Self drive safaris

At focus4nature we are offering the possibility of a free tour to anyone completing a questionnaire on our web site at

http://www.focus4nature.co.uk/en/Questionnaire-wildlife-photography/index.html

All those who complete the questionnaire will go into a draw and two people will win a trip worth £1110. The advantage to us is we get to learn from the answers to the questions what our potential customers are looking for in wildlife photography tours. One of the questions I wanted included was “Would people be interested in self drive safaris?”. And the answer is a resounding yes. Almost everyone has been positive about the idea.

It does not surprise me as I always find it very frustrating having someone else driving the vehicle when photographing. The prefect spot to pull up has to be inch perfect. Go too far and the background can be spoilt or not far enough and the foreground ugly. It is precision work and I want to be at the wheel or have another photographer doing it who I trust and work well with.

So we are looking into organising one. For me Namibia is the perfect choice. I have always said it is my favourite African country for photography. The tourist infrastructure is good, the wildlife amongst the most approachable on the continent and the settings wonderful. Our plan is we will travel in convey between locations, with probably four vehicles and two photographers in each . Once we reach the location where we will be photographing we can split up and each car go its own way coming together at a prearranged spot for lunch and evenings. It is an easy country to find your way around and we will all have maps and mobile phones. It is one I hope to lead myself. If you are interested please email me and I will let you know when we have more details. We are aiming at August 2012.

In the meantime it is well worth filling in our questionnaire. The draw takes place at the end of April and the numbers so far submitted are not in the thousands so the chance of winning is high.

Airport Luggage

I have just returned from a flight abroad. I am not flying as much as I used too and do not miss the experience. Getting all that luggage onto a plane and all the waiting around has always been very unpleasant. It is exhausting. On the way out my hold luggage weighed 24 kg and my ticket said the limit was 30 Kg so no problem except my camera bag, which I was taking as hand luggage was another 20 Kg and I had a laptop bag probably weighing 5 Kg.

On the way back I had a lot more stuff to bring and my hold luggage was 35 Kg. The man at the checkin desk raised it as a problem, but said he was going to be nice to me and let it pass through. That would not have happened at a U.K. airport. Not only would they have charged me extra for excess luggage, but I suspect they would not have allowed a bag over 32 Kg at all. I would have to have bought another bag. My camera bag and laptop bag were also heavier on the way back and I was wearing my photo jacket with the pockets full of books and lenses. All told I was probably carrying 70 kg. Not something I have done before and I don’t want to again.

Kingfisher latest

Our kingfisher has not showed up for the last 3 days. Surprising as the river is in flood and fishing should be easier on our lake. We have decided to give up on it for a while as it is a big commitment visiting the site each day. I will update the web site when we get it to perform more regularly for us and we can offer workshops again.