Today after 7 days of outdoor photography adventures and birding in Capetown Fi and I are leaving to drive North. My laptop has spent more time updating itself so when I can get a break from busy days I will compile a few photos and give more in depth insights.

Right, here's how this works. Share your photos. Good ones, mediocre ones, "I have no idea what went wrong here" ones. All welcome. If you're waiting until you've got the perfect shot before posting, you'll never post. We all started somewhere rubbish. Tell us what you were trying to achieve. Context matters. "Here's a robin" gets polite thumbs up. "Here's a robin - I was trying to freeze the wing movement but it's blurry, what did I miss?" gets actual useful feedback. Include your settings if you want real help. ISO, shutter speed, aperture. If you can't remember, that's fine - just say so. But if you want to know why your heron looks like a grey blob, settings help us tell you. Celebrate other people's wins. When someone nails a shot, tell them. We're not competing here. Their success doesn't diminish yours. Community means genuinely being pleased when someone gets it right. Equipment doesn't matter as much as you think. I've seen stunning shots from phone cameras and terrible ones from £3,000 setups. Technique beats gear every single time. So don't apologize for your camera - just show us what you captured. One rule: Be kind. Critique the photo, not the photographer. "This composition would work better if..." is helpful. "You clearly don't know what you're doing" is not. We're here to get better together, not tear each other down. I'll kick things off with a few of my own shots - including some disasters - so you can see it's safe to share the imperfect stuff. Who's posting first? Gareth

Below I have created a chart of the most sighted Herons in South Africa. South Africa shares several species with the UK, mainly the Grey Heron, The Little and Great Egret and a few Cattle Egret. What Herons do you have near you?

@Lisa Viviers joined us, she guides women 40+ to build online income with confidence, clarity, & ease no tech stress or burnout. She lives in the Arid North of South Africa, not too far from the Augrabies waterfalls. Augrabies Falls is one of South Africa’s most dramatic and other‑worldly landscapes — a place where the Orange River suddenly narrows, accelerates, and drops 56 metres into a vast granite gorge. The Khoikhoi name for it, Aukoerebis, means “place of great noise”, which makes perfect sense once you stand near the boardwalk and feel the vibration in your chest. Her groups also create a heart thumping expectation of good things. Fiona and I would have loved to have gone there on our SA trip but we do not have the time.

Hello I'm not a wildlife photographer, but I love wildlife- and I love to see how professional photographers capture the most intimate moments in the wild. I'm a retired chef 45 years. Currently, learning be a Potter for ( about 18 months now) I have a studio I built in my garage, and I'm getting my axx handed to me through Clay! I thought it was gonna be easy, alas it is not-! Clay is teaching me many things I need to learn. But at my age, you think I'd already know them! Lol 1- patience 2- perseverance 3- letting things go 4 -chilling out and its ok not to be perfect. Everything that's opposite of the culinary world, and I'm grateful for it. I'm posting a couple pictures of my latest kiln unload, for wildlife enthusiasts, one is a hand sculpted whale that os an oil burner, and the other one is a dragonfly. décor for a garden . Thank you for accepting me into this group.