Thomson Safaris, Preferred Safari Outfitter in Tanzania

In order for my safari business to be successfull, I have to rely on the right partners on the ground in Africa. I operate safaris in roughly six countries in Africa, and the right outfitter for me in Tanzania is Thomson Safaris. They are by far THE BEST group of people to work with in Tanzania. Here is a quick video customer testimonial to help illustrate.

Safari Testimonial: Lou and Terry Buonomo

Dear Andy-

Well, we have sadly come to terms with the fact that the trip has come and gone. We are still pouring through hundreds of images and trying to complete a trip journal so as not to forget any of the fantastic experiences we had.  

We had such a wonderful time on the safari. Part of it was certainly the wonder of Botswana and our first experience in Africa and on a safari. But a huge part of it was the expertise with which the trip was planned, down to the very finest details. Your expertise combined with that of James and Grant ensured not only an amazing experience “in country” but also enabled us to return with so many wonderful images! The trip was designed to provide maximum photographic opportunities and it delivered on its promise. There was a constant supply of not-to-be-missed chances to capture a special image.

Reflecting on the experience as a whole, it is pretty amazing to take a group of thirteen people, all strangers (well except for the couples!), fly them around in little planes to dirt airstrips, immerse them in a place with no contact with the outside world, ride them around for hours at a time in open vehicles over what can barely be called roads, and have them love it…yeah, pretty amazing.

Seriously, all the planning that goes into these trips is clearly reflected in the superb level of the accommodations, the delicious meals, the transportation (between and in the camps), the camp staff; all of it. Everything was top-notch and no detail was overlooked.

We so enjoyed the trip that the “once-in-a-lifetime” tag line can no longer be used.  It is true that once you go to Africa, you feel you must return. 

Lou & Terry

 July 2011

Photo of the Day - Lioness Crossing Water

Lioness Crossing Water

near Chitabe Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana. July 2011

Nikon D3x, 200-400mm f/4 @ 340mm, 1/1250 @ f/4

I have been back from safari for a few weeks now, however I haven’t had much of a chance to process or even look at any of my images. I have had a few business related trips, as well as a well needed family vacation.

I absolutely love it when we find predators near and in water. The Okavango Delta in northern Botswana is a very dynamic place to photograph, as the water levels rise and fall throughout the year. When the water rises, you end up with more and more isolated pieces of ground amongst the water. This can be a great thing for photographers, as all wildlife will eventually need to move through these waters. When photographing cats in water, I do like to pay attention to leg positioning as well as head direction. Let’s paint a picture here. We watched a pride of lions on an unsuccessful hunt of impala, and after the imapal ran off through the water we anticipated the lions following one of the impalas that appeared to be hurt. We drove and then positioned the Land Rover so that we would shoot the lions coming through the water from a 90 degree angle, if not a slightly less than 90 degree angle. Why? Well, I supposed we could have shot them coming towards the vehicle, which is also a great shot, but the distance between us and the lions would have given them enough room to walk away from us. Wildlife rarely walks towards you, so rather than fight for an oncoming shot we went for a side shot. I like 90 or near-90 degree angles, because I do like to see at least 1 eye of my subject. For argument’s sake let’s just say that the angle here is 90 degrees. This allowed us to photograph the lioness with 1 eye showing and a hint of her 2nd eye. Eyes make all the difference in a wildlife image, as well as things like leg position and tail. Here we have a visible tail and 4 legs that seem to have a nice balance to them. If you zoom in closely on the image you can also see a nice splash in the water, which is an added ‘golden nugget’ that I like to look out for. Golden nuggest are just those things that help keep a viewer’s attention on an image.

From a processing standpoint, I processed the image in Lightroom with basic tweaks, and then finished the image off in Nik Software’s Viveza 2. One thing to note is that I actually desaturated the lion, as a lion can pick up a heavy orange/yellow color cast if you aren’t careful. The landscape portion of the image needed punch and more saturation, however the main subject did not.

Back from Botswana

I just got back from 3 weeks in Botswana, and I have a ton of content to write about. I ran two safaris in northern Botswana, split between three different camps: Chitabe, Savuti and Mombo. The weather was pleasant, as it is winter there and it was a great break from the heat back at home. We had some very unique sightings, which included elephants crossing the Savuti channel each day, hyaenas chasing down a baby elephant, multiple Legadema sightings at Mombo and tons more.

