Louis Psihoyos, Director of the most awarded and ultimately successful Activist Film to date ‘The Cove’ said it best for me when he exclaimed … “You are either an Activist or an Inactivist. I chose to become active”. Well, some years back I tipped into this very Active Mode when my Camera Lens no longer conveniently protected me from reality, from acknowledging what we are clearly doing to Nature, our Wildlife, our planet and ultimately ourselves. Eventually every Photographer and Journalist fights this very devil and for me the daily demons of de-evolution drive me to use my passions, skills, experience and convictions to further the plight of many Wildlife and Environmental Causes.

My approach is dual fold. On the one hand I frequently travel to take Nature and Wildlife Photos to remind us as people of the very thing we aim to protect and conserve. During these trips I also expand my ever-growing contacts list (people ready to make a difference) and never miss an opportunity to educate people about the beauty of Mother Nature and the magnitude of threats challenging her due to Mankind. On the other hand I lend these very skills and experiences pro-bono to further the reach and effectiveness of as many Causes as I can work with. During the years some have become my most involved Causes and to date I am especially proud and committed as photographer for The Jane Goodall Institute South Africa (Animal Planet ‘Escape to Chimp Eden’). I am also part of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) South Africa (Animal Planet ‘Whale Wars’) and very recently People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta). I also work ongoing with instrumental individuals from the foremost South Africa Environmental Journalist Television  Series 50|50 on numerous stories that must simply be told.

‘Old Man Joao’ Jane Goodall Institute South Africa (Chimp Eden) With his distinctive looks, Joao is the oldest resident at Chimpanzee Eden and could even be the oldest in South Africa.  Joao arrived at the Maputo Zoo in Mozambique when he was 3 years old, left behind by a touring Circus company.  At that stage he had a companion but soon after the war broke out in Mozambique, the war lasted for more than 30 years and Joao saw it from start to finish.  His companion past away falling ill to an unknown virus leaving Joao in isolation from another chimpanzee until April 2006 when JGI South Africa convinced the zoo to release him to the care of JGI Chimpanzee Eden.

For more information and to make a donation go to http://www.janegoodall.co.za (Information courtesy of Jessica Ney)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) Anti Fur Protest, 8 July 2010 Hyde Park, South Africa
For more information go to http://blog.petaasiapacific.com/skins/world-cup-coverage-united-we-stand-against-fur-cruelty
To join or make a donation go to http://blog.petaasiapacific.com

‘Seals Revenge’

The Namibia Cape Fur Seal Cull is happening and as we speak. An estimated 91,000 Seals are savagely clubbed to death annually in Namibia starting July, despite very few legit reasons left for this inhumane massacre. Be informed and join the action to stop this savage event. There is a Namibian Seal Cull Protest on Saturday, 17 July 2010 at Hyde Park, Gauteng, South Africa starting 11am.

As a Photographer and Activist I have committed my life to making a real change. “If an images can speak 1,000 words, then imagine how many words I can speak for those who cannot speak and stand for themselves. Silence is suicide, so with my Photography and travels I aim to educate and inspire and instill change.” DD. Oosthuizen | Devographic (Devoted to exposing and fighting De-Evolution).

How will we be remembered by future generations? Will we be the Generation that managed to kill the last animals and learn that you cannot eat money, or will we be remembered as the Generation that managed to find the courage to make a change and turn this all around. Will we walk in the footsteps of the Gods, or drudge in the demise of our own inactivity and greed?

Edmund Burke once wrote , … “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing”. This could not be more true today. In South Africa we pride ourselves as being united as a Nation of “Black and White under The African Sun”, yet we seem more distant to the plight of our Animals than ever before. In fact, it is in our African Culture and Tradition to be cruel to Animals.

“Zebra Sunset” – Pilanesberg Game Reserve

“Flyby Dawn” – Kruger National Park

So much is written and know about the Great Men of our Time. For instance, despite overwhelming adversity Nelson Mandela triumphed above oppression and walked the Long Walk to Freedom. Today South Africa is a much better country due to the courage of such men. We even hosted the top Sporting Event in the World, the World Cup Soccer 2010. However, whom will be the ultimate Champion and Saviour of our Environment and Wildlife?

