Ground Hornbill, by Guy McLaren:
How DPNow Pictures of the Day are selectedHow could we ever overlook this picture, of a kind of Hornbill, taken by
Guy McLaren, not far from his home in provincial South Africa. I think this one out-cutes the cliched Ostrich portrait, complete with long eye-lashes and amusing gaze. Guy is a regular on the
DPNow forum, though he has few pretensions about his photographic skills.
"The photo was taken at the end of January 2007 with a Kodak V360 camera, I was most probably using the macro settings," says Guy, who adds: "I am a real amateur so I got lucky with this photo. I visited a wildlife rehabilitation centre in a town called Hoedspruit, in the Lowveld area in which I live. The Ground Hornbill is endangered and only 1500 breeding pairs remain in the wild.
"This fella is actually very tame and my biggest problem was not trying to get close enough but to keep him far away enough to get the shot. This particular Bird is human imprinted and does not associate with his own. He was very affectionate toward me, which was rather a shame. I would have been more impressed if he had himself a wife and was procreating. The area in which they live is very limited as they do not take kindly to agriculture.
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Ground Hornbill, by Guy McLaren:
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Click on the picture to see a larger view in Guy's gallery.
(Free forum/gallery registration required)
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Guy runs a small business in the town of Nelspruit, producing a magazine called the Lowveld Explorer, some websites and graphic design. he adds: "My background in Photography, well lets see. I bought a digital camera way back when, and started taking photos of my family and stuff that interested me, Mainly because I needed stuff for my website.
"When I look back at some of those early pics I wonder why I ever got keen enough to replace that camera with a slightly better model. A while back someone saw a couple of my photos gave me a few pointers and I needed a better camera. That was the V360. I now need an even better camera and a DSLR is on the list. Just waiting for the finances to come together. PS, anyone with an old DSLR body that wants to donate it, maybe a lens or two?"
Check out Guy's other pictures in his
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