Year: 2012
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Documentary: Youngest Woman to Box in the Olympics
Meet 17 year-old Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, the youngest woman – and one of the first – to ever box in the Olympics. Filmmakers Zakary Canepari, Drea Cooper, Sue Jaye Johnson and Bianca Darville have been collaborating to document Shields’s journey to the Olympic games, including London as we speak. They have listed their project on Kickstarter and…
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Under the Namibian Sky (Time Lapse)
Namibia is truly one of the most amazing places for stargazing – sparse population, cloudless sky… Here is a timelapse by a group of folks who spent 10 days (and nights) on a Namibian farm doing just that. Add a bunch of time on a computer making this video. I didn’t see a figure, but…
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Video: the Home of Good Hope
Every now and then I get an opportunity to take a break from filming bugs and upside down chins and silly stuff, to making a video with some social value. I heard there was a need to show overseas donors a bit more about a cause they were supporting – a soup kitchen in Windhoek’s…
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Cheetahs and Leopards
Had the opportunity to do some filming of cheetahs and leopards (well, actually just one leopard) recently. They make excellent photo and video subjects! The first was an amazing opportunity at Okonjima & Africats, (about 2 hours north of Windhoek, Namibia) – I blogged about it once before – when we found 3 cheetahs lounging…
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Behold the Grey Go-Away Bird
These guys always make me chuckle. The first time I encountered a grey go-away bird – which is very common all over southern Africa – I was working in the back yard and was startled by its sound, which at the time sounded like a child saying “heeyyyyy…” from about 10 feet away. They will…
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Supermoon + cheetahs: nature goes out of her way to cooperate
Namibia really is an amazing place for photographers. On this occasion, everything lined up, but as a photographer I was unfortunately not fully up to the task. Still, some amazing photos. The location: Okonjima / Africat, where two organizations collaborate on a 22,000 hectare plot of African bush to rehabilitate injured carnivores. Africat has taken…
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New Sony NEX-VG20 – low light test (wildlife at night – Onduruquea Reserve)
I was pretty nervous about the new camera I recently ordered – the Sony NEX-VG20 is an interchangeable-lens camcorder that boasts a sensor the size of most still cameras (23.4 X 15.6mm) – which, in addition to the versatility offered by the changeable lenses, apparently offers many features you don’t often see in a $2,000…
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Photographing a Leopard
Leopards make excellent photographic subjects, but they tend to stay hidden in the wild – when they’re not trying to EAT you. Seriously, some subjects are best photographed in captivity or a controlled situation. This particular leopard is in a pretty large pen, but he gets fed daily. The experience can be unnerving -sitting in…
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21 Sunsets – a timelapse project
I love doing timelapses – especially of natural phenomena. But I admit it can be a lot harder than it first appears – if you want to do it right. But moving to Namibia and finding housing on a westward-facing hill – I knew that would be a great opportunity to hone my timelapse skills.…
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What’s with these alien plants in my yard?
Moving to southern Africa has led me to discover all sorts of strange and bizarre plants that don’t behave the way my grade-school teachers taught me the way they ought to. First, I thought this tree was dying last spring (i.e. October in the southern hemisphere), when all its leaves started falling off. Then it…
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“One Day on Earth” Music Video
The “One Day on Earth” project, which collected video from all over the world on 11.11.11 (and also, by the way, on 10.10.10), has stitched all their footage together into a full-length film, which is to be screened at many venues worldwide on April 22 – Earth Day. One of the benefits of contributing is…
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Best music for hanging out with giraffes
When you’re editing vacation videos, it’s always fun to come up with the best music – ideally one that conveys the right mood, maybe something that relates to the place you’re visiting. But sometimes the best music to convey the mood is no music at all. In this video, we managed to get awfully close…
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Our Coast, Your Photo Contest Entries
The entire TAZM Pictures crew entered a local photo contest sponsored by the Windhoek newspaper, The Namibian, and Studio 77, a photography studio. The contest was set up to raise awareness about the fragility of the Namibian coast, most of which is one or another national park (37% of Namibia consists of national parks). You…
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Life and Death at Avis
We have this pretty amazing reservoir just outside Windhoek created by Avis dam – it’s a wildlife protected area / bird sanctuary / dog walking area / jogging area. And fishing/boating pond. And you can get some awesome pictures out there if you pay attention. Examples: An egret takes flight Pretty good fishing at…
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Namibian fairy circles – mystery solved?
There’s an odd phenomenon in southern Africa – especially in Namibia – that the locals call “fairy circles”, whereby vegetation refuses to grow inside a circle of anywhere from 3 to 10 meters in diameter. Even stranger, the circles are dynamic – apparently they grow and “die”, to be filled in by grasses. While they…
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From the folks at “One Day on Earth”
A few months ago, I wrote about the “One Day on Earth” project, when people all over the world were invited to submit video recorded on 11.11.11 to OneDayOnEarth.org. Their plan was to stitch together donated footage from the vast majority of our planet’s countries into a feature film. Well, it seems their work is…
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Video: Sossusvlei and Namib Desert from the air
I had an amazing trip to the Namib Desert recently. The oldest desert in the world, the Namib is where the Tsauchab river ends, seeping into the ground amid towering ochre dunes. A few gnarled, dried camelthorn trees stand on the baked clay pans that explode into blossom just a few weeks per year. Surely…
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Macro [micro] Photography – Spider
Since the unhappy theft of my camera and laptop, I’ve been relatively silent on the blog as there’s not a whole lot of photo/video action to write about. But I’m still enjoying the digital microscope I got recently from the Sharper Image – essentially a kids’ science toy, but I’m not ashamed to admit in…
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Micro Photography – Handheld Digital Microscope Review
So you’ve heard of macro photography – and I’ve been blogging about it recently as well. But what about micro photography? Ever wanted to take a picture of something you can only see under a microscope? Well, how about video? It used to be really expensive, but there are a couple of options out there…