The urge to climb, a volcano

We arrive near the top, just in time for sunset. The whole place stinks, sulphur steaming from the side vents and the light is beautiful. I ask our group to stop. I’m exhausted but we are almost at the top. I grab the camera and try take a few images. Anywhere off the path is fresh ash, I’m creating new tracks in brand new earth which no person has walked on, quite a sensation. The light is amazing but I’m totally exhausted and we’re on a spur that has some serious drops on either side. Red flags are going off in my head- being tired and on top of a windy spur at 2800m is not a good place to be. I grab a few images and feel the wind pick up. “Hmmm not safe at all” I surmise. “Lets keep moving up to the crater rim.” 20 minutes later we crest the rim and the wind almost blows us off our feet. We are immediately bent down onto all fours. Pilot, my Masai friend hears the earth rumble- normal volcanic activity and proclaims he will never look into the crater again, something about man not supposed to look at the home of God. He averts his gaze to the dark horizon and straight into the howling wind. We need to find shelter, and fast.

Set in the middle of the Rift Valley, Ol Doino Lengai stands proud. 

“You want to climb now?” he asked. Through the sweat, the heat and the not so unnoticed effects of some serious drugs maintaining my health, I replied “Ndio”, Yes. He looked at me incredulously shaking his head, “No one climbs Lengai in the day, only at night. Too hot in the day”. I almost understood, the sweat dripping off me right there. I imagined how hot it would be on the slope of the volcano… The guide chipped in; “Umzungu, I have climbed that volcano 47 times and not once have I done it in the day”. I looked at my Masai friend, Nuorori, ‘Pilot’. He understood, and so the next round of Maa rattled off with lots of shaking, gesturing and worried faces being made. Pilot is a good friend of mine because he is a great guy, has untold resources in remote Africa and stops to admire every cow we pass on the road. But he also has this skill for getting things done, and in remote Africa that is worth a lot. One hour later we were in his cruiser with a guide and porter heading towards Lengai with rudimentary foodstuffs, lots of water and cameras in hand- all before 11 in the morning. In Africa, sometimes things move very, very quickly.

I awake to a sound. Something I’m not familiar with at 01h00 in the morning, nor at 2850m above sea level. The side of the tent was flapping wetly across my head, my beanie keeping me slightly dry, but that was not it. I sat up and listened. There, three bodies away lay the Masai porter prostrate, still fully clothed in his beads and shuka, singing softly away. It was a gentle kind of monotonous hum that can be either a lullaby or a calm inference of intended death. I looked closer and saw him cradling his Kisu, a long stabbing knife/dagger on his chest. I wasn’t exactly sure if there was evil intent or not, but I was sore, tired and so mentally low that I didn’t really care either. I lay back on the cold ground, my head 6 inches from Pilot trying to go back to sleep. The cold and rain had come quite unexpected, which resulted in 4 of us being crammed into a 3 man tent dirty and still clothed. I heard the beads of the porters jingle as he turned over, the singing stopped. The tent flapped again against my head and neck. It was going to be a long night; I was very aware of it. All I could hope for was that the rain would clear before dawn. Another 2 hours and 30 minutes before the alarm clock goes and I can check the conditions. Man I want to use my damn camera.

The view while climbing up is nothing less then spectacular overlooking Lake Natron and the Serengeti plains to the west.

Pilot stops in his tracks. I’ve never seen him look like this- purple. I walk on, concentrating on not sliding down in the ash- at 30 degrees angle it’s not very easy. Every step is three up, two down. Pilot shouts, “Shem Stop, I don’t feel very good. My head is dizzy”. It dawns on me. I ask him “what is the highest mountain you have climbed?” He looks at me, puzzled that I could ask such a stupid question. “In the Mara, Lookout Hill. Why should I climb a higher hill? No grazing for cattle on the hills”. It’s confirmed. Pilot is suffering from Vertigo. I don’t blame him. Ol doinyo lengai is no easy climb. It is exactly the opposite; it is described as “… an extreme climb and scramble. Make sure you are not afraid of heights…”. I reply to him. “Pilot, you have height sickness. Don’t worry, you will be fine, you are a Masai, not a gnu. Just keep looking at the ground and walk.” All I had to do was mention a comparison to a gnu. Pilot loves using them as a metaphor to describe anything crazy or useless. To his credit, he only decided to climb up with me at the last minute with only his satchel bag holding two extra shukas (Masai blankets) and some water. In a way it was best, because climbing Lengai, as I discovered, is one hour of hiking pain in 40 degrees heat and 5 more hours of mental torture, scrambling, slipping and eating volcanic ash in your lungs. I knew what I was getting myself into. Pilot on the other hand was winging it with his umzungu friend, and learning a few things about extreme heights at the same time!

