Marsel successful in Wildlife Photographer of the Year!

We're in London right now, where we attended the Veolia/BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year ceremony. Marsel's photograph 'Moonlight over Aloba' was selected from over 41,000 entries! The image was a Specially Honored winner (3rd Prize) in the Wild Places category.

We already arrived in London the day before yesterday, where Marsel was interviewed for ITV television. Later that day there was a meet and greet with all the other winners at the Natural History Museum.

Marsel had promised himself to never ever wear a tuxedo, but the awards ceremony seemed a good reason to break that promise.

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The awarded photograph was shot at night in the Ennedi region in eastern Chad, close to the border with Sudan. We had timed our visit there with a good amount of moonlight to be able to use it as the main light source, while at the same time still be able to see some stars. There is no light pollution in this region (we never even saw another vehicle during our three week expedition), and full moon would have been way too bright.

This natural rock arch is over 120 meters high and one of the prettiest we have ever seen and photographed. It is also one of the most remote large arches in the world. We had to drive through the Sahara for three full days to reach this area, and it was not a pleasant drive. In the end it was all worth it though, because we've been able to photograph places that have never been photographed or even visited before.

This image is available as a Limited Edition print only. If you're interested, please drop us an email.

D3s, AF-S 24-70/2.8, 25s @ f/2.8, ISO 1600

Presentation at Belgium Digital LITE

On Sunday 16 October Belgium Digital (a online Belgian photo community) organizes their annual get-together with workshops and other informative & interactive sessions. Marsel will give a presentation on wildlife & landscape photography, during one of the morning workshops. Location is the San Marco Village, between Antwerp and Brussels. For more info about Marsels workshop and the event, please visit BelgiumDigitalLite.

Join us in Japan and get a 400 Euro discount!

If you are interested in going to Japan, this is the time to make the booking. If you fill out the booking form before the end of October, you will get a 400 Euro discount per person on the participation fee!

We have been able to negotiate this special offer through our agent, due to the fact that Western tourists are staying away from Japan. We however feel we should support their economy and the tourism sector. The regions we will be visiting during our tour are far away from the areas that were affected by the Tsunami that hit Japan and the powerplants that ran into trouble because of it. The United Nations has declared Japan to be a safe destination, so safety should not be a reason to stay away. 

Winter is the perfect time to visit Japan. Its breathtaking, snow-covered landscapes are the perfect backdrop for us to photograph Japan’s unique wildlife. During this spectacular trip we will visit the famous snow monkeys, while they enjoy a hot steam bath in volcanic hot springs and play in the snow. We will travel to the northern island of Hokkaido (the Alaska of Japan), where we will photograph rare and beautifulred-crowned cranes while they perform their gracious winter dances, large flocks of whooper swans floating in misty lakes covered with ice and beautiful mountains in the background, and white-tailed and Steller’s sea eagles, as they sit on the pack ice that has drifted over from Siberia.

Download the day-to-day schedule (PDF) and read all about this exciting tour, which starts on 13 February 2012, ending on 25 February 2012.

Be quick and take advantage of the special discount of 400 Euro per person! It is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Fill out the booking form before the end of October to apply for this special offer.

Interview in Digital Camera Magazine

UK-based magazine Digital Camera now features a 7-page interview with Marsel in their October issue. The editor has selected 11 images to go with the interview.

In the article Marsel talks about how he became a nature photographer, how things changed since the introduction of digital photography, the problems, the preparation, and how he works in the field.

Death Row

This is one of my favorite images from this year's Namibia workshop. Even though I have visited Namibia countless times, it amazes me that it is still possible to find unique compositions, even at a popular and often photographed place as Deadvlei.

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The trees you see here are dead camelthorn trees that are hundreds of years old. The extremely arid climate prevents them from rotting and their skeletons turn the location in a very surreal and at times eery place.

For this particular shot I used the shadow of the dunes behind me as a natural ND grad for the bright foreground. I waited until the shadow line reached the base of the dunes in the background and exposed for the bright red sand, turning the already dark trees into silhouettes. I'm kind of allergic to touching and overlapping shapes, and I thought I had already shot every possible angle with free standing trees, but for some reason I suddenly found a lot of new compositions this year that I had never seen before. Just like athletes that have good days and not so good ones, I think the same applies to photographers - one day you're really struggling to get even a decent shot, the next day you suddenly see great images everywhere.

If you would like to join us on next year's Namibia workshop, please have a look at our website for tour information, images and video impressions. It's a spectacular tour with lots of variety, incredible photo opportunities, and you will return with stunning images - and that's a promise!

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.

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Nature Photographer of the Year 2011!

