A Whale of A Time

This is an entry about my holiday. Now that may sound a bit personal, but I just have to show how beautiful our country is- and I’m sure the models wont mind too much about having their images on the blog- after all, most of them are family!

A year ago we booked the Whale trail, a 5-day hike in the Southern Cape of South Africa. This was a family affair, and of course hiking has changed- so it wasn’t your normal 5 days of food in your backpack. No, it was a leisurely stroll with light daypacks, as the heavy foodstuffs were transported from hut to hut by vehicle. So a hike it was, with hills and heat and energy bars, but it also meant steaks and red wine on evening three… just the type of hiking that I like!
The whale trail is run in the De Hoop nature reserve, on the most southern section of Africa. It starts walking through fynbos and then turns towards the coast where for three days you meander along the rocky shores.

Of course I took a camera along. My kit for the trip was a Nikon D300 with the 12-24 mm lens attached as the primary lens. I kept this in a bum bag that was always attached to my waist for quick and easy access- although I must say, it spent much of its time on my shoulder the photography was so good. The other lens was a 70-200 2.8 and a 1.4 converter. A polarizer and a graduated neutral density filter made up the rest of the accessories.
Oh yes, 6 batteries and 32GB of storage for all the photographs and especially the long exposures at night were more than enough to keep me happily photographing without worrying about running out of space and power.
Of course a tripod and gorilla pod were dragged along as well just to add weight to the “light daypack”!

So off we trundled on the trail. It soon became very apparent that our group contained some very special people. Andy is a marine biologist and Rob has extensive experience in marine research. This meant a great deal of exploring and discussing whilst on the rocky shores and pools. It adds so much to a trip when you have such knowledgeable people discussing the coastline. We discussed rocky shores, littoral zone, fish stocks, marine research, coastal bird populations and fishing and over fishing in depth. As a “bush guy”, it was great to hear natural history information of another sort coming from such a great source.

And then of course, there was the photography. All the pointing, looking, wading, walking along caves and pools made for some excellent photography, especially in the travel genre. I am well aware that travel photographs sell better than good old wildlife photos, so I was constantly working on various angles and images that portray a healthy outdoor lifestyle-, which is exactly what, we were doing- so the images came freely. By the end of the hike, I had taken about 1200 images. Not bad for a nature and wildlife photographer strolling along the coast taking travel images!

Oh and the whales? Well once on the coast, we could almost see one at any one time. Southern rights were the only species spotted, but they were there in abundance and we witnessed them spy-hopping, tail sailing, tail flapping and of most impressive of all, breaching.
Want to know what all these terms mean?
Go walk the trail…, or make a call to Andy and Rob…!

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Fiery-necked Nightjar, Botswana

There are a few sayings with regards photography that ring true to getting good wildlife images. The most commonly used is: “patience, patience, patience” and it is very true. Most top class wildlife images are a result of hours of field work waiting patiently for a situation to develop; time spent in hides and driving bad roads searching for decent subjects to photograph.

I always say that lion researchers and nature photographers are of the same ilk. For many hours we watch animals doing nothing and when they do something quite ordinary we humans get quite excited by it all. “Well as long we are out there” is another photography saying. This is normally uttered in reference to a day where everything was perfectly in place: the storm clouds had built up in the east creating a beautifully dark slate grey sky as backdrop, the sun has just peeked out from under the same clouds in the west and is casting a golden glow on a lovely open plain. But the subject doesn’t arrive and nothing of great value is photographed. We say these things when we are actually bitterly disappointed about how promising things were, and so we console ourselves that it was good to be out there. Of course it was good to ” be out there”, but hell, we were searching, scouring for a subject to do the scene justice. But that’s just how nature photography works, it tempts, frustrates, teases and plays with your mind until you either give up, or eventually something of value appears and you “get your shot”. That is probably what separates the goods from the greats in our game.