The wind on top of the crater rim as so strong that it rendered us to sitting down or on all fours.

 It’s the last wake up call. I’ve set it for every hour of the morning since 01h00 in the hope of the sky clearing. As it rings I’m up and out the tent only to be greeted by more rain and wind. Damn. All my photographic plans thwarted. Rain, wind and cloud covered this mystical volcano from the moment I arrived at the top. The name Ol Doninyo Lengai means “The Mountain of the God” in Maa and if you climb it you will know why. Even Pilots father, an old Masai mzee in his 80’s asked his son to bring him back a white stone from the volcano. The place has reverence. I expended a lot of time and energy to get here, ending up with no results. My emotions are torn between despair and exploration. I came her because no one else does. Then I climbed it when no one else does- in the heat of the day, with some seriously good people. The exersize in getting to Lengai was as painful as it gets but as enriching as any I could imagine getting anywhere else in the world. I interacted and bonded with guys who were fighting as much pain as I was. Yet I got not one single usable photo: thwarted by the weather gods. Plus I am suffering in extreme physical pain. Due to the extreme heights and slope angle, the weight limit is 10kg per person. I was carrying 22kg. Good training for the iron man I thought… Was it worth it? Up there I thought no way. Climbing down, quads aching, sliding through the soft ash, falling over and again eating dust, no way. Yet he following morning at 04h00 packing up to drive back to Nairobi I looked up from our campsite. There, 15km away in the starlight it stood in perfect photographic conditions, beckoning quietly to me. The dream was reignited. Pity I was 10 hours of climbing away from the top.

My one photo of the inside of the crater before the cloud moved in.

 I’ll remember the first climb to Ol Doinyo Lengai for many years to come. I may not have got any usable photographs from the trip. But the love of photography my life that much more richer just by taking me there. And for that I am ever grateful to the medium. 

Masai Manyattas (huts) are dwarfed by Lengai in the background.

   
 This short video gives you an idea of the strength of the wind on top of the crater rim the morning we descended.

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The magic of Svalbard and its polar bears

It is hard to describe a place that is just so foreign to any other place on earth. I have travelled to cold environments before. I did 3 winters in -20 C Switzerland and 21 days in northern Japan where the thermometer dropped down to -25 one morning, so it was not really about the cold. The main difference is that the other cold places I had visited were quite populated and near cities. Svalbard though, is something quite different. It is the northern most landmass on earth. North of it is nothing but ocean and ice- all the way to the North pole. So landing on Svalbard in golden sunlight at midnight is a sensation akin to landing on an expedition to a place that only scientists, hunters, trappers and wildlife photographers go to… In other words; crazy people that love the wild frontiers of this earth. Which is exactly what it is.
(Click on images to view in lightbox)

My reason to go to Svalbard was of course to see the artic wildlife with a high prioritty on the one of the worlds apex predators, but the island archipilego also offers way, way more than that. I researched the place very well. The first and most important aspect is your boat. I selected a boat that was small, had a shallow draft, the most experienced captain in the area, was ice class and could take only a small number of people. Why was I so selective? Well it allowed us to title our trip an 'expedition cruise': with no set daily itinerary like on the larger boats. We went and stayed where we wanted- photographing what caught our eye. The shallow draft allowed us to go to places no other boats could go. We could stay in the pack ice longer (home of the polar bear), going deeper into it than the other ships and our small group of people gave us flexibility for landings and excursions. 11 people all focussed on getting the best photographs that Svalbard had to offer. Perfect.

And what a smorgasbord of opportunities it offered us. Having the ability to determine our own course gave us amazingt freedom and we headed on walks where no maps had been written nor soundings been done… The term “Expedition” really comes to mind when you are walking on virgin land- having used the map to determine the photo potential. And what potential it offers! Polar bears may be a focus for many groups, but the walks we did were an amazing array of landscape photography, discovery and exploration.

Speaking of polar bears- we also did have some encounters with those. In fact, so close that they were climbing up against the ship! You quickly realise that the polar bear is the king of the icepack. The polar desert is a barren place- wide open and very white. So when a ship our size pulls up into a polar bear's area, the apex predator comes to inspect what this large hunk of metal is. Our best sighting (we had a few), was at 03:45 in the morning. We were at 82Deg North and in full golden light. I had stayed up since midnight watching out for a sign of movement amongst the white. At 03h00 we spotted one on the horizon, then two. She had a cub. Our Expedition leader said she would come to see us. Drawing on my experience of animals in other parts of the world I was very sceptical. Why would a mother and cub come to see us, a potential disturbance? Well, blow me down, she made a bee-line straight towards us, cub in tow. 45 minutes later everyone on the ship was awake and photographing like crazy as the bears inspected us, our ship and a beanie that inadvertently fell into the water. In no time at all the beanie was ripped apart- a gift to the polar Gods!

