If you live in the Edmonton area, we offer a wildlife photography course twice a year in the summer. Our next course will run September 8 & 9, 2018. To register, please visit Burwell School of Photography.
What better way to prepare for your safari than to learn some wildlife photography basics before you go. We start out with some classroom time then practice our techniques with my pet green winged macaw, Rio.
We go back to the classroom to view our images and discuss what we can do to improve our wildlife portraits. Then we drive out to Tofield to photograph Saw Whet Owls and peregrine falcons.
On day two we analyze our images again, learn more techniques on speed photography then we practice our new skill by photographing Rio, flying toward the photographers.
Bucket List Tours with HW Photo & Safaris Our Bucket List Masai Mara Wildlife Photo Safari is sold out. We have four spots open for our Masai Mara trip in February, 22 to March 7th, 2019.Visit HW Photo & Safaris for more details.
After each safari we make a video as a keepsake for our guests. Curious of what an HW Photo & Safari is like? Check out the video.
Email greg@hwphoto.ca to register for this bucket list Safari in Kenya.
When we go the Mara, we support four schools. In February we were able to bring in 1300 pounds in donations. School supplies, teaching supplies, washable feminine hygiene products, books and soccer balls. We even had 900 soccer jerseys donated by Millwoods Soccer Association. We take care of the donations. Guests can donate or not. Many of our guests in February just donated their extra allowable checked luggage space. Everyone was able to examine the bag that had their name on it. We did the rest. We collected the donations, packed and organized the donations in our bags.
Spending an afternoon with the children was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Anyone who isn't interested in visiting the school were able to go on a game drive while we were at the school.
This video was taken with an iPhone. That gives you an idea as to how habituated these wild bears are in this beautiful National Park in Alaska. This park is not accessible by road, so the brown bear viewing is much more special as there aren't crowds of people. Just a lot of bears. It is a very special wildlife experience. The below video is a fun video that we made for our last group.
We have 3 spots left. Please email greg@hwphoto.ca to register for this Alaskan Brown Bear Safari.
From there we chartered two Cessna planes and flew out to the Masai Mara where we stayed at two, five star luxury safari camps. Little Governors Camp again was amazing! The camp has such an amazing atmosphere with the tents opening up to the Marsh. Between game drives we enjoyed safaris right in our camp as the animals wandered through camp.
After our safari we made a slideshow for our guests:
We also took pictures and videos of our guests each day throughout the safari. Those images were uploaded to a secure webpage for my guests so each guest would have images from their safari as keepsakes.
We were able to collect and donate 1300 pounds of school supplies, teaching supplies, washable feminine hygiene products, clothing, shoes, soccer uniforms and shoes etc. It was truly an amazing experience. Meeting the children, handing out the supplies and playing soccer with the kids at the school was a highlight that I'm sure we will always cherish.
Our November, 2018 bucket list safari trip is full. The good news is we still have four spots available for our February, 2019 Safari. I welcome you to join us for another epic bucket list safari. Pictures from our safaris can be seen on our wildlife photography website at www.hwphoto.ca
For a 30 second glimpse of what our safari looks like, check out the video:
In this blog I have added a few images from my favourite places to photograph wildlife. South Africa, Kenya, Northern Canada, Southern France and Alaska.
As a wildlife
photographer I do a fair amount of traveling to different areas of the
world. I travel with high-end DSLR’s and big zoom and prime lenses. Add in a
subject and I am astounded by their ability to create sharp images of animals
moving at a distance in low light.
What has been bothering me the past few years is not
all of the images that I am taking, rather, all of the wonderful images I am
missing. As fantastic as DSLR’s and big lenses are, they are cumbersome and
attract attention. The majority of my time traveling is spent with this
equipment packed away in discreet cases that look like suitcases. I do this so
I don’t draw any attention to those who may be interested in relieving me of my
gear and or any money I have on me at the time. Once I get to my destination in
the bush or the jungle away from people the gear comes out and the magic
begins.
Each time I travel, I normally have a point and shoot
camera or I use my Iphone to photograph or record interesting images along the
way. The problem is there is a huge quality gap between what my DSLR produces
in images and what my Iphone or point and shoot camera produces. When I heard about Lightco's #Vantagepoint I got excited about their approach. A compact camera the size of my point and shoot that creates images that are of similar quality of my DSLR's. A high-quality camera that records videos in 4K and
has 16 lenses firing simultaneously to acquire those high-end images. In-camera
editing that I can edit on the plane looks great too!