When I come home from each safari, I am always inspired on how to run different and more unique safaris for upcoming years. This safari was no exception in this regard, and I have some exciting ideas for 2013 and beyond for my safari schedule. I also came home with some more product ideas for Gura Gear, as there is so much need in the marketplace right now for better made camera and travel related equipment.

I apologize if you have sent me an email and I have not replied yet. I was without communication during my trip, and I will be digging out of almost 1,000 emails over the next couple of days. At least I am up at 4am without much else to do.

My Lightroom 3 Processing steps

I get asked many questions about my Adobe Photoshop Lightroom workflow, and I thought it would be a good exercise to jot the steps down, along with some random notes. This is a workflow that I use if I am out in the field and won’t be using my favorite plugins such as Nik Software’s Viveza 2 or Silver Efex Pro 2.

Library Module

Import

         Optional: metadata (copyright information goes into images)

         Optional: Preset development ‘recipe’

         Previews: standard

Develop Module

Crop (use ‘R’ key for quick access)

Crop image

Level the horizon

Spot Removal - You can use either Clone or Heal. Just do whatever it takes to get what you want. Use the bracket keys ( [ and ] ) to increase/decrease size of the brush.

Lens Corrections

Camera Calibration - Optional: camera profile, other than standard. You can create your own profile(s) with X-Rite ColorChecker Passport ($99)

White Balance - This is a creative tool, not a scientific tool. Just do what looks good. 5000 is mid-day light, and anything higher is warmer and anything lower is cooler.

Exposure - This sets the whitest / brightest area of the image. Hold down the ALT key when setting the Exposure to see what will be clipped or thrown away. Image my look horrible.

Blacks - This sets the darkest / black area of the image. Hold down the ALT key when setting the Blacks to see what will be clipped or thrown away. Image may look horrible.

Brightness - This is what sets the distribution between the black and white points in the image. It is what makes the image ‘look good’.

Recovery - Optional: use the Recovery slider to recover blown highlights. Pay attention that the overuse of this tool will make all whites look grey and dull (I see this all too often).

Fill Light - “Poor Man’s Fill Flash’. Use this to a minimum if possible. Overuse will cause an image to lack contrast.

Contrast - This is a very very blunt tool, and my preference is to use the Tone Curve (see below) to introduce contrast.

Clarity - Don’t do it. It’s like riding a scooter. It may be fun, but you don’t want your friends to see you doing it (just kidding). In all seriousness, overuse of this tool will cause your images to look outdated in a couple of years when this look is out of fashion. In other words, I only use it sparingly, and typically only with the Brush tool on specific areas.

Vibrance - Newer version of Saturation slider. Non-linear in nature. It will increase saturation of less saturated colors faster than the colors that are already saturated.

Saturation (if not using Vibrance) - I never use this, as it is a blunt tool that will make it easy to blow out your most vivid color in your scene.

Tone Curve - I start off by increasing Lights and decreasing Darks by opposite, but equal amounts. (ex: +10 and -10). I typically am more dramatic with the Lights and Darks and the Highlights and Shadows are closer to zero. When working with B&W images, all bets are off and I do whatever it takes to get contrast. I usually start off with a Medium Contrast curve, but sometimes do use the Linear or Strong ones. It just depends.

HSL (Hue / Saturation / Luminance) - Use the targeted adjustment tool. Click on the little circle to ‘undock’ the tool. Go to your image and click and drag up or down to affect the H / S or L values of all similar tones/colors in the image.

Poor Man’s Polarizer = Increase saturation on sky and decrease Luminance on sky. Make sure you have a nice blue in the sky to begin with.

Split Toning - Used only for my B&W images. I use nothing for Highlights and a range of 40-50 for Hue and Saturation of between 5 and 20 for the Shadows. This creates a nice split tone warm image, without dulling the highlights.

Detail - I usually only vary the Amount and Masking. To use the Mask, hold down the Alt key to see what is going to be sharpened.

Noise Reduction - I only vary the Luminance slider, and rarely go beyond 15 or 20. If the image is underexposed by more than a stop, you may need to slide the Color slider to the right to eliminate stray pixels that are blue or red (easy to detect).

