ADÉLE BERGH

@abergh5 Sony DSC-H9 ADÉLE WRITES: Once you’ve been bitten by the travel bug, there’s no easy cure. At the same time, it’s not possible to travel all the time, which is why I like to relive my favourite travel experiences by looking at my photos. I took this shot a decade ago – in 2007 – at Spier Wine Farm near Stellenbosch. They have a facility on the property called Eagle Encounters, where rescued birds of prey are rehabilitated. I usually travel with my D-SLR and a compact zoom camera (Sony DSC-H9). This black-shouldered kite was nervous and I couldn’t get close enough for a tight portrait using the 18 – 55 mm lens on my D-SLR. The Sony was a good alternative. The most striking things for me are the kite’s red eye and the proud manner in which it carries itself.

TOAST SAYS: Before digital photography, we got nostalgic when paging through old family albums. These days, a decade-old folder on your computer can offer a similar wave of emotion. It’s hard to believe, but digital photography has been with us for 20 years already. (Actually longer, but the first accessible digital cameras arrived in South Africa in the late 1990s.) It’s fun to browse through your digital archives, but make sure you save your photos on more than one hard drive. Older drives can stop working for any number of reasons, and you can’t always get your photos back if your hard drive crashes. Adéle’s photo is all about the flowing lines of this small raptor, and those red eyes that can spot a mouse from 400 m away.