This is one such story which sums up the type of experiences you have up in such a magical place. We encountered reindeer, pure white arctic foxes 5m from us, glaciers in pink light at midnight, mist, rain, polar bears hunting walrus, fjords, landscapes from another planet and the holy grail of them all, lenticular clouds! My enthusiasm for lenticulars was a quite evident. So much so in fact that our Expedition leader had to calm me down a bit to say how common they are in Svalbard. This did not dimish my fervour for them…

Svalbard really is one of those places on earth that is like no other. If you don’t need to sleep, then it will have you busy with a camera all day and night long. Over the years I have come to know that a great trip constitutes me not knowing which excellent sighting fitted into which day. After ten days in Svalbard I didn’t know what my name was! The number, frequency and class of sightings were so high that all I knew was, “I cannot wait for 2013”. 

Join me in Svalbard 2013 for a photo expedition on the best vessel in Svalbard, excellent photography and more great fun on this wonderful part of the world. 

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At the whim of the Masai Mara: 10 years on.

This year was my ten-year anniversary in the Masai Mara. In 2002, together with André Cloete, I was on a 7-month self-drive safari through Africa. We were on a mission to see Africa for ourselves and visit and photograph all the great game parks of Africa. It was the most wonderful times of my life and as we entered the gates of the Mara with another friend Michael Collins in the Landrover, the three of us immediately opened up a Tusker beer to celebrate. It was exactly as we had imagined- wide-open grass plains, more biomass than you could point a stick at, predators around every corner and lots of mud.

We camped on the sand river by ourselves. The rangers let us fish in the river, drive into the Tanzanian side (the Serengeti) and explore the area late at night. Ok, that was more because we got hopelessly lost. I had the best time of my life in the Mara because we were having about as much fun and adventure three bush boys could muster. 10 years later I am still returning to the Mara. I have travelled here now 22 times on different trips. Having traversed the whole ecosystem, I know where the best spots are and have selected one area in the Mara that has excellent sightings all year round. I don’t get lost anymore, I don’t get that stuck in mud that often and I know many of the animals around our camp individually by name and by nature. It feels like a second home to me. Each time I return I get the exact same feeling I have when returning to my own house. Even the nearest tributary river to our camp is the same name as our old farm in Kenya: Rongai. The biggest bonus is that there is a major crossing point right in front of our camp-, which means private crossings for my guests and me…

This year was like no other (isn’t each one?). Actually each year I get told by a ‘first-season visitor’ exactly how the season will pan out and where the crossings will be and why I am going there at the wrong time. I like hearing that and mostly I nod and smile. The Mara and the wildebeest are so dynamic that not one person can predict where and what will happen. Not even me who has been going there for 10 years and not even the locals who are born and live there. Each year is different and every time you think you may have the answer, the beasts do something completely different. Thus I choose to go in my time and enjoy he Mara for what it is. Of course I have my own little secrets, but personally, I love being at the whim of the Mara. Put me in a crossing and I’m happy, put me on the open plains without a vehicle in sight in the late afternoon and I am in heaven. The Mara just delivers time and again and its whims are foibles that clutch at your spirit. I, for one, am happy with that.

This year I did some of my own photo work in the Mara after which I had a personal adventure planned into some remote country to photograph a volcano. I had already spent 10 days in the Mara. Yet as I was about to leave there were masses of beasts building on the far riverbank. Masses in this instance means 200-300k of animals. Pepper dots sprinkled over the plains as far as the eye could see. And I was due to leave in a plane… in 90 minutes. I cancelled. There was no way in the world I could miss this- the mother of all crossings. I was at the whim of this beast and she kept me on the hook. It paid off. The plane landed and the beasts crossed. The next day they crossed again, in a fury that was unbounded. It took a lioness 2 strikes to stop the mass.

I departed the following day a tired man, a day shorter into my next adventure but again under the spell of the Mara. 10 years later, and I am still having the most wonderful time of my life, Had I got my shot? Not really. Did I escape my caprice? Never. But next year Ill be back. I have a whim…

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Namibia Photo Tour Video

Through C4 Images and Iconic Images I was involved in this project. As you will see it is a brilliantly put together video of a Photo Safari I arranged together with Iconic Images in Namibia, July 2012. Sit back, relax and enjoy the brilliant editing, visuals and soundtrack of this Namibian Tour summary. The creative artist behind the video and visuals is good friend Abraham Joffe from Untitled Films. You can see another of his films about our Mashatu elephant hide here. I am looking forward to working with Abraham on more video projects in the future.