The 2011 International Photography Awards have announced the winners of this year's competition, and we are proud to announce that Marsel won 1st Prize in the Nature/Wildlife category for his series "Japanese Macaques", for which he was also awarded the title Nature Photographer of the Year 2011.

And as if that weren't enough, he also won 2nd Price in the People/Culture category for his series "Libya", and he received a total of 7 Honorable Mentions.

As a main category winner, Marsel will compete for IPA's top award of International Photographer of the Year. The finalists will be invited to attend the Lucie Awards at the Lincoln Center, New York, where one photographer will be announced as the grand winner, earning the coveted Lucie Statue and a cash prize of $10,000. Wish us luck!

The annual International Photography Awards is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive competitions in the photography world today. Over 8,000 submissions from 90 countries were received for the 2011 International Photography Awards with over 70 jurors, the largest to date. The Foundation's mission is to honor master photographers, discover new and emerging talent, and promote the appreciation of photography.

All winning images are available as Fine Art Prints. If you'd like to order the whole series, you get one print for free! Email us for pricing.

Want to photograph these amazing animals yourself? Join us next year on the White & Wild Japan workshop to shoot snow monkeys, whooper swans, Steller sea eagles and Japanese cranes in a stunning snow covered winter wonderland. More info and videoclips on our website.

Falling Skies

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Namibia is like our second home - we've been there countless times and simply love the country. When we went there for the first time, hardly anyone had ever heard of it, let alone seen photographs of the surreal scenery. Now, many years later, it is one of the most popular landscape photography destinations in Africa, there are Namibia pictures all over the internet, and for a large part we have ourselves to blame for it, bringing groups there every year. As a result, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to create something original at this incredible place.

This year I got very lucky when the heavens decided to bring me something entirely different from the blue skies that I've become so used to. What you see here is very dense fog creeping over the dunes, about to fill the valley. The fog lasted for over an hour even after sunrise, and it was the most magical hour I have ever spent there.

D3s, AF-S 14-24/2.8, 1/13 @ f/8, ISO 200, focus blend

Bear shots in The Daily Mail

Two of Marsel's brown bear images from Katmai National Park, Alaska, are now featured in UK newspaper The Daily Mail. You can read the full article here.

This year's bear adventure is already fully booked, but if you'd like to join us next year, please check out the Ultimate Bears photo tour page on our website.

Oh no, not again!

Japanese macaques (macaca fuscata), also known as snow monkeys, like to bathe in the warm water of the natural hot springs. With outside temperatures below freezing and a constant water temperature of 42°C, who can blame them?

These photogenic animals have become used to humans wanting to photograph them, so they are not shy and stay very relaxed in human presence. This little one however seemed to think 'Oh no, not again!' when one of the participants on our Japan workshop tried to take a photograph.

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What I like about this scene, is the almost human-like expression, and the fact that the camera lens makes the young macaque look even smaller than it already is.

Nikon D3s, AF-S 70-200/2.8 VR II, 1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400

If you would like to join us on the 2012 Japan tour, please have a look at the White & Wild Japan photo tour page on our website for dates, prices, images and video clips.

Seminar Natuurfotografie - Van idee tot print

We are organizing a seminar for Dutch speaking participants. So, sorry, this post is in Dutch.

De meest gestelde vraag die ik in de loop der jaren heb gekregen, is hoe ik mijn foto's zo helder en scherp krijg. Op de tweede plaats staat de vraag of ik ook workshops of cursussen in Nederland geef.

Op veler verzoek zal ik daarom op zaterdag 4 februari 2012 een seminar natuurfotografie geven.

Tijdens dit seminar laat ik stap voor stap zien hoe ik te werk ga; van het ruwe idee tot en met de uiteindelijke print of publicatie. Camera-instellingen, techniek, RAW-conversie, kleurprofielen en beeldbewerking in Photoshop komen allemaal uitvoerig aan bod. 

Dit seminar is bedoeld voor natuurfotografen van alle ervaringsniveaus die meer uit hun foto's willen halen.

Klik hier voor meer informatie over deze dag en het aanmeldingsformulier.

Marsel

Interview in Digital SLR Photo Magazine

UK-based magazine Digital SLR Photography now features a 4-page interview with Marsel in their August issue. The article is about our trip to Libya earlier this year and the editor has selected 12 images to go with the interview.

Photograph shot by Daniëlla (the coffee is a dead giveaway)

The key question that Marsel was asked, was: why Libya? In the interview he explains the thinking process behind this unusual choice, and he tells about the expedition itself. We think it looks really good, but then again, we're not really objective. :-)

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