Category: Wildlife and Nature
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Drones, Kingfishers, and Joey Cook’s Ukulele
Goa, India’s diminutive state on the west coast, enjoys a certain reputation as a party destination, full of backpackers and bikinis, in search of yoga or outdoor sports. But it also has its wildlife – especially birds. I wrote about our visit to Goa’s Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary about a year ago when we…
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Flower Collage
Here’s a fun photo project…and an idea I stole from my wife (I explained to her that I was improving on her idea – it didn’t go over well). Go find a green space and see how many flowers you can discover. Or bugs. Or whatever. And then make a photo collage out of them.…
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Dispatch from Sierra Leone: Day at the Beach
This weekend the weather was supposed to be – well, “not as bad.” So we planned a trip to the beach – a great opportunity to unwind a bit after a harrowing few weeks at work. A co-worker and I got up before dark and got dropped at River Number Two Beach, which is “google…
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Found Film Friday: Yellowstone Part 2
Last week I posted the first installment in a series of posts in which I share images from a collection of 14 rolls of Ektachrome slide film requiring an outdated chemical process, but which I decided to develop with black and white chemicals. In this set of pictures, we see the photographer’s continued photographic journey…
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Baby Olive Ridley Sea Turtles
Sea turtles have been on this earth for 110 million years, compared to humans’ 200,000. If my math is correct, relating Earth’s 4.6 billion-year existence to a 24-hour clock would have seen sea turtles arriving at around 11:26 pm…and humans arriving at 11:59 and 56 seconds. Yet we’ve been tremendously successful – there are now…
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“Blessed:” My Entry for the “India Is” Video Contest
All living things love their life, desire pleasure and do not like pain; they dislike any injury to themselves; everybody is desirous of life and to every being, his life is very dear.” – from the Yogashastra (Jain Scripture), from around 500 BC. While on an early morning photowalk at Marina Beach in Chennai, India, I…
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Goa is for the Birds – Literally
Just north of Panaji, Goa’s “small but spritely” capital, where the Mapusa and Mandovi Rivers meet, is what appears to be an island – Chorao Island – which has 11,000 inhabitants, and whose western end is a 1.8 square kilometer mangrove forest known as the Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary. Looking at the map, it…
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Check Out my Entries for the B&H Wilderness Photo Contest!
B&H Photo (I really should own stock in that company, as much money as I send them) is hosting a Wilderness Photo Competition – and the grand prize(s) are safari trips to Namibia and Botswana. Yes, I’m sending mainly wildlife photos from Namibia – the irony is not lost on me. It wouldn’t do me…
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How do tortoises “get it on”?
Ever wonder how turtles and tortoises “get it on”? You’d think they were cursed by anatomy, but yes, they do mate – there’s no “you lay the eggs and I’ll come along after and fertilize them.” Animal Planet’s probably all “been there, done that” but on a recent trip to Madagascar I heard the strangest…
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Free Jungle Sounds
Every now and then I come across some sounds that might be of use to other video hobbyists. These are pretty clean, high quality recordings taken with a Rode Videomic. Feel free to download the sounds and use them for whatever you want. Frogs Sound – the sound of African bullfrogs croaking. Recorded at Kempinski Mokuti…
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Exploring Madagascar’s Jungles at Night
If you ever find yourself in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in Madagascar, be sure and check out the “night walk”. You can hire a tour guide who will walk you down a quiet, dark road flanked by thick jungle, and alert you to various types of lemurs, reptiles, amphibians, and other creatures you’ll never see by…
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The Right Music for a Video. But Not Quite.
Sometimes finding exactly the right ‘feel’ music for a video is the most fun part of video editing, and other times I dread it. Because I already know that it’s going to be impossible to find music that won’t be too depressing, won’t be too happy, too distracting, irritating – in short, that won’t even…
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Attenborough’s “Africa” Features Namibia – Prepare to be Amazed! (updated)
If you have access to BBC One (or live in the UK, where you can stream it from their website), you’ll want to check out the six-part series on Africa that began airing Wednesdays starting January 2nd. The first episode, somewhat broadly titled “Kalahari” features wildlife from Namibia, from tiny wasps and spiders to giraffes…
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Namibia’s “N/a’ankuse” Needs a Filmmaker
The N/a’an ku se charity lodge, wildlife-sanctuary-and-a-whole-bunch-of-other-stuff is looking for a filmmaker. It’s not a high-paying job, but it’s a good cause and a great opportunity to hang out in Namibia and take pictures of cool stuff. The organization occupies a large piece of land just east of Namibia’s capital Windhoek, where a number of…
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Destination Namibia: How do you Market a Country?
I remember talking to one of Namibia’s tourism officials shortly after they had returned from the 2011 Adventure Travel World Summit in Chiapas, Mexico, and he was pretty excited about Namibia’s prospects in hosting the 2013 summit, knowing it would be the first time the event would be hosted in Africa. At the time, he…
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Madagascar on 12.12.12 part II: the Snake
For my second installment in the “One Day on Earth” project, in which filmmakers around the world are invited to contribute footage which may be used in a feature-length film, I was also in Madagascar’s Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. Technically, we were in the “Réserve Spéciale d’Analamazaotra,” and we were watching an indri (the largest kind…
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Madagascar on 12.12.12 part I: the Lemurs
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that I have been pretty excited about 12.12.12. Why? Because that’s the day the third “One Day on Earth” film is to be recorded in every country around the world. The first film, recorded on 10.10.10, was in my Christmas stocking this year (you can order yours…
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Preview – Wildlife of Madagascar
Simply amazing – Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. Here is a preview of the kinds of things that will be posted in the near future on video. Though they are wild, these ringtail lemurs are very curious. This white-ruffed lemur is “just hanging around”
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Gentle Giants: Elephant Encounter II
The sheer power and grace of elephants is difficult to convey. When they come in from the bush to drink water, and roll around in the mud, they absolutely dominate the scene, and other animals wait patiently until they’ve had their fill. It’s easy to just sit and watch these creatures interact with each other…
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Elephant Encounter
We pulled into the parking area for one of the watering holes at Etosha, and noticed immediately that there were several large groups of elephants enjoying the place. One group was in the mud bathing, another was off to our right, and a third group was right on the gravel road, blocking our entry (and…
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Lions and Impalas
At Goas watering hole, around the center of the driveable part of Etosha National Park, we stumbled upon a pride of lions – it must have been seven. But the really strange thing was the impalas and the way they behaved in the presence of the lions. Rather than just leave and go to a…
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Lion Encounter
In most parts of the world, seeing a lion is a very much controlled experience – typically in a zoo. In Etosha National Park in Namibia, you have to keep your camera handy because there’s no telling when you’ll see a large animal – or even if you’ll see one at all. In spite of…
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Animal Shorts!
A handful of short wildlife videos from a recent trip. In the first, we discover how the “puff adder” got its name. Then, see a group of banded mongooses – mongeese? – doing silly things. Finally, a crocodile enjoys a snack, like clockwork, at 2 pm on Saturday. The videos are all taken at Kempinski…
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Zebras at Dusk
The “golden hour” directly before sunset offers really interesting options for photography. If you’re on a game drive in Namibia at the right time in the right place, you can get some truly stunning photos. Unfortunately, however, you’re at the mercy of the driver many times, and if you’re facing directly into the sun it…
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Filming Bee-Eaters in my Yard
I remember one day walking into my back yard at dusk and seeing an odd flash of blue in a tree – out of the corner of my eye. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was a group of 6 swallow-tailed bee-eaters huddled together for the night. I had seen photos of them and…