Nature – Through My Lens

NATURE

Through My Lens

Michelly Rall

I’m sitting shotgun next to fellow wildlife photographer Bruce Aiken as we charge screaming up an intimidating and unforgiving Kalahari sand dune that threatens to engulf our trusty Toyota at any given moment.

Adrenaline surges, we’ve both kicked into high gear, bumping and crawling our way to the dune top in hot pursuit of our photographic prey, a hunting cheetah mother.

She has a formidable task ahead requiring mind-blowing speeds and split-second adjustments to capture her quarry, an unsuspecting but alert, able and equally agile springbok instinctively averting the seemingly inevitable success of its pursuer.

Bruce has camera in hand and must with many years of accumulated skill direct from a distance, lens and settings to seize the primal moment when prey falls victim to the predator in a flash of catapulting bodies, dust, and the final cries of the fallen fading to the disbelieving barks of the remaining herd.

We cautiously close the distance with the vehicle to place ourselves in proximity of the still frantically kicking springbok and the exhausted jaw of the cheetah with a clenching death grip.

We exit slowly from the Toyota and tip silently to the unfolding spectacle, to capture on wide angle the fleeting moment of prey succumbing to its fate. Suddenly bounding in with palpable joy and lightning speed are four, 16-week-old cubs to join their mother in the kill.

While Bruce is occupied with recording the unfolding scene, I surrender to the exquisite rawness of the moment, with the vastness of the Kalahari enveloping us. Timelessness, reaching deeply through me - resonating and connecting me to all the beauty and magic so abundantly present.

Over a 3-month period we had painfully tracked this family of cheetah, over every terrain imaginable in the infinite red landscape to habituate and accustom them to our presence. By the repetitive imprinting of a noiseless, no threat dialogue we facilitated a truly unique and privileged glimpse into their wild, otherwise private and undocumented lives.

The magnitude of our surreal but very real experience imprints on me, a then 19-year-old novice wildlife photographer, invited by a professional on an expedition for a upcoming book.

Bruce and I had met the year before in Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe where he was photographing big tuskers and black rhino on the shores of Lake Kariba. The Kalahari Transfrontier Park trip with Wildlife Photographer Bruce Aiken 33 years ago was a pivotal experience that had a significant impact on honing, shaping and cementing my resolve to become a nature and conservation narrator. We had unlimited, intimate access in the Park and we could travel anywhere on or off the marked roads with permission to work on foot when required.

This opened up unprecedented opportunities and lessons in working with wildlife. It demanded levels of concentration and nuances when on foot - a catalyst for respect and humility when encountering creatures big and small. Imagine an early chilly morning on an ancient dry riverbed in the remote Kalahari. Every diurnal creature awaiting the rising sun to warm their cool bodies in order to function.

Out of a series of interconnected furrows on the ground the curious inquisitive faces of a family of meerkats pop up and surround you. They appear to greet the first light, in fact a sentinel or lookout member now clambers briskly up your body to sit on your head, while the tiniest ones make use of your outstretched legs as a post to lean on. Your presence melts into that of the 30 strong group and you pinch yourself…

Its formal, you’re part of the family…. family portrait anyone?

And then, a mind-blowing meeting bound to leave you in disbelief.

Sunset…. scattered cumulonimbus clouds give way to pillars of warm softened light pouring down onto the deepening red dune and valley ahead.

Nature, the ultimate artist is at work…Let me walk you say, drawn to the tapestry of color you’re immersed in….so up along the ridge of the dune you go, eyes skyward, onwards and upwards step by step you shrink in contrast to the magnitude of the vista when, something alerts you to look down to your side. And you do…. behold ….a lioness, regally gazing at you with a fierce intensity that feels eternal. No doubt off guard that you have brazenly walked up to and almost into her, but no harm comes to either of you and with grace you back away down the dune, heart pounding exhilarated, elated and swept with relief.

And so it was, subsequently, clutching camera and experience, expeditions ensued into remote regions - the legendary Brazilian Pantanal, Peruvian Amazon Jungle and Western Ghats Cloud Forests in Southern India.

Through the lens of the photographer stories are weaved, spotlighting the beauty of the planet’s diversity, perhaps more importantly highlighting man’s injury and arrogance of the environment. Through imagery shared, we hope to rouse the resolve of humanity to conserve and become custodians of a natural world that nourishes us and to whom we are intrinsically connected.

Quote: “For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realise that, in order to survive, he must protect it.” - Jacques-Yves Cousteau

WELCOME TO MY WORLD

Solly Levi

Welcome to my world of fine art photography, where you can enjoy photographs of my travels and wonderful wildlife.

I am a Brighton based travel photographer born and raised in the Congo.

When I think of photography I think of having fun and trying to transmit a story and emotion.

I started as a hobby photographer but now have made it a full time job.

I am fortunate enough to share my 2 passions, travel and photography.

I used to think that expensive equipment make a good photo but it's not, what I realised is a good composition and a good story is what's important.

I now mainly work with my Fujifilm cameras. I also use a drone for aerial photography.

For post processing, I use Lightroom and never use photoshop.

I am always exploring new places for new content throughout the year.

I am now running photo workshops in Namibia, Kenya and Botswana.
I hope you enjoy the pics.

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