Recently while searching for some old images I discovered a folder of images with a whole pile of starred images that I had never gotten around to processing. I had made a start but as usual after a period of leave, catching up with work overwhelmed life and left the holiday disappearing into the dust like a vague memory of a previous life. Starting in chronological order I had managed a blog post on the Little Egrets and Wooly-necks Storks at Ballito but then the wheels obviously fell off.

After Ballito, we had spent a bit of time at Giants Castle in the Drakensberg. This is a world renowned location for photographing Bearded Vulture and we had been lucky to encounter a couple along with a few Cape Vultures. I have written about the Vulture Hide previously here, here and here. On our visit in 2014 we had managed to arrange a booking for the hide which included getting ferried up in a 4WD with a bucket of bones. On this trip in 2015, despite having phoned in advance from New Zealand and booking the hide for when we were booked in to stay at the Giants Castle camp, the staff denied all knowledge of our booking and said they were too short staffed to organise the 4WD up the hill. A bit of negotiation got us a bucket of bones and a discussion with the 4WD driver got us up the hill. The action was slow but with patience we were rewarded with some opportunities that we were able to take advantage of. White-necked Ravens can be a bit of a pest but can make impressive subjects.

Vultures in flight are only surpassed, in my opinion, by albatross so it is always exciting to see and photograph them. Bearded Vulture are unique so more exciting but I really love the enormous size and skill of Cape Vultures in the air, the audible thump when they land attests to their bulk but in the air they are masters of soaring flight.

The above image is one I had processed before but using newer software a much better quality image is achievable.

It is always interesting to revisit old image folders. Hidden treasures emerge and newer software can release better results from files that previously were marginally worth processing. It is also a way of keeping touch with your progress as a photographer. At times I will look at an image that I liked and processed and be hit with the feeling “what was I thinking – that’s not good!” Equally images that I passed over look great and my response will be “what was I thinking to ignore that, it’s so much better than the ones I flagged”. One of prices to pay for growing as a photographer is to look back on some older images with a twinge of embarrassment! If you’re not your own harshest critic you’re holding yourself back.

It is great to get out and shoot new images but I also love editing and processing and I probably have an archive of unprocessed images that would keep me busy for more life than I have left!

Photos with Nikon D810 and Nikkor 200-400mm f4 VR or Nikkor 500mm f4 VR.