I have just returned from Brazil, where I had a wonderful trip to the Pantanal, a natural region encompassing the world’s largest tropical wetland area. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul and covers an area of approximately one hundred and fifty thousand square kilometres. Renowned for its wildlife, the Pantanal is home to several hundred species of birds, along with jaguar, caiman, giant otter and capybara.

I was fortunate enough to see jaguars every day and the highlight of my trip was witnessing a territorial fight between two males. I have never seen big cats of any kind fighting with such ferocity, although I am pleased, not to say amazed, that both jaguars walked away seemingly uninjured. As you will see from the extraordinary photographs, at least one of them could have been seriously harmed. These images tell their own story and I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

I was also lucky enough to photograph a species new to me – the ocelot. It is a small cat and mostly nocturnal. Early one morning, I spotted what I assumed to be a small jaguar, before realising, with great excitement, that it was in fact an ocelot. The sun had not yet risen, so the photographs are not among my best, but certainly good enough for you to see what a very pretty cat it is.

Please click on the link below to view these images, along with those of giant otters, birds and various other animals, including one of a small anaconda wrapped around a caiman that was far too big for it!

I wish to extend my thanks to Paula Mason at Exodus Travel who organised my trip, my wonderful guide Alexandre Ribeiro, for his knowledge, experience and enjoyable company, and my boatman, Branco, at Porto Jofre, who did a brilliant job of trying to keep our small boat steady enough to enable me to get the occasional image in focus, which was no mean feat!

click on the image below to see more of the images:

After a rainy January, February turned out to be a dry, hot and dusty month in the Masai Mara.  It was quite a struggle keeping my equipment dust free and I had to take great care when changing lenses. On my return I popped in to my Canon service agents Fixation, to have my camera sensors cleaned! It seems strange now to be thinking of this while sitting here in snowy London, where it is -3c.

This time I was in the company of my great friend Roberta Bondar, fellow photographer and Patron of my charity Hoopers Africa Trust. As always, it was a great pleasure and lots of fun.

I returned with some great leopard images. of Siri, Kabosa, Bahiti and Fig, along with some of their cubs, but for me the highlight was spending time photographing the Eurasian roller, a migratory visitor to the Mara.  While not quite as ‘showy’ as the native lilac breasted roller, it is beautiful all the same.  Plenty of new images to consider for my 2018 exhibitions.

I hope to see many of you back at the Oxo Gallery for my summer show, which runs from 27th July to 19th August 2018.

Click here or the image below to see more images from this trip.

Click on the image to view more images.

I had an excellent 10 days in Kenya recently with my friend and guide Paul Kirui.  Thanks to Kicheche Bush Camp & Mara Explorer for, as usual, looking after us so well.  Some great leopard sightings in both The Masai Mara & Olare Orok Conservancy, especially the large male below. Male leopards are notoriously shy yet this was one of the most relaxed males I have photographed in a long time. I also had an encounter with some very young hyena pups, who would have thought they could be so cute, they are more like bear cubs.

A Happy Christmas to everyone and Best Wishes for a Happy & Healthy 2018.  I hope to see many of you back at the Oxo Gallery for my summer show, which runs from 27th July to 19th August 2018.

Click here or the image below to see more images from this trip.

Click on the image to see more images from this trip.

I have recently returned from a very productive visit to Kenya.  I spent time in the Masai Mara, and Samburu, somewhere I had not visited for many years.  In Samburu, located in central Kenya, it is possible to see a number of animals not seen further south.  These include the Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe, the Gunther’s dik-dik, the Somali ostrich and the geranuk. The geranuk is an amazing antelope capable of standing erect on it’s hind legs to feed on bushes otherwise out of reach. You will see a picture of one doing this in the full gallery, which you can view by clicking on the image below.

I spent four days following a leopard known as Siri, who had lost her cub, after being chased away by lions.  Each morning and evening she returned to one of two trees and called plaintively for her cub.  Since I left and returned to the UK, I was delighted to hear that her cub had indeed retuned after five days missing.  A very happy ending. Below is a short video of Siri calling from a tree one evening. It was filmed from my phone so the sound and picture quality is not great, do put your volume up to maximum. You will at least be able to get a sense of the wonderful experience.  For those of you with a strong constitution there is another video of a family of lions trying to eat their kill, while fighting off 24 hyenas, that was an incredible spectacle.  Also below is an image, of Siri, silhouetted in the tree at sunset, click on that image to go to a full gallery. Some of these images will be included in my upcoming 10th Anniversary Exhibition at gallery@oxo next month, along with others from the past 10 years. I hope to see you then.

Roger

Click on image to view more images.

My latest trip to Kenya was a hot and very dusty one. The dry season is at its brutal peak and with diminishing water supplies the rivers have stopped running and the watering holes are rapidly turning into a crocodiles delight as the visitor numbers increase. But as always in the Mara, life goes on.

Click on the lion cub for a gallery of images…