Africa Photo Safari Availability for 2011

I do have a few more spots available for the rest of my 2011 safaris, as well as a few new safari announcements. If you are planning your 2011 schedule, and have been thinking about photographing some of the most amazing and abundant wildlife on the planet, here is a quick rundown of what I have available for the rest of the year.

Botswana: The Premier Wildlife Safari. July 4-13, 2011. Only 1 spot available.

Predators of the Sabi Sands, South Africa. July 25 - August 3, 2011. A few spots available, and limited to a max of 7 travelers.

Ultimate Mountain Gorillas and the Masai Mara. September 3-15, 2011. Only 2 spots available.

Kenya’s Masai Mara and Wildebeest River Crossings. September 14-23, 2011. New Announcement, limited to 7 travelers. Only a few spots available after only a couple of hours.

As you can see, my safaris do book up well in advance as there are only a few spots left on some of these safaris. The safaris that are already sold out are not contained in this blog post, and you can see my entire safari and workshop schedule on my main web site:

Andy Biggs Photo Safaris - Safaris and Workshop Schedule

I am starting to work on my 2012 safari and workshop schedule, and I will being to post the schedule as I start to get pricing and schedules all nailed down. It takes a ton of time to plan these safaris. I do know that I will be running two safaris in Botswana in September 2012, and Greg du Toit will be running the popular Predators of the Sabi Sands safari as well (July or August).

From the Archives

Stone Town, Zanzibar. June 2002

NASA - A Behind-The-Scenes Tour

A few months back a friend, fellow photographer and NASA astronaut Alan Poindexter invited Leslie and I to visit NASA and to participate in a behind-the-scenes visit of the NASA facilities. I have lived in Houston most of my life, and I have only been able to visit the parts of NASA that are on the typical tourist destinations. Without hesitation, I was eager to go! When Dex asked me what kinds of activities I was most interested in, the first thing out of my mouth was to spend some time in the actual Space Shuttle flight simulator. It wasn’t a guaranteed visit, but very likely that we could get some time on the simulator.

During our visit to NASA, we did more than just spend time in the Space Shuttle Flight Simulator, such as a visit to an Orbiter mockup, the International Space Station mockup, the Soyuz capsule, and two Mission Control rooms.

Since the Space Shuttle program is coming to an end, and Congress has not allocated any more funding to NASA after the STS-134 mission, Dex won’t be included in any more flights with this program. He was the Pilot on STS-122 and he was the Commander of STS-131. Since Dex’s NASA tenure was coming to a close, he used some of his time to take us on a behind-the-scenes tour of what goes on at NASA.

The following images are fairly self explanatory, so I just threw together some short pieces of text underneath each image. Leslie and I had a great time, and feel honored that we were able to see behind the scenes some of the places that the general public are not able to see. It saddens me that our space program seems to have lost its way, and that we don’t seem to have a clear view of what our next steps are going to be with space exploration. After my visit to NASA, I am much more in touch with how things work and why space exploration is important, and I can only hope that we keep funding future missions into space.

The entrance to the Orbiter Space Shuttle Flight Simulator at NASA

..and here it is. It sits on top of a large hydraulic platform.

The control room for the simulator

Some of the information displays for the simulator

The interior of the Orbiter simulator. Everything is the same as the real Orbiter vehicles. You do experience a bouncy liftoff, which lasts a number of minutes. You are on your back, so the feeling is very ‘real’. What amazed me was the amount of time from liftoff until the unbuckling of restraint belts, which is around 12 minutes. Amazing.

Dex and I in the flight deck

Dex is explaining to me how to adjust the stick for optimum comfort

And no, this isn’t a video game.

Velcro is all over the place!

Ok, this does look like a video game, circa 1980. The technology works, though. (Remember Tank Command? Well, the graphics are eerily similar)

Here I am attempting a landing of the Orbiter, and the earth’s horizon has just come into view.

The Waste Collection System ‘training room’

And this is how you learn to use the potty in space. Correct aim is *essential*!

Alan Poindexter and his trusty Gura Gear Kiboko camera bag

A mockup of the Orbiter. The inside is a perfect replica of the real Orbiter

Leslie and Dex, about to climb in

Dex’s wonderful wife, Lisa. Always with a smile.

A memorial to those brave astronauts who were lost on prior Space Shuttle missions (Challenger and Columbia)

Aboard the International Space Station (ISS) volume mockup

The International Space Station (ISS) cupola. The most amazing photograph was taken of Tracy Caldwell Dyson in 2010

The interior of the Russian Soyuz capsule

Mission Control Center in Building 30 at Johnson Space Center

The Apollo era Mission Control Center (MOCR1). It was actually used for the Apollo and Space Lab missions

Ah, rotary phones

The actual Mission Control Center (MOCR2). They were going through the STS-133 simulation when we were there, so we weren’t able to spend much time in this room

Canon's new 200-400mm f/4 L IS lens

Well, Canon finally did it. They are bringing a 200-400mm f/4 lens to the market, supposedly before the end of 2011. This is excellent news for wildlife photographers! I have been waiting for a Canon lens like this for many years, and the main reason why I switched to Nikon 2 years ago. What makes this lens so unique is that the new lens has a 1.4x teleconverter built-in. What you say? Yes, there is a small, mechanical switch near the top of the rear of the lens that can move a 1.4x teleconverter into place when needed. This makes the lens a 280-560mm f/5.6. Very very cool and a nice feature.

