Photography by Randy Hanna

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

I am in the process of getting ready to head off to Africa again.  In doing so, I am taking some time to rearrange my image storage and management scheme.  Just finishing up with my images from my May 09 Namibia trip in hopes of releasing the Namibia gallery before I leave – we shall see.  So here is the shot, deep from the dunes inland from our Skeleton Coast base camp.  Looking at this image, I was instantly transported back to the dunes; a place that I found very difficult to photograph, yet a place that I must return to.

'Morning Glow' over the inland dunes of the Skeleton Coast, Namibia

Tags: Namibia; Sand Dunes, Skeleton Coast

While discussing image storage and management the other day with a past safari client, I mentioned that I am tossing fewer and fewer images into the electronic abyss these days.   If fact, I frequently find myself returning to Lightroom (LR)  to process some of those shots that dropped out on the first cut.  With the ability of LR to often effectively recover overexposed images with ease, I am often surprised what I can pull out of the trash can (you can also do this recovery in Photoshop however, LR seems just a little more intuitive to me).  The image below is a screen shot of the develop module showing the results of before and after processing.  Normally I would have simply made a terminal pass of this image due to an accidental setting in my camera.  With LR I can recover images such as these with ease.  Even more powerful is LR3; with impressive improvements from LR2, it is my mainstay for processing my digital images.  Setting the white and black points with a brightness correction results in a totally usable image.  Additional enhancements included a gentle “S” curve and other minor tweaks.  Total processing time on this image was less than 2 minutes.  Once I am happy with the final image, I export to PS CS5 for sharpening and  final print preparation.

The finished image ready for web is below.  BTW, I have never seen skies as blue as those in Namibia (no enhancement to the skies).

May 2009, Nikon D300, 17-55mm @ 55mm, ISO 200, f/10 at 1/160 sec

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Mother and Six Cubs

Nikon D2x, 500mm, f 5.6 at 1/500 sec

One of my all time favorite shots from my 2008 Safari.  While it is not uncommon to see a  mother Cheetah and a couple of cubs, not often do you see six cubs.  Our guides estimated the age of the cubs to be about two months.  The great event was seeing the same mother and five of the six cubs in 2009 as they chased down a Reed Buck.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Tags: Africa, Serengeti, Tanzania

As noted in my previous posting, I had an opportunity last Friday to participate in a Nik Software webinar previewing their new HDR solution.  Nik representatives were also on hand at the Glazers Camera Shore Street Fair (Seattle) this past weekend, so I have plenty of time to pick the brains of the Nik folks.  What did I learn?  They are very busy reworking their entire software line to support the 64bit Photoshop CS4 and CS5 (no real surprise here, but it was refreshing to know they are working it hard).  They know they are behind in this effort and are really pushing to reset their software (currently all of their products work in the Lightroom  (LR) and Photoshop (PS) environment however only Viveza is currently available in the 64bit PS environment) .  Back to Nik HDR – This new software will be available for PS and LR and will be offered in both 32 and 64 bit plug-in applications vs. a stand alone program.  The interface carries the classic user interface that Nik users have come to love, especially the U-point control technology which allows for pin-point controls across the image.  The HDR program carries an effects preview pane in the LR Navigator window very similar to Silver Effects or Color Effects, allowing the photographer to visually see the proposed enhancement before actually committing to the change.  While Nik’s approach is wonderful for those wanting to put their foot into the HDR pond without having to learn all about tone-mapping, it’s power really lies in using the U-point control technology to ‘get at’ the changes  you need to make without getting into complicated selective masking in PS.  Another real sweet feature is the effort-less manner in which images are selected for inclusion into the HDR solution (using the LR interface).   Along with Lucas Art and Photomatix, Nik HDR will be a welcomed addition to my HDR kit bag.  Look for a late July release (estimated) for the NIK HDR product.  No pricing information available. 

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Tags: HDR, Lightroom Plug-ins, Nik Software

As many of you know, I use all of the NIK products (usually) in much of my digital photo development.  I also use a number of products in my High Dynamic Range work, so I am always on the lookout for the lastest and greatest developments in these areas.  You can imagine my excitment when I ran across this annoucement while I was crusing the net late last night: ‘Nik Software about to release their own version of HDR software’.  I am hopeful that it will be a plug-in for Lightroom as well as PS4/5.  Based on my previous experiance with the Nik product line, it is sure to be a hit for those of us that play in the HDR zone.  For now, sign up for additional information on their advanced release notice over at Nik Software.  As soon as I get my hands on this, I will be sure to review it along with my two cents worth.

