Safari in Black & White

Working in monochrome isn't something I do all the time. Some situations, however, absolutely scream for it. For the six weeks we spent on safari this year I made a few monochromatic images - which I've standardised by passing through the greyscale filter on Photoshop before posting here. Do enjoy.

In colour, Cheetah blend seamlessly into their grassland environment. This was a female that had five (yes you read that correctly!) adult-sized cubs in tow.

We typically associate Cape Buffalo with serious business, but this small group soaking in this small pool was also rolling onto their backs while in the water. Caught red-handed in this apparent frivolity, they immediately reassumed their usual stoic role.

This morning scene was almost monochromatic before the treatment.

There was an ethereal feel to this scene when I saw it, and sought to amplify that feeling by removing colour and reducing the clarity on the grasses. The Black-winged Stilt here is the needle hidden in the soft hay.

It is virtually mandatory to photograph zebras in monochrome. Their superb camouflage lets the foal stay hidden in plain sight.

Full disclosure: there was some bright green vegetation in the foreground I simply couldn't handle, this was the motivation for turning this into monochrome.

Unbroken and undulating, the wilderness of the Masai Mara continues to beckon.

Hyenas have vertical pupils, but we rarely see this as their eyes are quite dark. The side-light here shone directly through this hyena's eye, illuminating it perfectly.

Everyone seems to be listening to what that egret has to say.

The downside of photographing with prime lenses is that sometimes the animals don't exactly fit in the frame. I would've preferred slightly less focal length here, but I still like the diagonal created by the sloping forehead of the foreground giraffe and the few clouds that lead to the miniature one on the lower right.

Nothing says drama like an eye-level hippopotamus!

I enhanced the grain on this after-dark Marabou Stork to further add to the gloominess of the image.

I don't usually do silhouettes but this is my magnum opus in this department: the sun is setting as we are blazing our way along the Uganda - DRC border en route to Queen Elizabeth National Park. On gnarled branches against a peachy sky sat these African Openbills. A dream of the photographer shooting a silhouette is for the subject to be instantly recognisable, and few things are as distinctive as the tweezer-shaped bills of these snail-eating specialists.