Buenos Aires

Instead of flying straight to Ushuaia, we decided to spend some time in Buenos Aires first - getting used to the (minor) time difference and do some sight seeing. And steak eating.

Today we visited a church and a cemetary in the city, both very photogenic. I didn't want to bring any serious cameras, so I used my iPhone for all photography. And some iPhone filters.

Antarctica, here we come!

We're off to Antarctica. Last year was fun, but this time Daniella will join me, so she can carry my gear. Just kidding, she's got loads of stuff herself - mostly video gear. We'll be starting from Ushuaia and sail straight down to the Antarctic peninsula for hopefully some great landings.

There will be little or no internet facilities, so if you send us an email it may take us a little longer than usual to respond.

Seminar Workflow in Belgium

Today we spent the whole day in Antwerp, Belgium, where I gave another Squiver seminar: Nature Photography - From the basic idea to the final print. A big thank you to all participants!

Presentation at VNFE

Yesterday I gave a presentation at VNFE, a well known nature photography camera club in The Netherlands. Lots of people showed up, and it was nice to finally meet some of the people behind the names that I knew only from photography fora and Facebook. Thank you all for showing up, it was fun!

AF-S 24-70/2.8 to the Emergency Room

Something weird happened to my 24-70. On the Wildlife Bootcamp in Spain last month I first noticed that the zoom ring was not moving as smoothly anymore. I thought it was probably the weather and didn't pay much attention to it. But every time I used the lens, it was getting more and more stiff.

Then suddenly one day there was a new symptom: the zoom ring got stuck somewhere around 50mm. I could still zoom out to 24, but when zooming in, the ring stopped at 50mm. As a result I didn't use it as much on this trip, but every time I did, the zoom ring got stuck at a different focal length. Yes, very weird. And when I say stuck, I mean really stuck as if something mechanical on the inside of the lens stopped it.

When I got back home, I brought it to Nikon Service Center for repairs. Today it was ready to be picked up again. Obviously, my first question was what was wrong with the lens and what caused it. Their answer: the lens had been dropped or something had hit the lens. Right. I knew that I hadn't dropped the lens, nor that anything had hit it. But they insisted that they could see damage that could only have been caused by some sort of heavy impact. I still don't believe this is what has caused the defect, but what do you do?

They replaced: Guide Roller T=4.99, Rubber Ring, 1st Lens Lead Ring, Lens Hood Fixed Ring Unit. Total costs: 335 Euros! That's roughly the price of a brand new Nikon D3100 body and an extra battery...

Update 28/12: On my trip to Antarctica I met a German photographer who had exactly the same problems with the same lens. He also said that he had not dropped or bumped his lens. What's going on?

Double Light

A couple of weeks ago I posted an image here of Turret Arch shot through North Window, and I included Daniella to add some scale to the shot and to make it slightly different from the kazillion other images that have been shot at this location.

But I knew that it would take a lot more to create something truly different, so I gave it some serious thought and made a plan. I decided to shoot at night, hope for snow, and use a combination of moonlight and flashlight as I had never seen that before. I thought: night shot + moonlight + stars + snow + flashlight = not very likely to have been shot before :-)

There was only a very small window (sorry) of time to do this, because I wanted a low moon and it needed to rise at a certain angle or else there would be large shadows of the rocks behind me creeping into the shot. The inside of the arch was lit by Daniella during part of the exposure with a Surefire Invictus, the flashlight of the gods.

New Tour In South Africa: Tigers & Leopards

Earlier this year I was on assignment for National Geographic Traveler in India to shoot for an article on tiger safaris. I was there for a week and visited both Bandhavgarh and Ranthambore, their most famous tiger parks. It turned out to be a very frustrating experience - only on our very last game drive did we see a tiger. One tiger. After sunset. On the road. Hardly the ideal conditions for a good photograph.

Tigers are indigenous to Asia and there are many companies that offer photo tours to India, where they visit the same two parks which are supposed to be the best. But chances of you actually seeing a tiger are small, and seeing one in good photography conditions are even smaller. Unfortunately, chances of seeing a tiger in the wild are diminishing further every year, as tiger conservation on the Asian continent does not seem to be very successful. Numbers are decreasing rapidly and necessary measures, like properly fencing the national parks, are not taken.