With a camera like an L-16 Light camera I will be able
to stop over at the Eiffel Tower while in Paris in the evening to take
low-light images of the Eiffel tower lit up without carrying around expensive
looking bulky camera gear. Walking around Paris at night with expensive DSLR’s
then getting on the subway just screams “mug me”. While in India and visiting
the Taj Mahal, a camera like the L16 Light camera again gives me the quality of
my DSLR’s without attracting the attention of any poor locals who will drape
themselves over me in hopes that I will pay them to be my guide or carry my
gear etc. A high-end camera that fits in my pocket will allow me the freedom to
get all the images before and after the safari that I am looking for. This while
keeping a low profile and without adding significant weight to my carry-on bag.
This camera could fill the gap that I am looking for. I can't wait to try it
out.
Below are images from when a small group of us were
invited into our guide’s home in India. His daughter cooked a very special meal
for us with a propane heater on the floor of their kitchen/bedroom. (Kitchen
during the day and bedroom at night).
Below that are images of us being invited
into a hut in a Masai village. The inside of the hut is quite dark. It has a
small fire pit in the middle for those cold nights with two sleeping areas. One
for the kids and one for the mother. The walls of the hut are made of mud and
cow manure And below that are my favourite images from when a group of Masai
dancers stopped by in the evening and entertained us at my favourite camp in Kenya.
Each of those images required a discreet camera that worked well in low light without flash. As you can see, the only place I have recorded those images are in my memory because I didn’t have a discreet camera that would record DSLR quality images in low light. I am hoping that Lightco’s L-16 fill this void.
Days are pretty full while on safari. We get up at 5:45a.m., leave for safari at 6:15a.m., we're back at 11:30a.m. I download and back up my images, have lunch, quickly organize the images, then I hopefully get in a half hour snooze and we are out on safari again from 3:30p.m. to 6:30p.m. Once back at camp I download and back up images, shower, dinner at 7:30. Back at the tent, I diarize the days events, then am asleep by 9:30p.m.
Internet access is often spotty, so I haven't been blogging regularly while on safari these past few trips. I do want to be able to look back to use the blog as a reference, so I'm back home now and will finish it up where the internet is reliable and I have a little more time.
Entim Day Two, drives four and five:
We drove for about an hour west and found a
pride of lions sleeping. There were 3 lionesses, abig male and four, six month-old cubs. There
were a lot safari jeeps in the area. Thankfully those people got bored as the
lions were sleeping in the tall grass. They left and we had breakfast, then the
lions got up and started moving and we got some great images of them as they
walked down the road toward us.
Game Drive Five:
We found a serval cat. This was my first
serval cat sighting in the wild. She was beautiful, but unfortunately I didn’t
get any good images of her. It was sad. She walked around in the tall grass calling her babies.
It isn’t looking good for her. We watched her for a couple hours. She would
wander around and find a small treat here and there, then go back to that same
area and cry again.
Our first serval cat sighting
Day Three, drives six and seven:
We found a lioness with 5, two month old
cubs. Good news bad news. Good news? 5 cubs at a scenic setting down by the river. Bad news? Super dark. Not good enough for acceptable photos.
Game Drive Seven:
It was dark and raining really hard as we
attempted to photograph the mom and three lion cubs. I thought two had died as
there were only three left. Looking more closely at my images that evening, I discovered
that mom was babysitting two cubs that were slightly older than hers. We never
did catch up with either lioness or their cubs again.
Day Four, Drives eight and nine:
It was a very uneventful morning. I think it rained most of the night and the roads were like driving in grease. We were looking for the lioness and her cubs and got stuck and had to be towed out. I
took one picture of a huge crocodile on that game drive and then we got stuck again. Between the 5' long grass and the wet, I think the predators were just laying low.
Game Drive Nine:
Another uneventful drive.
Day Five, Game drives ten and eleven:
We found Sierra and her cub. Sierra was in a
tree when we pulled up. The light wasn’t great, but we spent virtually the
entire game drive with them so that was fun.
Game Drive Eleven:
We went out to see the cheetahs again. We
couldn’t find Sierra and her baby so we went on to find Maliaka and her two cubs
sleeping in thebush. They were boring
and we heard over the radio that they found Sierra so we drove out to see them.
