The sand dunes in Namibia are a sight to behold. They are among the highest and oldest dunes in the world, some reaching up to 300 meters tall! The dunes have a variety of colors, from pale yellow to deep red, depending on the mineral content and the time of day. The dunes are constantly shaped by the wind, creating curves and ridges that contrast wonderfully with the clear blue sky.
One great thing about a zoom lens like this 70-200mm for landscape photography is it allows this nice effect called “compression,” where you can do effects like this. The technique brings in the two layers of sand dunes from beyond and make them look more dramatic. I kept a little bit of light on the back sand dune to give a clue that I didn’t just Photoshop in a darker background. I don’t do that sort of thing, even though I could.
Deadvlei, Namibia
Just a couple of African buffalo doing their thing…
Today’s photo was taken when I was hanging out of the helicopter you see in the video for our photography workshops! Of all things, our pilot was a Kiwi!
We heard over the radio that there was a hippo being attacked by a bunch of crocodiles, so we thought, hey, “Let’s go fly over there and see if the hippo is okay”. As you can see below, he was not.
I think we have two slots left for our Africa Photo Adventure! Come join me! 🙂
If I could be any animal in Africa, I think I’d like to be an elephant or a leopard. I think being an elephant would be fun because you can just kind of roam around, eat all day, hang out with your family and buddies, and contemplate life. Yeah, you have to watch out for the occasional poacher that wants to grind your tusks into a homeopathic medicine for superstitious Chinese people, but that’s more of an existential threat. The other option would be to be a leopard, like this one. You kind of rest all day, and then when you get hungry, you run 100mph and catch a warthog snack, then rest again, eating your warthog s’more on a tree.
I love getting low to take these shots, but the only way I was able to get this one was from the water while on a boat. Normally, I’m up in a vehicle, which makes this sort of thing very difficult
These are the meanest of all the animals and the ones that the guides fear the most! I did not know that before I went… but when my guide got scared, I got scared.
Here’s one of the photos that is part of the new Sony FE 70-200 Review here on the site. The optical image stabilization really helped to make sure the shot was nice and crisp, even taken from a helicopter!
Aren’t they cute? It was really nice seeing so many baby elephants walking around. All the girls we were with would go CRAZY whenever we saw a baby elephant, but I think all the guys quite liked them too… we just kind of kept that stuff inside… you know us guys, all stoic and stuff.
Go visit the often-updated My Equipment Page to see all my goodies!
Go check out the new Sony FE 70-200 Review that just landed on the site! I just used this lens for the first time after my month in Africa. I’m now looking forward to using it more here for landscape-y shots in New Zealand. It’s so light and awesome!
One great thing about a zoom lens like this 70-200mm (linked above) for landscape photography is it allows this nice effect called “compression,” where you can do effects like this: Bring in the two layers of sand dunes from beyond and make them look nice and overpowering.
For this particular one, I used the A6000, which is a cropped sensor camera. This means I was able to get in even tighter, as this camera will change the specs from 70-200 to 105-300.
Come see the new Sony A6000 Review! I’ll keep adding to it as the weeks and months go on, but I thought you might enjoy an early look! 🙂
Let me know if you have any questions… happy to answer!
Here’s some behind-the-scenes from our recent autumn workshop! Don’t forget to check out the New Zealand Photo Adventure page to find out more about that upcoming event! It’s the only thing planned now for 2015… it’s gonna be another great one! 🙂
Even though I’ve been here three years now, I have only experienced one proper autumn! I travelled too much in previous years, so now I’m going to make a point to stay home more to be sure to get all these amazing colors. Amaze-maze I say! There is so much to explore and see and do around here in the Autumn. It’s just Spring now here, so I’ve got another five months or so to wait! But Spring and Summer ain’t so bad either!
What an incredible species! It was so fun to track them across Botswana and finally catch up with them in Salinda.
Look, I sound like I know what I’m talking about, doesn’t it? I really don’t. Well, a little bit thanks to my friend Neville Jones who was my gallant trailfinder on this African adventure. He’s quite the African Explorer. He’s been to Botswana 7 times and never seen the Wild Dog before, so I can tell this is Kind Of A Big Deal.
We were staying at the Great Plains in Salinda — wow what a place! This fits perfectly into my wheelhouse because my idea of “roughing it” is slow room service. This amazing place is owned by Dereck & Beverly Joubert, who are now friends after our elongated stay! We had a wonderful dinner where they grilled me on social media! Haha… I had to think fast! I don’t remember what sort of advice I gave them, but it was just the beginning since I have a feeling I will work with them again… maybe on their great White Rhino conservation project.
Well this article is about the also Quite Endangered Wild Dogs, also known as the Painted Wolf. I like Painted Wolf better, don’t you? That’s a straight translation from the Latin Lycaon Pictus; another name that I also like is the Painted Ornate. It sounds like a Magic: The Gathering rare card doesn’t it? Awesome.
What Neville (and most people) find most fascinating about the Painted Wolf is their social structure. They live and hunt fiercely in packs. There’s a dominant male and female. They mate but the whole pack takes care of the young. They nestle the very young inside underground burrows that were made by warthogs or ardwolves (I didn’t think that was a real animal either — I feel like I should not have stayed home sick so much during kindergarten where normal kids Learn Their Animals).
The pack that we saw had eight members, and you could see how social and playful they are. There is also a wildness there. Sometimes, one would get close to me. I saw a regular, wonderful dog there… but sometimes you’d get a glimpse of a crazy-eyed-killer. There was something else feral and inter-dimensional going on in there…
One interesting thing (among MANY) about the Painted Wolves is how intimate they are with loving one another after waking up. They lick and nuzzle each other, a canine bacchanalia. At some point, the Alpha Male decides it’s time to hunt. Most of the pack takes off at 50km/h through the bush. They spread out like ebola and take down prey as they converge, as if they are a US Navy Seal team controlled via infrared by satellite. They quickly eat all they can and sprint back home before they can digest. The younglings chew on the bottom lip of the older dogs who regurgitate the viscera in a waterfall of ambrosial carnivorism.
I’m glad that the amazing Dereck & Beverly Joubert have done so much to influence the policies of Botswana to keep all these awesome animals wild. I felt like I was on a Star Trek away mission, watching an alien species that I didn’t even know existed for the trip. Thank you, Neville.
What an awesome animal… I love the smile, I think, vaingloriously anthropomorphic.
