Southern Pride cubs’ introduction to rain

During the early few days of the beginning of October, Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve received its first rain for the change of the season into summer. In the Lowveld, this is the region in South Africa on the eastern side bordering Mozambique, the rainfall is relatively minimal due to its height above sea level and the climatic zone it is located in. This area is known as a savannah biome which is a mixed woodland and grassland ecosystem characterised by trees that are widely distributed so that the canopy layer does not touch interspersed by a uniform grassy layer. In this area, the rainfall expected is roughly 240 – 600 mm per year. These conditions experienced are uniform and animals in this area have adapted to the conditions as they are all endemic to this climate and conditions. With this being said, the rain was gladly welcome by all throughout the reserve, in order to trigger the new growth heading into summer. In this blog, I present my picture of the week with regards to the first rain and how the Southern Pride cubs reacted.

The photo I have chosen as my picture of the week was the first time the newest members of the Southern Pride have ever experienced rain. This day, when the rain fell upon our reserve, the Southern Pride was on a Cape Buffalo kill that was less that twenty-four hours old. The cubs of the Southern Pride were excited to a point, lots of energy and playfulness with one another. In this photo, I have captured one of the smallest members with one of the older cubs on a fallen over Marula tree. The youngest cub’s coat is extremely dirty from not only the feeding on the carcass, but because of the rain. Next to the 4-month-old cub, a larger six-month-old cub decides that his cousin requires a bit of grooming as the rain decided to pour down. What I like about the photo is you can see the age difference between each cub and their cleanliness as well as how they have reacted to their first rain.

Equipment Used

Camera - Canon 600D

Lens and Focal length - Canon-EF100-400mm f-4.5-5.6 L ISII USM at 400mm

Settings used to capture this image

ISO – 6400 as the light was not great due to the heavy storm clouds and rain received.

Aperture of 5.6 in order to create great detail on the subject (Southern Pride Cubs) and create a blur of the background.

1/500 shutter speed, which is low for an action moving shot, but allows the perfect capture of light for such image based on the weather and light availability.

Editing used on this image

I used a variety of editing techniques in order to develop a clearer view of the falling rain to add a bit of atmosphere to the image, thus showing the viewers the reality of what it would have been like to be in that sighting and what the Southern Pride were experiencing, especially this occasion being some of the cubs first rain. I raised the amount of sharpening and detail, and chose a relatively low masking ratio. Also, I decided to not reduce any noise in the background, as the rain drops is the type of style I was hoping for, and reducing noise would most likely limit the visual of the rain drops.

Pic of the week by Kevan Dobbie (Bush Lodge Ranger)