Post-Crop Vignetting - use sparingly. Remember it is uniform around all edges, so it might be visible. I use something like a negative 5 to 10 for the amount, and the Feather of around 80 (less sharp gradient).

Grain - I sometimes have to add grain to a B&W image that I am printing really really big. The goal is to fill in the gaps and mask out some of the issues with a lower megapixel file.

Red-Eye

Graduated Filter (M) - I use to darken skies. I only use Brightness, and never Exposure, as Exposure weakens the whites in clouds. Click and drag from beginning of where you want to darken and end where you want to end. The longer the drag, the longer the gradient effect is. Hold down SHIFT key to make the gradient a 90 degree / straight line.

Adjustment Brush (K) - I use this brush for many purposes. I can:

dodge and burn

paint contrast into a small area like a face of a cat

brighten eyes

increase clarity on clouds

Hold down ALT key to remove areas that you didn’t mean to brush. Use bracket keys to increase/decrease brush size.

Keyboard Shortcuts

R = crop

G = grid view (Library module)

E = Loupe view (Library module)

D = Develop module

Tab = toggles left/right panels

F = different full frame views

CTRL and ‘+’ = zooms in when using a tool that can be zoomed in

‘space bar’ = move around within an image

Portfolios for Photographers

There are so many ways to present photographs, and I decided to put together a video here in the studio to show many of the different portfolio options that are on the market today. I see more and more people using the Apple iPad for the showing of photographs, however there is no substitute for a printed image on paper. A properly printed body of work shows more than just the work of a photographer, but it can show the mastery of the craft of printing as well as the vision of a photographer.

I am a stickler for well printed photographs on paper, and it is something that I spend much of my time working on in my studio. I even run printing workshops in my studio, because I enjoy printing my own work as well as looking at others’ work. I am not saying that an iPad cannot work, but rather a printed portfolio has the opportunity actually be the final step in the photographic process.

If you do a web search for portfolios, you will see many different products, however most of them seem to be targeted to a student’s budget. This is totally ok and valid, but the readers of this site may want something nicer and are willing to pay more than $10 or $20.

The idea for the video was to put forth some tangible ideas for your own photo portfolios, and the products in the video range from around $5.50 to around $400. I have items from Moab Paper, Lost Luggage, Portfoliobox.com and Dane Creek Folios. The video isn’t a complete roundup of all of the products on the market, however it is a video that shows what I have actually used myself.

Disclaimer: I do consulting work for Moab Paper, in that I create their ICC profiles for their paper.

External links:

Andy Biggs Portfolio Boxes for sale

Moab Paper Chinle Ice Nine Portfolios 8x8” is $40 and 12x12 is $55 (both include 10 sheets of paper)

Moab Paper Chinle Digital Books 8x8” is $40 and 12x12 is $55 (no paper is included)

Moab Paper Chinle Economy Folio 8.5x11 is $23, 11x17 is $31, 13x19 is $36 and 17x22 is $42.

Moab Paper Chinle Archival Box boxes start at $15 and go up to $58

Dane Creek Folios folio packages start at $5.50

Portfoliobox.com a custom quote is required. I spent around $3300 for fifteen 8.5x11 and fifteen 13x19 boxes.

Lost Luggage I paid around $400 for my brown leather portfolio. Prices vary, depending on product and size.

Photo of the Day - Maasai Warrior

Maasai Warrior, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. February 2011

Nikon 85mm f/1.4, 1/640 @ f/2.5, ISO 250

Photo of the Day - Tamboti Leopard, Mala Mala

Tamboti Female Leopard

Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa.

Nikon D700, 200-400mm f/4 VR, 1/400 @ f/4, ISO 3200

When photographing leopards, especially up close, I think the connection with the viewer is all about the eyes of the subject. I had to balance depth of field to obtain sharp eyes, minimum shutter speed so I didn’t have a blurry photograph, and a blurry background. I took about 6 images in the series, and I ended up choosing one of the images taken at f/4. I do like to bracket my depth of field in situations such as this, moving between a couple of stops. I have images at f/4 through f/11, and the problem with my f/11 images were a sub-optimal ISO (6400) and shutter speed (1/160).