“Lilac Breasted Roller”– Northern Serengeti, Africa – Greg du Toit – Featured Photographer
Charlie’s Super Fantastic Photo Tip of the Day: Patience! Don’t leave too early. Example: While in Yellowstone recently, I was watching a Grizzly with a dozen other people. Most of them had been there for two hours waiting for him to wake up. When he started to walk away everyone left. My family and I stuck around and within 10 minutes he started chasing a bison herd right towards us! Well worth the wait.
I have been a big fan of Greg’s work for quite a while and am really stoked to have him on http://photobotos.com/. So I will just get out of the way and let him take over. Enjoy! You can find his excellent photography at www.gregdutoit.com.
Enter Greg:
The Lilac Breasted Roller (Corocia Scaudata) is surely one of Africa’s most attractive birds and it is said to sport a variety of seven different colours. Every wildlife photographer likes to have a prized roller shot in his or her collection and for some reason I did not yet have mine.
Driving through the Northern Serengeti one beautiful sunny morning, I noticed a roller of the lilac-breasted variety, swoop down and catch a grasshopper. The roller flew off and as usual I thought to myself, “Oh well, another roller shot missed”! Just as the vehicle was pulling off and with my frustrated fists still clenched, I noticed the roller land on a few small and distant rocks. We decided to drive around and stopping the vehicle a safe distance away, I let off a few frames. The bird was however too small in my lens and since I, mostly photograph mammals and predators, this is often the case. I decided to go for broke, and climbing out the car I inched closer to my colorful subject. To my delight, the roller was so preoccupied in trying to kill and swallow its grasshopper breakfast that it let me approach to within a few meters. I waited for the roller to flip the grasshopper into the air before unleashing a torrent of shutter and mirror flips. I was glad I did, as a second later, the grasshopper was swallowed and the roller alighted.
Returning to camp, I had a rare but content smile on my face. It is not often that things go right for a wildlife photographer and when they do, you need to enjoy the moment!
Technical Details:
35mm DSLR body,
400mm focal length,
ISO 400
F4
1/6400th
Beanbag for support.
About the Photographer: Greg du Toit is a fine art wildlife photographer whose works are raw and timeless, conveying intimate interactions with the natural world. This intimacy, as a signature theme, has brought him international acclaim whereby he was recently invited to exhibit his work in a solo exhibition hosted by the National Geographic in London. The exhibit titled ‘Africa’ sold out and to see more of his work or to join him on a photographic safari or workshop go to www.gregdutoit.com
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great shot!
Wow!
beautiful photo
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beautifully exquisite shot!
Fabulous! What a great shot! Now I need to go look up “Lilac Breasted Roller!”
My idea of a great picture!
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What a beautiful bird! This is a once in a life time photo!
What a stunning photo
HAHA “Nooo I don’t want to be eaten!” lol
Unbelievable! Wow!
Stellar. Patience wins the day!
oh-WOW!!
Fantastic shot
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A fantastic spectra of colors!
Great photo, love the colours of the bird.
What a beautiful bird and picture. It seems lke it is one of those shots that would take much patience.
But well worth it.
Yisraela
Cool shot
A brilliant example of capturing the moment
Incredible. Thank you for sharing.
Incredible. Thank you for sharing.
What an incredible capture. Stunning image.
Beautiful! I know that it is very hard to photograph birds.
I wouldn’t have thought that a bird could look like that outside of fantasy. Such colors!
What an awesome photo!
Great photo and beautiful bird! Glad you got the shot.
Just breath-taking.
Beautiful! Nice anecdote too, it shows how a wildlife photographer literally ‘earns’ his pictures. This one sure is priceless!
Great Point! Nikhil.
Wow!
Love the color!
Thanks guys. Some African tribes use the feathers of this bird to decorate the bride. There are no fewer than 7 different colours on this bird !!!
Wow! I thought only hummingbirds and parrots were gorgeous. Beautiful bird that ate its contrasted prey.
Sue Bock
http://couragetoadventurecoaching.wordpress.com
Wow, stunning and beauitiful…..or just great!
This reminds me of illustrations from the Audubon Society. Very nice!
Gorgeous and magic shot!
Perfect timing! Great catch (well, unless you’re the grasshopper … poor little guy
).
Simply gorgeous!
Wow! Talk about being there at just the right moment and taking advantage of it…
unreal!
This must be the most amazing bird I have seen. It reminds me of a dear friend who was an avid birder, who passed much too soon. She would have loved this photo.
A masterful shot: Nothing like being in the right place at the right time!
Great Photo, would love to get something like that myself…amazing moment and well caught…
Wow!
What a beautiful bird! and your photo and description together give me a picture in my head of where you took this — thanks, Photobotos, from sharing this with us!
Fantastic shot and a great lesson in patience.
Phenomenal! An inspiring story, too. Patience is all!
Gracious so stunning
Oh me, oh my!
beautifully captured…
Spectacular capture!
A bad day for the grasshopper. A great day for the photographer.
cool picture and great story!
Beautiful beautiful beautiful!!
What a wonderful thing to see…thank you for sharing. ajm
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Now THAT is one beautiful and useful bird… if only there could be about a billion of them around at a time when the occasional locust plague breaks out in the region. Those lovelies could descend en masse while the locusts are still in the grasshopper stage and the hapless insects would never know what hit them.
It’s al about timeing! Brilliant.
Lovely, what a beautiful bird, and so well photographed.
Oh wow…. were my thoughts…. can’t say more than that..!
Stunning …… some co colors on the bird – amazing moment to catch. Great job.