C4 Images & Safaris - Namibia from untitled film works on Vimeo.

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The Travelling Photographer

There is one universal truth I have found when travelling on aeroplanes: It is a tiring business. A long day of flight connections, queues, endlessly lifting and putting down camera bags, being exposed to high (-er than normal) levels of radiation and the accumulative effect of being at an equivalent of 4000m above sea level all add to make long travel day one that your body remembers long after your arrival time.
(In the theme of travel, all images hon this post, except the snow monkey, are taken with my travel camera, the iPhone)

Trust me, you do not want to be looking like this after a long flight

I have been travelling into Africa and abroad with a camera bag for 10 years now. Some years I have done 40 flights: small planes, large planes, twin props and helicopters. I have been in almost all of them- and Im not an 'aviation guy', but have come to know them well. Through the years I have gathered a few tips that now make my life in the air as comfortable as possible. At a certain stage I also made a conscious decision to make my travelling life as easy as possible. When it comes to flying I have had most of the flying experiences one can have: missed flights, flying with a hangover (not advised), delayed flights, luggage overweight issues, cancelled flights and the like- all with that damn heavy camera bag in tow. I would often arrive home with it hanging from my back like a donkey carrying a heavy load. Tired, ungainly and ready to dump it any place possible.

From the hard knocks above I found a few simple tips and changes to the way I travel to make my life much more pleasurable when travelling. Which of course leaves me with more energy for the important things in life, like taking photographs of wildlife! It also leaves me energy for writing blogs like this, which I am doing while flying over Europe as I type this.

Travel = Queues, which I hate, but which can be avoided if you follow my simple tips.

There are a lot of very good photographer travel articles. This one by Denis Glennon is one of the best. My points below aren’t necessarily at getting your equipment on-board etc. The article linked above does an excellent job at that. I want to show you how to make the journey as pleasant as possible.

Below are some of the very practical tips I have gleaned that make my life a restful one while in the air.

Change your concept of travel. To make something more pleasurable, you need to slow it down, especially when you are the one being dictated to, which is exactly what happens when you fly.

Get lounge access. It is remarkably easy to get lounge access in your own country with many reward point programs and bank accounts that gain you access to the lounges in your domestic terminals. The lounges offer free meals, drinks massages and Wi-Fi. This is an incentive for me to get to the airport early. I check in and then head to the lounge where I can relax fully, get a decent meal and get my last minute e-mails away. I distrust aeroplane meals. I believe they are sprinkled with constipation inducing powders (haha) and as such like to rather eat in the lounges in much more comfortable surrounds. The double positive is that I am now always early at the airport and thus negate the chance of missing or rushing for my flight. Get into a frequent flyer program, quickly. You will be surprised at how fast you collect miles which equals serious advantages. If you do only one long haul (9 hour plus) flight a year and a number of regional you will easily gain silver status (50 000 miles on most programs). This entitles you benefits such as: premier check in, preferential seating and most importantly, lounge access in airports abroad that your airline has affiliations with. Lounges may sound bourgeois, but I can assure you that 4 hours in Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi with no air-conditioning will cure you of any negative sentiment towards lounge access!

Cut out the noise. Earphones are good to relax with. Noise cancelling earphones take you into another world. Try them and you will buy them. An aeroplane creates a significant vibration which noise cancelling earphones cut out so well that you are almost transported into another world. They work without music too so I usually sleep with them on while in the plane. They are the one device that has single handedly changed my traveling experience for the better and I consider them an essential part of any trip. I use the Bose Quiet comfort 15, but I know there are many other decent ones out there.

Nor do you want to look like this after a long haul flight!

It all starts at home. 24 hours in advance of your flight to be exact. This is when I do my online check in (some airlines allow it 48 hours before). There are 4 very important aspects to this.

a. I can choose my own seat allocation. I like being up front, nearest the exit and have either an isle or window seat depending on the flight duration. I like window seats for sleeping on long haul. They allow me to stash all my devices next to me without the hostesses seeing it, which often means keep it overhead when taking off.

b. If you check in and print your boarding pass online you get preferential check in. I hate queues so being able to skip the largest one at the check in for the business or premium class line is a wonderful advantage that I love using.

c. You see exactly what you are allowed to take on the plane. Luggage weight and numbers of bags tend to differ with each airline, so being on the website 24 hours before gives you the most up to date information. You will be surprised at how many pieces of hand luggage you are allowed to take on board. I mostly travel with three (see 2. for how) carry on pieces and never have a hassle. It’s all about knowing the rules.