There are so many unsung heroes fighting for our Animals and Environment Worldwide, yet they may walk past you in a crowd and you will not even recognise them. It is time you get to know your heroes and start supporting the Causes and Passions that have the potential to ultimately make changes to save our Wildlife and Environment.

“The Long Walk to Freedom” – Apartheid Museum, South Africa

“Ayoba Time” –  The South African World Cup Soccer 2010 Celebrations (Unifying a Nation)

There is so much to see and admire in our own country. Many people in South Africa dream about leaving for ‘greener pastures’. Most of which never bother to stop and see the beauty around us. The glass is half full people, and the time is now to make a difference. We are in the best position to turn South Africa into the most desirable of all.

Already so many people come to see our Animals and Wildlife, yet when they are all gone what will people come for. Corruption has lead to the highest Poaching Numbers in South Africa since the mid 1980’s.. Demands in Rhino Horn and the Bush Meat Trade are systematically killing the African Tourism Draw Card.

Not even our splendid Scenic Landscapes and fantastic weather will not save us when all the Animals are gone.

“Dawn Rhino Dual” –  Crocodile River, Kruger Park, South Africa

“Solitary Waterhole Tree” –  Madikwe, South Africa

“Table Mountain Lights” –  South Africa

“Sea Point Sunset” Cape Town, South Africa

“Marakele Mountains” – South Africa

At this stage we are on a Downward Spiral to oblivion, seemingly uncaring and obvious to the fact that when Nature and our Environment dies … we die! We are all part of the intricate web of live. Ripples in our Environment will ultimately spiral the intricate Web of our own lives out of control and the next extinction will be at our own hands.

At this rate we shall be the only initiator of our own extinction … and ironically life has shown to be far more perseverant that Mankind … life will ultimately find a way to continue long after Mankind ceases to exist on this Planet.

“The Downward Spiral” – Dullstroom, South Africa

“Web of Life” – Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, Cape Town

The rate of extinction and de-evolution is  accelerating daily, so literally every day counts. If I can reach just one person daily and count on the viral-effect of my message then surely an Eco Warrior Army is sure to evolve from the ashes of our own ruin. Time to put our heads together and  think outside the r=traditional confinements to construct methods that will save lives and restore us as respectable caretakers of our Planet. Remember, we have so much to love for and so much beauty around us … do not let this go to waste.

“Tri-Zebra” – Mabula, South Africa

“Elephant Tussle” – Pilanesberg, South Africa

“Malachite Kingfisher” Mankwe Dam, Pilanesberg, South Africa

“Bateleur Eagle Stare” (Terathopius Ecaudatus) – Moholoholo Predator Rehabilitation Centre, South Africa

“Duality” – Sondela, South Africa

“Jurassic Pose” Yellow Billed Hornbill – Sondela, South Africa

“Cheetah Gaze” – Kruger National Park, South Africa

“Mirror Equids”  - Kruger National Park, South Africa

Stay well, stay true, always fight the good fight … making a real difference starts with you!

Best Regards,

David Devo Oosthuizen

David’s Links:

- Website: Devo Graphics
- Facebook Page: Devographic Facebook Page
- Twitter: Devographic on Twitter

DevoGraphic Activism Through Photography proudly supports:

- The Jane Goodall Institute South Africa (Animal Planet ‘Escape to Chimp Eden’)
- Sea Shepherd Conservation Society South Africa (Animal Planet ‘Whale Wars’)
- Seal Alert South Africa
- The Taiji Action Group: South Africa (TAG)
- The Animal Ambulance
- Ripples for Good: Motivating Change in our Waterways
- Fur Free Africa
- 50|50
- Beauty Without Cruelty
- Puppy & Kitten Haven
- Peta International
- Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS)
- AfriOceans
- The South African Vegan Society

Last Saturday 9 people joined Photo-Africa at the Centurion Country Club for the Digital Photography 101 workshop.

