Wildlife photographer from Secunda takes on new photo challenge

Mr Nick Mathios, manager at Secunda Five Star SuperSpar, took up photography as a hobby after he bought his first camera about 15 years ago.

Since his first wildlife photo, his photos of nature and wildlife appeared in many national newspapers and magazines.

His first photo that was published, was of an impala jumping over a car in the Kruger National Park.

It was published not only in South African newspapers, but in a newspaper in England as well.

Mr Mathios recently shared that photo as a memory on his Facebook profile and the driver of the car contacted him and asked him to send her the photo he took about 10 years ago.

“I was waiting for the impala’s, about 50 of them, to cross the road and one of them got a fright as that vehicle came closer and jumped over the car,” said Mr Mathios.

He did not realise he took such a unique photo until afterward when he looked at the photos on his camera.

“I am actually thinking of having that photo printed on a mug and sent to the woman who was in that car.”

Since his first wildlife photo was published in various printed and online platforms, Mr Mathios send many of his wildlife photos to the SABC nature programme, 50/50 as well as other publications, including the Kruger National Park magazine.

This magazine recently did a piece on the secretary bird and they used one of Mr Mathios’ photos in their article.

Some of his other photos that were published, included a fish eagle and a Goliath heron fighting, also taken in the Kruger National Park at Lake Panic, close to the Skukuza rest camp.

“The fish eagle had a fish lying next to the water and the heron tried to steal it.

“The eagle is a lot smaller than the heron, but he won the fight in the end and kept his fish while the heron flew away.”

Mr Mathios also entered many photography competitions and one of a rhino standing in the road, which Mr Mathios titled, Praying, obtained him a fourth place in the Kruger National Park magazine’s competition.

Many of his photos finished among the Top 10 or Top 15 in various competitions.

Another of his photos of a kingfisher that caught a fish and then let it slip from his mouth and dove down and caught it again just before it hit the water, also did well and was published in the Go magazine.

Mr Mathios’ favourite subjects to photograph is wildlife and nature and he enjoys looking for the creativity in each photo he takes.

One of the things he always wanted to see was an owl in its nest and this chance came across his path a few years ago when he was visiting the Kruger National Park.

“My eye caught movement in a tree next to the road and I reversed my car, thinking that it was a lizard or something like that,” said Mr Mathios.

He was overwhelmed when he saw three barn owl chicks inside their nest in a tree stump.

He got the photo he always hoped for and it was published in the South African Birdlife magazine.

One of his other photos of an owl was taken on one of the gravel roads between Secunda and Bethal. It is of a marsh owl chasing a smaller bird.

Mr Mathios managed to photograph them at just the right time.

“A very good friend of mine, Martin Knoetze, told me there are marsh owls on that road and I went one day with my camera and I got those shots,” said Mr Mathios.

His latest challenge is to take 400 photos of 400 species of birds in the Kruger magazine’s project.

The aim of this project is to raise money for conservation.

Mr Mathios has 400 days in which to achieve this challenge that begins in October.

The competitors can travel to any place in South Africa to capture images of birds.

He is going to Richards Bay at the end of October and is hoping to get photos of about 20 different kinds of birds there.

He is also planning on going Wakkerstroom and Marievale and then to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in January to get 30 to 40 photos of birds there.

Of course, he will visit his favourite place, the Kruger National Park several times during the next 400 days to complete this challenge.