NB: Recently apps have made their way into the flight world. I can now check in online, select my seat and have the boarding pass sent to my iPhone all from an app. This makes my life even easier.

The tube of death, or tranquility. Depending on how you treat it.

Packing. Now that I know the size and weight of my allowance I start the packing process. I always just before the flight. This prevents me from having to rush out to get ‘that one last camera lens’ and add unnecessary weight. In truth I have been mentally planning for the trip and will have over the course of the week before made sure that cameras are repaired, batteries are bought etc. By the time I start packing in earnest I have everything at hand and if I don’t, then too late; my own bad luck.

d. Camera packing: I have learnt from the masters. Two of the photographers I respect the most travel with the least equipment of every photographer I know. Take only what you can use at one moment in time to the best of your ability. Also don’t take unnecessary equipment you won’t need. Don’t take a flashgun to the arctic, or your long 500mm lens when you are going to be working out in heavy seas photographing breaching sharks. Insecurity in your ability makes you pack too much. Be confident of what you can use to the best of your ability at any one moment in time and stick with that. I pack my camera bag and then take the 200-400mm lens in its own soft travel case. Both these I take as carry on. Most airlines allow for 2 carry on items plus a laptop. I use this as my basis and it works every time.

e. Laptop. Go out and buy a small, thin laptop cover. Do not use those large oversized ones that shout corporate, oversized, design failure. Just by being so ugly they attract attention - which you don’t want. Put the cables in your camera bag and travel with the laptop in a thin case that can hold a few essential items. Easy, discreet and makes carrying it on board so much easier. I also slip my ipad into the case so that all devices are in one bag that sits next to me at my window seat. Simplicity and accessibility are key words here.

f. Clothes. I pack a tripod into my bag and clothes around this. This is the least stressful part for me and usually gets done in a few minutes. I find 23kg (minimum of the weight limits) is still more than enough weight for me.

Magical window seat views

The moment of truth.

Arriving at the airport. Because I am early I am relaxed and I carry that sentiment with me for the whole journey. Being cordial and friendly with the check in person is a given. These people are the ones who determine if your flight is to be a great one, or a disastrous one, especially when you have to start explaining your heavy camera bag… Hence I treat these people with the respect they deserve, and having my boarding pass already printed and seat allocated helps because their job is made easier. You can see how everything falls into place.

When through check in, I go directly to security check. As I hate queues I am prepared for this. I slip my phone and other metal objects into my laptop case side pocket so that when I arrive at the security check I can simply put my three small bags on the counter and walk straight through. It is here where having a laptop in your hand helps. Digging it out of a camera laptop sleeve is fidgety and difficult, so having it separate speeds up the process. Similarly, digging coins out of a deep pocket while a security guard is looking on and a queue develops behind you is no fun, so be prepared. I keep it simple by having only my passport on my body and everything else in my bags. This makes the security check so much easier and quicker.

Travel is inspiring, as is looking out the window when you fly.

Once I am through security and passport it is my relaxation time. I often take work with me to do on my laptop. Mostly it is creative work that I enjoy doing and find that I can get so consumed in one that a 4 hour flight disappears in no time. Additionally I make sure that all my devices are fully charged. This allows me to relax and watch movies or read books for the full duration of the battery life of the device. Often I find I swap between devices depending on my interest and having each one fully charged allows me to take full advantage of them. I leave reading the in flight magazine for take off and landing, when electronic devices are not allowed. The rest of the time I use my devices.

From there I am in my own little world with headphone on, some good music while consumed in either some creative work, a relaxing movie or a good book. Happy travels and shoot straight!

We would love to all travel in such luxury, but alas, we have to make do with the tube. So make the best of it and enjoy!

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D800e: A month in the field

The Nikon D800E and me

The D800 caused some stir in the world of photography when it was first announced. Here is a SLR camera that promises medium format resolution but in a nice small camera body. Initially I was sceptical of its suitability for my needs, but the more I saw and felt it, (by trying one out) the more I recognised how it could potentially fit into my workflow.

Himba portrait. 1/40sec, f10, iso 800. Handheld with 70-200mm lens

First, let me clear the air. I have never done a ‘gear review’ and most likely never will. This is a field report of my experience with exactly one month of hard use with the camera. I am not endorsed by any brand. They have tried, but I like the beat of my own drum and besides, I don’t like the bias that would come with being associated with a brand. If you are reading this then you might know that I make my living from photography. Image and build quality in the practical form are more important to me than a review or image test. I bought this camera on the basis that I had seen its quality and had held it in my hand. It was as simple as that. The information here is based on and compared to other cameras in my 10 years of photographing out in the field. I have always held a belief that a cameras number one function is to work hard in the field and deliver the image I need from it. The rest is pretty much superfluous.