This has always been the main reason we have never organized a tiger photography tour before - you simply can't promise good tiger sightings in those parks if you only have limited time. Another reason is that the famous tiger parks are heavily overcrowded with tourists and vehicles, and that you have to be extremely lucky to be in a good position for photography when you arrive at a sighting. Been there, done that.

And the fact that I saw just one tiger during that whole week does make one wonder how many tigers are actually still left in the national parks. Once the tiger is lost to the parks, so is the tourist potential and so too is the vital income needed to save the tiger from poachers. It’s a downward spiral.

But even though my first tiger encounter was short and far from ideal, I was impressed with this incredibly pretty cat and I was determined to get better pictures.


Tigers in South Africa?

This year we met John Varty, also known as JV. A man who has been wild about big cats most of his life. He came up with a highly controversial plan to do something about tiger conservation. His idea was to create a free-ranging, self-sustaining tiger population outside Asia. In South Africa, to be precise.

This tour impression video was shot & edited by Daniëlla

Because of his vast knowledge of wildlife conservation and his success with leopards in Londolozi, JV was invited to visit India and he offered his advise on how to improve the living conditions of the tiger. When it became clear to JV that nothing was going to change in the way tiger conservation was handled in India, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

In 2000 JV came up with the idea to buy huge stretches of farmland in South Africa and start a new game reserve - one where tigers could roam in the wild, hunting on their own, living free while protected by a huge fence; to keep the tigers in and the poachers out.

In the beginning he was criticized by conservationists, who questioned the value of what he was doing, but he hung on and continued to work with his two original tigers that came from a zoo in the USA. Two additional captive bred tigers were added to the mix and were rehabilitated to the wild, and soon the first litters were born.

In December 2010 there were already 16 tigers in the sanctuary, and it is currently the most successful tiger conservation project in the world when it comes to rapidly increasing numbers of tigers.

Meanwhile, things are changing and the world has caught up a bit with JV’s wild thinking and his “Just do it” approach. Recent news that all the tigers have disappeared from Panna, one of India’s leading reserves, when just 2 years ago there was still a healthy population of 24, has somewhat vindicated Varty’s big idea. Maybe he was not so crazy after all.

We visited JV earlier this year, spent a few days with the tigers, and we were very impressed. The tiger sanctuary is huge, the tigers have loads of space, they can hunt for themselves, and they are well protected from the outside world by a state of the art fence. We had so many good photo opportunities with the tigers, that we were instantly convinced that this is the place to go if you want good tiger images. So we decided to organize a tour to this remarkable place.

The sanctuary offers us a unique view into the life of the tiger. As the tigers are used to vehicles, we will be able to see them up close in the African landscape, allowing us to make stunning pictures of these beautiful big cats. And there will be no other tourists, just our group.

You are virtually guaranteed to see tigers on every drive. There are lots of open areas and we are allowed to drive off-road (landscape permitting) to follow a tiger when we find one. The landscape is beautiful and very diverse. There are open plains, hills, rocks, reeds, small streams and ponds. This offers us the opportunity to photograph tigers in all kinds of surroundings and situations: walking, hunting, playing, relaxing, sun bathing, jumping and swimming.


The Leopards Of Sabi Sand

The Sabi Sand Game Reserve is a collection of private game reserves that share unfenced borders with each other and Kruger NP. This allows the free movement of wildlife over more than 2 million hectares of pristine bush.

We stay at Londolozi, one of the most exclusive lodges in the park. You will experience exceptional cuisine and the very best game viewing with some of Africa’s finest rangers and trackers.

But the main reason for choosing Londolozi for our leopard tour is because of the photographic opportunities it has to offer: if you want to get good images of leopards, it just does not get any better than this! We have 2 private vehicles for our group, where you will each have your own row of seats. This allows you to move freely from side to side in the car, with ample room for your gear, and without being bothered by someone sitting next to you, blocking your view.

With over 16,000 hectares of traversing wilderness, no two game drives are ever the same. Trackers sit up at the front of the Land Rover looking for fresh animal tracks, while rangers drive with great skill through ravines and thickets in pursuit of elusive animals. Although the focus of this trip is on leopards, we are a Big Five area, so you may expect to encounter lion, rhino, buffalo and elephant as well.

