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  • I’ve seen elephants in zoos, restricted, moving around in circles, stared at by the thousands of noisy visitors - such a desperate form of existence. In the 111 year old and 22,270 km² Etosha National Park in North West Namibia however, I was for the first time able to see these truly magnificent creatures in their natural habitat. Watching David Attenborough programs is always a delight but nothing prepares you for the sheer awe of seeing these animals in real life in their own world.<br />
<br />
From the heavily corrugated dust track, the first thing I saw was what looked like a huge rounded boulder beyond a hillock, but as we drove to the crest of the mound we realised it was in fact the head of a huge African elephant standing at a waterhole! This was real & I’ve never felt so small or humbled by wildlife. There are strict instructions never to leave your vehicle whilst in the park so I had to accept that looking out of the window was the best I was going to get.<br />
<br />
Around us herds of Zebra were drinking, running and frolicking with each other. Springbok daintily skipped past & Oryx and Giraffe were there too. Hundreds of birds flitted about & falcons & other birds of prey circled overhead. It was a visual tapestry of wildlife with so many species all measuring each other up and acknowledging the hierarchies at the hole. What struck me most was the grace of motion of the elephants. Every movement of foot or trunk was slow, fluid & purposeful. At times they were just like living statues, almost motionless, just studying the world about them, and at other times when walking, able to cover big distances so quickly but so gently. I was aware that they were aware of us, large eyeballs measuring us up but not seeming irritated or intimidated.<br />
<br />
It was hard (especially from the car window) to take in the reality of it all rather than still imagining it was a TV program. I also felt deeply sad that it’s only a matter of time before wild elephants are hunted to extinction.
    GD002257.jpg
  • Generally we didn’t see much in the way of large wildlife as we travelled across the high open roads of Namibia, sometimes Ostrich, sometimes Baboons but here on the Skeleton Coast not much at all.<br />
<br />
As we watched volcanic hills to the right and acres of white sand dunes to the left, slip past us as we motored North along the baking-hot salt roads, I was quite taken aback to see a sudden movement off to our right. There were two Black-backed Jackals, one scampering about, skittish even, but the other almost motionless. We pulled the van over and waited a few moments to see if they’d be bothered by us, but nothing changed. I very gently stepped out of the van and lay on the burning ground so that I could steady the telephoto lens and also include some of the background hills.<br />
Although the active one immediately moved away after I exited the vehicle the other was clearly eating something and confidently remained in place. I was surprised that he’d found anything to eat in the deserted arid landscape, but knowing that they’d even eat spiders an scorpions I suddenly started worrying about what I was lying on! I couldn’t help but see them just as a dog, like a small Alsatian, and I had this urge to call it over and give it a stroke! No chance however, for as soon as I started to move from prone position, it began to walk slowly away. As I lifted the camera to take another pic it shifted further away again. It was clear my Doctor Doolittle dream was just that as soon they were just dots on the dusty horizon.
    GD002268.jpg
  • GD001085.jpg
  • Keeping ourselves to ourselves on Melkbosstrand Beach - and no that's not us, that's three Oytsercatchers looking for washed up crabs :-)
    GD002444.jpg
  • From Wiki - The roadrunners, also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests. They are found in the southwestern and south-central United States and Mexico, usually in the desert
    GD002401
  • A giraffe holds her head high above the thick bush at a game reserve near Oudtshoorn in South Africa.
    GD002247.jpg
  • Comical but very cute African Penguins at Boulders Beach south of Cape Town, South Africa
    GD002296.jpg
  • GD002226.jpg
  • On the surface, a vast playtime beach, powerful surf, acres of space, stunning surrounding countryside and an area monitored by the Marine Conservation Society. Yet just around the coast to the left is the huge port of Milford Haven, oil tankers sit at anchor awaiting passage into the port. The beach is littered with oil, huge dollops of the treacle black mess at almost every 2-3 ft of the beach. Two gannets maybe 100 yards apart lie dead amongst oily pebbles. The MCS poster advises not to be concerned about individual dead sea-birds, and only to report large numbers if found, but there was something unsettling about finding two dead gannets so close to each other on this stunningly beautiful yet oil spattered shoreline. Was I just unlucky that day ?