So I bought the D800E and the next day I left on a three-week photo adventure with 12 Australians with Iconic Images through the deserts of Namibia. (I know, I am crazy to submit myself to such exposure; and I’m not talking desert heat…) Why the ‘E”? Well it was the only one that ODP had, so I bought it. A friend had one and the ease at how chromatic aberration is fixed in Lightroom made it no different to the standard version. So off to Namibia I went- if you don’t know what Namibia is like, then think open desert, dust, rugged mountains, dust, stunning landscapes, dust, excellent wildlife, and dust. I am sure you get the idea… It is a brilliant photography destination as a place that will test your camera. After Namibia I had a week at home before joining two clients in the northern Serengeti to photograph the wildebeest migration. More camera testing and this time with serious animal action in mind, I was very keen to see how the D800 performed in all the above conditions.

The first two weeks of the tour we spent in the desert south-, which meant landscape photography. It was the perfect place to get into the groove of the camera, as I could slowly get used to it, which was a good thing. Usually I don’t need a manual to set up a Nikon camera. I know my way about them and the settings I need are pretty much ingrained. Things have changed though and for the first three days I was flicking through the pdf manual on my iPad to find out what all the new functions and features are about. This shows how much Nikon have added to the camera. It really is feature rich- half of them I will never use, but a couple I found to be really handy.

A petty gripe.

Every Nikon camera I have ever owned has a custom function to change the image selection/information review from the default of sideways for image reviewing to up and down. The D800 is the first camera not to have it. As I keep all my cameras the same I had to change all the old ones cameras to their default settings and unlearn 10 years of Nikon usage. A real ache in the gut for an old man like me.

Detail and resolution is 100% what this camera is about. Iso 100, f16, 4 seconds

100% crop of the above image. Camera is 40cm from the tree in the foreground

Considering the above, note the detail the lens got out of the background and the beautifully clean transition of hues.

Using the camera for landscapes.

I had been warned. Hence my cable release was attached to the camera from the first shoot. This camera needs to be stable when using it. Good technique is imperative and I used a cable release and mirror lock up with the camera firmly on a tripod for every shot I took in the southern deserts. This took care of any camera shake and from there I could concentrate on getting my shots. Handling the camera is almost like any other Nikon camera I have owned and 98% of the feel was the same. The toggle that switches between S, CL, CH, Q, Timer and mirror lock up now clicks into place when changing your selection. This is a very welcome change as, by counting the clicks, I can feel my way through these selections in the dark. Perfect for night work and a great addition to the user interface.

I heard that the large sensor of the d800 out resolves many of Nikons lenses. I only use good quality lenses (f4 and f2.8) and thus the image quality I saw was not knowingly affected by lens quality. What I did see was two points.

1. The resolution is simply amazing. Coming from 12mp sensors, this is something else.

2. The dynamic range is mind blowing. I often work on instinct gained from my experience in the field. When it comes to high DR scenes I manually bracket my images for the scene. I applied this in Kolmanskop ghost town- a place that demands bracketed scenes due to the extremely high DR. After I downloaded the images I noticed that some of the bracketing I did was simply not necessary- somehow the camera had maintained dynamic range within one image where before I would have used two images. This was brilliant for me- as I don’t have to waste time blending images and can spend more time in the field. It took me a day or two to figure out the nuances of this camera’s DR capabilities, but I was a willing subject due to how great this leap of technology helped me.

This is a single image. The Dynamic range captured by the camera was a great surprise. As you can see here the image holds bright light vs deep shadows perfectly all in one image. 1/40, f16, iso 400, tripod, cable release.

Photographing at night and iso performance

The recent years have seen some great developments in digital cameras. The biggest of these for me is the improvement in iso performance and Nikon has been at the forefront of this. Having used their full frame sensors for night work I had some lofty expectations and was very excited to see what this new camera would produce. There are two types of night images I took were:

1. Milky way photos: Essentially it performs at the same technical specs as the previous full frame cameras. I.e. iso 3200 is the limit for night work in terms of image quality and noise. However, at 36mp, the detail the camera produces is again stunning. Nothing I know comes close to it and I saw the files of 1dX and 5dmiii of the same shoot. The detail and clarity of the D800 at high iso’s in night conditions is very, very good. The best I have seen.

2. Star trails: While I was not keen to expose the sensor to the abuse a long exposure puts it through, the results of point 1. above prompted me to have a go. This is the one area where I was completely blown away. I have done a lot of long exposure work and the damn noise and Chroma noise issues are always a bugger. A 36-minute exposure on the D800 gave me a file so clean I had to check I was looking at the file at 100% zoom. Again the detail in the foreground subjects was amazing. It was beyond anything I had ever seen from a single exposed digital file at such a long exposure.

