Photo by Edsel Der
Serval Wildcat in South Africa
On vacation with my wife and friends in Hluhluwe, South Africa in late April, 2025 and visited the Zululand Cat Conservation Project/Sanctuary that happened to be next to where we were staying (Emdoneni Lodge). We had a tour of this facility, that provided care and rehabilitation of various South African wild cats, including Cheetahs, Servals, and Caracals. We arrived late in the day, near 5:00pm, so lighting wasn’t the greatest. While we were admiring the Caracal Cat, the Conservation Guide pointed to a Serval Wildcat that was nestled in tree branches above where I was standing. It was a difficult shot to take with my Nikon D850 with 200-500mm F5.6 lens, as it was backlit from the sky and in the shadows of the tree branches. Shot photograph at aperture of F5.6, 400 shutter speed, focal length of 280mm, +1 exposure compensation, and ISO of 25,600. Camera was set for capture in RAW format, uncompressed. During the course of the trip, one of our friends recommended ON1 software and convinced me to purchase, which I did, since the Adobe Lightroom version I was using, was outdated. Found the ON1 software easy to use (similar to Lightroom) and appreciated the free on-line courses/instructions for use. Was happy with picture after ON1 processing, as it looked sharp and non-grainy, even though the ISO was at such a high level.