    GD001319.jpg
  • On the surface, a vast playtime beach, powerful surf, acres of space, stunning surrounding countryside and an area monitored by the Marine Conservation Society. Yet just around the coast to the left is the huge port of Milford Haven, oil tankers sit at anchor awaiting passage into the port. The beach is littered with oil, huge dollops of the treacle black mess at almost every 2-3 ft of the beach. Two gannets maybe 100 yards apart lie dead amongst oily pebbles. The MCS poster advises not to be concerned about individual dead sea-birds, and only to report large numbers if found, but there was something unsettling about finding two dead gannets so close to each other on this stunningly beautiful yet oil spattered shoreline. Was I just unlucky that day ?
    GD001317.jpg
  • Fixed line shore fishing net, Traeth Bychan, East Anglesey, Wales.
    GD001014.jpg
  • A Kestrel hunts over grass covered sand dunes on the West Coast of Anglesey, North Wales.<br />
<br />
<br />
As I crouched at the water's edge, the sea splashing over me and the camera equipment, I noticed a Kestrel hovering above the dune behind me, motionless apart from the occasional decisive flap of the wings, then total balance in fluid harmony with the air current, alone and focussed, at one with it's surroundings and in its element. That at least we shared..
    GD000926.jpg
  • A baboon on the boulder beach at Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.
    GD002376.jpg
  • One of many giraffes at the Etosha Reserve, Namibia
    GD002315.jpg
  • At this rocky point lay dozens of sleepy seals, young and old, enjoying the evening sunlight and soaking up the warm rays. The fish are bountiful here and I watched two of the seals play with fish before devouring them. This pup was so chilled that I was within a few feet of him before he even raised an eyebrow. I’d loved to have seen the Southern Right Whales this bay is famous for, but sadly we were there in the wrong season.
    GD002292.jpg
  • At the waterhole most of the animals seem to be acutely aware of the presence of other creatures even as they forage, eat and drink. Today however, as the giraffe nibbled at the succulent leaves in the tall trees, a dramatic storm was building behind. There was soon the rumble of thunder and shortly afterwards gigantic fork lightening cracked through the dark skies and punched any tall object below.
    GD002264.jpg
  • Easy to be inspired by elephants, giraffes and even leopards, but when seen in isolation, even herd animals display characters of their own.<br />
<br />
This Red Hartebeest hardly batted an eye-lid as we pulled up nearby, and she just looked so forlorn. I wanted to give her a hug!
    GD002262.jpg
  • Something utterly surreal and very sad about this baboon on a baking hot beach at Cape of Good Hope, trying to access the drink in the washed up bottle.
    GD002377.jpg
  • A male baboon in a dead tree on the mountain tops of the Keurbooms Corridor that connects the Garden of Eden section of the Garden Route National Park to the Tsitsikamma National Park section. NE of Knysna.<br />
<br />
As we climbed higher into the mountains the sunshine disappeared and a welcome cool cloud surrounded us. The vegetation up here was incredibly varied and abundant. Around this corner I ended up standing on a crossroads surrounded by wild Baboons as I was pre-occupied with the ‘Calling the Herd’ sound sculpture by Strijdom van der Merwe.<br />
<br />
It is sad that this corridor from Knysna to Addo used to be used by 1000s of elephants, but since colonisation they have all have been hunted to near extinction in these amazing valleys, that are otherwise still rich in biodiversity. There are no elephants left wandering this area and the Knysna elephants are no more. The ‘death warrant’ was issued and carried out on the tiny remaining population by ruthless hunter Major Pretorius, but even the British Royalty including the Duke of Edinburgh spent days hunting and killing these amazing animals.
    GD002245.jpg
  • On the surface, a vast playtime beach, powerful surf, acres of space, stunning surrounding countryside and an area monitored by the Marine Conservation Society. Yet just around the coast to the left is the huge port of Milford Haven, oil tankers sit at anchor awaiting passage into the port. The beach is littered with oil, huge dollops of the treacle black mess at almost every 2-3 ft of the beach. Two gannets maybe 100 yards apart lie dead amongst oily pebbles. The MCS poster advises not to be concerned about individual dead sea-birds, and only to report large numbers if found, but there was something unsettling about finding two dead gannets so close to each other on this stunningly beautiful yet oil spattered shoreline. Was I just unlucky that day ?
