Photography by Randy Hanna

Three exciting photo safaris have recently been announced. Could one of these trips have your name on it?

Dates for the Galapagos safari are 3-13 June 2011. This is your chance to visit and photograph the islands that have stood still in time since their first discovery by Darwin.

Dates for the March safari to Kenya for the Masai Mara Plains in are 14-23 March 2011.  This safari will focus on the cats and landscapes of the Masai Mara.  Due to the remoteness of this trip, only 6 travelers will be participating in this exciting adventure.

Dates for the August safari to Tanzania are 14-26 Aug 2011. Every year I return to Tanzania to lead a fantastic photo and wildlife viewing safari.  This trip, as opposed to my winter trips, will focus on the more northern section of the Serengeti in addition to Ngorongoro Crater and the Central Serengeti.  Please note that this trip has been previously announced and is currently 50% full.

Cheers and I look forward to seeing you on one of my safaris.  Should you have any questions about these safaris, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Randy

Tags: Africa, Galapagos, Kenya, photo safari, photo safaris, Tanzania

More on panning……….

While photographing near Amboseli Nation Park, a herd of some 20 elephants were making their way across the dry plains toward the swamp areas inside the National Park.   For no reason, the rear of the group broke into a run.  Two quick turns of the dials on the D3s and I was ready to capture the run as a panning shot.

Baby and Mother Elephant Running

Nikon D3s, 200-400 VR, at 400;  f/18, ISO 200 at 1/10 sec

Elephants are capable of running in short bursts up to 30 mph and slower speeds for an extended period of time.  They can burst into a full run from a normal walk in just seconds.  Using a slower shutter speed, and solid panning techniques, I was able to capture this moderate run.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Our last night in Amboseli National Park and outside in the Conservation Area found us with several wonderful opportunities as giraffes traveled from the distant forests near Tanzania to the park swamps for water.  As daylight started to fall, I saw the opportunity to do some panning shots  after the giraffes were spooked off of the watering hole.  In these shots, the technique is to lower your shutter speed to a level that will convey motion.  Some of this takes a bit of experience as well as a little bit of luck.  The faster the animal is running, the higher shutter speed you can use. Conversely, the slower the movement the lower the shutter speed needs to be or you will simply ‘freeze the frame’.  The key element is to pick out one point on the animal and follow the motion through just like a golf swing.  In most cases I try to capture the head and eyes as the focus point, if possible.  The rest is all in the motion of the camera,  the follow through, and a solid guess on exposure.

Giraffes Drinking

Nikon D3s, 70-200 f2.8 VR @ 200, f/8.0, ISO 200 at 1/500 sec

Giraffe Running

Nikon D3s, 70-200 f2.8 VR @ 200, f/22, ISO 200 at 1/60 sec

Giraffe Running Full Speed

Nikon D3s, 70-200 f2.8 VR @ 200, f/8.0, ISO 200 at 1/20 sec

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Tags: Amboseli, Giraffe, Kenya, Safari

It is 108 degrees F  out side in Dubai and all of the power has left the station (no more power at the airport power stations for laptops).  I can’t think of a better photo to explain my frustration than one of me playing Elephant Dung Soccer (note the large elephant in the background).  The freshly disturbed soil is a path that the elephants are currently using in their daily migration from Tanzania to  Amboseli

I mentioned in the previous posting, the 2 hour negotiation event that netted us three Maasi for a two hour photo shoot starting at dawn the following day. Here are some behind the scenes shots of the Great Negotiator, getting his butt handed to him by the Maasi from a nearby village. At the end of the day, everyone was happy.

Tags: Africa, Amboseli, Kenya, Maasi, Safari

For more than two hours Joesph (our guide) and I negotiated with local Maasi tribe members for a special photo opportunity. Finally, we cut the deal – for $150 US (plus whatever tip we chose to add in), three Maasi warriors in full paint and dress would show up at 0700 the following day for a two-hour photo shoot on a near by hill. We then spent about an hour scouting shoot locations on the hill, selecting three positions that would likely work given the variety of lighting conditions that we would likely face the next day.

