One and a half hours up the windswept west coast from Cape Town (not far from my favourite little town of Paternoster) is a place called Shelley Point. I am not one for big hotels but Jen convinced me to go there for a night this weekend and we were were not sorry. There are specials at the hotel that start from R850 a night for a family of 4 and we found 5 star facilities, great service and facilities and that includes a massive slap up breakfast. We spent the day exploring the area (fantastic long beaches, lighthouses, fishing villages) and then retreated to the comforts of the hotel for lunches and relaxing. Sitting round the pool ordering Pina Coladas, beers and snacks from the excellent and very good value Cattle Baron Restaurant, we thought that this was a really good spot for a family get together or a retreat for young families with small kids. There are quite a few activities (tennis, golf, bowls, gym, spa) and there is a kiddy club and babysittters so parents can enjoy a quiet dinner. The rooms are double storey and extremely luxurious with airconditioning, two TVs and great bathrooms. OK, so it does not have girls with garlands and flowers andtropical waters but if you are wanting a Mauritius type experience close to home this is the nearest thing that I have found … and its really good value.  You will need to get over the fact that the hotel is in a gated complex but its quite nice not to have locals selling you crayfish on every turn and pillaging your possissions if you don’t lock the door as happens in Paternoster  Also the hotel does not have a beach location (its a 300 metre) walk but it looks out onto the golf course area and its actually quite pleasant not to be right in the salt and sea of this rather chilly and sometimes misty coastline. If you are going up to the West Coast best to check out the wind forecast.

Have just returned from Jacis Safari Camp doing some images for their newly developed Safari Lodge — which is all part of the Classic Safari Camps of Africa book that I am updating.  had some fun with my panoramic tripod head. These images were stitched using Photoshop CS5 and I think that it did a pretty good job. I lost the sky on the original image and did my best to blend in a new one taken that same evening. CS5 has some pretty fine selection and refine edges tools but its really tricky with the leaves. It looks a bit artificial but overall I think its a nice effect. A bit more work and it might be perfect.

If Okahirongo Elephant Camp in Kaokoland felt remote, then its sister camp Okahirongo River  was like travelling the end of the earth. It lies 200 kilometres deeper into Kaokoland along spectacularly rutted dirt roads that wend through a lunar landscape of gravel plains and mountains of mica schist streaked with quart and marble. Most guests fly into camp but we took the bumpy road and it was spectacular. The old red drum that marked the entrance to the Marienfluss Valley gave no clue to the grandeur that lay beyond. We were met by a soft yellow canvas of grass that was punctuated by wide fairy circles and which contrasted strongly with the jagged black peaks of the Hartmann’s Mountains that lay beyond. …. This text is in draft format and and an excerpt from an entry will be included in the new update of Classic Safari Camps of Africa which is to be published in 2012.

I am leading a best of Namibia photographic expedition to this region in June 2012

 
1. For static subjects use a tripod — and have a cable release or use the timer shutter release to trigger. Camera shake is a real issue with long exposures.
2. Your camera tends to overexpose in dark conditions as it wants to make dark things look like daylight. Sometimes manual exposure works best as it allows you to keep the darks dark.
3. Shoot in manual focus if autofocus cannot find anything to lock onto. Sometimes I use a torch to set focus before shooting.
4. Switch on noise reduction settings in your camera. This does add to card write times but improves quality of image.
5. Look for interesting light sources. Skies go vivid blue, tungsten yellow. These often are the key to interesting shots and will influence your composition
6. Use high ISO levels (up to 4000) to capture moving subjects. If shooting long exposures of stationary subjects keep ISO lower to cut down on noise.
7. Wider lenses will let in more light that telephoto. Also wider f-stop eg f2.8
8. Experiment and change settings. Low light photography can reveal very exciting results — and details not always apparent to the eye.
9. White balance cloudy setting will warm up very blue scenes which are common in dark conditions. But as you will be shooting in RAW this setting can be changed after the fact in post production.
10. Using a torch or spotlight can be useful for painting scenes. When doing painting make sure you have a decent exposure time and paint smoothly.

Am up in the Kaokoveld photographing Okahirongo Lodge for the new Classic Safari Camps of Africa book (due in 2012) and what a treat it is to photograph this stunning lodge. It is run and owned by two Italian women from Milan and as can be expected it has wonderful food and sophistication. Its remote up here in Purros and we have seen no other game drive vehicles nor tourists. Early this morning on a game drive we saw eight desert adapted elephants moving up the Hoarusib River. What a treat to get such great creatureswith such a stunning backdrop. Tomorrow we go on a six hour game drive to the Kunene River — and the stunning Marienfluss region.

Wow, thanks for the support. Trips have filled up very fast indeed.

We have opened up some new departures and to find out more please click below and then send an application if you are interested.

Seven pelicans swam past our window this morning –  a spectacular sight but it was much to the consternation of our resident coot family which are raising two four day old chicks in a nest right opposite our window.  These hard working birds, which have not stopped building, fixing and now feeding their chicks, are also tenacious fighters. They have sharp spurs on their legs and these are clearly used to good effect.