    GD001318.jpg
  • Comical but very cute African Penguins at Boulders Beach south of Cape Town, South Africa
    GD002297.jpg
  • These Cape Fur Seals were fascinating, beautiful creatures, with very cute seal pups! However, the smell was overpowering from the smell of fish, excrement, urine and death. There were many dead seal pups, which looked to have been crushed by the sheer weight of adult Cape Fur Seals as they charge around the colony. <br />
<br />
Sadly and unbelievably, Namibia permits the mass clubbing of 80,000 seal pups and 6000 adult bulls, over a four-month period every year. This is for fur and blubber but they claim it’s to protect fish stocks! Full details here:  http://www.harpseals.org/about_the_hunt/cape_fur_seal_alert.php<br />
<br />
I was completely captivated by this incredible seal colony, but I was left dumbstruck by the barbaric slaughter that is permitted here each year. Fortunately South Africa have now banned all such clubbing, but it remains here in Namibia
    GD002273.jpg
  • I’ve seen elephants in zoos of course, restricted, moving around in circles, stared at by the thousands of noisy visitors - such a desperate form of existence. In the 22,270 km² Etosha National Park in NW Namibia however, I was for the first time able to see these truly magnificent creatures in their natural habitat. Watching David Attenborough programs on TV is always a delight, but nothing prepares you for the sheer awe of seeing these animals in real life in their own world.<br />
.<br />
From the heavily corrugated dust track we were on, the first thing I saw was what looked like a huge rounded granite boulder over the top of a hillock, but as we drove to the crest of the mound we realised it was in fact the head of a huge African elephant standing at a waterhole! This was real and I’ve never felt so small or humbled by natural wildlife. There are strict instructions never to leave your vehicle whilst in the park, so I had to accept that looking out of the window of our 4x4 was the best I was going to get.<br />
.<br />
All around us herds of Zebra were also drinking, running & frolicking with each other. Springbok daintily skipped past & Oryx & Giraffes were all there too. Hundreds of birds flitted about and falcons and other birds of prey circled overhead. It was a visual tapestry of wildlife with so many species all measuring each other up and acknowledging the hierarchies at the hole. What struck me most was the grace of motion of the elephants. Every movement of foot or trunk was slow, fluid & purposeful. At times they were just like living statues, almost motionless, just studying the world about them & at other times when walking, able to cover big distances so quickly but so gently. I was aware that they were aware of us, large eyeballs measuring us up but not seeming irritated or intimidated.<br />
.<br />
It was hard (especially looking from the car window) to take in the reality of it all rather than still imagining it was a TV program. I also felt deeply sad that it’s only a mat
    GD002258.jpg
  • A hundred million years ago this huge basin in the Etosha National Park was a lake, fed by the Kunene River in Angola, but 16,000 years ago, due to tectonic plate movement the river was diverted West to the Atlantic and gradually the lake dried up leaving this vast lake bed. At 4800 km² this saltpan, the largest in Africa, can be seen from space.<br />
<br />
I’d wanted to see this surreal landscape for a long time, and surprising though it may seem to others, this appealed to me even more than seeing the wildlife in the park! There is this deep need within me to experience vast empty spaces; it’s all part of that humbling vulnerability that I seek. I wanted to feel minute, isolated and insignificant in every possible term. It was difficult of course with anyone else around but fortunately I had a sense of it with just Jani and her two cousins around. We drove out onto the lake (on an ‘official’ stick marked track) and stepped into the baking heat. There was simply nothing ahead of us, almost 50kms to the far side and almost 60 kms to the left and right – it was vast indeed.<br />
<br />
The earth was soft and crumbly rather than rock hard. I can imagine in rain it would get very soft indeed. I’ve read that in prolonged heavy rain the whole lake bed floods up to 10cm deep creating an incredible mirror –like surface which attracts thousands of migrating flamingos.
    GD002260.jpg
  • A Curlew stood near motionless at the tip of the reef.  Between jagged arms of rock floated four large seals, only their loud exhalations of breath betraying their position but then unavoidably noticeable.<br />
<br />
As I gingerly navigated the serrated rocky reef I startled an Oystercatcher that then screeched off across the calm sea.  Other than the sounds of wildlife there was just the gentle splash of near-invisible waves around me as I crouched low to photograph the rising full moon. The dark water came in behind me, silently, and my camera and me nearly became part of the sombre depths.
