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About Andy

 

I am an avid adventurer, conservationist, teacher, and outdoor photographer whose photography celebrates the African landscape and its rich wildlife, people, and culture. My photographic safaris allow my travelers to not only enhance their understanding of photography, lighting, and wildlife, but to develop a life-long admiration for Africa ‘s beauty and culture.

Banana Republic recently used my photographs as the cornerstone of their Urban Safari campaign, and my images were seen in all 750 stores around the globe, as well as in their billboards, catalogs and annual report. I was also the winner of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the ‘Wild Places’ category in 2008 and a highly commended in the ‘Creative Visions of Nature’ category in 2007.

I launched Gura Gear in 2008, in an attempt to deliver lightweight camera bags to the market. I was looking for a lightweight camera bag to hold all of my photographic gear, and there was nothing desirable on the market that suited my needs. After spending 2 years with many prototypes, the Gura Gear Kiboko bag was born. More products are now available on the Gura Gear web site.

 

 

 

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Entries in Namib-Naukluft (1)

Wednesday
Jul012009

Namibia trip report (Part 3 - Namib-Naukluft)

This is the 3rd trip report from my latest safari to Namibia You can read my Namibia trip report (Part 1 - Skeleton Coast) entry and also my Namibia trip report (Part 2 - Serra Cafema) entry if you have not already done so.

After winding down our time at Serra Cafema, we took a long bush plane flight down to Swakopmund to fill up with fuel. We flew over the Cape Cross seal colony and turned the plane inward towards the huge dunes of the Namib desert. The absolutely huge dunes of the Namib-Naukluft Park greeted us as we prepared to land. The Sossusvlei / Deadlvei region always blows me away, and this time was no exception.

We spent 3 nights with my friends at Kulala Desert Lodge (Carina the manager is a great friend), which is the closest place to stay to the entrance of the park. It is extremely comfortable and the shorter drives into the park is definitely appreciated, as the area is vast and spread out.

I visited this area 2 times on this trip to Namibia, and I will only include the images that I took from this first visit. I have to admit that I had a very difficult time trying to capture the area in a different way when compared to my previous trips there. I looked at my images and, for the most part, I was unhappy with my experimentation and results. I am not sure why, as I was emotionally connected when taking the shots, but the images on my screen just don't match how I felt when I was taking them. This is the age old challenge for nature photographers, and I got hit hard on this trip.

Overall, I had such a great time on this segment of my Namibia trip. The participants, my co-leader JP, the landscapes, the lodging and all of the staff along the way. This was certainly a trip that I will remember for a long, long time, and I hope to dig a few portfolio additions out of my raw files. I just need to decide which types of images I am really looking for, as I have images that are very similar to those from prior trips, and also new types of images that are very different and are more challenging to process. When I put a portfolio together, I always make sure that the overall tone, color palette and feel are consistent through all of the images. My style of photography is changing right now, and I am not sure where it is going to end up. I am having fun playing around with different looks, for sure, but these new ideas of processing may necessitate my going back to my older Namibia images to re-process them to have a more consistent look and feel to them.

 

Longitudinal Dune, Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 70-400mm, 1/30 @ f/11, ISO 100

 

Sand Slide, Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 24-70mm, 1/15 @ f/13, ISO 100

 

Photographer in the dunes, Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 70-400mm, 1/80 @ f/11, ISO 100

 

Dunes from above, Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 24-70mm, 1/500 @ f/7.1, ISO 200

 

Dunes near Sossuslvei, Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 16-35mm, 1/20 @ f/16, ISO 100

 

Repeating Triangles, Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 70-200mm, 1/40 @ f/11, ISO 100

 

Photographers in formation, Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 70-400mm, 1/100 @ f/4.5, ISO 100

 

Is this the new definition of a tripod? :-). Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 24-70mm, 1/6 @ f/8, ISO 100

 

JP at Deadvlei, Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 16-35mm, 1/160 @ f/8, ISO 100

 

Digging in for a shot, Namib-Naukuft Park, Namibia. Sony A900, 70-200mm, 1/30 @ f/5.6, ISO 100