The Cigar Story Continues

The Cigar Story Continues, this is what happens when 2 Dugmore brothers get hold of cigars, throw in some speedlights and Rodger's old hat, wow ! more to come soon ...

website

Ok just a short post to let you know I updated the website for Kalahari Images, do have a good look around...

Old project New life

This little idea has been around since 2008,,, raised its head again in 2010 and only now, is about to get finished. Quite simple to find a cigar smoker that frequents Bon Arrivée restaurant and make a portrait... Klaas Boll the crazy Dutch (now Motswana) owner of Bon, (as we like to call the place) got into his chef hat and we were off, then it was the turn of Randall J Moore, that was in 2010. next came my friend Hansson... And then as if by magic, the the hottest lips I've ever seen pulling on De Cuban came into the story... Well I know that in these days of PC & BS its not the done thing to promo the smoking of any legal or otherwise naturally grown substance but hey I love my photography and this was a hoot. PC sidetrack: I was once asked to photograph/film a trophy hunt, well needless to say the elephant did get shot but there was no ego inflammation of that great white hunter from this camera. So PC & BS aside I like the images I'm getting on this project and will post them as the project progresses. Who's next ?

Camera Trap

Its amasing what can turn up in a camera trap, I found a dead zebra high on the bank of the Boteti river in the Xhumaga area of Makgadikgadi Reserve. Lions had killed one zebra down by the river but this one locked to have died from natural causes. But wait, a lion killing a zebra is also a natural cause! Ok a dead zebra not killed by a predator, it was quite intacked and bloated with 20 or so white backed vulture's in attendance. The vultures had taken the eyes and tongue and one was up to its wings in the anus, hey I'm so happy not to be a vulture ! It was then when it exploded, quite a pop and a jet of yellow liquid shot 6 feet out the back of the now deflating carcass and the poor (now yellow headed) vulture was on its back, wow! I'm so so happy not to be a vulture.

Later the same day we passed the carcass and found that the vultures had managed to open it up and consumed most of it, I decided to set up a camera trap and see what would pass by during the night. When downloading a camera trap the results are always a surprise, its a bit like having your film developed in the pre-digital days. So while collecting the camera and downloading the images, the excitement was growing. as flicking through I was seeing some good black backed jackal images at night when the camera is working with IR mode, then as it gets light some vultures return and the jackal was still around,..... Then wow up close, in my face, a banded filmmaker, Adrian!

Sunset in Matlapaneng

A beautiful sunset this evening in Matlapaneng, then I spotted a blue dragonfly resting so grabbed a picture ... then got a bit closer with the G10... 

Body Paint

As promised .. an image of Mmina shot with a couple of speedlights and a piece of cloth as a backgrond....

Spoke to soon about the internet, its only manages to work about 25% of the time! then its so slow facebook can take 15 minuets to appear then it will stop for a rest,,,, up to 6 hours !

Working Holiday

Just spent 7 days on a working holiday at Leroo la Tau (Footprints of the Lion) was a good rest with plenty of work, Mmina came along as a styling for a couple of days, we had some fun on game drives as well although she was wishing for a sports bra after the first 15 minutes ... will post some images soon and some exciting images of the 'Red Head Make Over' that Mmina was styling and then the body paint shoot with Mmina..... stand by

internet :-)

At last I have an internet connection in the office, so as long as it keeps working and I manage to pay the bills my blog can get going again ..... nice

am in the bush now at Khumaga with Desert & Delta safaris... will let you know how it goes ...

To the Makgadikgadi Pans and Back

It was a trip of Note....THe Makgadikgadi salt pans never disappoint. Starting from my good friends camp 'Meno a Kwena' we travelled south for about 100 km and stopped at an ancient village site, the site has produced some quite rare artifacts, on this stop we only found pottery fragment, but from 2 periods.

from here we proceeded north east up into the cattle post areas east of Rakops.

Its at the 5th cattle post that we site our 1st Meerkats, they are living near humans so bolt to their holes and are gone... We continue to a spot David knows will provide some shade for a lunch stop... Lunch is an excellent affair in true Meno style on a small rise overlooking the salt pans. From here we decide that the 2 vehicles should split up in order to cover more ground in are search for meerkats but as the heat rises into the top 30's we realise that the meerkats are in the burrows sheltering from the sun, by 4 p.m. its still very hot but now coming into the lower 30's and we site our kats' we keep a distance as these are very wild kats' but get good sighting, after 30 minutes we are driving out onto the moon like surface of the pan to make our camp and sleep out under a full moon. wow this is one of those 'empty box' moments ....

Back in the Delta...

Today I'm back out in the great Okavango Delta with Thembi, Morula & Tabu, the 3 elephants I was looking after back in Jan this year. All 3 remember me and Thembi even gave me a wave a dance then through a mopane brance at me once again, I'm happy her aim hasn't improved over the months and she missed again... as they departed to the west of camp a herd of buffalo was to the South of camp. in the afternoon I had a chance to catch up with Amos and Leano before they departed with the trio. Two is busy being a carpenter and is making a chair, it looks a bit shaky to me but he insisted it will be strong when its finished.