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Southwest Winter

Mesa Arch – Canyonlands National Park, Utah

I had been planning a trip to the area around Moab, Utah with my friend Alejandro Velarde for a while. I had been there several years ago on a very short visit and was looking forward to spending more time exploring this beautiful area. Our main goals were to get a good shot of Mesa Arch (above) and to get some images of Monument Valley in winter conditions. Our friend, Marcell Puzsar was able to join as well and we made the trip in early February, with 5 days and 4 nights to photograph. For those looking for a good time to visit these often crowded locations, this was a good one. Temperatures hovered around freezing and even popular locations like Delicate Arch and Mesa Arch only had a few other people around at sunrise and sunset.

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2022 Favorites

2022 was a very different photographic year for me as I actually captured far more images than usual with the vast majority taken over a two week period in early July. While I usually plan several trips for landscape photography during a year, my 2022 plans were based around my twice-delayed African safari in Botswana. You can also see that in the blog posts that I shared this year – virtually all of them were from that tip.

That said, I was able to take some images I enjoyed in California and Montana and hope that you enjoy them as well. Images are presented below in the order I captured them. I’ll also note that this is NOT a list of my ten “best” images from the year. I focus on my favorites – chosen either because I believe the image is particularly strong or because of the memories I associate with it. Best of lists have no room for memories!

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Wildlife of Botswana Video

I did manage to shoot some video from my safari in Botswana and pulled it into a short movie. Please check it out!

For anyone that is curious, I captured video with the same camera (Canon EOS R5) as I used for my still photos. I have it set up to record in 4K, although I tend to edit down to 1080p in processing. I process each individual clip in Photoshop, which allows me to make similar color and contrast adjustments that I would make in a photograph. I then brought the clips into Corel VideoStudio to assemble, add titles and add music.

Botswana Safari Part 4: The Okavango Delta

Turning Leopard – Moremi, Botswana

The final portion of our Botswana safari took place in the Khwai Community Area and Moremi Game Reserve in the northeastern part of the Okavango delta. We spent one night in a lodge in Khwai while our campsite in Moremi was readied, and then camped there for four nights. The Okavango is an inland delta where the rivers that feed it, including the Okavango and Khwai, do not flow into an ocean but instead evaporate and simply disappear in the swampy land. Unlike the Savuti, water in Moremi was everywhere and this created a tremendous concentration of wildlife.

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Botswana Safari Part 3: The Savuti

Savuti, Chobe National Park, Botswana

The Savuti is on the western edge of Chobe National Park and is known for its savannahs, grasslands and wildlife population. Our visit was during the dry season so there were limited supplies of water (primarily several large watering holes) available to the animals. We spent 3 nights camping in the Savuti and during that time saw many lions, elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, impala, and buffalo. We also had the opportunity to photograph some impressive African sunrises. The rest of this post consists of some of my favorite photos from the Savuti and are shown in the order captured.

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Botswana Safari Part 2: Victoria Falls and Chobe National Park

Chobe National Park, Botswana

I started my safari at Victoria Falls in Livingstone, Zambia. In addition to being one of the world’s natural wonders, Victoria Falls is located near the conjunction of four African countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana making it a logical place to start or end visits to these nations. We were met at the airport in Zambia by our local guide, who brought us to our hotel in Livingstone to drop off our things ands get ready to visit the falls. The hotel is on the shore of the Zambezi River with a view of Zimbabwe on the other bank. Looking downstream, we could see the mist rising from Victoria Falls a few miles away.

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