rustic and dusty

Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana.
The road to nothing :))
Hope I got it now right +Morkel Erasmus & +Johan Swanepoel :))
I share this from a very early post.

For #africantuesday  by +Morkel Erasmus  & +Johan Swanepoel +African Tuesday 
#hqsppromotion    by +Rinus Bakker  +Carina Marsh   +Marina Versaci  +Syuzanna Avetisyan  +Mukundh B   +Thierry Raemaekers   +Tammy Boldt  +HQSPPromotion 
#plusphotoextract   by +Jarek Klimek  
#landscapephotography     by +Margaret Tompkins   +Carra Riley   +Ke Zeng  +paul t beard   +David Heath Williams  +Landscape Photography 
#natureartthursday  by +Trisha Standard +Dane Clingan 
#landscape   #passionforafrica   #botswana   #nature   #naturephotography   #naturephotographers  

#BirdPoker Curious curated by +Phil Armishaw 

This was likely the last day in the nest for this very curious osprey. His sibling left the next earlier that day...

Good Morning G+ World!  The sun is up, the skies are blue.  Puffy white clouds floating effortlessly over head!  Looks like the beginning of another beautiful day!

Today is Tuesday and that means it's #portraittuesday  curated by +Laura Balc !  Sharing this with Laura and her theme group!

Also sharing this with #plusphotoextract  curated by +Jarek Klimek 

Credits

Belle Facce Studio - +Bob Jones   Syracuse, New York
Model - Corinne Hall - Ilion, New York
MUA - G. Alexis Page - North Syracuse, New York
Hair Stylist - Donna Latino - Manlius, New York
Studio Assistant - Melanie Jones - Liverpool, New York
Art Direction/Photography - G. Alexis Page

I hope everyone has a great day!  Share something special with another!

African Water Buffalo...

African Water Buffalo are really common throughout Africa. We passed this guy early morning on a game drive through Lake Mburo National Park in Uganda, Africa while he was taking a mud bath. He didnt seem to happy to be disturbed, because he quickly got up, started grunting at us, and looked as if he was about to charge our safari Land Rover. The African Water Buffalo is a large African bovine. Their unpredictable nature makes them highly dangerous to humans and they are known to charge without any notice. Contrary to popular belief, the African buffalo is not the ancestor of domestic cattle, and is only distantly related to other larger bovines. Savannah type buffalo have black or dark brown coats and old bulls have whitish circles around their eyes. The horns of African buffalo are very peculiar. A characteristic feature of them is the fact that the adult bull's horns have fused bases, forming a continuous bone shield referred to as a "boss." The boss is soo strong that it can not always be penetrated even by a rifle bullet. From the base the horns diverge, then bend down, and then smoothly curve upwards and outwards. The distance between the ends of the horns of large bulls is more than a 3 feet. The young buffalo horn boss forms fully only upon reaching the age of 5–6 years. In cows the horns are, on average, 10-20% less, and the boss is less prominent.

www.jamielinkphotography.com

#blackandwhitephotography   #blackandwhite   #square  

Gates Of The Imnaha. Another of the images I took in Oregon's fantastic Imnaha River Canyon in June. I was mesmerized by the view I found after scrambling to this ledge hundreds of feet above the the arcing ribbon of river below. I spent several hours perched there with my camera at sunset and again at sunrise. I was able to watch the landscape transform with the changing light. I was also entertained by the antics of bighorn sheep, deer and coyote that I could see from my lookout.

Canon 5D Mark III, 24-105 L lens, polarizer, tripod, 5 seconds at f/18 and ISO 100.

With +David Cobb 

"Playing with his food..."
African Elephant Bull
Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe

As is my tradition, I post and elephant for Wildlife Wedensday and Elephant Wednesday first thing on a Wednesday morning. This young bull was playing with a branch that had been pulled off the tree by the older bull, and that the three of them had stripped bare through feeding. I liked the moment here where he snaps the branch, in high resolution you can see the debris flying. The light was fantastic, as was the experience - we were on foot, after all!

Today is Wildlife Wednedsay curated by the venerable +Mike Spinak and myself - so post your critters big and small, cute and ugly, docile and dangerous to the theme by tagging #WildlifeWednesday and both Mike and myself.

www.morkelerasmus.com

This is also a submission for:
1. #elephantwednesday (+Elephant Wednesday) curated by +Diego Cattaneo, +Matthias Haeussler and +Louisa Catharine Forsyth
2. #wholewildlifeweek
3. #hqsppromotion (+HQSPPromotion) curated by +Rinus Bakker +Marina Versaci +Tammy Boldt +Mukundh B +Thierry Raemaekers
4. #breakfastclub (+Breakfast Club) curated by +Gemma Costa and +Andrea Martinez
5. #plusphotoextract curated by +Jarek Klimek 

#playful   #elephant #ManaPools #Zimbabwe #Africa #safari #nature #wildlifephotography #PassionforAfrica +Nikon South Africa +Nikon Shooters +Africa Geographic +Safari 

Bamburgh Dawn IV ...or ...the Drunken Sailor

I wonder how many more of this series can I publish without taking the piss?..
Well this one is a little different due to the angle, which I think was deliberate, though I can't be sure.. ;)
I'm sure this horizon will be derided by +André Appel, a long standing joke that goes back to my 1st hangouts here.

Pheidole aberrans is a South American big-headed ant. Colonies contain two distinct size classes of workers, the massive majors like this one that mill grain and cut up large prey, and the small minors which perform the rest of the colony's work.

At the link is a photo of both together: http://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Pheidole/8708721_63zwQf/641393227_ikFRi#!i=1935210707&k=StR7L9c

Breakfast Has Arrived

Lone tree at dawn. Taken in the New Forest in Hampshire, England. The New Forest isn't new, it's very old, and I think over half on the area is heathland, not forest at all. So this is not a picture of deforestation! The tree is actually surrounded by heath. Very peaceful and with a cool and very pleasant chill in the air. I love being the only person up!
v This was another mad dash on a bike to get somewhere photogenic before the Sun came up.....So this was unplanned as I had a 5 mile cycle ride to get to the nearest part of the forest from my campsite.....speeding through the darkness and I saw this tree from the road and followed a narrow track to here....and took this. Anyway, a nice and simple photograph.

+Tree Tuesday curated by +Christina Lawrie +Shannon S. Myers
#treetuesday