New photo trip: Spain Wildlife Workshop

New Photo Trip, October 2009 - If you want to improve your wildlife photography and camera skills, this exciting workshop in beautiful Spain is just the thing you're looking for! We will take you to the largest zoological park in the world, where we’ll be able to photograph more than a hundred different animal species from the five continents.

The animals live in semi-wild conditions in large open areas made up of unusual limestone rock formations produced by erosion. Rusting iron minerals have painted the rocks in a wide variety of colours. This gives us the opportunity to photograph the animals with unique natural backgrounds. Expect in-the-field instructions, daily image reviews and watch your images improve during the course of this week.

Visit our website for more information about this trip, to see some pictures and an extensive video of what lies in store for you.

Book in July and get a €400 discount on your trip to Japan!

We have just added a PDF to our website with a more detailed description of the trip and information about what lies in store for you if you join us to the magical White & Wild Japan photo trip. Please visit the Japan Photo Trip page or download the PDF here: www.squiver.com/Japan.pdf


On the Photo Trip page of Japan you can find a description of the tour and links to:
- an image gallery
- several stunning videos (snow monkeys, whooper swans and cranes & eagles)
- a PDF with tour information
- a booking form
Go to www.squiver.com to have a look.

The early-bird discount of €400 for the Photo Trip in Japan is only valid for another three weeks, so make your booking now!

Wild Brown Bears in Finland

Report of a Squiver Photo Trip - In June we took an group of photo enthusiasts to Finland, to photograph wild brown bears in their beautiful natural habitat, and it was a big success. New hides had been added to the existing ones, which meant we could not only photograph the bears in a gorgeous forest setting, but also in a swamp and near a small lake with stunning reflections in the water. The weather was good, with lots of sunshine, so we could photograph far into the night (the sun does not fully set in Finland around this time of year). But the best of all: we had on average 8 bears per night in front of our cameras! That gave everyone plenty of opportunities to shoot a lot and improve their shots each day, which really showed in the daily image reviews. What made it extra special was that we saw three different mothers with 2 or 3 tiny cubs each, only a few months old. At some point we even got them as close as 3 meters from our hide! They are the cutest things you can get in front of your lens, and some of us even wanted to take one home.


Please visit the Wild Brown Bears Photo Trip page, where you can download a PDF with detailed information, have a look at the image gallery, see a video and read what our participants had to say about this trip. The first bookings for 2009 are already in, so don't hesitate and reserve yourself a seat for this growling photo tour in Finland!

Namibia video added and program adjusted

Last May we visited Namibia with a group of 10 people, and we enjoyed every second of it. Daniëlla made a spectacular video impression of this trip and added it to the general videos of Namibia. Please have a look at the Tour Impression video and read what our participants had to say about this exciting trip on the Namiba Untamed webpage.


This year Etosha was bookable as an extension to the 14-day roundtrip in Namibia. Etosha was a big success and we saw a lot of wildlife. That is why we decided to make the Namibia Untamed Photo Trip even more diverse and we added a flight to Etosha to the program. This enables everyone to have a full day of gameviewing in Etosha National Park, on top of the spectacular landscape Namibia is famous for and the seals that were already in the program. The 2009 Namiba Untamed Photo Trip will start on 23 May 2009 and is now open for bookings.

Book Japan in June or July!

We have recently set up our Photo Trip to Japan. All early-bird bookings in June and July will be rewarded with a €400 discount! Make sure you reserve yourself a seat on this fascinating trip and get acquainted with the abundant wildlife and winter wonderland of Japan.



This roundtrip will take you from Tokyo to the most northern island of Japan (Hokkaido) to photograph Japanes Cranes, Whooper Swans, Steller's Sea Eagles and White-Tailed Eagles, against a background of jaw-dropping winter landscapes. And we will end our trip with a visit to the famous Snow Monkeys. We have just added an extensive Image Gallery and new videos to the Japan Photo Trip page. Make sure you book in June or July in order to receive €400 discount on this Photo Trip!

Namibia Untamed: Report on a Squiver Photo Trip

We have just returned from Namibia and it was absolutely amazing!



Together with our 10 guests we fully enjoyed everything this spectaculary beautiful country has to offer and everyone improved their photographic skills through the workshops and numerous image critiques.



We visited the quivertree forest, watched the sun rise and set over the most peculiar rock formations, walked around a ghostly and sand overblown old diamond mining town, climbed the red sand dunes of Sossusvlei and Deadvlei and photographed them from a microlight, visited (and smelled!) the largest seal colony in Africa, climbed rocks at Spitzkoppe and Erongo, and topped it all off with a visit to Etosha. Namibia is like nothing else on this planet and a truely magical place when it comes to andscapes and wildlife.



