Camp Antarctica

Here's the latest blog post that I wrote for National Geographic:

Antarctica is without doubt one of the wildest places on earth. It is seriously remote, it is not easy (or cheap) to get there, there is no infrastructure, and the climate is as extreme as it can get. When I traveled there for the first time a few years ago, I was not only impressed by the overwhelming beauty of this vast continent, but I was also constantly aware of how special it was to be there. Every time I got off my zodiac and set foot on the mainland of Antarctica, I felt like an explorer who entered another world.

One of the most intense ways to experience nature is to spend the night outdoors. On my many travels I have camped in the most remote places - high in the Himalayas in India, deep in the desert in Libya, and among brown bears in Alaska, but none of those camps were so far from civilization as this camp in Antarctica. Four small tents on a sea of ​​snow and ice, an incredible experience.

For the photo I wanted to illuminate the tents from the inside, so I had to wait until after sunset to be able to show the effect. I brought a small flashlight with a very wide beam that I wanted to use for the lighting, but I had only one, not four. The only solution was to shoot and blend four different exposures for the final photograph - one for each tent.

I started with the tent in the foreground. One of the campers was so kind to sit inside the tent and use the flashlight according to my directions. This first exposure was the most important one, because I would not only use it for the tent, but also for the overall scene and the ambient light. I waited until the light had a cold, blue tone because it would fit nicely with the snowy landscape, and it would create a nice contrast with the warm glow of the tents. After taking the first picture, I photographed the other three tents with the same settings. Meanwhile, it was getting darker, but the exposure of the tents was constant, so no problems there. I later blended the four exposures in Photoshop to get this final result. A lovely memento of a unique experience.

Nikon D3x, AF-S 14-24/2.8, 15 sec. @ f/16, ISO 50, tripod, flashlight

Published in National Geographic Traveler

The latest issue of National Geographic Traveler features one of my less known images: a romantic dinner set up at a safari lodge in Namibia. :-)


Taking shots like this is not much different from any other type of image. It's all about composition, framing, point of view, light and perspective. Just as with my landscape photography, there is some planning involved to make sure that everything is ready when the light is perfect. However, in landscape photography the elements are simply where they are and you just have to deal with that. With lodge photography most of the time you can move stuff around if that works better for the shot, which makes it a lot easier. So you'd think. But even though you're more flexible, you suddenly have to deal with something else: your imagination is the only limiting factor. You can choose from an endless list of possibilities, and you have to decide where to put what. In landscape photography all you have to do is walk around to find the best position and angle, and then wait for the light. 

View from our bedroom in Namibia

When Daniella and I made our book on African safari lodges, Wild Romance, we shot a lot of these images. We took a lot of time to look for locations in and around the lodge and made a list of all the shots we wanted to take, as well as a shooting schedule for the lodge so they could help us set up. But deciding where to put a table or some chairs is not the only thing you have to decide, there's also something called set dressing that most landscape photographers are not familiar with. How do you want the table to look? Should there be a table cloth on it or not? What color? How many glasses? What kind? Thinking about this sort of decisions was not completely foreign to me, as I was used to this when I was still working in advertising as an art director. What kind of clothing should the model wear, what kind of table are we going to put product X on, what color should we paint that living room wall, is the kid wearing braces or not, why don't we use a red cat instead of a black one, etc. In this case we decided to keep it simple and only add some accessories that we found elsewhere in the lodge as decoration.

To get some light on the table from the camera angle, I decided to put the table against the wall of our room, right in front of the window. Turning the lights on in the room gave enough light on the front of the table. Just outside of the frame near the lower left and right corner we put some lanterns to add some light there. The other lanterns Daniella distributed along the side of the pool in such a way that they didn't touch each other nor any elements on the table. Little after sunset the sky had the right brightness and color, and that's when I took this shot.

It was great fun doing shoots like this. Not only did we enjoy planning and setting it all up, I think it's also good for your creativity to step out of your comfort zone every now and then, to try something you've never done before. It forces you switch off your artistic autopilot and to think about creative decisions you never had to think about before.

National Geographic Blogger

National Geographic (Dutch edition) has asked me to write blogs on photography and my travels for their website. The first one was posted today.

Snowmobile

An important quality of a wildlife photographer is the ability to predict animal behavior. That means that you should not only look at your subject, but that you have to observe and analyze. If you don't do that, then every time you will be surprised by the actions of the animal and you will be too late to make a good photograph.

Young Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), also known as snow monkeys, cling the first four weeks after birth onto the belly of their mother, and after that period they crawl on her back to move over larger distances. This period lasts about a year. In order to capture this behavior you must primarily watch the mother, especially her interaction with other macaques in the troop. Macaques have a complex social structure and hierarchy, and virtually all movements of an individual macaque are the direct result of those of more senior or dominant counterparts. This hierarchy is often maintained by force, which is why mothers with children like to keep a little aloof from the rest of the gang. If there is a disturbance elsewhere or a more senior macaque is approaching, it is often a reason for the mother to go somewhere else with her child on her back.

This photo I made at the end of a long shoot on our White & Wild Japan tour. It was cold and I was ready to call it a day. And so were the macaques, because they slowly began retreating to the mountains. This mother with child decided to walk down again when a little higher up on the mountainside a few macaques started fighting. Looking at the tracks in the snow, I could predict where they would probably go and I was able to get into a good position. I used a flash for some extra light.

