I love photo challenges. It really is a great way to push yourself on a daily basis whether it is getting out and shooting new work or going back through your achieves and looking for overlooked gems.
I am not a nature photographer. I have always believed that I really couldn’t do Mother Nature justice. I wonder if a camera can truly capture all her elegance and detailed subtleties. I am comfortable setting on the side lines and absorbing her beauty rather then attempting to capture it most of the time.
Don’t get my wrong, I don’t pass up an amazing opportunity to shoot in golden light or try to see if I can get some strange creature in focus as it runs across my path- but it would be something I would necessarily share.
I have been challenged twice to share work on this 5 day nature challenge and now I am finally ready.
In January of this year we were fortunate enough to go to Namibia and Zimbabwe for 6 weeks. It wasn’t hard to shoot nature there that is for sure. Every time you turn your head there is something staring you in the face straight out of National Geographic.
The bonus of having an African husband with a huge knowledge of flora and fauna makes everything a bit more interesting too.
Although every furry creature you wanted to take home, including the warthogs and everything with a horn you felt like running from, I found the insects to be the most fascinating creature to photograph.
Today I am starting off this challenge with a silhouette of a Rhinoceros Beetle. These little guysare the Hercules of the beetle world. They can lift 850 times their own body weight. (So the internet says.) There looks are deceiving they just slow moving and there is no chance of putting a hurt on you- but you should see people run.