Dog shoot

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.

My 1st Women's Handball match

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

Africa 2016 Part 5

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.

Africa 2016 Part 4

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

Africa 2016 Part 3

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.

Africa 2016 part 2

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.