April 2, 2013
Leopard Tortoise, Leopard, and Spotted Hyena Pup in Kruger National Park, South Africa

Here are the last three images, at least for now, from my recent stay in Kruger National Park. This image of a Leopard Tortoise almost made it into my previous blog entry, but I thought I got a better image of one on a subsequent day. After looking at the thumbnails before preparing this blog entry, I prefer this earlier image more. Images of small animals taken on their eye level really pop. For this image, I put my Vertex Photographic Molar Bean Bag on its side on the road to get my camera about 4 inches (10 cm) above the ground.

On my second full day at the Letaba Rest Camp, I headed south to the photographically more productive area between the Oliphants and Satara Rest Camps. My intended route didn't create any great photo ops, but on my way back to camp for an afternoon siesta, I spotted this Leopard resting on a fig tree limb. Actually, I first spotted all of the vehicles parked and watching the Leopard. I got into a good position to photograph it and waited for it to do something interesting at the same the clouds created diffuse light on both the Leopard and the background. I waited, and photographed off and on, from about 11:30 until 4:15! This image was made around 2:20 when the light and action was at its best. That was the first time I had sat vigil with a Leopard in South Africa, something that's more common to do in Kenya or Tanzania.

I was really excited about the time I spent with the Leopard, and thought for sure that would be the highlight of the day. Since I'm bringing it up, you probably know it wasn't the highlight.

I headed straight back to camp on the main road to get some gas before doing a proper afternoon game drive on the secondary roads. Not too far from camp, I came across an adult Spotted Hyena on the road. The adult wasn't that interesting, but as I slowed to not disturb another vehicle that was stopped and photographing something, I saw the Spotted Hyena pups that were out! The first pups that I saw were probably less than two months old are were completely brown and extremely cute. Then some older pups, probably three or four months old, came out of the den that was a culvert under the road. My favorite image is of one of these older pups. When I finally made it to camp and got some gas, someone who was also getting gas asked how long I had been with the Hyenas. I said maybe 20 or 30 minutes. I was surprised when I looked at my images to see that I had been there for at least 45! Time sure flew as I was having a blast!