This camera has raised the bar in terms of detail and quality for night photography. I tried my hardest to get some noisy files from it during the trip in Namibia but it just would not do it. Kudos to the man in the camera.

Iso performance during day time was on par with that of the previous Nikon 12mp cameras. Of course the resolution has just increased so dramatically on this camera and having access to iso 3200 for low-light morning and dusk images with this camera gives me so many options when out photographing. I still find it easier to get sharp images on a 12mp camera at slow shutter speeds, so invariably I used these cameras under low light conditions. See below for more on that issue.

Camel thorn night: 25 sec, f4, iso 3200

The detail at 100% of this night shot is amazing.

Long exposure at you know where: 18 min, f4, iso 200.

100% crop with no sharpening

100% with sharpening. The absence of noise during a long exposure was the most astounding feature to me.

The ‘E’ version of the D800 is affected by chromatic abberation, which you can see as a purple fringe along the white star trail

A simple click in Lightroom (and set up as an import preset) removes the CA issue as you can see on this image

Handholding and photographing people

On our trip we had the opportunity to visit a Himba village up in northern Damaraland. We were already in remote country and the drive into the Kaokoveld was another 2 hours into serious bush country. The Himba are the last remaining nomadic tribe living in southern Africa. They mostly have little to do with western life- part because they live in some of the harshest landscape known to man and part because they just enjoy being Himba. They also have strikingly good looks and beautifully smooth skin. This comes from the ochre and fat they rub on themselves (and on my camera!). Being allowed to photograph them is both a privilege and a very humbling experience.

Young Himba lady portrait. When you nail a shot with this camera you are richly rewarded.

Of course I was again keen to see how the D800 worked in these conditions especially as I was handholding the camera the whole day. Of particular interest was how slow a shutter speed I could use. A tripod was out of the question and I wanted good depth of field of subjects in deep shadows, so I knew I would be fighting a shutter speed battle. How slow I could take it was another question. Of course, I had to make myself as steady as possible to ensure sharpness. I was using the 70-200mm lens most of the time. This lens is beautifully balanced and I know its nuances well (i.e.- 1/20sec just does not work in VR mode- while 1/8 still gets me sharp images…) so I was confident of pushing the slow shutter speed as much as possible. While a 12mp camera can produce sharp images 100% of the time at 1/60 sec I found the D800 (again) needs to be very stable to get sharp images at this SS. The hit rate does go down considerably when shooting at such low shutter speeds. With a blinking subject it becomes obvious that such slow shutter speeds are not ideal. The fact is, with a D800 you need to really nail the technical aspects to get the shot. You can’t just whip the camera up and grab a shot, like I do with the 12mp cameras, here it’s about really going back to basics and doing everything correctly. If you do that, then Christmas comes early.

Action stations

With the resolution and image quality issue out of the way I was keen to use the camera in anger on some wildlife action up in Etosha national park. I am used to 8-9 frames per second when it comes to wildlife, so the 4 fps that the D800 offers was going to be a test of my action capturing skills.

Timing your image is critical with a D800 due to the slow frame per second speed.

But when you do, wow the detail really jumps out at you.

It became obvious to me very quickly that 4fps is very far from 8fps. When the action started in earnest I was taken aback at how slow 4fps was. However, I was determined to see what I could get from the camera so for the duration of my time at Etosha I used the D800 as my primary camera attached to my 200-400 lens. A few of points of interest that I gleaned:

1. The camera had a horrible back focus issue with the 200-400mm lens. I had to set it to -17 points on the camera calibration, something I am not used to and quite disconcerting considering it was as new camera and the lens had just come from a service and repair at Nikon. I had ripped off the aperture ring of the 16-35 lens in dead vlei and I presumed the mount of the camera had been slightly tweaked in the process. As soon as I got back to civilisation I took the D800 and 200-400mm lens to be calibrated at Nikon, which they duly did, for free.

2. I found that because of the slower frame rate I concentrated more on the action itself and choosing the image I wanted. This seems counter intuitive, but because of my determination to test the camera I found I concentrated a lot more in this regard

3. The AF of the D800 is very, very good. They say it’s the same system as in the D4. I tried the D4 and the AF looked very different to me. Differences aside though, the AF of the D800 worked perfectly, was responsive and was faster than my other cameras, which is what I expected.

