What are you doing in March? How about a trip to Tanzania.

I got a really late start announcing my March 6, 2010 Tanzania safari, and as a result I still have some spots available for this photographic safari. Here are some bullet points:

Dates: March 6-18, 2010

Where: Tanzania

Parks visited: Serengeti National Park (2 camp locations), Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park

Tanzania, south of Kenya on the African continent's Indian Ocean coastline, lays claim to the title Home of the Safari, since the word itself is taken from the Swahili word that means "journey." While Tanzania's Kenyan neighbors may dispute that claim, there is no doubt that Tanzania offers one of the best environments in the world for an enriching wildlife experience. The country's game viewing opportunities are considered by many to be the best in Africa. Its game parks are populated with many of the world's most exotic creatures, including all of the "Big Five." Its lakes are huge and bountiful with fish. Its cities are relaxed and friendly. Yet, to a greater degree than is true of many of its neighbors, this sprawling county, the largest in East Africa, remains untouched by the vacationing hordes.

It's About Photography — Lots of it

This workshop will be very informal and fun. I will be shooting alongside you at all times. We will have discussion and assistance on specialized topics such as, for example, long lens technique, projection flash usage, action shooting, wildlife observation, field craft and east African animal behavior. Advanced techniques will be constantly discussed, demonstrated and put into practice.

This workshop is about shooting. Lots of shooting. There will be no classroom sessions, no lectures, no slide shows, and most importantly, no unnecessary egos. We will all work closely together, sharing our knowledge and experience.

Because of the unique location of this workshop, and the luxury accommodations, this workshop adventure is open to spouses as well as photographers. Even non-photographers will find the locales visited and the wildlife viewing opportunities to be thrilling. The cost for non-photographers is the same as for active participants.

For the complete schedule and more details, you can click on this link for more information.

Please email me at andybiggs@gmail.com if you have an interest in this safari. There are only a few spots left!

Behind the scenes photos from our Lightroom and the Fine Art Digital Print workshop

Here are some behind the scenes photographs from our most recent workshop. All images copyright ©2009 Michael Clark.

Indoor teaching session on fine art digital printing

On our first afternoon, we saw the first snowfall of the year up near the Santa Fe ski basin

Trevor, our resident gear hound, putting his Hasselbad to work

Liftoff at the Balloon Fiesta

We spent an afternoon taking a nice hike near Georgia O'Keefe's home at Abiquiu, New Mexico

Santa Fe workshop followup

I have just returned from a workshop that I co-led with friend and adventure photographer Michael Clark. The workshop was located in the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and over a 4-day period we had 4 outdoor photo shoots and 4 indoor lectures. The outdoor shoots were a mix between the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and landscape locations near Santa Fe. The indoor lectures were split between Adobe Lightroom's Library and Development modules and ending up with a fine art digital printing lecture with hands-on printing.

We had 16 participants with both Michael and I as instructors, as well as 1 assistant. We based the workshop at Hotel Santa Fe, and we couldn't be any happier with their facilities, proximity to good culture and dining, as well as service.

I took both still photographs as well as high definition video during the workshop, and I have to say that shooting video is a whole different ball game. This was my first time to shoot any video, and the first thing that I learned was that I need to storyboard what I want to shoot before I even turn the camera on.

I am still processing video and some of the images from the workshop, and will post a few behind-the-scenes shots soon. Michael and I are working on doing similar workshops in Santa Fe in 2010, and we are putting the plans in place right now. Here are a few photos from the Balloon Fiesta:

Nikon D700, 14-24mm @ 14mm, 1/40 @ f/3.5, ISO 1250

Nikon D700, 14-24mm @ 18mm, 1/1250 @ f/8, ISO 400

Michael, Linda and Jim

D700, 24-70mm, 1/250 @ f/8, ISO 400. Pop-up fill-flash (notice the round shadow at the bottom? Don't use the lens hood when using the built-in flash on the D700 or D300!)

D700, 14-24mm @ 24mm, 1/250 @ f/5.6, ISO 800

D700, 24-70mm, 1/800 @ f/8, ISO 400

Arches and Canyonlands Workshop, April 2010

Double Exposure: Moab, Utah, April 28 - May 2, 2010

April 28 - May 2, 2010

Workshop Leaders: Andy Biggs and Scott Martin

I will be running my annual Arches and Canyonlands Workshop again next year, and the dates are set for April 28 - May 2. For the workshop I am teaming up with my friend Scott Martin, and it is sure to be yet another fun and exciting workshop.

