I’ve had a great time over the past 10 days reviewing all of my video clips from my time in Kenya and putting together some highlights as the last instalment of my wide angles only project. With the exception of the lion cub video clip, which was shot on a Panasonic FX1000, all clips were done on the Gopro, and I edited and built the video using the free Gopro studio software.
If you missed the video from Uganda, you can find that here.
Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead. It’s time for me to ponder what my topic will be for May.
The photo challenge topic for the week is lines (not the kind you were stuck writing in school if you were misbehaving in class…) 🙂
Here are a few images that I found that I feel have a strong linear element to them. I hope you enjoy.
A game trail through the desert leads up a hill and around a bend. Don’t you find yourself wondering what might be just beyond the line of sight? Namibia, April 2017.Jagged hills zigzagging into the distance in this aerial shot above the Damaraland region of Namibia. April, 2017.Game trails through the desert again, but this time leading us to a lioness heading towards the river for a drink. Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp, April 2017.A road through the Nxai Pan leading to the Baines Baobabs. The image is deceiving, as the tree trunks are as wide as a vehicle. Botswana, May 2017.I took this image of the sky while on a sundowner drinks stop; I was drawn to the way the setting sun was illuminating the linear clouds. South Africa, May 2017.
My wide angles only project took a bit of an unexpected detour this week, into video editing. I took loads of GoPro stills and video during my 2016 trip to Uganda and Kenya, and never did anything with them. I think I edited one, possibly two GoPro still images. Since the GoPro is by design a very wide angle camera, I thought going through my archives to find some still shots might be fun, but it turned out that compiling a video was more compelling.
I’ve created a short video that follows my journey through Uganda; from Kihihi to Bwindi, onto Ishasha, the Kazinga Channel, the Kyambura Gorge, Kibale Forest and then ending in Entebbe. The still image for the post and the video of the Batwa tribe were shot with my Nikon camera, but the balance was all with the GoPro, generally on a head mount or out the window of a vehicle. Video is not something I’ve ever spent much time on, but it does provide a good feel for what the areas, and a little glimpse into what the gorilla and chimp treks are like. Pardon the shakiness at times and awkward head bobbing; when I was with the gorillas I was taking stills with my Nikon while wearing the GoPro on a head mount.
I hope you enjoy this week’s project. I’ll be going through my Kenya videos for next week.
It’s only the second instalment of my wide angles only topic for the month, and I was honestly ready to bail on it already. The days when it was nice this week, I was knee deep in work and couldn’t sneak off with my camera. Then the weekend arrived with the promise of more free time to get out and explore, and for the most part, dull, grey skies have been the order of the days. Add to that the slowly melting snow carpeting the landscape in a dirty blanket and you’ve not really got the recipe for epic landscape images.
But, despite all that, I went out for a wander in one of the local parks yesterday and I had a great time. Sure it was muddy and slushy and lots of paths and areas were inaccessible, but it felt awesome to go out and shoot. It was also fun to be limited by only having one lens with a small range, and having to focus on things that wouldn’t probably be my first inclination.
I’m definitely going to have to get creative though if I am going to come up with something for each Sunday of April. Stop by next weekend to see what I have come up with.
I hope you enjoy the selections for this week.
A foot bridge heading into Cottonwood Park in Prince George. 1/150 sec, f13, ISO 400 at 10mm.Do you feel like you are being watched? The park features several carvings in the massive trees that line the paths. 1/180sec, f6.4, ISO 400, 10mmAnother view of one of the carvings in the trees. 1/450sec, f6.4, ISO 400, 10mm.This is as colourful as the day was when I was out wandering. Even then, I still applied a “colour boost” filter during editing. 1/5800 sec, f4, ISO400, 10mmThe trees reaching their barren limbs up towards the sunshine. Soon, there will be leaves to obscure all the birds that chirped and sung as I wandered along. 1/340 sec, f20, ISO 400I had never contemplated photographing a small, fast moving bird like a chickadee with a wide angle lens. But the birds in the park are so tame and used to people, that I had one land on my hat while I was taking images of the face in the trees. I crouched in front of this stump after seeing the birds landing on it, pre-focused, and waited for one to stop by. 1/680 sec, f4, ISO 400 at 24mm
The photo challenge topic of the week is sunrise and sunset. Here is one of each from my travels in Southern Africa.
Sunrise on my last dat of safari. May, 2017.A flock of red-billed quelea searching for a spot to roost as night falls over the Okavango Delta. May, 2017
There’s a simple answer to the question posed in this week’s photo challenge “Where would you rather be?”.
I’d rather be on safari!
I’d rather be watching the sun set over the bush with a glass of wine in hand, and great company to have a chat with.I’d rather be watching the birds from the shade of a lodge veranda.I’d rather be looking out at the vast expanse of the universe, listening to the sounds of the bush at night.I’d rather be taking the opportunity to discover new cultures.I’d rather be out learning and experiencing different ways of life.I’d rather be looking at this view over lunch, than working away on my computer. I’d rather be dealing with this type of traffic while out for a drive.And of course, I’d much rather be hanging around with elephants.
The photo challenge topic of the week is out of this world. I’ve chosen to share a stitched panorama image that I shot while exploring the Skeleton Coast in Namibia. We flew to the coast from camp for a day of exploration, and as we were driving through the dunes we came across this beautiful oasis in the middle of vast tracts of featureless sand dunes. It truly was an out of this world landscape to see.
This might be an odd take on the topic of the week, a face in the crowd, but the purpose of the topic was to using different angles and orientations, shadow and silhouette to mask some of the features of the subject.
Portraits aren’t my thing, so I have decided to share a silhouette image.