Starting from the very beginning and working through all the technical ‘stuff’, artistic elements of photography and even a bit of post processing the day was not only a lot of fun but a huge success.

The approach Kerry and I use at the workshops is to not only explain, in a fun and informative way, the various terms and photographic principles that can make digital photography quite daunting.

Guided by the manual and slideshow presentation, there are various exercises that help the participants to understand the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of photography but, more importantly, the ‘why’.

I strongly believe that if you know why you are doing something the ‘what’ and ‘how’ becomes a whole lot easier.

The Centurion country club was a fantastic venue and with the golf course and rolling landscapes the photographic opportunities was plentiful as we looked for all kinds of images as prescribed by the manual.  Landscapes, color, panning motion and macro.

Here are a few of the images, each a result of various exercises and mini assignments on the day.

Thanks to everybody who joined us on the workshop!  Keep on practicing and hope to see you on one of our follow up workshops!

If you want to learn, remember or find a bit of inspiration make sure to keep your eyes on the blog for future workshops dates.

Or… join David Devo Oosthuizen for his guest post tomorrow.  David is the Thursday guest blogger and he shares his thoughts, and images, in ‘Activism Through the Lens’.  Awesome images, inspiration and some food for thought.

As you are reading this I will be in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve declaring photographic war on some of the multitude of waterbirds in the reserve.  Armed with a Nikon 600mm f/4 and a 1.4x converter I have a few images in mind that I am hoping to get.

Just me, a super telephoto lens and a full day of photography.  Just doing it for myself!  Bliss…

Enjoy David’s post tomorrow and I’ll see you on Friday.

Bye 4 now!

Gerry

Warren David Diack has just added new images to the Photo-Africa Stock Library.

Moth by Warren David Diack

Flower by Warren David Diack

To view more of or purchase any of Warren’s images click here.

More soon.

Gerry

The last few weeks have been crazy but what a ride!

After a fantastic three week break it’s back to work and with new ideas, mixed feelings and a whole lot of inspiration there is no doubt that 2010 is gearing up to be quite an interesting year.  The break away from wildlife and lodges was very necessary and it is good to sometimes step back, put things in perspective and make clear decisions on where everything is going from both a professional and personal point of view.  There is an old cliched Chinese curse which goes something like ‘May you live in interesting times’ which pretty much sums it up.  For now.

Having done a lot of non-wildlife photography the last few weeks, which ranged from portrait and hospitality assignments to pretty much anything you can imagine in Bangkok, I am photographically very ready and keen to get back into the wild.  Photography is a continual learning curve and the more you do it the more you learn.  Shooting something that falls outside, way outside, of your comfort zone is one of the best ways in which you can get a whole fresh feeling and approach to your photography.

Portrait photography teaches you different posing techniques.  Exterior photography helps you to look for patterns, lines and shapes while food photography makes you focus on texture and depth of field.  By shooting different subjects and scenes it is almost inevitable that you will improve as a photographer.  And it’s great fun as well.

Now that I am looking forward to getting back to wildlife photography, and trying some new things, it was great to read through David Lloyd’s guest from yesterday. I find David’s images inspirational and his approach to his wildlife photography is quite refreshing.  A big shout out to David for a great post!  If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out David’s website and image galleries.

Now apart from the great images, the last line of David’s post got me thinking.  It never hurts to have a dream.

So, when was the last time you had a dream?  I am not referring to the kind of dream that you half remember during the first cup of coffee the next morning but a dream you can see and feel.  A goal.  Photographic goal?  Personal?  Professional?

A dream might be a little bit more ‘optimistic’ than a concrete goal but the journey can be just as rewarding.  Photographically you will learn a lot along the way and in between a lot of missed shots you will end up with one or two images that will act as stepping stones to take your work to that next level.  I’m sure professional and personal dreams might be the same – if you are willing to deal with a few hiccups along the way.

So with the weekend coming up, why not try something different. Go out, with someone else if you can, and take photographs of something that you have never photographed before.  Go out and shoot something for the first time, learn from it and then go back to your favorite subject and see what new ways you can think of to create images of it.  Good exercise and, hopefully, even better images!