http://niksoftware.com/index/sneakpeek/HDR.php

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Tags: digital image processing, HDR, Nik Software

Seems that several of my prints are always the topic of donation items for a number of non-profit organizations around the Puget Sound area.  While I would love to support everyone that asks, I generally limit myself to one or two major print donations per year.  This year one of my signature prints, The Lady Washington Crossing Commencement Bay, was the surprise auction item for the 2010 Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB) annual auction.  This event, attended by people from all walks of life, included numerous local political leaders as well as Congressman Norm Dicks.  In addition to raising a ton of money for the education and pollution abatement efforts of CHB, a grand time was had by all.  My donation for this auction was one of my largest prints that I have done to date, measuring some 48×38 inches.  Printed on an Epson wide-carriage professional printer and mounted with acid free mats and  museum grade glass, she was all I could carry by myself.  Given the general state of the economy, I was very pleased with the final bid price that she delivered; no doubt she will grace a wall with pride.

Photo taken with my iPhone

I will be leading two safaris into Tanzania during 2011.  These will offer two distinct seasons of Africa and both will feature opportunities for viewing and photographing one of the great wonders of the world, the great wildebeest migration (as long as Mother Nature cooperates).  We will also pursue photography of Cheetahs, Lions, and Leopards as well as huge elephants herds and the incredibility wildlife rich and scenic Serengeti Plains.   February 2011 will  offer that magic splash of green that comes after the fall rains, while August brings the classic African tans and browns in the landscape.  As with all of my Tanzanian safaris, I will be using Thomson Safaris for my logistical and travel support. I have used Thomson’s since my very first adventure into Tanzania and the are simply the best of the best.   The proof of this is in the numerous awards that they receive and their ever-constant commitment ecotourism as well as their commitment to the indigenous people of Tanzania.  Their most recent awards include the National Geographic Best Adventure Outfitters on Earth for 2008 and 2009 and the Conde Nast World Savers Award for 2008.

Jan 27 – Feb 8, 2011

Aug 14-26, 2011

Tags: Africa, Safari, Serengeti, Tanzania, Thomson Safaris

Not very often does one run across an application that makes your life simple when it comes to taking photographs.  In this case TPE  is free, available for Mac, PC, was well as the the iPhone.   While there are many applications for the computer and iPhone which annotate sunrise and sunset for a given location, this little beauty stands apart from the crowd as a true interactive planning tool.  The Photographer’s Ephemeris  can depict  sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset PLUS it will show the actual sun angle at any give hour from any given location, all with the Google Earth / Google Maps in the background. TPE is fairly simple in concept: 1) display a Google Map 2) choose a date 3) calculate and display a bunch of astronomical data.  The tricky part comes from the connection between 1 and 2. Most similar programs and web-sites have you select from a pre-defined list of locations, where, presumably, things such as the relevant time zone are already saved – not much help if you are in the middle of BFE and it is not on the pre-defined list.  I love it as a planning tool and will use it in planning my outdoor shoots.  As an example, the screen shots below indicate the sun angle by the thin yellow line, while the thicker yellow/orange lines indicate sunrise and sunset direction.  Lots of detailed explanations are on the site so give it a look.

Head on over to The Photographer’s Ephemeris and run the tutorials, download the application.  If you like it be sure to come back and toss the author some coins for his efforts.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Tags: The Photographers Ephemeris

It has been super busy for me of late so I just now getting around to starting to some trip highlights from February.  For the Feb 2010 Photo Safari, we visited Arusha National Park, Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara, Gibbs Farm, Ngorongoro Conservation Area (including the famed Crater), and the Serengeti National Park (with a private flight back from the Serengeti  to Arusha).  The map below will give you an idea of the distance we covered.  During this trip, I used an AMOD data logger to capture our routes of travel in a GPS format.  I have successfully converted one of several legs from NEMA to the KML format required for Google Earth and will be posting those and well as the process in later postings.

Parks of Tanzania

Basing out of my favorite lodge in Arusha, Mountain Village,  Arusha National Park was our first part visit.  This park is known for the Colobus Monkeys that are found only in Tanzania at this park and around the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  These crazy monkeys are somewhat elusive, and are usually found deep in the double canopies of the Park.  This location, combined with their black fur which sports a long wide white stripe down their back and continuing the full length of their tail, make for difficult photography.  Looking closely at these monkeys, they seem to have the face of an old man – like someone is looking back at you when you are taking their photographs.

I'm Watching You

Nikon D300, 200-400VR, ISO 500, f6.6 at 1/160 sec

Up next:  Those crazy elephants of Tarangire National Park

Cheers and happy photo’ing