So pretty this male bluebird is, perched on a snarly weed, and guarding his nest box, as he fends off invaders to his claimed property.

I was very excited to see him perch on this dried up weed, with the morning light perfectly filling the frame. No calls, just patience and tenacity.

Love real and true nature.

I appreciate your taking the time to visit!
raymond

Back to the nest box!

In a hurry!

Eastern bluebird rushes back to protect her nesting site, as the starlings and sparrows were knocking on the door. Challenging and fun!

I think my neck will be sore for a week!

This image was taken this morning at a favourite songbird location. I guess I needed a break from all the Tanzania images.

Love real nature.

ISO? - have a look below!

Sweet Esa, one of our servers at the Lodge in Tanzania, she was saying goodbye to my guest Greg. She is so sweet! All of the Tanzanians work with on our tours are such wonderful kind people. They do an excellent job as they are very well educated.

So much appreciation for these partners, and my 8th program will be set up just as soon as we get this mess cleaned up! We hope soon!

Camera Sony ILCE-7RM4
Lens FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS
Focal Length 268.0 mm (268.0 mm in 35mm)
Aperture f/8
Exposure Time 0.0005s (1/2000)
ISO 40000
http://www.raymondbarlow.com

Deep in the woods of Ndutu, comes a sweet bird with the beauty of a princess!

Red-headed Quelea

We had a string of days with blue skies and harsh light. This image was taken fairly early in the morning, so not a bad sun angle. Quite bright, enough to give me a shutter speed of 1/5000 sec @ 1250 iso.

Another first for me to catch a nice shot of this bird, as with so many new and interesting opportunities. Maybe on my 8th tour, we will even find more amazing sights of Nature.

Love Nature.

Sleepy Lion

Our tree-climbing lion finally settled down for a snooze during the late afternoon. Some pretty nice quality for 12,800 iso! Still, the harsh light really hurts this image. "Is what it is!"

Awesome nature in Tanzania!

Harsh light and dark shadows!

Anyhow, maybe a little better image then the last two images I posted of this wonderful bird species.

European bee-eater

I fired away at this bird, maybe 100 shots! Trying to catch just the right light and head angle. I have a feeling this will not be my last edit from this opportunity. Kicking myself for not suggesting that we stick around for a better chance with the European bee-eaters, but regardless, when they moved out, we did too!

It wasn't long after we visited these beauties, when we came across the Black-bellied Bustard. Another great find by my brother Muba, our driver/forest guide. That was cool!

With this angle, it was nice to catch the complementary background colours, with the green grass and the yellow flowers.

It was amazing, every time we looked up, something new to see and shoot!

Love Nature

One of the deadliest snakes in the world, the Black mamba has a nasty bite. Amazing how our awesome guide Muba saw this one down in the weeds as we were driving through a swampy area.

He quickly stopped the safari truck and pointed down into the grass. It was so difficult for me to find it, even though Muba was pointing right at it!

Amazing sight, and awesome nature!

I really can't wait to go back to my second home!

Tanzania!

Lion cub on the lookout!

Such a beautiful young animal, and what a pose!


This is always a difficult edit regarding composition, as the lion’s body is pointing to the right, and his head is pointing to the left.

With this one, I could have put him right in the middle, but I liked the Acacia tree in the background. We had late afternoon light and these lions were facing in both directions, so we could circle around them and click to our hearts content.

I found this tour to be pretty amazing as every corner has a new adventure!

Thanks again!

Dodging the Thorns!

Much like our lives, we all need to dodge a few thorns to survive.

European bee-eater

I saw this as a cool wing position for a lift off shot. These beauties were having a good time with all the bugs, and lies that came into Tarangire National Park after the season’s rains.

Wonderful colours, and an incredible lifestyle as they make flights all day long to snatch bugs out of the air. I would love to visit their nesting areas in Europe some day, now that would be amazing to see and photograph.

Love real nature in Tanzania.

