Kirstenbosch contest
My photographic journey, capturing flora and fauna in the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
As an Englishman living and working in the beautiful city of Cape Town, I have the opportunity to shoot a wide range of subjects.
As most of my work revolves around the tourism and film industries I can be shooting wildlife one day and extreme sports the next.
Recently, I have been having enormous fun shooting for the annual Kirstenbosch photographic competition, which extends for nine months from July to March. I missed the first two months, only getting started in September, but was fortunate to be awarded first place that month. The rules are quite simple: photographers can submit four images taken inside the gardens each month, and the eight best images are printed in a local Cape Town newspaper. At the end of the competition, the overall winner receives a Canon 5D Mark III, so with this prize in mind I put in over 250 hours, slowly meandering through the gardens, camera cocked and ready for action.
As plenty of wildlife photographers will testify, it is a waiting game. Standing
The more time I spent in the gardens the more knowledgeable I became, even imitating bird calls to bring them closer
stock-still for up to an hour next to a flowering shrub waiting for the little sunbird to come back and feed again – or hoping the Cape cobra you saw disappearing into one of the flower-beds will make a reappearance – requires a great deal of patience. The more time I spent in these botanical gardens the more knowledgeable I became, even imitating the call of some of the birds in order to bring them closer. I also frequently found myself telling visitors where to find the roosting place of the spotted eagle owl or which gardens have flowers out for sunbirds to feed on.
I had to make do with fairly basic equipment; I have a 60D and a second-hand Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6l IS USM, which I use for most of my work. On occasion I rent the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l IS II USM – what a remarkable piece of glass that is! The picture of the beetle in the protea flower was taken with that lens at a focal length of 188mm, and it is so sharp, individual grains of pollen can be seen on the beetle’s back.
It became a labour of love and, while I didn’t win the big prize, two of my images got special mentions. I can’t wait for next year’s competition!