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Exhibition Member Highlights
Trouble in Paradise
About the image
I'd been watching a group of male sugarbirds squabble over this one protea for a while. Clearly the best perch around, and none of them was willing to give it up. So I settled in with the camera and waited for the next challenger to arrive. When one finally did, it wasn't a rival male at all. It was his own mate, and she wanted the perch just as much as any of them. The two of them faced off across the flower head, beaks wide open, neither giving an inch. That's what makes this one special to me. I'd spent the morning building a picture of what was going on, and the bird that came in to prove me wrong was the one already sitting beside him.
SPECIES:
Cape Sugarbird
How it was captured
Camera: Canon R7
Lens: Canon EF 300mm f2.8 Settings: IS USM L ii 300mm
F2,8 - 1/5000s - ISO 2000
Photographer:
Age:
From:
Oliver Adams
19
Limpopo
About the photographer
I've always loved telling nature's story through my photographs, but it was only after moving to the bushveld at the age of fifteen that this passion truly took hold. Having some of the wildest places in South Africa on my doorstep has given me a deeper connection to the African bush than I ever thought possible, and through it I've been fortunate enough to experience and capture some of what makes this place so special. Every animal here is an individual, living a story that began long before I arrived and will carry on long after I've gone. Photographs show only a fraction of this much bigger story, and that's what keeps me going back.
PHOTOGRAPHER'S QUOTE
Every photograph is a fraction of Africa's story, caught in the few seconds someone happened to be watching. There is always more of it happening elsewhere, and that is what keeps me going back.
CONSERVATION MESSAGE
Fynbos occupies a tiny sliver of South Africa and contains thousands of species found nowhere else on earth, including the Cape Sugarbird. Much of it has already gone to farmland, housing and industry. Habitats this rare and this diverse deserve far better protection than they currently get.