ngorongoro

Here is the second instalment of the ‘Birding in Africa’ series. If you missed the first one, you can read it here - Birding in Africa - Part I As mentioned in the previous instalment, Africa is an amazingly diverse continent, very rich in its flora and fauna. It is home to more than 2300 species of bird life. In these posts, I try to focus on the Eastern part of Africa which is constituted of these countries – “Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi”....

Birding in Africa, now that is something not many people would have given a thought to. Apart from the rustic brilliance of Africa, the yearning to see the Big 5 (the Elephant, Cape buffalo, Lion, Rhino and the Leopard ) is what pulls most people to the wildlife parks and reserves of the continent. Very rightly so, these animals hold a charm and attraction of their own. However Africa is an amazingly diverse continent and rich in its bird life too....

As a nature photographer, I always love to work with the natural light as much as possible. There are a few exceptional situations, yes, like, when there is sheer lack of enough light ( working with macro subjects, more so, in the darkness of the night ) or when there is a need to creatively add in more light. Other than these, I always prefer working with natural light, that definitely, is the light from the sun....

In bird photography, frame filling shots, showing the bird in all its glory, every feather, every color on the bird popping out of the frame, making the viewer fall in love with it, are awesome, there’s no doubting that. However, it’s my personal opinion that bringing in a bit of the bird’s habitat into the frame adds a few more pixels of aesthetic value to the image. There could be various reasons for this thinking of mine....

Tanzania, in Africa, as all know, is home to the scintillating grasslands of Serengeti and the wonderful, virtually unchanged habitat of the Ngorongoro Crater. These are probably one of the most visited wildlife habitats on this planet. People visiting Tanzania are drawn to these places in the hope of enjoying company with the famed Big-5, constituted by the Lion, the Leopard, Elephant, Buffalo and the Rhino. They are no doubt the big game over there and the exhilaration of watching them in action on the safari drives in these parks is something not to be missed for sure....