Thanks for looking!

*Please Note* - if you click on the small "i" below and right of the image, you can view the exif details of each shot. I hope you are enjoying these images! Thanks.

Here we found an interesting and cool tiny pair of birds.

D'Arnaud's barbet

This very awesome looking bird hides in the thick thorny brush, which will often make it impossible to catch a clean shot! Lucky for me, they were both at the same distance from my camera, so I was able to catch a clean shot of the two birds.

Sometime things work out! Be ready and shoot!

Thanks for looking!

A shrike!

Maybe a little short on shutter speed for this one, wishing I had the setting up around 1/8000 of a second. Cool bird though!

Grey-backed fiscal

We seemed to find one of these birds around every corner. If it is not a shrike, we find some other sort of beautiful African bird.

We always struggle with the settings during these kinds of opportunities. We want a low iso, with great image quality, but a nice high shutter speed to freeze the action! Next, we want the best f-stop to give us depth of field, and more sharpness. So, in the end we cannot have it all.

Balance is the key. I was shooting the static shot here at iso 800, and then of course, the bird lifts off and fly's in the best possible direction. So what do you do? We keep shooting for sure! The sacrifice here is the soft wings at 1/2500 of a second shutter speed.

Well, it is what it is, a usable shot regardless. No image is perfect, so we do our best.

Thanks for looking!

What a brilliant bird!

We saw 2 of these Goshawks during our travels, and found them to be much less
skittish then we anticipated.

Eastern Chanting Goshawk

Very lucky for us this bird lifted off facing us, so quite entertaining!.

To me, it does look like the bird is in molt, so the feathers might not be so
perfect as one might expect.

Here we found another great experience in Tanzania. True Nature.

Thirsty Wildebeests

We were working the Ndutu an area within the west side of the Ngorongoro conservation Area, and south of the Serengeti. Our camp is right along side of the river, which has usually dried up to a small creek.

Here a huge herd of Wildebeests stopped by for a drink, and a rest. They are on the move to the southern locations of the Serengeti, tracking out of Kenya.

They stop here for what they call calving season. Adult females will drop their young and stay here to feed on the rich grasslands, which are prime eating with all the rains.

After a couple months, the herds will circle west then north to continue the Great Migration.

Thanks for looking!

This is a male Von der Decken's hornbill.

We watched this bird fly to the other side of this tree, which was a fair distance away. Since this is not a common species, I thought it would be good to give it a try, and maybe catch the bird posing on a nice perch.

No such luck! He did find some food, and quickly raced back to the family nest to feed the young. Though I really have no idea what he has captured! I do hope to find out some day.

This is another one of those "should I or shouldn't I edit this one." In the end, I am happy with the result. The Sony gear did a nice job of collecting a worthwhile image even after a huge crop.

Always fun to try!

Thanks so much for looking!

European bee-eater

Definitely not a good photo of this species, but this past trip to Tanzania gave my first chance to photograph these beauties. Harsh light and backlit, I did the best I could.


This is such a superb and colourful bird, it was difficult to pass my images by, so I am hoping for another chance on the next tour! I believe we found them in the "Small Serengeti", which is an area inside the Tarangire National Park.

Thanks for looking

Love Nature!

Hungry East African Giraffe

After about 3 months of rains, these awesome animals have wonderful food supplies in a rich green environment.

It is interesting how we will never see an Acacia tree cleared of all its leaves. The trees have an amazing defense mechanism as the leaves release toxins known as tannin and ethylene, making them the leaves uneatable. The toxins also warn other trees nearby and down-breeze.

So on a windy day, the giraffes will always work their way up-wind and hope for better feeding opportunities. They also need to contend with those nasty thorns and ants that will work hard to protect the trees.

Amazing and real nature with a very smart and adaptive tree!

What is around the next corner?

Lions sitting up on a fallen tree!

2 young lion cubs sit patiently waiting for the adults to return with dinner!