    GD002298
  • The story goes that someone tried to drive his 4x4 across this vast lake bed, and was never seen again’ <br />
<br />
A hundred million years ago this huge basin in the Etosha National Park was a lake, fed by the Kunene River in Angola, but 16,000 years ago, due to tectonic plate movement the river was diverted West to the Atlantic and gradually the lake dried up leaving this vast lake bed. At 4800 km² this saltpan, the largest in Africa, can be seen from space.<br />
<br />
I’d wanted to see this surreal landscape for a long time, and surprising though it may seem to others, this appealed to me even more than seeing the wildlife in the park! There is this deep need within me to experience vast empty spaces; it’s all part of that humbling vulnerability that I seek. I wanted to feel minute, isolated and insignificant in every possible term. It was difficult of course with anyone else around but fortunately I had a sense of it with just Jani and her two cousins around. We drove out onto the lake (on an ‘official’ stick marked track) and stepped into the baking heat. There was simply nothing ahead of us, almost 50kms to the far side and almost 60 kms to the left and right – it was vast indeed.<br />
<br />
The earth was soft and crumbly rather than rock hard. I can imagine in rain it would get very soft indeed. I’ve read that in prolonged heavy rain the whole lake bed floods up to 10cm deep creating an incredible mirror –like surface which attracts thousands of migrating flamingos.
    GD002263.jpg
  • One of 3 winning entries in the 29th SUN (Shot up North) Awards for full time professional photographers<br />
<br />
Winner - Honourable Mention in 10th (2017) International Colour Awards (Wildlife category)<br />
<br />
A colony of Goose Barnacles has grown attached to a disconnected buoy, now washed up on Llanddwyn Beach, West Anglesey.
    GD001991.jpg
  • I’ve never been in such vast landscapes as in South Africa. Every trip felt like a major journey and we seemed to always be touching the edge of wilderness. <br />
<br />
Wildlife was abundant, especially birds, which all seemed to be on a mission, endless flights to endless destinations. <br />
<br />
We were camping right on a beach on a remote stretch of coast. There was no question that WE were the outsiders in nature’s home. Humans seemed insignificant in the vast space. The South Atlantic waves will continue to crash these shores for millennia, long after we’ve become dust.
    GD002162.jpg
  • Most of my images have featured the individual in relation to their natural environment, but this most recent image contains three nude figures, creating a narrative (or narratives) which should be open to interpretation by different viewers. <br />
<br />
For me as the artist I was fascinated by these naturally occurring caves in huge sea cliffs, caves which really look as though they are dwellings not geological formations. In the early evening sunlight, naked, vulnerable human beings emerge from the caves and revel in the heat of the sunlight and the warmth of the rock of their environment. It was as if I were watching a wildlife programme whilst observing my naked volunteers in this imposing cliff landscape. I like that the rock separates each of the figures, so that they'd be almost unaware of each other, but in the lower caves a man and a woman make a loving connection albeit fragile, whilst in the higher cave a lone female looks towards the light and companionship.
    Scene at the Bare Caves
  • A hundred million years ago this huge basin in the Etosha National Park was a lake, fed by the Kunene River in Angola, but 16,000 years ago, due to tectonic plate movement the river was diverted West to the Atlantic and gradually the lake dried up leaving this vast lake bed. At 4800 km² this saltpan, the largest in Africa, can be seen from space.<br />
<br />
I’d wanted to see this surreal landscape for a long time, and surprising though it may seem to others, this appealed to me even more than seeing the wildlife in the park! There is this deep need within me to experience vast empty spaces; it’s all part of that humbling vulnerability that I seek. I wanted to feel minute, isolated and insignificant in every possible term. It was difficult of course with anyone else around but fortunately I had a sense of it with just Jani and her two cousins around. We drove out onto the lake (on an ‘official’ stick marked track) and stepped into the baking heat. There was simply nothing ahead of us, almost 50kms to the far side and almost 60 kms to the left and right – it was vast indeed.<br />
<br />
The earth was soft and crumbly rather than rock hard. I can imagine in rain it would get very soft indeed. I’ve read that in prolonged heavy rain the whole lake bed floods up to 10cm deep creating an incredible mirror –like surface which attracts thousands of migrating flamingos.
    GD002259.jpg
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Glyn Davies, Professional Photographer and Gallery

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