4. I used the DX crop quite a lot. A quick change via the menu allows you to use the DX crop (1.5x) as well as 1.2 and a 5:4 crop inside the frame of the camera. I found this very useful for birds and animals further away. It sounds weird that I didn’t leave the camera in full frame and crop later, but I enjoyed the frame that comes up in the viewfinder, allowing me to concentrate on framing the subject inside it. It still gives 15.4mp in DX crop mode, so I am not complaining on the resolution front- which is still enough for my needs. It’s also still way larger than a 12mp full frame…

5. When you nail an action image on this camera it leaps out at you like a 3D movie. The resolution makes every single grain of dust or water droplet leap out at you. Beautiful.

Action photography is very possible with this camera. Its just about choosing when to take the photo. I used the 1.5 DX crop to frame this lilac breasted roller taking off.

The Auto focus of the D800 is very good. I was expecting it to be better then all my older cameras and it was, which is great.

The open plains

One week at home and I was champing at the bit to get up to the migration. While the rest of the world (literally) was in the Mara, my two clients and I headed up to the secluded northern Serengeti where we had one of the best migration encounters I’ve personally experienced in my ten years since going to East Africa. This of course, also meant lots of action and the opportunity to test the D800 out in earnest. Something I was really keen to do. Unfortunately I had an issue with the 200-400mm lens, which after 2 days of working perfectly decided not to lock focus, instead hunting around the subject. It is the first time this has happened in 9 years of owning the lens, so I’m not blaming it. What it meant was that I either had to manually focus or use other lenses for photographing. Not ideal to capture great action, but hey, a wildlife photographer is always working against the elements so I continued as best I could. In the 2 days that I had full use of the lens and cameras it was again noticeable that 4fps is just not suited to capturing high action scenes. The difference was remarkable when shooting at 8fps as to how much more I could get out of a scene.

Migration scene.

The ability to crop aggresively and still have loads of detail available makes it one heck of a versatile camera when you don’t have the glass to zoom into the scene.

But is it ‘ard?

3 weeks in Namibia, 1 week bouncing over the (‘ard) plains, 8 flights, serious dust, being thrown around the floor of dead pan, hard landcruiser floors, hiking through deserts, a touch of Himba ochre and some of the best neglect that I can give my cameras provide a telling test for a camera. I am glad to say the D800 passed the test and gets the “Shem’s seal of ruggedness” approval. This means I expect it to last a good number of years of use and abuse! To be fair, there were other cameras involved on our trip of Namibia. Of the 13 photographers on the trip, we had 2 dead cameras. A Sony A900’s shutter went during a flutter of cheetah action and, (wait for it) another D800 got the dreaded ‘fE’ in deadvlei. We had Jay Collier on the trip- who can fix both Nikon and Canon cameras with his eyes closed but after a brief resuscitation, the camera was laid to rest and a hopeful revival by Nikon Australia. It must be noted that before the camera died the said party was seen to be leopard crawling around dead vlei with cameras trailing behind him…!

Movies and Live view

Having Abraham Joffe with me in Namibia opened my eye up to how powerful the movie function on these cameras is. I’m glad to say the quality from what I have seen is tip-top and Ill be investing in some accessories to take advantage of it. Using movies involves using live view. This has had a full upgrade and is one of the quantum improvements on the D800 from the other D hundreds, where live view seemed to be an afterthought. In live view (movie and stills) you can now zoom in by simply hitting the centre selector button. This is such a joy to use when working at night to make sure of your focus. I have to mention that Canon have had this feature forever in the 5dmii only because my Canon friends wont forgive me for not giving that camera the credit! I am looking forward to using the movie mode but because the live view mode now actually is a feature rather than an afterthought, I have started using it and am enjoying it a lot.

Conclusion

I wont go walking about town with this camera for travel snaps and I wont use it to photograph leaping salmon. I will take it when my tripod is in the bag, I will use it along the ocean, I will be taking more portraits and I will be capturing wildlife scenes with this camera. Expect some new videos from C4 Images and Safaris and I look forward to some night photography that is a quantum leap from the quality I was getting before. The D600 (24mp and fast fps) is coming soon (August?). This will become my new action camera. Together with the D800, the combination will be the best I have had in years. I am very happy with my current set up. I have speed and I have resolution. My fast camera delivers great results. The D800 delivers results I never thought were possible in one-generation leap. If you use the D800 for its strong points your every expectation will be rewarded. Its weak points aren’t that low. You can make do with the slow fps in wildlife if you have to. I managed to get a few great photos of high action scenes with the camera. I have another high speed camera so I will rather use that in these conditions. This is the first time I have ever written about a camera I own. That says a lot about how impressed I am with its capabilities.

It’s never been a better time to be a photographer so my recommendation is add it to your arsenal, get out there and make some great images! Shoot straight.

Ill be happy to hear your thoughts and comments on the above. If you have a D800 feel free to add your impressions on the camera below. Cheers!

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