Breeding herds of elephant and buffalo roam throughout the Londolozi area, while white rhino and lion concentrations are amongst the highest recorded on the African continent. However, it is the truly remarkable relationship between wild free ranging leopards and ranger & trackers which has developed over three decades that has made Londolozi world famous.

There is no disputing that viewing the leopards of Londolozi is one of life’s truly treasured experiences. And it is exactly the reason that we chose this amazing camp to photograph leopards. It is simply the best!

The tour includes daily briefings, in the field instructions, image reviews, and post processing tips.

If you want to join us on this spectacular tour, don't wait too long because the trips are filling fast! We have several departure dates in June and July 2013, but there is limited space available per tour, as we travel in very small groups of just 6 guests.

Check out the Tigers & Leopards Photo Tour page for more information and a detailed PDF.

Hope to see you there!

Marsel

Nature's Best Awards 2012

This year's results of the 2012 Nature’s Best International Photography Awards have been announced, and the hippo shot that I took on the Beyond The Great Rivers tour in Zambia (see previous blog post) was chosen as a Highly Honored winner. 

It was also picked as one of the cover images for the Fall/Winter issue.

Selected from nearly 20,000 images from photographers in 46 countries, some 500 photos made it into the semi-final round of judging and only 129 images made it to the finals. A selection of Highly Honored winners will be displayed in the annual photo exhibition at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. opening June 2013.

Back from Zambia

Just returned from Zambia for this year's Beyond The Great Rivers tour - it was awesome. Great group, great sightings (leopards!) and great scenery.

We've been on safaris in most African safari countries, and Zambia is easily one of our favorites. It's not as crowded as the Masai Mara, the Serengeti or Kruger, not as expensive as the Okavango, you can drive off road, you're not limited to opening or closing times of the parks, you can get out of your vehicle, and there's lots of water. During the hot dry season that's where all the animals will be so that's where most of the activity will be.

We used small boats to photograph the wildlife on the shore (elephants, crocs, buffalo, etc.) and in the water. One of my favorite animals in and around the Zambezi is the hippo. They're big, dangerous, often shy, and very photogenic - that is, when they're not submerged :-)

I haven't had time to select or process any images from this year's trip yet, so here's one from last year. Shot while sitting on the bottom of a small boat to get the low angle. We banked the boat at a safe distance from a pod of hippos, an hour or so before sunset.

The key to success when photographing hippos, is patience. The moment you stop near a pod they usually submerge and only show themselves every now and then to take a deep breath. After a while however, they get used to your presence and get more relaxed. Hippos are very territorial and can be ill-tempered - a dangerous mix. They can be aggressive towards people, but also towards other hippos. And when hippos have an argument, there's always a lot of noise and splashing involved.

This hippo had a brief conflict with one of its neighbors, which resulted in a series of intimidating big head and teeth displays. This shot is basically the end of that little quarrel, and I liked the profile, the expression and the soft directional light.

If you would like to join us on our next Zambia workshop, please check out our website for more information, pictures and tour impression video clips.

Hope to see you there!

Marsel

Awesome video footage from our Ultimate Bears photo tour

We have some awesome footage to share with you, shot by Daryl Godkin, one of our participants on this year's Squiver photo tour to Alaska. We are happy to tell you that both Daryl and the GoPro survived this close encounter :-) You can view the video on my Facebook page or by clicking the image below. Want to join us next year? You can find more information about our bear photo tour on our website.

Eye to Eye

Icons. Most people love them, many landscape photographers hate them, and both groups for the same reason: because they're icons.

Arches NP in Utah is full of icons, and most of them have been photographed to death by millions of people who were all equally excited when they were standing right next to one of them. Especially the ones close to the parking of course ;-)

I like photographing these iconic places, because they're usually worth seeing with your own eyes, and because they provide a challenge to any serious photographer: how on earth am I going to create something different here? I've been to many places that few people have ever visited before, and to shoot something original in those places is very easy - just point your camera in any direction, and you're done. Well, maybe not like that, but you know what I mean. When you're standing in a spot from where many thousands, or even millions of photographs have been taken before you, it makes you think a little more about what you're going to do.

Before my first visit to Arches I had seen many pictures of Turret Arch shot through North Window, and never had I noticed that North Window was actually this big. It wasn't until I walked towards this giant opening and noticed it's position relative to Turret Arch that I realized that I had been completely wrong. It's a way more impressive scene than the photographs I had seen ever suggested.