I’ll be back on Monday.  Have a good one!

Gerry

Someone once remarked to me the pointlessness of storing pictures on computers after taking them.  I did this for a long time.  Then I used my other skills to make a website to show them to other people. Then suddenly with that, a Flickr account, and a Facebook fan page I’ve had an unexpected number of requests for publications, including a national newspaper coverage of my white sparrow, some of battling crocodiles, red deer, and one nice one I took in Rwanda for National Geographic Traveler.  I feel so far I’ve not properly tried, all this is on the back of that little snippet of advice.

I’m a New Zealander living in England, married to a Welsh girl who also loves Africa.  Gina and I travel about three times a year, mostly to African countries, but sometimes we’ll try out something different – later this year we’ll visit India and next year Antarctica.  But this year it’s Africa thrice again, Botwsana (I’ve always wanted to paddle the Delta since I was a kid), Kenya in time for the migration like we did last year, and possibly Zambia at the end of it.  In these places, people may buy themselves drums, masks and carvings, but my souvenirs are my photos. Once bitten, then many times so, that is Africa.

I’ve always used Nikon cameras and there’s no reason to change. Normally it’s a D700 and D300 with a 70-200 on one and a 200-400 on the other.  With a 12-24 that covers most things.  I have a 50 f/1.4 and an 85 f/1.4 because you never know.

Everyone has their influences, or should, and mine’s the Shah brothers, and I like what Matt and Will Burrard Lucas are doing.  I can’t leave off Frans Lanting, the late Fritz Polking and I won’t forget Jim Brandenburg’s Arctic wolves.  Andy Rouse, for all he encompasses, is a stand out photographer of wildlife for me.

I don’t look at pictures of my first African trip anymore.  It takes months or years to find your eye, and only after the second and third trips I was beginning to find mine.

If you’re going to take successful pictures of wild things, you need to have in order of importance: knowledge of your subject, preparation, a good sense of picture, a good camera.  I do admit that I need to work more on the first one.

I have two eyes, one’s for color, the other’s for black and white, because I like each equally.  Sometimes when a color picture doesn’t work well, I find it can surprise me in black and white.  There is an element of black and white that I cannot explain, and that is why it evokes more emotion than a color one would, particularly of sympathetic subjects.

I don’t like the rat-a-tat style of motor-photography.  It’s good to observe and anticipate.  It means you get to look at things with your own eyes too which is important.  And it also means less picture editing once you’re home.  You can rat-a-tat sometimes, but surely not all day for goodness sake.

I rarely review pictures after a day’s photography, often leaving it to a later day, bar a cursory glance.  Early viewing at the height of expectation can deflate your spirit.  After a time, like the next day when memory, excitement and expectation has slightly dimmed, your pictures surprise more and you’re ok.  I dismissed my fox pictures last year only to return to them three months later and realise they’re among my best pictures.  I still don’t travel with a laptop, they’re a nuisance anyway.

I tend to previsualise a lot.  Weeks before we’d arrived in Rwanda to visit mountain gorillas last year, my imagination saw a picture of a gorilla squared up to me.  I also wanted it to rain.  The rain would bring in some texture to his fur and brighten up the colors as water can do.  Sure enough, on nearing the group after a two hour hike, it began to rain lightly.  At a minute short of the hour, we found a silverback some four metres in front, and all I needed was to move a little way to my right, and found myself with the picture I’d envisioned a few weeks earlier.  It’s one of my favorite pictures.

I’ve prebaked scenes in my mind which I’d like to create a photograph of.  When a situation emerges where the possibility of one of these scenes might work,  I try to make it so.  It’s like a bank of preparedness to draw from. For the most part it doesn’t work, but when it does, you’re glad that it does.  Sometimes luck pans out well if you work for it.

