Pilansburg

So it wouldn't be a trip to Africa if I didn't visit one of the amazing national parks. The opportunity arose yesterday (Which was also my mums 50th Birthday! Happy Birthday mum - I love you!)  to go to Pilansburg which was a 2 hour drive from our training base.

A friend lent me his 70-300 lens which came in very handy. We set off at 4 30 Am to get there for 6 30 Am and toured in the truck until 6 30 to get eat dinner and get back for 9 15.

This Kudu ran right across the road in front of us.

This Elephant charged at us which was a lot of fun. Fortunately he took more interest in the car that was on the other side of him so we got to follow as he chased them down the road. Good times.

Unfortunately we never saw any leopards, lions or buffalo but you can't have it all.
Also the fact that I had an 18 hour day on 6 hours of sleep and almost all of that was spent in the back of a car taking photos meant that I was unable to call my mum to wish her a happy 50th

Title font 'Afrika T Ubuntu'

Day time

Today, because of the fine weather conditions, I made the venture to the top of a familiar tree to take a picture of something that I have already taken a picture of and made a post about.
Now that might sound like cheating or possibly just boring, I prefer to think of it as recycling. which is always good right?
I jest - the fact that this picture is taken in the day time is what makes all the difference as the previous one was taken during a sunset. So behold the beautiful city in which I make my abode:

Panorama

Never really tried panoramics before so this was kind of fun. The addition of a tall slim tree to the occasion made things all the more intresting as I attempted to remain steady and take a series of shots while swaying slightly a few meters above the height of my house.

I think I will try these out quite a few more times, mainly from the tops of trees because I enjoy the challenge but if the view is stunning there is no need to limit it to the tree tops.  Scfold, blocks of flats, tall towers/land marks, steep hills all could do the trick.

anywhoo here is my first, round about 270 degrees as a big branch blocked the rest of my feild of view... which wouldn't have been particularly great even if the branch were not there, so I'm not too caught up about it.
(you definatley want to click this image to view it full size so as to appreciate it)

 Horfeild and Southmead at sunset - Bristol

It is a composite of 14 pictures and was made using autostitch which is a completley free and permanent and legal trial version of a bigger, better, prefesional program for making panoramics called Autopano which costs alot.

I am truely suprised that software this good is being given away by its creators without charge, how brilliant!