Impalas (not the car model)

[Mike Buckley]

My recent experience in South Africa is that impalas are very difficult to photograph because they almost always walked away without looking at us before we got reasonably close.


Photo #1
Finding impalas at a water hole was the only reliable, predictable method of obtaining a decent view of them. This water hole was at the lodge.




Photo #2
Other animals, especially kudu, look similar to impalas to my untrained eye. My wife taught me that the easiest way to quickly identify an impala is to think of the name as Mpala rather than Impala and to look for the M on the animal's behind.




Photo #3
I'm posting this photo mostly to show the markings on the face of impalas. Despite that impalas were everywhere, this photo is the only keeper of them looking at the camera and I recognize that it's nothing more than barely a keeper. To ask for better light, to ask for none of the faces to be obscured and to ask for all of the the impalas to be looking at the camera is apparently far too much to ask for. Indeed, though my last wish was mostly granted in this photo, it happened only this one time while spending six days in the bush.

[chauncey]

Let me start by saying that I like those shots Mike...shooting animals in the brush/field is often a frustrating experience as they just don't seem to want to follow directions.

[cliffmccartney]

Wow, Mike, just beautiful.

I'll repeat what you said to me on my thread - "you make this look easy, and I know it's not."

I'm not an experienced wildlife guy, but to me #3 is much more than barely a keeper. I love it. They are beautiful animals and you captured them well.

[Brownbear]

beautiful. #3 is a keeper, truly special.

[John 2]

Three beauties. All well seen and well shot.

[davidedric]

More excellent photos, Mike. I am most impressed with your safari images - I have done enough to know how good they are.

Others say that the M stands for McDonalds. Why? Because they are everywhere, and everything eats them

[Manfred M]

Mike - I remember my first visit to South Africa (over 30 years ago) and our trip to Kruger National Park. We got plenty excited when we saw our first impalas. By day 2, we figured out that they were pretty commonplace and stopped wasting film on them.

On our most recent trip to Africa (Namibia) we pretty well ignored them, but they did manage to sneak into a few shots. I guess we should be happy that they are out there though; as they seem to be the main food group for a lot of the big cats and other predators.

[Stagecoach]

Mike,

Good series and for me the fact that No 3's technicalities may not be perfect are pretty insignificant as the 'capture' is perfect.

Grahame

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to everyone for the helpful comments and information.

It's particularly helpful to realize that people seem to like Photo #3 better than I do. My wife and I are going to print a book of images from our trip to give to our friends that we met there. The book will be our thank-you gift for everything they did to help make our trip so wildly successful on many levels. Now that I have seen such positive reaction to Photo #3, I just may include it in the book, thinking that they may also like it more than I do.