Shoot day came early as we departed the lodge at 0600, arriving at the hill shortly ahead of the Maasi. A fast set up with cameras, tripods and flash gear; we were about as ready as we could be for our two-hour shoot. Early cloud cover soon changed to 10-15% cloud cover with lots of sun breaks. This condition made for a very sweet light; however, it would soon be fast-changing to give us quite the lighting challenge (wow, does the light get bright quickly in Africa!). The Maasi showed up right on cue and seemed eager to get to work. We soon discovered that positioning non-professional Maasi models was a challenge due to the language barrier but we made the best of it and soon had them laughing by using our hand gestures and grunting sounds. Thank goodness our guide was conversant in Maasi as well as Swahili. The images below are a few samples of the hundreds we shot on the hill top.

Once we were off the hill and onto the floor of the conservancy, we found the mid-morning light to be too harsh because of the bright sun – this was unlike our previous days of shooting from sun up to sun down under cloudy skies with flat light. So, after a few elephant shots, we were back to the lodge for lunch, a brief change to catch up on email and to make this post.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

For the past four days, we have been deep in the Masai Mara at Mara Plains Camp. With intermittent internet connections, blog updates have not been possible until today. It is very late so I will post only this very short post. Over the past four days we photographed two large river crossings (Wildebeest), and several cats, to include an early morning chase and kill by a single female lion. We have now moved to Tortilis Camp next to Ambosili National Park, to photograph large elephant herds. So until my next posting, I leave you with this photograph of an intense river crossing. The sights and sounds of this event, simply cannot be described in words alone.

Wildebeest Crossing, Masai Mara, Kenya

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Tags: Mara Plains Camp, Masai Mara, Wildebeest Crossings

After a brutal flight from Dubai to Nairobi aboard Emirates (the big guy does not do small seats very well), the three die-hard photographers will soon board our private charter flight taking us deep into the Masai Mara.  Rather than spending hours on the road, I selected a private charter option to maximize our shooting time on the ground.

I was excited to hear from the camp staff last night that large herds of Wildebeests are doing their river crossing activities.  With a little luck, I hope to put us right in the middle of the action.  For now, here is a graphic of what is going on (Source: Mara Bush Camp Migration Report):

Migration Report, 1 Aug 2010

For a generalized look at our first destination,   Mara Plains Camp, I have attached a map from their web site.  While at Mara Plains, I will find time to visit the Mara Bush Camp, which I will be using for my Kenya safari next year.  Off to the airport in about one hour, this will likely be my last posting for a while, unless I can catch a solid signal from the bush.

Mara Plains Camp Location

Tags: Mara Bush Camp, Mara Plains Camp, Masai Mara, Migration

TWELVE  hours later from Washington DC, I faced a temperature of 107F on landing.  Dubai, an interesting mix of modern finance, incredible infrastructure, all with a mix of classic Muslim overtones. With Starbucks on just about every block, and often sightings of everything from Pizza Hut to Tony Roma’s, it took no time at all to feel somewhat at home. Staying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, while en-route to Kenya, I spent most my time doing night photography of the wonderful skyline. With the winds blowing off-shore and the atmosphere full of fine sand particles, the sky was set ablaze with reflections from the artificial lights that adorn the night scape . This later proved to be somewhat of a challenge, as I found myself working vary hard for angles that minimized the reflected light and the impacts of the airborne sand particles.   Armed with my Nikon D3s, optimized for long exposure noise reduction, I hit the beach in hopes of finding just the right spot to photograph the Dubai Icon, Burj Al Arab. The constantly changing lights on the surfaces of the hotel put on a wonderful light show.  The images below are all single shot exposures from different locations along the Jumeirah Beach Road Exposures were taken in manual mode after doing a fast exposure calculation (sometimes my brain really does work). Exposure times ranged from 15 to 45 seconds, all at ISO 400 and f/9. No noise reduction, other than in camera settings, was applied.  Kudos to the new D3s sensor!!! Everytime I turn around, the D3s just keeps surprising me.  More on the Jumeirah Beach Hotel on the next update. Meanwhile, enjoy the light show below.

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Tags: Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, UAE

The sand dunes of Northern Namibia, while inhospitable, can produce some very spectacular imagery.  As a photographer, I had to work very hard to capture in digits, what my eyes could seen.  While the advances of modern digital cameras have been nothing short of spectacular, they are still a long way from the dynamic range of the human eye.  The image below was taken in Northern Namibia, deep in the dunes, looking north directly toward Angola.

Sunrise in the Dunes of Namibia

Nikon D300, 17-55mm VR at 38mm, ISO 200, f/10 at 1/100 sec

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Tags: Angloa, Namibia, Sand Dunes, Sera Cafema