Collective memory reminds me of Start Trek… SciFi…that was my first reaction after looking at this technology being developed by Microsoft Labs. It seems they are working on a way of handling collection of images coming from different sources in order to map in 3D the einvironment. This eventually allows to organize images according to their content without the need of being keyworded. This reminds me of a SciFi movie with Tom Cruise I forgot the title now… Watch and listen yourself! (And suggest the title please…)
Non e´facile accontentare tutti, ma cerchiamo di fare il possibile. A cause di una notevole richiesta per i Safari Fotografici che organizzo, il prossimo anno ci saranno anche safari guidati con guide che parlano Italiano.
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Die meiste Arbeit kommt immer nach dem Fotografieren. Es ist nun fast ein Monat vergangen seit dem ich heil aus Namibia zurück bin, und ich bin immer noch dabei die 80GB auszusortieren… Mensch was für eine Arbeit.
Ich plane dieses Werk in einem kleinem Bildband zu sammeln, und habe überigens vor in Nobember eine Austellung in Düsseldorf zu veranstalten, um für meine Fotografie und meine Fotosasaris zu werben. Ich prüfe derzeid verschiedene Möglichkeiten um eine Ausstellung zu verwirklichen, und bin natürlich für jede Empfehling offen und recht happy!
20 Bilder, hochqualitativ mit Epson Drucker und den besten Farbpigmenten auf Alu Dibond platten aufgezogen, mit UV-schutz für langjährige Erhaltung. Mit der Auswahl bin ich noch nicht ganz klar. Das ist für mich einfach die schwierigste Aufgabe.
What a surprise when I arrived at the White Lady Lodge in Damaraland. The staff had rescued a very young meerkat, which became the pet of the lodge, along with his friend Alexander, a baby springbock also found abandoned away from his parents. This meerkar is incredibly funny. I could hold it in my hand like a small dog, and it really is hilarious to watch it dig hole everywhere. Highly recommended visit!
On July 5th at 7:45 in the morning I finally stepped on the LTU aircraft which will bring me home. 14 incredible days, 80GB of images to work on and 3705 Km mostly of gravel road behind me. Namibia truly is an amazing country, offering landscapes one would find nowhere on earth. I am really looking forward to the Photo Safari in April 2009, which will cover the same route and offer again, incredible opportunities for amateur and professional photographers.
Veterinaries and Cheetah keepers at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), medicate a female Cheeta who underwent heavy surgery, due to the damage caused by a trap. The cheetah had been operated and anestetized already 15 times, an will need 6 months rehabilitation period, before possibly being reintroduced in the wild with her cub.
For the whole morning, we have been following the tracks of this large male lion in the Ongava conconcession, just out of the Etosha National Park in Namibia. 4 hours of driving and this lion crossed our path for several times. Nothing. only fresh footprints this time. A safari is very much about chance… sometimes you need a lot of luck, to be at the right place at the right time. Will be luckier next time!
The visit to the Cheetah Conservation Fund on my way back from Etosha to Windoek was extremely enlightening and interesting. I leaned many things about Cheetas I did not know, and I could assist to a operation on a injured cheetah, who had one of his toes amputated because it had been trapped by a farmer, after having killed 23 of his sheep in only one night.
I just love the shape of giraffes at the horizon. I find them such elegant animals. I took this image at the last photosafari in June, while I was travelling through the Etosha National Park in Namibia.
Desert elephants are endemic of the Damara region and are definitively different from the African Elephan you can find in Etosha or the rest of Africa. Because of the harsh conditions they live in, they have developed a larger feet footprints and longer legs. They are able to cover a distance between 70 and 150Km in one day, as where there is water normally there is no food.
I was very lucky to escape an elephant “close encounter” that could have transformed in a tragedy. I was riding my car with the guide sitting in the vehicle with me, and we got too close to this female elephant, in the riverbed sands of a river. Suddenly, the elephant started runnin towards the car. We were quick enough to close all windows (avoid him to smell our presence) and we just played dead. When I looked at the guide, he was trembling!!! That´s when I thought “something here must be very very wrong”.