These lions are too young to be involved in hunting, so they are "instructed" to stay back and stay safe.

I did a poor job photographing these 2, as my setting were wrong, so i am happy to be able to salvage something from this shoot.

Please take some time to visit my friends blog, David Sparks. David joined me for his 3rd travel tour, and his second to Africa. During all three tours, we have had tremendous opportunities, so I hope David will join me again one day.

Click here to review his recent blog entries... Excellent stuff!

https://www.davidlsparks.com/various-sundry-blog

Thanks for looking!

Grey-breasted Francolin

A very pretty ground bird that we photographed near our camp in the Serengeti. These birds are rarely up perched somewhere like this log, so it is nice to take advantage when we have a chance.

It is very cool that this species is endemic to Tanzania.

Thanks for looking!

Proud Mother

Working hard to protect her family, feed the young ones, and keep everyone safe.

An ongoing challenge for all of us!

Love true nature.

Brilliant colour

In just the right light, with a decent background this beautiful Lilac-breasted roller is so proud of the colour of its feathers.

Posing like a princess, it sits still for the cameras for about 5 minutes. We all had a chance to get the shot we were looking for, as we changed positions of the safari truck several times, giving everyone their best angle.

So much fun!

Thanks for looking, so much appreciated.

Goshawk

This beauty posed for us long enough for a few shots, I was able to turn down the iso to try out the sensor quality. This proved quite an impressive bit of quality.

It lifted off and flew away from us, so a pretty short visit, but fun as always!

Juvenile Eastern Chanting Goshawk

Real and wild nature in Tanzania.

Vervet Monkey Juvenile.

It seems that these monkeys are all about cute!

From a photographer’s point of view, we look for something interesting in photographs, either from an artistic point of view, or an academic perspective.

So with this shot, we look at the cuteness factor! Some video of these characters playing around, fighting, wrestling, foraging for food would have been much more interesting, but with so many people around and the noise of trucks and cameras, we do what we can!

Traveling around from scene to scene, we all enjoy a wide diversity of subjects and situations. the interest level in scouting out something to shoot is amazing. The concentration never stops!

So we are up and having coffee and eggs before the sun, then into the safari truck about 6:30 am, sunrise time. Usually within 1-2 kilometers of camp, we find something!

We could have an eagle, a cheetah, some birds, a stork, we never know what is around the corner. I will make a plan with our driver to have a sense of direction, from there we game drive our way to the mating lions, or the flamingos... maybe a leopard. It all depends on what is on the radar.

Photo Safaris in Tanzania could not be better, anywhere. After 6 completed tours, you might think I have had enough? Not a chance. 12,000 image this trip, and I am anxious like crazy to get on my way back to the world of nature.

Real nature.

Thanks for looking!

Battle of the Giants!

2 male Giraffe fight for dominance.

Really interesting to watch, I wish I had of done a video! Amazing how they seem completely unable to defend themselves, as the stand there and beat on each other!

This fight lasted a good 10 minutes, and we left them to decide who is toughest. From here, they will venture out to the females, and enjoy the fruits of their efforts.

Awesome nature.

Probably my favourite image so far from this past Africa tour, 2020.

A very timid leopard resting in a tree about 90 yards away, with some serious back-light. So it took some effort to get a clean shot. This is a vertical crop taken from the image that was shot in landscape crop.

I will post the horizontal version soon, still so many more to edit.

Thanks for looking!

Love Tanzania!

Beautiful Lovebirds

We had a rare treat to catch these sweet Fischer's lovebirds in a nice pose, on s decent perch. After 7 tours to Tanzania, this was my only good shot at the colourful lovebirds.

I would guess that this is a nesting location, with an adult pair guarding the front opening.

Lovebirds come by their name honestly, as scientific studies have proven that they do mate for life. Adorable and colorful, sadly they are abuse and poached into the pet trade.

This chance didn't last very long, but wow were we lucky to have a chance with them for a few minutes!

Awesome Tanzania!

