During the last weekend the winners of the 2009 “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” competition were announced.
My photograph “Grashopper Greetings” got “highly recommended”. Several thousand photographs from all European countries had been submitted to the annual competition. All winning photographs will be presented in a major exhibition.
“Grashopper Greetings” was taken in January 2009 in South Africa where I spent two weeks photographing wildlife in different wildlife reserves. My fiancee Susanne H. Schwieler and me visited Kruger NP, Mkuze Wildlife Reserve and Hluhluwe Wildlife Reserve and we spent any minute of daylight with wildlife photography. Apart from photographing birds and mammals we also spent some time with Macro Photography. We first came across Elegant Grasshoppers in Kruger and were happy to see these beautiful insects again in Hluhluwe Wildlife Reserve where I took this photograph.
African wildlife is fascinating but apart from the ‘Big Five’ only few smaller animals get much attention in the public. This is surprising because the immense amount of fascinating African insects with different shapes and colours is a paradise for any macro photographer.
While most insects only rarely perform any gestures, this south African Elegant Grasshopper suddenly tilted its head, raised its left foot and started waving it, as if it was saying ‘hello’ to me in a very human way. The contrast between the brightly coloured but very rigid face mask and the sudden polite greeting was thrilling. The uniformly green background and the V-shaped piece of wood made a perfect composition of the photograph.
After a few seconds the sudden gesture was over and I managed to take some photographs before the grasshopper moved its way into the African Bushveld. Perhaps was not waving ‘hello’ but ‘goodbye’!? More likely, it was a defense behaviour against a potential predator. The species’ bright colours are presumed to be a warning for other species who might try to eat it. Elegant Grasshoppers can also emit juices with an offensive smell as a defense against predators.