Do you want to know what our participants thought of this trip?
Visit the Namibia Untamed Photo Trip page and read their comments! It's an experience they highly recommend and one we would love to share with you next year!

Walking with bears in Alaska

Bears are amongst the largest and most powerful predators in the world, which makes photographing them in the wild an exciting and unforgettable experience. August 2009 we will take a small group of people with us to Alaska to watch and photograph wild brown bears running and fishing in rivers and on the tidal flats along the coast of Katmai NP. If you like big teeth, fur, claws and great scenery, keep an eye out on our website and the next newsletter for more information!

White & Wild Japan

New Squiver Photo Trip, February 2009 - In January we visited Japan and were amazed by its stunning scenery and abundant wildlife. An experience we would love to share with you next year! We started in Tokyo where we spent some time exploring the city and then travelled to the north of Honshu, the main island, where we visited the famous and extremely photogenic snow monkeys. A troop of Japanese macaques live here permanently, and during the cold winter days they spend most of their time bathing in one of the natural hot springs - quite an amazing sight. The combination of snow, steam rising from the hot springs and monkeys bathing and interacting makes for perfect wildlife photography opportunities, but it's just as wonderful to simply watch them swimming, playing and fighting. Maybe it's the calming effect of the warm water, but the monkeys are very relaxed so you can get very close for powerful close-ups or dynamic wide angle shots of these remarkable creatures.


After that we flew to Hokkaido, the most northern island of Japan, famous for its red-crowned cranes. They were once close to extinction, but fortunately their numbers have gone up over the last decades. With an estimated 1500 cranes living on Hokkaido they are however still the rarest of all cranes and high on the IUCN Red List of endangered wildlife. The cranes are very beautiful and elegant birds and it is great to watch their graceful dances. Several times we saw big white-tailed eagles fight with the cranes over fish, a real spectacle! After the cranes we travelled to the north coast where we found a great place to take a boat and search for Steller's sea eagles. They use the pack-ice that comes floating towards Hokkaido from Kamchatka (Russia) as their mobile fishing spot. They are the heaviest of all eagles and with a wing span of up to 250cm (8,2 ft) an impressive sight. Our last stop was a visit to the whooper swans, swimming in a few open sections of a frozen lake, with dramatic snow-covered mountains in the background. Warm water from nearby hot springs mixes with the icy cold water, causing steam which adds even more to the fairytale-like scenery. The perfect place to take stunning photographs of these birds in their otherworldly habitat.

Join us next year on a new Photo Trip to Japan!
On the White & Wild Japan web page you can see some examples of shots Marsel made as well as a few video clips of the locations we will visit on this exciting trip. Truly wild places with beautiful scenery, where you will get close to the animals and where you will experience Japanese traditions, customs and their refined cuisine. Visit the Photo Trip page for more information and to reserve a place on this incredible trip. For more info please have a look at the Photo Trips page.

Leopards, leopards and leopards...

Of the African Big Cats, the leopard is not only one of the prettiest, it is also the most elusive one and notoriously difficult to photograph. We are currently putting together a new and exciting Photo Trip primarily focusing on this magnificent animal. For this purpose we have selected a region with the highest leopard density in South Africa. Specialized guides will accompany us on 10 full days of safari during this trip in July 2009. Encounters with these beautiful creatures are 100% guaranteed, but expect to also see lion, elephant, rhino and buffalo to name a few! More information on this trip will be featured in our next newsletter and on our website.

In May we're off to Namibia

Squiver Photo Trips: Namibia Untamed & Etosha Safari - In just a few weeks we'll be taking an international group of enthusiastic people with us on a roundtrip through Namibia. We're really looking forward to return to this hauntingly beautiful country, and especially to the spectacular microlight flights over Sossusvlei - a unique experience no one else offers in Namibia. Keep an eye out for the pictures and stories on our website! It's a trip you might want to consider for next year, because Namibia is simply stunningly beautiful! There are still two openings left for May 2008, so if you want to have a great time with a bunch of like-minded photo enthusiasts and return with tons of jaw-dropping images, you'd better hurry!

Chinese pandas and siberian tigers

At this moment Marsel is in China to photograph pandas and siberian tigers. As soon as he returns we will try to find some time to update the galleries and add some of the amazing shots he took over the past months. If you like to be on our mailing list for image updates and new photo trips, please let us know.

Japan in wintertime

For three weeks we've been traveling in Japan to photograph Japanese cranes, steller sea eagles, white tailed eagles, whooper swans and snow monkeys. We enjoyed it so much, that we have set up a Photo Trip to Japan! Wintertime is an absolutely magical time to visit this wonderful country. Take a look at some photos and videoclips on our website.