Eastern bluebird.

I think this is a first year bird, just developing its adult feathers and preparing to nest.

Maybe another 3 weeks, and the blues will be brilliant!

Looking forward to more opportunities with these beauties soon.

Workshops!

ray@raymondbarlow.com

She is indeed a beauty!

A young lioness entertained us for about an hour, this is the female that climbed a tree in my earlier posts. We can tell she is a younger animal as she has a fair amount of pink on her nose.

Such a cute look as she fends off the fly's from tormenting her.

We had so many great views of lions on this tour!

More tours soon!

raymond.

Thirsty Wildebeest!

Some sweet light and cool action in the small creek near our camp in Ndutu.

We had a wonderful experience and also a very interesting animal to view and photograph up from a safe distance.

Thanks for looking!

Wildebeests

A herd of thirsty Wildebeest browses the small creek in search of some fresh water. A lot of animals in one small place so we had very cool chances to catch nice images!

Appreciate the real beauty of nature.

raymond

A heavy crop with this Tawny eagle in flight image, pushing the limits of the a9 + 200-600 image files.

This is a beautiful bird, so I thought it was worth sharing.

Thanks for looking!

Brilliant beauty in Flight

Pied avocet

Amazing to watch these shorebirds race up and down the lake, feeding on what looks like next to nothing! a difficult exposure with blacks and whites and bright sunlight, but good fun as always.

This bird has such an interesting beak. would it be nice if we could as "evolution" the reasoning behind this development?

I would be interested to know!

Maybe a scoop type beak to lift small quantities of water up, and filter the food out from there? So cool!

We are so lucky to have nature share such beauty!

raymond.

Breakfast!

Yummy red squirrel!
(You can see the tail hanging to the left.)

Practicing with the a7r4 for distance shooting, to prepare for the eagles nest in a couple of weeks. Here I am using the 200-600OSS lens with the r4 in crop sensor mode. This set up seems to do well.

I think next time I will try a slightly higher iso, and try for f8.

I appreciate your visit, thanks.

raymond

ps.. I ready do not like the white tree in the background, but I left my chainsaw in the basement!.

Enjoy eal nature, with all natural Birds in Flight.

No bait, no captive, the finest nature shooting in the world.

Flamingo in Flight

We had a superb early morning opportunity here in Ndutu. About 50-70 birds were either joining the group or leaving the group. Almost none stop flight action with so many colours!

Some day I hope to be there when the water is as flat as smooth ice, for the reflections! Maybe next time!

Tanzania Africa Photo Tours with raymond.

ray@raymondbarlow.com

A Morning with the Flamingos

It was so nice to catch these birds in flight and in formation. We had sweet light and environment for the background. All good in TZ!

Thanks for looking!

Heads up Martha!, I'm coming home!

Pied avocet arranges its flight path, and almost at touchdown stage. We had so much fun to watch and photograph several shorebird species feeding in the shallows of Lake Ndutu.

A superb tour for birds!

And more!

Thanks for looking.

Awesome Cheetah

This beauty decided to pop up from the deep grass when it heard the call of some lions nearby. We were able to catch it's curious look, then seconds later the head would drop out of sight.

But still, a cool chance to catch a neat shot.

With this 600mm magnification, I was able to keep the close grass to the animal out of focus, as the image isolates solely on the expression.

Maybe one leaf too many in front of the face?

Never perfect, but fun trying!

Thanks for browsing my gallery.

ray@raymondbarlow.com

We had it all!

Flights, lift-offs, and landings. and a few nice poses.

These flamingos are a marvel, brilliant colours and lanky disposition.

I asked our guide to get us into this position, and voila! here we go! superb opportunities on every corner.

Tanzania: Nature at its best.

Thanks for looking!

Pink legs in for a Landing!

Lesser flamingos are popular in Ndutu, and we saw so many! Also, we were lucky with the "greater" of the species.