They were lying high on a grassy, abandoned termite mound. We spent the rest of
the afternoon with them and got some great images. When it is really hot we drink a lot of water. When we drink a lot, we tend to have to "check the tire" a little more often than usual. On the way home from the cheetah sighting it was already really dark. Another
vehicle from Entim got a flat, so the guys had to change the tire in the mud,
in the dark. They did really well considering the circumstances. Our vehicle may get stuck, but we never once got a flat. We took credit for that. We were good "tire monitors'".
Day Six, Game drives twelve and thirteen:
Another tough morning. We couldn’t find
much in the way of game and in the five foot long grass, the predators could have been four feet away from the road and we would have driven right by not even knowing. It is amazing that we found anything in some places.
Game Drive Thirteen:
This game drive was a tough one. We started
out by looking for the lioness and the three cubs that were right near our
camp. We couldn’t find them so we went to the cheetahs. We couldn’t find Sierra,
but caught up with Maliaka and her two boys snoozing in the grass. They never
did get up, so we drove back to camp. On the way back it was getting pretty dark, but we found a hyena den with
two babies. Too cute.
Day Seven, Game drives fourteen and fifteen. Transfer to Little Governors' Camp and afternoon drive at Little Governors' Camp.
I thought this game drive would be mostly
just a transfer to Little Governors Camp. We started out by seeing a few
elephants. The baby elephant decided he was going to challenge our land rover
to a fight. It was pretty entertaining.
After that we saw Sierra and her cub in
their tree again. We followed them for about an hour, then went on our way. We
then saw about 15 hyenas. From there we went out of the park and through a town
where we met a once orphaned eland. She is now quite friendly and came up to
our landrover looking for food. I offered nuts, but she wouldn’t accept them. I
did scratch her behind the ears which she she seemed to tolerate.
From there we
photographed a baby zebra. After that we came upon lipstick, the four cubs and three lionesses. They had just taken down a topi. By the time we got there
there was nothing left but a few bits of meat on a rib cage which the jackals
were quite enjoying. We almost got to Little Governors’ camp and found a hyena
den with several babies, then troops of hundreds of baboons and herds totalling
about 50 elephants (that we could see on the way to camp). Ironically, the transfer to Little Governors' camp was one of our best game drives of the entire week! Images at Harvey Wildlife Photography.
We had a pretty successful morning drive.
It started with a jackal lying on the side of the road all cuddled up trying to
keep warm, then we saw a dozen or so hyenas in a few different groups. Hyenas
have a face that only a mother could love, but one layed down on the side of
the road so two of her babies could nurse.
A Face Only A Mother Could Love
Ugly or not, it was still sweet. We spent
a lot of the morning looking for a lioness and her three six- week old cubs, but
couldn’t find them. We gave up then caught up with a cheetah mom and her two
thirteen month-old cubs and spent a couple hours with them. It started with
them jumping on a jeep.
It is a big “no-no” allowing cheetahs on your vehicle. Guides can get in trouble if they get caught allowing this. Our sighting ended with a failed impala hunt. From there we caught up with another cheetah mom and her super cute 6 month old cub. They had just killed an impala. The six-month old was dragging the carcas around showing off how tough he is I guess. J The grass around them was really long so the picture opportunities were pretty scarce. And then they started eating. Their faces get all covered in blood which makes them less than photogenic, so we headed back to camp for lunch.
After lunch our game drive wasn’t very
fruitful until Gaye saw a leopard in a tree. It was a great sighting... for about
5 minutes until a vehicle pulled up too close and scared her down into the bush. We found
her in the bush a few minutes later and took a few shots of her only to realize that she wasn’t the
same leopard that we saw in the tree. This was one of her cubs. It turns out
that she had two cubs and over the next two days a lot of people drove over to see them. We have been busy with lions, but hopefully we will be able to find them again at some
point.
My images aren't up yet, but will be at my website Harvey Wildlife Photography On our next game drive we caught up with a pride of lions and some crazy cute lion cubs. I haven't edited them yet, but I think on that drive I got my first good images of the trip to date, so I was really happy about that drive. I will edit one and add it to the next blog posting.
What better way to prepare for your safari than to learn some wildlife photography basics before you go. We start out with some classroom time then practice our techniques with my pet green winged macaw, Rio.
