Living Luangwa - Patrick Bentley's Blog » macro

Wusi flower

Patrick Bentley — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:05:10 +0000

I grew up in a very remote part of Zambia (Mwinilunga) and my diet was enriched by a wide variety of indigenous plants and insects introduced to me by my Lunda friends. The leaves of this wild hibiscus plant, known in Lunda as Wusi, was and still is one of my favourite vegetables. It has a slightly sour tangy flavour which apparently is a bit of an acquired taste… They produce beautiful flowers as well and are in full bloom in the Valley at the moment.

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Home again..

Patrick Bentley — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:38:21 +0000

I’m back in the Valley – at last! The whole landscape has changed completely and everywhere you look it is startlingly green. We haven’t had much rain and the river is very low so it is a little tricky using the boat with all the crocs and hippos about. Driving and sometimes even walking are not really options at this time of year as the black cotton soil turns into the most sticky mud you can imagine – you end up staggering around with huge clumps of it stuck to each foot!

There is still a lot of wildlife around though with some big herds of buffalo and elephant as well as a variety of new birds that only visit us in the rains. I’m looking forward to the river coming up so that I can get out and do some photography. I’ll definitely be posting here more often from now on.

It’s also a great time of year for photographing insects…

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Flap-necked Chameleon

Patrick Bentley — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:36:59 +0000

Found this dude in the garden – freaky huh?

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Happy Christmas

Patrick Bentley — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:45:58 +0000

As a child at boarding school in the remote north-western province of Zambia my classmates and I would be sent out on expeditions into the bush every Christmas to collect armfuls of these beautiful lilies. They are flame lilies (gloriosa superba) and grew in their hundreds – filling the bush with bright splashes of red. They are not very common here or in the Luangwa, so it was great to find some growing nearby. They have always represented Christmas for me. Merry Christmas to you all wherever you are!

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Backlit Foxglove Orchid

Patrick Bentley — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:53:04 +0000

There are plenty of these beautiful flowers in bloom here at the moment so I have been photographing them in a hundred and one different ways… I am certainly missing the large mammals of the Luangwa but at the same time am enjoying concentrating on the smaller stuff for a change.

I converted this image to black & white as I felt it showed off the shape and texture of the flower better – it is normally a light purple colour with a yellow stamen.

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Patterns and Textures

Patrick Bentley — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:06:54 +0000

There isn’t much in terms of wildlife to photograph in Lusaka but luckily there is a very large garden here so I have been satisfying my photography cravings with some macro work. The first shot is of a twirly vine and the second a close-up of a dry leaf. The third is an extreme close-up showing the incredible pattern of a dragonfly’s wing. The last image is of a giant millipede known locally as a chongololo – it curls up like this to protect itself when threatened.