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.
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.
I originally made plans to go on my first African safari in the summer of 2020. I would be traveling with my usual photography companion, Alejandro Velarde, as well as another friend, Marcell Puzsar. They had both been to Africa before and had decided that Botswana was the place we should go. I was fine with that and we made our reservations for a 12 day safari starting at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and ending up at Maun in Botswana. Doing some research, I learned that Botswana has the world’s largest elephant population, healthy populations of lions and leopards, and is home to the Okavango Delta – one of the world’s largest inland deltas and a very biodiverse habitat. Even better, the country is safe, sparsely populated, and doesn’t draw the safari crowds commonly seen in other African nations.
We decided on a camping safari (more on that below) to stay close to the wildlife while also keeping costs down. We booked with Savanna Safaris and Tours who are based in Botswana. Our itinerary included stops at Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park, the Savuti, the Khwai Community area, and the Moremi Game Reserve. Of course 2020 ended up being an interesting year, resulting in several reschedules and a few changes in plans. Our tour company was completely supportive and flexible throughout and we made our trip starting at the end of June in 2022.
I spent most of this winter in Kalispell, Montana which the gateway to Glacier National Park. Our home is less than an hour from Lake McDonald, where most visitors get their first view of the mountains when they visit. This gave me the opportunity to photograph the lake several times over the winter, seeing the area in different conditions and learning how it changes through the season.
As 2020 comes to a close, it is time to select my favorite images from the year. Needless to say, it has been an interesting year. Like many other people, I had to cancel several planned trips and I got used to spending a lot more time at home. For the early part of the year, my photographic endeavors were limited to taking macro shots at home and some flower photos in my neighborhood. As the year went on, I managed some day (night?) trips to photograph the stars before making the decision to invest in some property in Montana. All of the photos shared below were captured within driving distance of my home bases in Northern California and Northwest Montana.
With 2020 being a “work from home” kind of year, I had a chance to work from a different home in Northwest Montana for much of the summer and fall. Being close to Glacier National Park, I was able to photograph several areas of the park through the change of the seasons. Here a a few images from the western side of the park.
While presenting a recent night sky image to our photography club at work this week, I was asked a lot of questions about how to plan those kinds of shots. I hadn’t thought about it for a while, but there can be a lot that goes into it if you have a particular image in mind. My goal is often to try to line up something in the sky (usually the Milky Way) with a landscape scene. To make it work I need to figure out when those things will line up, when the sky will be dark enough to see the stars, and how much light will I want on the landscape, all while also keeping track of the weather and sometimes tides. In this post I will list some of the tools that I use and show how I used them to plan some recent images.
It is always challenging to select my favorite images – especially in a year like 2019 when I had a chance to visit some places I’ve always wanted to see. I made a couple of trips to the southwest in February, photographed bears in Alaska in July, spent some time exploring Montana with my wife in September, and brought the year to a close with some Maui relaxation. Each image, including many that I had to cut from the list, brings back great memories with family and friends. I’ve been sharing my favorite images for several years now, but this is the first time that my list doesn’t include anything from the Bay Area or Yosemite. So with that introduction, here are my favorites from 2019, presented in the order they were taken.
This is the third in my series of posts covering images taken within a single 24-hour period. I feel more comfortable calling it a series now that it actually has three entries. In addition to the photos, I will include some of the travel, planning, and technical aspects of these trips. Today’s entry covers the evening of September 11, 2019 though the afternoon of the next day. The subject is my first visit to Glacier National Park in Northern Montana.
I recently returned from a trip to Alaska, where my main goal was to photograph the Alaskan brown bears during the annual salmon run in Katmai National Park. First, to get this out of the way, grizzly bears are a sub-species of brown bears. The bears in Katmai are considered brown bears and not grizzlies. Per the park’s website the difference is somewhat arbitrary, but grizzlies don’t have access to coastal food sources (like salmon) and tend to be smaller.
