on you. They must have true ’split screen’ vision.

 

These amazing insects visit the lavender in the garden at our house during the summer months. They spend their time darting from flower to flower at incredible speed. They don’t settle on the flower but grasp it with two legs, their probosces flick out and back in a tiny fraction of a second and then they are off to the next flower. Capturing their images therefore required a bit of patience and experimentation. I used flash for some, extension tubes and various lenses. Some of the shots remind me of old photos of military aircraft refueling in mid-air. There are at least three types, some quite elusive. I’m not sure the last three shots are a humming bird moth since the proboscis is fixed. It reminds me of Gonzo from Sesame Street.

 

The Singapore Botanic Gardens is impressive enough, but the Orchid Garden is just beautiful and thanks to its tropical location, there are blooms to be seen all year round. There are dozens of these gorgeous plants, all displaying their exquisite forms and colours. To add to the fun, there are also some very pretty pitcher plants located in a rain forest house within the orchid garden. If you do nothing else while you are in Singapore, go to visit the orchids!

 

This fellow’s modus operandi is to sit motionless for hours on end on a lavender flower stem with his several arms outstretched, waiting. He knows that sooner or later one of the many insects – mainly bees – that visit the lavender will touch him and when that happens, he will pounce. On the day I saw him, I reckon he waited about five hours and then he had his meal, a nice juicy bee.

 

A second set of images from the butterfly farm. The first set was taken using the 300mm IS f2.8 lens, which, because the butterflies were very close, was a bit restrictive. I went back for a second visit a couple of weeks later with my newly acquired 40D with 10-22 zoom and 1D MarkII fitted with an also newly acquired 70-200 IS f4. A couple of the shots taken with the wide angle were so close that the lens was almost touching the butterflies, who took almost no notice. The timing of the visits is clearly a matter of luck since on this second visit, the variety of species wasn’t so great.

 

These images were all captured at the Phuket Butterfly farm, a well-presented attraction that all visitors to Phuket should take time to see. Bit of a cheat from the photographic point of view in that the butterflies are all there waiting for you, but it saves spending weeks trekking around the hills in tropical heat – the heat is fierce enough under the netting at the farm. The delicate beauty of these insects is captivating, and their variety amazing. Image 1-1 shows the leaf-like disguise of one clever species while image 1-2 is the same type of butterfly with its wings open.

 

This pair of little spiderhunters chose to build their nest almost outside the door to our bungalow in Phuket. They are small birds – 16 – 16.5cm overall – and they move fast. Native to SE Asia, they build elongated nests with a side entrance – almost a porch! – that are fixed to the underside of leaves.The male was of course doing all the work, but Mrs LS was always on hand to make sure that he didn’t get sloppy. From some of the shots of him leaving the nest, you can see that launch often involves falling upside down with the head turned first, followed by the body.