Photography by Randy Hanna

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

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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

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