Monday, October 26, 2009

Wildlife Photo Safaris

I have been busy lately doing my best to organize images on the internet. People often ask about how my safari destinations and what they are like etc. Truth be told, the photo safaris are the fun part, but they are a heck of a lot of work!  I research what animal(s) I am interested in photographing, then try to find the best places to go. I save and plan and save and plan until the day comes. After traveling for a day(s) to get to our destination, I set my goal to take 1500 images per day while on safari. Now, providing that the weather cooperates and we find the wildlife we are looking for, 1500 images is a lot of pictures and being as the safaris are expensive and we only go on a couple trips a year, I like to minimize my risks with them. The travel brochures show tourists doing all kinds of exotic fun things. Lounging by the pool, horseback riding on the beach, zip lines, etc. My time on safari? Not so exotic. We safari, and then I spend the rest of the time either eating, sleeping or editing and backing up my pictures. I just barely get the pictures downloaded and backed up and it is time to eat, sleep or go back on safari again. Not to mention that I actually only have time to sleep a few hours per night. That is literally how much time I have to spend on editing, organizing and backing up.

Getting to why I have been busy lately, no I haven't been on safari since the first week of July, but I am still editing and publishing to the internet. I think I have a pretty good system going now though. Check out my wildlife photography website.

Needless to say, I have been working with these pictures and even some of my African pictures still and I got back from Africa in December of '08! So, yes the trips are exciting, but they come with an amazing amount of work, but I wouldn't have it any other way...

Stay tuned. I am looking forward to photographing polar bear sows and cubs in February... Sounds cool right? It is more than cool. It is friggin' cold! This isn't the tourist edition where you eat in the dining car of a tundra buggy and look out the window at the polar bears. This is freezing your toucas off waiting for mother polar bear to come out of her den with her two month old cub(s).

In September, '10, it will be photographing the great migration in the Masai Mara, Kenya. I am really looking forward to photographing cheetahs, leopards, lions, giraffes, elephants, various antelope and of course a million and a half wildebeast. And with any luck, I will have the images posted on the websites before September '11!

Harvey Wildlife Photography Contact Information