Nikon D4, AF-S 70-200/2.8 VR II, 1/320 @ f / 8, ISO 800, SB-910 flash

If you're interested in joining us on this trip to photograph snow monkeys, Japanese cranes, Steller's sea eagles and whooper swans, please check out our website for more information.

Our 2014 tour filled up really fast, so we set up a second one.

Hope to see you there!

Marsel

Snow monkey in National Geographic

My lighting experiments with the snow monkeys in Japan have become really popular this year. National Geographic (Dutch edition) now features one of my images in their October issue.

>Click here for large version<
 

Amnesia

I got a message the other day on Facebook from someone that said he loved my crane shot on PDN. Crane shot on PDN? I didn't recall any image requests from PDN, nor having sent shots to them, so I decided to investigate.

It took me half an hour to find the shot - it was really there.

Turns out that I myself entered this crane picture last year in the 2010 National Geographic Traveler/PDN The Great Outdoors photo contest, and apparently it was selected as one of the winners...

So I guess this makes it official: image processing causes amnesia. I'm gonna turn this computer off right now and get myself a coke.

>Click here to see larger version<

Another publication in National Geographic

I'm proud to announce that National Geographic has selected yet another one of my images for their magazine.

The image is featured in the April issue as a double page spread, and shows the inside of one of the abandoned houses in Kolmanskop, Namibia.

Kolmanskop is a deserted diamond mining town in the middle of the dunes of the Namib desert. Once a thriving town, it was suddenly abandoned in the 50's when more diamonds were found in another place. Since then, the desert has been claiming back her territory. The early morning sun only shines directly into this room at a specific time of year.

This image is available as a Limited Edition fine art print. Please check out the Shop section on our website for prices and sizes.

National Geographic Photo of the Month

The Dutch online edition of National Geographic now features Marsel's image of three bathing Japanese macaques as Photo of the Month. We're obviously very happy with that, and with our next visit to Japan only two months away, we're looking forward to seeing and photographing them again. If you would like to join us, there are only a few places left, so don't wait too long to make your reservation! Have a look at the Squiver photo tours web page for more information.

Fairy Chimney shot in National Geographic

The October issue of National Geographic (Dutch edition) features one of Marsel's fairy chimney shots that he shot earlier this year in Turkey. Marsel was so enthusiastic about this trip, that we decided to organize a landscape photography workshop to this magical place. Read more about this exciting trip below. 

Lecture for National Geographic

Later this month Marsel will give a presentation for National Geographic on his nature photography, at the Wild Wonders of Europe exhibition in The Hague. Marsel will focus on the stories behind his photographs; how and where were they were made, what did it take to get the shot, what were the creative decisions, etc. Sorry, there are no more spots available for this event.

Marsel featured in Nikon ad National Geographic

Nikon's latest ad in National Geographic features one of Marsel's Japanese crane images. In the ad Marsel explains why he chose to shoot with Nikon, and why he still does. The original text is in Dutch, so here's a rough translation:

"I choose Nikon cameras because they are the most comfortable to handle. The ergonomics are truly unsurpassed. At Nikon they understand that nature photographers often have to work in extreme conditions. These Japanese cranes for instance I photographed in Japan at -23ºC. Every time I looked through the viewfinder and breathed, my breath immediately froze onto the camera, resulting in a thick layer of ice. Yet I did not have to change the battery a single time. And in Alaska I photographed brown bears in the pouring rain without any problems. As a professional you have to be able to blindly trust your equipment. I currently shoot with a Nikon D3 and Nikon D3X. I choose the D3 with its unprecedented low-noise sensor for fast action shots and low light situations, and I use the D3X for static subjects and landscapes. I love the flexibility of zoom lenses, and the quality of the Nikon zoom lenses is truly sublime: super sharp and fast. Especially in situations where I have to shoot handheld, Nikon's vibration reduction is highly effective and indispensable."

 

Marsel's bears in National Geographic

The December issue of National Geographic (Dutch edition) will feature three pages on Marsel's brown bear photographs from Finland. In the accompanying short interview Marsel talks about his personal visual style and photography in general. Most of the shots were taken on this year's Squiver Wild Brown Bears trip.

Publication in the international version of National Geographic in January 2009

We are extremely proud to announce that one of Marsel's favorite images from Zambia was chosen by National Geographic to feature as a double page spread in the January 2009 edition of the magazine. While working on a photo book in Zambia, we visited the famous Victoria Falls and Marsel was desperate to try and find a way to take an original picture of this over-photographed icon.

When local people told us that an elephant had been spotted in the vicinity of the falls, we were determined to get a shot with both the elephant and the falls. After several visits our perseverance finally paid off: the only picture in the world with an elephant standing at the edge of Victoria Falls! Limited Edition Fine Art Prints of this spectacular image are now available on request.

Madagascar image in National Geographic

"Visions of Earth", March issue 2009 - For the second time this year, National Geographic has chosen one of Marsel's images to show the astonishing beauty of our planet in Visons of Earth. The award-winning image of an oxcart surrounded by giant baobab trees, was shot in Madagascar and is now featured as a double page spread in the March issue of the magazine.


We visited this location several times in order to get the perfect conditions, and luckily our patience paid off. The 80-foot-tall "upside-down trees" could become the island country's first national monument and we hope that this image will help to make that happen.
Limited Edition fine art prints of this spectacular image are now available through the shop on our website.