The elephant started skaking the car, fortunately with his trunk and not with the tasks. I was shaking too now. I started thinking about the amount of money I would have to pay for the damaged car. When the elephant started hitting the back of the car with his trunk, generating an incredible amount of noise, the car rental was not my concern anymore. My life started to be….
Two minutes of complete silence, before the mastodont started leaving the area. Two very very long ninutes. We got out of the car. The guide said, we just escaped sure dead, in case the elephant decided to overthrow the car…
A couple of days later I learned that a photographer and a guide were attacked by a desert elephant bull, who overthough the car with the 2 poor guys inside and jumped on top of it. They got away only with few scratches because they played dead. That´s the only way to get away with the danger as elephants have bad sight fot steady objects, but very good hearing and smell senses.
Today my journey continues towards Palmwag. On the way there I will stop in Tweyfelfontein to see the prehystoric paintings done by the bushmen some… thousands of years ago. Not sure if I will be able to post anything on the blog. Internet is not a standard in this remote part of Africa! Wish me good luck for now and stay tuned for more images!
Yes, that´s what happens if you forget to put 4WD transmission to 4L in Sossusvlei. It took me almost one hour to remove the sand from under the car. I thought I was dying, but eventually I made it.
Cape Cross is definitively a must see. A colony of over 100,000 seals are spending most of their time on the rocks there. The stench is unbelievable. One must be well trained to be able to stand it for more than 5 minutes. I will spend the night here, before continuing my journez to Palmwag, where I will visit the priveta concession for a game drive.
If I don’t count the avances of a gay waiter at the Tug a lovely seaside restaurant in Swakopmund, the highlight of the day definitivelz was the scenic flight. 2 hrs and 20 minutes up in the sky, photographing the landscape like crazy! The sceneries and the light change so much each hour, offering verz dramatic views. This is by far one of the most exciting experiences I have ever had, and I can recommend it to everyone. On the way back, I was fortunate enough to be the onlz passenger of the small cessna, and could give directions to the pilot, who even opened the window, in proximity of animals letting me (try to) catch them on photo. I can tell you, not an easy task at that speed!!!
This image was shot yesterday in the lagoon. You can’t imagine how dirty my shoes became dirty… muddy… and stinky to be able to get a little closer to those creatures… mud everywhere, and insects. I hate those. Well, that’s all I could do with a 300 mm lens. They were really far. I’m sure I’ll gett better opportunities tomorrow morning as I will be joining for a dolphin cruise in Walvisbay before departing to Cape Cross.
I will spend the rest of the day in Swakopsmund. I had a long chat with Jockel, the owner of the agencz who supports mz photo safaris here in namibia. This afternoon an exciting program is awaiting me: a scenic flight overt the dunes of Sossusvlei and the atlantic coast. Stay tuned for more news from my photographic trip in Namibia!
Yesterday at noon, on the way to Walvisbay, I passed the Tropic of Capricorn. Closeby a place called Rostock… yes Rostock like the town in the nothern part of Germany.
Quite hard to get a model up to Sossusvlei. Today I as very lucky finding this wonderful girl who posed for me in Sossusvlei. We did two hours of photoshoot in the low grass pleins of the vlei just before sunset.
Finally I got this shot as well. After seing these wonderful dunes in many photography books, I got there as well, and YES! here it is. No manipulation, with original colors. Prette amaizing, don’ t you think?
Last night I was just in time for driving up to the dead vlei and catching some images before the sun went down. You are allowed to stay within thepark onlz until 1 hour after sunset, so I had to literallz run, in order tobe on time. Today, I got up at 4 am, abter sleeping with my sleeping bag in the cabin of my nissan and spent the whole morning up on the dead vlei.