Every picture tells a story but not always the whole story.  One day in Amboseli, Kenya, we watched an elephant family with a young calf approach from our left while a lioness lay down just to our right.  Once the family were near the lioness and ourselves, the single file formation became an ambling group where the adults surrounded and enclosed the youngster.  Then they passed, and out of danger, the family reformed to their previous formation of a single file.  The picture stands alone well, but a story can add more.  Someone may tell me that a good picture needs no story or caption.  Well, I will go along with that as well.

Currently we’re in London and we get away three or four times a year.  We’ve also a bush camp in the middle of the African bush where we plan to live and be closer to the wildlife and action.  It has a varandah on all four sides, and it’s less than two hours from the Masai Mara.  I’ve not mentioned it before because at the moment it’s another previsualised image of my imagination.

Well, who knows, it never hurts to have a dream!

David Lloyd

David’s Links

• Website & Blog: David Lloyd Wildlife & Travel Photography
• Facebook Group: David Lloyd’s Wildlife Photography
• Twitter: Follow David on Twitter
• Flickr: David Lloyd’s Flickr Photostream

I originally discovered David Lloyd’s site after ‘meeting’ him on Twitter and I am very glad I did.

David is a New Zealand born photographer living in the UK and after traveling to Africa, and other countries, has been able to put together a fantastic portfolio of wildlife & nature images.

When visiting David’s blog you will  not only be able to check out some amazing wildlife images which range from gorillas and lions to birds and scottish wildcats.  His images are well thought out and makes the viewer connect with the subject or scene instantly.  David’s color images are strikingly realistic but but I reckon that it is with his monochrome work where he raises it to another level.  It takes something special to see, capture and ultimately present a wildlife image in black & white while at the same time still keeping image real and natural and David does this very well as you can seen from the image above.

When arriving at David Lloyd’s Wildlife & Travel Photography blog you will see the latest post on the top of the page.  From here on the blog is very easy to navigate with menus on both side of the screen with which you can link to various galleries and post archives.   You can also link to a collection of images that David has for sale which I have no doubt make amazing prints.

To visit David Lloyd’s blog you can click here or on any of the images in this post.  You can also follow David on Twitter by clicking here or join his page on Facebook by clicking here. For an interesting read check out one of David’s recent posts, Altered States, where he shares his thoughts on digital photography, digital artists and how the two do, or don’t, speak the same language.  Great article.

If you have any blogs that you think people need to know about let me know!

More soon.

Gerry

Starting now, every week I will be posting some of my favorite books and photography related blogs.

For this first edition I have decided to go with Within the Frame by David du Chemin.  I have just started reading it for the second time.  Yeah, it’s that good.

This book is way more than a travel photography book and goes much deeper than just showing you a bunch of great images and the technical specs for you to try and make up something similar.  There are many of those books that, even though they might teach you a lot, leave you asking for more.  And then came Within the Frame.

David proceeds to lead you on a visual journey around the world while sharing not only the how of photography but also the why.  Photography as a craft has become very technically orientated and it is amazingly refreshing to read a book that shares passion, vision and inspiration.  The book shares ideas and thoughts on how to approach your subjects and to not only take images but to start making images and telling stories.  Is that not our ultimate goal?

Even though David states that this is not a travel photography book, it leaves you with quite a serious and undeniable urge to travel.  Not only for the sake of traveling but also to try and see people, places and cultures in the same way as David explains and tries to show in this book. You will not only want to travel but you will want to photography.  No, you will need to photograph.

Whether you read this book for the amazing images or for the inspirational and easy reading photography advise it will definitely be one of the best photography books you ever purchase and you will never look through your viewfinder in the same way again.

If you are in the US click here to purchase a copy from Amazon or click here if you are in South Africa and want to purchase a copy from Kalahari.You need this book in your collection!

When you purchase your copy of Within the Frame you can also pre-order a copy of Visionmongers which is David’s new book and will be released towards the end of November.  Have mine on order already!

While you wait for your copy of Within the Frame to arrive you can check out David duChemin’s website, PixelatedImage.  Here you can check out his portfolio and follow along on his blog.  The same easy reading yet profound photographic advise is definitely worth a read again and again and again…

If you have any books or blogs you think people need to know about let me know!

Till later.

Gerry