Jun
18
This is my link to a site called 500px, a photo sharing site which has been around since 2003 but came to more prominence recently when everyone began talking about on Twitter and elsewhere.
The attraction to it appears to be down to its aesthetics and layout, support, the recent stagnation of flickr, and the high level of photography that 500px seems to attract. It’s easy to use, costs nothing (unless you’d like a few extras) and offers near instantaneous support from its staff of actual humans. The site is also progressing and expanding more in light of its new found popularity and audience.
Read More»Jun
05
A seven day Masai Mara annual migration photo tour for only $3,300 (or £2,000).
I am offering an exclusive photo tour to the Masai Mara in Kenya during the last week of August for seven days for a price that I think would be very hard to beat. The price is good because I am organising this as a strictly one-off non-profitable tour.
We’ll be staying in a private luxury mobile camp, set aside especially for our group in what I believe to be one of the best locations within the Masai Mara itself. You’ll also have access to exclusive vehicles of no more than two photographers per 4×4 vehicle, just perfect for wildlife photography.
And we will be photographing the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth, the annual migration in the Masai Mara in Kenya. We can photograph the great river crossings where crocodiles lie in wait for the wildebeest to cross, and we will also see elephant, leopard, lion and cheetah and even, if we’re lucky, black rhino.
For more about the tour, the dates and cost, read the details at the Masai Mara Photo Tour page where you can also find more about camp and vehicles and the full tour itinerary.
May
16
While photographing a leopard last month in Kenya, this seven month old cub surprised us all by bundling out of the bushes having been called by the elder one, its brother as it happens, who was baby sitting while mother was out hunting. We were fortunate, cubs are seen infrequently, and I don’t think there are many things to photograph that are cuter than leopard cubs.
This was a cub of Olive, a leopard made famous by the BBC’s big cat diary.
Taken using a Nikon D3s with 200-400 zoom lens at 400mm, f/5.6, 1/250th, and ISO 1600.
May
02
This elephant female certainly looked to be dancing, and to be honest I’m not too sure what she was trying to do here. She was just metres from our vehicle, so maybe it was a half hearted mock charge, given the position of her ears. I shot this at wide-angle, and a few inches above the ground last month in the Masai Mara, Kenya.
Taken using a Nikon D3s with 24-70 zoom lens at 35mm, f/9.5, 1/750th, and ISO 400.
Apr
25
Last week’s Masai Mara trip may not have yielded my hoped for black cloud and rain – it was meant to be the short rains there – but more than made up for it with six encounters with three leopards and one cub, which is the most I’ve experienced in one visit there.
I’d like to say it’s good to be home again, but I’ll be honest and say I’d rather still be out there. Oh well, August, my next trip, is only four months away.
Taken using a Nikon D3s with 200-400 zoom lens at 270mm, f/5.6, 1/500th, and ISO 400.
Mar
28
This is the original colour version of the monochrome one of an elephant matriarch which I posted here last December. It’s one of a few pictures that proves just as strong in colour as it does in black and white. I took her picture from quite low down, about two inches or so off the turf, last November in the Masai Mara in Kenya.
I couldn’t have been luckier with the sky and light, and when I saw it, we quickly located and chose this matriarch, primarily because she was in the right place, and certainly because she had the nicest looking tusks in her group.
I posted this here today much because this picture appeared on EarthShot’s Photo of the Day today.
Taken using a Nikon D300 with 12-24 zoom lens at 20mm, f/11.0, 1/180th, and ISO 500.
Mar
13
I never expected to upload this at all because I never thought it existed until this morning. But after fossicking around in my Lightroom library today, I unearthed this one, in its raw colour state, and made this monochrome version from it. It always pays to go back over your old pictures, there’s usually something you’ve missed the first time around.
I took this in the Masai Mara, Kenya last September at the same time as this one here. In fact these two lions, undoubtedly brothers, had an almighty but brief scrap just after this picture, which resulted in the blood on the muzzle of the other.
Taken using a Nikon D700 with 200-400 zoom lens at 400mm, f/4.0, 1/250, and ISO 360.
Mar
05
Elephant, Masai Mara, Kenya, November 2010.
Everyone has their own photographic morals, ethics and practices – everyone chooses their own and undoubtedly enjoys the respect given. This is not a judgement on those whose principles may differ from my own, it’s just that these are mine and these are what I try to adhere to.
Read More»