The first thing I therefore did was to add a human element (who else?) to the shot to give a sense of scale to the image. It's still the same icon that's been shot to death, but the combination of the human element and the snow in the background make it just a little more different from the rest, which was all I was after.

I also shot another version of this scene without the person and with very different lighting conditions that I will post later.

If you would like to join us on our next Utah workshop, please check out our website for more information, pictures and tour impression video clips.

Marsel

Nature Photographer Of The Year - again!

I am very proud to announce that, for the second year in a row, I won the title Nature Photographer Of The Year at the prestigious International Photography Awards (IPA), as well as several other prizes.

My entry The Valley Of Death was awarded 1st Prize in the Nature-Trees category at this year’s edition of the competition, and it was chosen as the overall winner of the Nature category. The winning series consists of five landscape photographs that I shot in my favorite country, Namibia.

When we first visited Namibia many years ago, few people had heard of the country, let alone seen pictures of it. Countless times I've heard comments like 'is this for real?' or 'that must have been photoshopped' every time I showed the pictures that I had shot of the surreal Namibian landscapes. But things change. Over the past years, Namibia has become a popular destination amongst landscape photographers from all over the world. As a result, there is a steady growth of images of this stunning country, and each year I visit Namibia it's getting more and more difficult to return with original shots. And that's a good thing. It has pushed me to try harder, to find new viewpoints, new perspectives, and to experiment with different techniques. This winning series is the result of that hard work, and I am extremely happy that it all paid off. I consider the IPA to be the most inspiring photographic competition on this planet, and I am honored to see my name amongst those of many great artists who have all raised the artistic bar with their photography.

One of five images from the series 'The Valley Of Death', featuring dead camelthorn trees in Deadvlei,shot on a rare foggy morning in Namibia. 1st Prize in the Nature category and the overall winning entry.

But that's not all - I also won 1st Prize in the Nature-Other category for my entry Dwarfed, a series of landscape photographs shot at various locations, featuring small human figures in awe-inspiring scenery. I like to do this in my wildlife photography as well, and as a result an English photo magazine once called me 'a wildlife photographer who thinks like a landscape photographer'. And although I don't consider myself a wildlife photographer, I see what they mean, and I think they're right. It's the landscape that I often value more than the subject itself. The winning shots were taken in Libya, Iceland, Algeria and the US. Special thanks to Daniella for posing for me in three of the five pictures - you may only be a few pixels high in each shot, but they wouldn't have been the same without you.

Bizarre rock structures in the Algerian desert are towering over Daniella after sunset.
1st Prize in the Nature-Other category.

And it doesn't stop there, because I also won 2nd Prize in the Travel category for my entry ‘Iceland’. Earlier this year Daniella and I spent quite some time in Iceland to set up a new photo tour there, and we were amazed by the untamed beauty of this incredible island. It is a landscape photographer's paradise, and it's basically impossible to take a bad photograph when you're surrounded by so much awesomeness. No matter where you point your camera, there is always enough potential for a great shot. My winning series consists of five photographs that were shot in the South and the North of Iceland.

A large chunk of ice on a black lava beach near Jökulsárlón, shot at sunrise. 2nd Prize in the Travel category.

And the good news continues, because I also won 3rd Prize in the Wildlife category for my entry ‘Close Encounters’, featuring a series of 5 images of, well, close encounters with various wildlife. And I received two Honorable Mentions - one for a black and white pano landscape shot from Namibia, and one for a black and white series of elephant shots. This puts me in the top of the most awarded photographers in this year’s competition, and it's a surreal experience.

African elephant, photographed from a few feet away. Part of a series of
five images, and 3rd Prize winner in the Wildlife category.

As a category winner, I am still in the race to win the title International Photographer Of The Year. During the tenth Annual Lucie Awards gala on October 8, one of the eight finalists will be crowned overall winner, earning one of the coveted Lucie statues and a cheque for 10,000 USD. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the event as we will be in Zambia hosting our Beyond The Great Rivers tour, but please wish me luck!

All the winning photographs are available as fine art prints. For prices and sizes, please have a look at the shop section on our website.

And if you would like to learn how to shoot images like this yourself, why not join us on one of our photo tours? For an overview of the tours we currently offer, please visit the photo tours section on our website.

Marsel