Parking the safari truck on the beach and watching these bird fly in one after another, groups of 2-4-7 and more, what a cool deal.

Pretty good deal with brilliant plumage, and a tough exposure, also wishing for less wind. That would have been sweet!

Next time!

I have a specially designed tour to capture "Big Cat Hunting" - if your interested, please let me know!

ray@raymondbarlow.com

Cheetah preparing to hunt!

I have a Big Cat Hunting tour lined up, with special discounts!

Join me, and we will stay here!

https://nasikiacamps.com/gallery/naona-moru-camp/

I promise, this place is just as nice as it looks!

Fees include the works!

We allow only small groups of 3 guests only for this tour. 1 safari truck, and some brilliant photo opportunities of the cats and their hunting - off road permits included!

Should be way past awesome!

ray@raymondbarlow,com

So pretty colours!

What a gorgeous bird. We found so many of these beauties in the Serengeti during this trip. Harsh light helped us miss many opportunities.

Eurasian roller.

Kind of a busy perch, but sweet light, as we were happy to have it sit still and pose for a picture!

Join me on a Big Cat Hunting program? We will stay at this place:

https://nasikiacamps.com/gallery/ehlane-plains-camp/

For more info - ray@raymondbarlow.com

Thanks for looking!

Formal inspection!

A masked weaver is checking out the nest, and getting things ready for his new mate!

We watched him update the lining of his nest for about 45 minutes, working to capture a flight shot on his approach - next image!

Such a beautiful species in Tanzania!

ray@raymondbarlow.com

Nesting time!

A Masked weaver looks to impress a female.

Hosting a total of 3 nests at this location, he is busy freshening up the nests with new and green grasses to make things comfortable for the next brood.

Thanks to my friend and guest Greg sparks for helping us get the timing just right on the approach! Greg would count down the landing while we worked on making the capture! Awesome!

And again, so much fun!

Looking forward to more!

raymond

Tarangire Sunset

We were lucky to catch a nice East African sunset during our trek back to camp in Ndutu. Since I do not yet own a Sony wide angle, I had to manage with my Sony 100-400 lens and the r4 full frame camera.

At 168 mm, I could fill the foreground with a beautiful Acacia tree, the Classic African scene.

More fun waits for us on the next tour in August!
ray@raymondbarlow.com

Nasty Lions

Maybe they are angry because it hurts?

Anyhow, we must have watched 15 mating's, then enough is enough!

Fun for us to see, but we know there is other stuff out there to photograph. This was a shot I have been trying to catch for many tours. Face on snarls. The environment could have been better, and more depth of field (if I was thinking) would have been nice!

Next time!

I am happy that his eyes were just a little open, so we could get a better grasp on the expression.

Good fun.

Thanks for looking.

Lions Teeth!

This pair of mating lions was very busy one morning for a few hours entertaining a bunch of safari trucks full of onlookers. When things thinned out, we were able to get a clean view, and a few shots.

They seem to get so angry upon completion of the act, from what I have read, they both go through a lot of pain, hence the snarls!

This is the mating season, and the cubs will be running around in August!

Thanks for looking!

A first! - Image 1.

Here we have a female lion climbing large a tree. It was amazing to watch her make decisions on her approach to tackle the climb of this tree. She very carefully managed exactly how she was going to get to the best possible resting place near the top of the tree.

Also, it is very possible since darkness was not far away, she was preparing for a hunt from the perch in the tree during the night.

We were not able to wait for that event, and all trucks need to be off the road before darkness.

This was quite an interesting scene, as she worked her way up the tree with skill and determination. She made it look very easy!

Awesome!

Part way up! - Image 2.

"Ok, we are up a ways, now to check out this safari truck that is paying such close attention to me!"

A quick stop and pause as she decides her next plan for elevation. since she was at this time, a lone lioness, I am sure she felt a bit insecure. so climbing this tree would help her get some space so she could rest in peace.

But first - a look at all those cameras!

Love Africa!