A Long and Dusty Road by Meisiekind
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
Very often we as wildlife photographers tend to zoom in on our subjects to show you the flea on the elephant's situpon. What we forget is that you could most probably look at a similar flea through your own camera lens in a zoo. In the past I have received very positive feedback if I did include some of the natural surroundings in a wildlife image.
And this is what I hope to bring you with this image! I have captured it in the Thorny Bush Private Game Reserve here in South Africa one morning just after sunrise. We were on a game drive and came upon a pack of 6 adult hyenas who were feeding on an antelope about 40yrds from the road. The sound of bones cracking in the quiet early morning was quite daunting. Although hyenas are mostly scavaging their meals from bigger hunters (lions, leopard and cheetahs), they have hunted this antelope themselves. This fellow already fed and was probably on his way to water. The red on his face is from the antelope's blood. Yikes!
Hope you enjoy the surrounding bush and long to be there just as much as I do!!
Thank you for you kind comments and favs on my upload of The Twins yesterday!
Hugs, Carin xx

Comments (69)
Excellent capture, well done...
nice capture!
wow! great image Carin :D
OUTSTANDING CAPTURE! :)
I love wild life shots in the naturial surroundings thanks for sharing this POV, excellent capture!!!
What a great shot Carin! Really nice composition!
Wonderful and very creative work
Brilliant compo, really great stuff.
nice shot, like the DOF
Stunning capture Carin.I am adding this one to my favorite list.!0 = for this beautiful capture of nature at its best.
By all means...you have the natural settings we don't have. I like this kind of shot. I notice this hyena isn't laughing...he looks rather guilty about the whole thing.
Wow, this is fantastic on so many levels; excellent shot, Carin!
Superb! 5+.
Very well done! thanks for the info.
I like seeing the surroundings. What looks normal to you looks totally exotic to me! In spite of the blood thing ... the color on the hyena's face makes a wonderful counterpoint with the sun shining on that one rusty tree in the background. Excellent capture!
What a fabulous composition with gorgeous depth, really impressive!!
Excellent shot and interesting description!
What a great shot this is Carin ... I love it!
magical!
Such a brilliant pic, Carin!
Beautiful shot Carin, sorry for the late comment sweetie server probs at work :(
Omg, Carin, this is astonishing!! Not only do you capture this guy in his element, we see this long road, that blast of light---what an incredible place you live--this is truly stunning!!
and that you did. you showed us what its like and I feel sorry for that mutt because they are on the verge of extension, there are only as little as 3000 of these dogs left alive in the wild. wonderful capture Carin.
Declan - I think you might confuse this fellow with the African Wild Dog which are indeed on the brink of extinction, however, the spotted hyena featured here are still ok in numbers!
OH What a fabulous capture uf this beautiful hyena. Yes I find it very beautiful, even with blood in his head :-))) Thanks for sharing this fantastic animal.
Nature, red in tooth and claw, would best describe this fabulous scene, Carin, at least as far as the hyena is concerned. I really like the POV and DOF of the undulating trail, as it works its way up into the dusty distance. I assume you travel with a weapon at hand.
What an amazing scene and your dof adds to the excitment.
Harry - the game ranger and tracker do have a weapon with them for emergencies as the vehicles are completely open! I am not aware of any incident in this particular reserve where they had to use it. Thank goodness for that because I would hate for any animal to be harmed!
Lucky shot Carin, very nice. I never saw any Hyena during the day while i was in Namibia, only at night. Their favourite antelope to hunt is apparently the Red Hartebeest so our guide told me. Not many people know that Spotted Hyena also hunt for meat and don't just scavenge.
An amazing photo Carin, I find hyena's fascinating creatures. I saw a number eating the remains of a zebra once and the noise was quite disturbing but survival is their only concern.