And that leads onto this month’s image and the saying that goes with it- “being prepared”. As much as nature photography tempts us, nature can reveal small beauties in a very short space of time and this is where “being prepared” comes in. I was camping with some bird photographers on the side of a river course on the Okavango River, taking daily boat cruises to go photograph (you can see a collection of the images here as well as on my blog).
On the first evening there, I noticed a fiery necked nightjar perching on a stick on the outskirts of our camp. We ran to pick up our cameras and managed to get a few images of it. However, the image I wanted was of the full moon rising behind it. I tried, but the moon was quite high and a buffalo thorn was hampering my progress to get the angle I needed. (actually it was tearing at my shirt and skin…)
The following night, I was prepared. I knew the moon would rise about 45 min later, so anticipating the nightjar would land on the stick at around the same time, the moon would be just in the right place to be behind the bird. (Another aspect of photographers is their high level of optimism!) I had my camera setup and at the ready. Now I just needed to have the bird do its thing.
For once, everything fell into place. The nightjar arrived on the minute, the moon was positioned perfectly behind it, Dave Barnes lit the bird softly with a light and I snapped off a quick sequence of this beautiful bird.
Easy as that, job was done. Lord Baden Powel would have been proud.

Exposure information
Nikon D300 - 200-400mm lens
Exposure - f 4 Shutter Speed: 1/100sec
Exp. Comp. - 0. EV
ISO - 1000
Flash sync- not attached, Exposure mode- Aperture priority, Metering Mode- spot
File type- NEF (RAW)
Focal length: 400 mm (600mm 35mm Equivalent)
Handheld

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Secret Missions

All of us have secret missions. Not necessarily to go to the moon, but more like dreams. Yet not the the dreams of great achievements, but more like like decorating your house nicely, running a bit faster or working on your own specific little project. Well, I also have these little dreams, creative thoughts that I try and box so that an outcome can result from them. It might be a certain bird I want to document (see my Snipe portfolio here) or a specific sport, or a certain type or style of image. It’s hard to describe, because its always fleeting occasions that you are putting together to make a collective. But that is also the beauty of Photography. We start off with nothing- nothing at all, and when a portfolio of images comes together, you actually produce something that can be called a collective- a portfolio- Seemingly easy, but extremely difficult and stimulating at the same time. And at the end of the day- you have produced something- that to me is one of the best parts of being a photographer- creating something.

So my secret mission?

Something I have been working on for the last few months has been a selection of photographs taken at night. I am by no means complete with them, as I want to document many a different scenario. There are so many options to choose and many factors contribute to the making of a good night time image.
The best part of it for me is that most of my images are nature images.

Now, for a good night image you need clear skies- and that means no light pollution. This means you need to be in a wilderness area to take decent night photographs (even small settlements give off large light pollution). So for one, I feel really privileged to have taken most of these images in areas that are far from any civilisation- Being in nature is what I really live for- and if I can take good night images, then I know I am in a decent wilderness area. Aside from personal reasons, you also need clear skies- and this is a lot easier said than done. Clouds, dust and wind conditions are more often the norm than a still clear night, but hey, that just keeps me amped for more. And then there is digital- Long exposures have been a problem with digital cameras and, as always I like to push digital to its limits- ekeing out the maximum response from that small sensor in the darkest of conditions. So far I have been really impressed and have learn’t a lot about how the sensor responds to dark conditions. I still think this is one are where Film cameras have the advantage, but I’m working out plans to maximise the digital possibilities. So for now, I’m still using the old FM2 loaded with film for those extra long exposures alongside the digital cameras.

So that has been my secret mission- Spend time out in wilderness areas, watch the weather with a beady eye and be prepared for the one night when all the conditions come together to take the photo. It’s really as simple as that…

So here are a few images from the mission so far. These are by no means the end result, more like a sneak preview into what I have been up to when let loose in the dark of the night on my own secret mission.

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Expo build up fun - Video

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