We wll be basing the workshop out of Moab, Utah, and will include accommodations at my favorite place to stay, The Gonzo Inn. The Gonzo Inn has free wi-fi internet access, which is a great thing for those who hate to pull away from daily life.

This workshop will be packed with both field and classroom instruction. We will be in the field early in the morning and early in the evening to catch the dawn and dusk light with classroom time in between. We will have discussion and assistance while out in the field each day. Advanced techniques will be constantly discussed, demonstrated and put into practice. We will all work closely together, sharing our knowledge and experience. During classroom sessions we will focus on photography workflow from capture to print using Adobe Lightroom. Participants will be encouraged to perfect their workflows and incredible detail will be paid to every aspect of importing files, organizing them, keywording, image development and fine are printmaking. This workshop will be a great chance for photographers to fine tune their workflows while making new work. We will all work closely together, sharing our knowledge and observations. Each day will have a critique of the previous days work.

This workshop is specifically for photographers who want to learn photography techniques all the way from exposure to image processing and printmaking. Light, composition, equipment choices and subject matter are some of the specific things we will discuss. Everyone will have”exposure” with two instructors with complimentary approaches to photography. All participants will be able to work on their own images and will go home with a print of their favorite image from the workshop. We expect that amauters and seasoned digital imaging professionals alike will benefit from the course. Participants should expect to share some of their images for review, as the goal of this workshop is to enjoy the creative process, learn from each other and to grow as image makers.

Registration

The price for the workshop is $995. Transportation, lodging and meals are not included. For a workshop with two great instructors and a small number of participants, we hope you’ll find this to be an excellent value. Use the button below to reserve your space for the workshop. $995 will be charged to your card on April 1st, 2010, at which point it is non-refundable. Your card will not be charged until April 2010.

After reserving your space in the workshop, call one of the hotels mentioned below to reserve a room.

Workshop Testimonial: Stephen Starkman

Stephen Starkman recently traveled with me and John Paul Caponigro to Namibia, Africa. Stephen was kind of enough to share his exceptional photographs with me, as well as his testimonial. Thanks so much, Stephen!

As a side note, John Paul will be returning to Namibia next year in September 2010 to lead another Namibia landscape workshop. I will be formally announcing the workshop in the coming days, however I have already posted the itinerary online:

Namibia Photographic Workshop with John Paul Caponigro

September 20-30, 2010

"..Andy, I cannot thank you enough for all his hard work putting together our workshop in south and central Namibia. You are a man of exceptional talent and infinite patience (well, almost infinite!). You are also an incredibly talented photographer, as is evident in the pages on your website. I wouldn't hesitate for a minute taking another workshop with Andy. Andy - we all had a blast - and now some exceptional photographs to show for it!"

Only 2 spots left for Galapagos next May, 2010

Galapagos Islands Workshop

May 15-23, 2010
Limited to 18 participants (only 2 spots remaining) Sold Out

Well, my Galapgos Islands Workshop for May, 2010 is almost booked up. I have 1 cabin remaining on the upper deck. Once that cabin is spoken for, that's it!

If you have a measurable interest in joining us next year, please let me know as soon as you can by emailing me at info@andybiggs.com. I am confident that these spots will not remain available for much longer.

Workshop and Safari openings

As you can tell from my schedule on my main web site (here), most of my safaris and workshops fill up and fill up early. Here is a quick status of those workshops and safaris in the next 12 months, found below. If you are wondering what your 2010 year will look like, my recommendation is to consider an African photographic safari! You can read my past safari testimonials online. I wish I could put all of the testimonials online, but there just isn't enough room (seriously)!

2009

October 8-11: Adobe Lightroom and the Fine Art Digital Print (Sold Out)

October 16-31: Ultimate Tanzania Photo Safari (Sold Out)

2010

February 25 - March 9: Tanzania Photo Safari (Sold Out)

March 6 - 18: Tanzania Photo Safari (Spots available)

May 15-23: Galapagos Islands (1 spot available)

July 21 - August 1: Botswana, The Premier Wildlife Photo Safari (Sold Out)

August 3-12: African Wildlife Photography Bootcamp (Sold Out)

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