Arztal
Last week Sunday with my family we decided to go for a hike up to Arztal in Tirol Austria. It was a sunny Autumn day so not great for atmospheric photography but a beautiful Valley nonetheless. Here a view of the Tirolean queen of mountains Serles as seen from Arztal...
Last week Sunday with my family we decided to go for a hike up to Magdeburger Hut near Hochzirl in Tirol Austria. It was a misty morning with a wonderful atmosphere in the Tirolean forest. Autumn has arrived and winter is coming...
I am a big animal lover so when we organized a „Dog shoot“ with my Club (Fotografie INN Fokus) FIF I was pretty happy to tag along. We got together at a dog training ground just outside of Innsbruck after work on a Thursday, which is the standard procedure we have at FIF – for more info check out our FaceBook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FotografieINNFokus/
Cane Corso Italiano
St. Bernard
We also had a few Boxers available to shoot and they are beauties! The good light was rapidly disappearing so did not have the time I would have liked to get some decent shot but did manage to get a few nice ones.
Boxer
And of course the little lady which is just too cute for words.
Thanks to my rugby photography with Rugby Club Innsbruck and Women's Rugby Club Innsbruck I was asked if I wanted to take a shot (or more) at women's handball. I was lucky enough to get some great access to the European Championship game between Austria and Spain.
Sony a7r with 55mm
Canon 7D
The sport and this game in particular I really enjoyed. The handling skills by the players was impressive which of course will always be interesting for a rugby coach :-) Although my gear was not ideal for indoor sports (Canon 7D with 100-400mm Lens). I think I still managed to get half decent action shots using high ISO. The wider shots were taken with my Sony a7r.
Canon 7D
Sony a7r
The final leg or our Africa tour was Livingston (Zambia) VicFalls and the mighty Zambezi river. We stayed in a Lodge along the Maramba river and was greeted every morning by the hippos that lived just a few meters away.
Vicfalls is a must visit – the amazing power and size of these waterfalls are something to behold.
Vicfalls - get a raincoat!
Africa still stays one of my favourite destinations, with the amazing wildlife, friendly locals and beautiful sunsets Africa just exudes a certain flair I have not experienced anywhere else.
Maramba River Lodge sunset from the bar.
After Stormsriver we moved on to Calitzdorp where we enjoyed the Karoo. We made a visit to the Cango Caves which are located in Precambrian limestones at the foothills of the Swartberg range near the town of Oudtshoorn.
Cango Caves
Karoo near Calitzdorp
After the Karoo we moved back to the beach, this time to Stilbaai. Nice little town with nice beaches.
Stilbaai early morning
To finish off our Stay in SA we went to Cape Town. Here we stayed in Houtbaai which was very nice. From here we visited Cape town and Cape Point.
Chapmanspeak Drive
Stormsriver Mouth Camp (Tsitsikama National Park) – after Addo we arrived in Stormsriver. What a beautiful area! We spent 3 days here and tried to do as much as possible. For example on day 1 we decided to hike to the Waterfall – round trip about 6.5Km. On the way we passed by a cave, surprised a baboon and got eyed by loads of “dassies” rock hyrax (Procavia capensis). The closest relative to the elephant.
Sunrise at Stormsriver
Some HDR processing on this shot of a Stormsriver sunset.
Waterfall near Stormsriver
Stormsriver mouth is famous for the gorge which we took a kayak & lilo tour up the river. We also walked to the suspension bridge (took longer than expected!) and enjoyed the scenery.
Stormsriver gorge
Starry night
Close to Stormsriver is Plettenbergbay and on the way there we visited monkey land which was great fun.
Addo Elephant Park: After Colchester we entered Addo at the Mathyolweni Gate. Driving slowly through the par we were a bit worried that we would not see much being without a guide. That would turn out to be an unfounded fear… The biggest surprise was when we turned onto the main road from a side loop road and as we turned in front of us was a huge old bull elephant strolling down the middle of the road with all the time in the world… African style. A little further on we came to the waterhole where he must have strolled away from.
It was a hot day so a lot of animals were close to the waterholes around the park. Spending most of the day driving around we ended up at our accommodation at Spekboom tented camp. Yes, inside the park! You are on your own and we settled in with a braai and some big T-bones to end an eventful day. However we were not done yet! Next to the tented camp is a waterhole and the following sunset was amazing!
Early morning I was back at the waterhole and had a visit from a spotted Hyena which was curious and came right up to the fence to see what was making a “click, click” noise. The Sony a7r does NOT have a quiet shutter.
1st phase of our African safari/vacation was in the Eastern Cape. We landed in PE and drove to Colchester where we stayed in the Dung Beetle guest house on the Sundays river for 3 nights. This was an extremely good base to explore the area. On day one we drove down to the beach (Sundays river mouth) where we enjoyed the harsh African sun and sand dunes. Some nice birdlife in the area.
Sundays river early morning
Sunbird
On Day 2 we decided to visit the beach again in the morning and late afternoon we went for a Safari in Scotia Game reserve. The safari was in an open Land Rover and our guide took us all over the game reserve looking for all kind of animals. We missed out on the Rhino but saw most of the other antelope, elephants, buffalo etc. After the “tea break” we went into a different area of the reserve and got to know the local Lion population. 14 year old male with female and their young adult male off-spring. Lucky for us they were still full of the baby Giraffe they ate a day or 2 earlier. Scotia was a great experience and it included dinner and drinks and a night safari afterwards with spotlights. Did not see too much but was exciting nonetheless.
14 year old male Lion in Scotia
Sunset in Scotia - Giraffe keeping an eye on the Lions...
Day 3 we made a move to Addo Elephant park… tbc.
I have had my Sony a7r for a while now and am getting used to the manual focus. I had to because I still do not have an e-mount AF lens. I use my Canon lenses with an adapter and one lens that has really impressed with sharpness is my 100-400mm L lens which I have been using to get shots of birds in Paschber.
Kohlmeise (Parus major)
Kohlmeise (Parus major)
I spend a few hours set-up near feeding areas and wait till the birds get used to my presence, now in winter the results are pretty good and I have been lucky to get some goods shots of my favourite bird the European Robin.
European Robin (Erithacus rubecula)
European Robin (Erithacus rubecula)