So, the question of the day: will I move back to Canon? Possibly. I have enjoyed my time with Nikon, however most of my customers are Canon shooters. I do love my Nikon D3x camera, which is a better camera than the Canon 1DsMk3, however neither of these two cameras shoots video. My intention is to shoot more video, and Canon does rule the roost in this area right now. We shall see. What pains me is that Nikon doesn’t have an answer to Canon’s 100-400mm, which was a workhorse for me for many years. The Nikon 80-400mm is extremely slow when focusing, which makes it a non-starter for my own needs.

Meerkat Photography - How To

As I indicated in an earlier blog entry, I visited Tswalu Kalahari in November 2010 for 3 nights. I loved all of the photographic subjects on the reserve, but I enjoyed photographing the resident meerkats the most. This blog entry is a quick recap of my experience with the meerkats, and how I chose to shoot them.

Meerkats live in family groups called ‘mobs’ or ‘gangs’, and are part of the mongoose family (Suricata suricatta). Meerkat mobs are often made up of around 20 or more individuals, and the mob I spent time with had between 40 and 50. Meerkats live in burrows, and when the sun rises in the morning you can wait outside of a burrow to watch them come out and warm themselves in the early morning light. Within 15 or 20 minutes, all of the mob can be found above ground, and then they collectively take off to forage for the day. This is when the photo ‘event’ is over.

The most obvious way to photograph meerkats are with them looking into the camera, which means the sun is over your shoulder. This is a challenge, to say the least, because 1) your shadow often gets in the way, 2) the colors are not very vibrant at this angle, and 3) there is a lack of dramatic light. Remember that light illuminates and shadows define. Shadows are not a bad thing!

Cluttered background, and my subjects are sitting on the ground. The sun is 90 degrees to camera left, which doesn’t exactly give much dramatic light.

Here is a similar angle, and I had issues with the foreground chopping off the lower legs of some of my subjects. I do like that I was able to get all of their eyes in the photo, though.

Ugh, extremely flat light. Not optimal in any way. This is light over the shoulder.

Ok, it was time to start photographing into the sun, with meerkats looking away from the camera. This had the most dramatic light, however the only angles which worked had such an angle to the sun that always brought sun flare into my lens. So, time for a solution…..

We decided to attach pieces of paper to the lens hoods on our lenses, with the help of rubber bands. Voila!

Now we were able to photograph into the sun without lens flares. This brought a combination of dramatic light, color as well as ‘rim light’ on the meerkats.

Ok, back to some sidelighting. This was an angle that worked, primarily because of the blurred background.

I finally found an angle where I could get meerkats standing up, a clean background and dramatic lighting.

All in all, I had a great time photographing the meerkats. I want to spend more time in the future, as I did find them a bit of a challenge to get exactly what I wanted. Tswalu Kalahari did a great job explaining meerkat society and behavior, and they watched which burrow the meerkats went in at the end of each day. This allowed us to know exactly which burrow to wait at when the sun came up, wasting no time.

Photo of the Day - Lioness in Tree

Lioness Climbing a Tree, Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa. November 2010

Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, 1/800 @ f/5.6, ISO 1000

I absolutely love it when I find things in nature that surprise me. Lions in trees is one of those situations that isn’t all that unusual, but most of the time these scenarios turn out to be photographic busts. Most of the time I see twigs and branches in the way, and rarely do I get a clear shot with an alert cat. Here we had a few lionesses who were climbing up and down this tree, and even though we had an uninteresting background with marginal light, the light was at least soft in the middle of the day for us to stay out longer than we would normally be out on a game drive. A typical game drive may end by 9:30 or 10am in the summer time, as it gets quite warm and the light is harsh. Yes, there are twigs and other branches in the way, but it is at least worthy of sharing for the blog.

Greg du Toit will be running a small and intimate group of photographs to Mala Mala in late July, and you can find more about this safari on my main web site:

2011 Predators of the Sabi Sands Photo Safari with Greg du Toit

Photo of the Day - Serengeti Wildebeest

Wildebeest Migration

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Canon 1DsMkIII, 400mm f/4 DO + 1.4x, 1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400

Maasai - Loliondo, Tanzania

Maasai Moran at a local and temporary manyatta in Loliondo, Tanzania. October 2007

Canon 1DsMkII, 24-70mm f/2.8, 1/800 @ f/2.8, ISO 500