Snarl by MarselvanOosten

Well, not really. Quite often when you see a photograph of a yawning lion, the photographer will try to make you believe that it was snarling. When a lion starts yawning, the first part of the yawn will clearly look like a yawn, but at the very end of it, the expression on the face of the lion will indeed look like a growl or a snarl.

To make people believe that a lion is snarling when it is actually yawning, will spread the wrong idea about these cats, and will unnecessarily portray them as monsters. Humans like to monsterize predators, and that’s why we get Predator Week, Shark Week, The Deadliest This and The Deadliest That on television. It’s a shame, because these beautiful animals are so much more than just killing machines.

This lioness looks pretty vicious, but you guessed it – she’s yawning. Lions spend most of the day sleeping. A male may sleep from 18 to 20 hours a day. However following a large meal, these male cats may actually sleep an entire 24 hours of a day. Female lions are not far behind their male counterparts. They will easily sleep 15 to 18 hours a day. They spend more time caring for the pride and hunting.

In just a few months, I will lead two photo tours in Botswana where we will focus our attention on lions, and especially on lions hunting buffalo.

One of the places we will visit is Duba Plains, an island in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. The island has a herd of about 2,000 Cape buffalo, and a large pride of lions. Both buffalo and lion got there over a decade ago in a year when crossing the channels was possible. Since then both have pretty much been trapped on the island. For reasons nobody fully understands, the Duba lions mainly hunt during daylight – the reverse of the situation in most parts of Africa. This is obviously perfect for photography and our chances to see some lion action are much bigger here than anywhere else in Africa.

If you’ve never been to Botswana, then you absolutely should. It’s wildlife photography heaven. Our first tour is fully booked, but we have three openings on the 25 April – 4 May trip.

If you’re interested, then please check out our website for more information on this trip:
Buffalo, Lions & Wild Dogs

Hope to see you there!

Marsel

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©2016 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

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Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 – VII by MarselvanOosten

Last month I won the overall title Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 (www.tpoty.com) with two black and white portfolios – a landscape portfolio and a wildlife portfolio. Here’s the third image from the wildlife portfolio. Don’t worry, there’s only one image left after this one 🙂

All four images in this portfolio were shot on our Namibia Untamed tour earlier this year. Two years ago we decided to add a surprise boat cruise off the coast of Walvis Bay. This is a great opportunity to photograph thousands of seals, dolphins and pelicans. My personal highlight of this boat cruise is the pelicans – amazing creatures and very photogenic. This year we had a couple that landed on our boat and I was able to get very close with my wide angle lens. I’ve got plenty of pelicans in flight shots, so I was interested in creating something different. I decided to turn my pelican shoot into a study of shape and light, creating very graphic images.

After a while, the pelicans got so used to my presence, that I was able to move in closer and closer. So close actually, that depth of field was turning into a problem – I had to stop down quite a bit to keep everything in focus, especially with some of the other shots in this series that I will show later.

The processing was pretty straightforward, apart from the conversion to black and white. Black and white is so much more difficult than colour photography, because you don’t have those pretty colors that people like so much, and colors are helpful to separate shapes. Without colour, certain shapes that were separated from each other in the colour version, will suddenly merge in a black and white version. Good black and white images are therefore often created on location – that’s when you can already see what is needed for a good bw image.

If you would like to join us to Namibia, then you’re out of luck for 2016 as we’re fully booked. Even our 2017 tour is already fully booked, but we opened a second tour for 2017 that is going to be led by amazing landscape photographer Ryan Dyar. It will take place from 17 June to 1 July 2017.

If you want to visit Namibia, look no further. There is no better organized Namibia tour out there. We were the first company to offer photo tours to Namibia, the first to do night photography in Deadvlei, and we are still the only one that offers microlight flights over the famous Namibian sand dunes – the best and most exciting way to do aerial photography.

If you’re interested in joining Ryan to Namibia, please check out our website for more information, images, video clips, and a very detailed tour PDF: http://www.squiver.com

Marsel

©2015 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

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Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 – VII by MarselvanOosten

Last month I won the overall title Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 (www.tpoty.com) with two black and white portfolios – a landscape portfolio and a wildlife portfolio. Here’s the third image from the wildlife portfolio. Don’t worry, there’s only one image left after this one 🙂

All four images in this portfolio were shot on our Namibia Untamed tour earlier this year. Two years ago we decided to add a surprise boat cruise off the coast of Walvis Bay. This is a great opportunity to photograph thousands of seals, dolphins and pelicans. My personal highlight of this boat cruise is the pelicans – amazing creatures and very photogenic. This year we had a couple that landed on our boat and I was able to get very close with my wide angle lens. I’ve got plenty of pelicans in flight shots, so I was interested in creating something different. I decided to turn my pelican shoot into a study of shape and light, creating very graphic images.

After a while, the pelicans got so used to my presence, that I was able to move in closer and closer. So close actually, that depth of field was turning into a problem – I had to stop down quite a bit to keep everything in focus, especially with some of the other shots in this series that I will show later.

The processing was pretty straightforward, apart from the conversion to black and white. Black and white is so much more difficult than colour photography, because you don’t have those pretty colors that people like so much, and colors are helpful to separate shapes. Without colour, certain shapes that were separated from each other in the colour version, will suddenly merge in a black and white version. Good black and white images are therefore often created on location – that’s when you can already see what is needed for a good bw image.

If you would like to join us to Namibia, then you’re out of luck for 2016 as we’re fully booked. Even our 2017 tour is already fully booked, but we opened a second tour for 2017 that is going to be led by amazing landscape photographer Ryan Dyar. It will take place from 17 June to 1 July 2017.

If you want to visit Namibia, look no further. There is no better organized Namibia tour out there. We were the first company to offer photo tours to Namibia, the first to do night photography in Deadvlei, and we are still the only one that offers microlight flights over the famous Namibian sand dunes – the best and most exciting way to do aerial photography.

If you’re interested in joining Ryan to Namibia, please check out our website for more information, images, video clips, and a very detailed tour PDF: http://www.squiver.com

Marsel

©2015 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

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Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 – VI by MarselvanOosten

Little over a week ago I won the overall title Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 (tpoty.com) with two black and white portfolios – a landscape portfolio and a wildlife portfolio. Here’s the second image from the wildlife portfolio.

All four images in this portfolio were shot on our Namibia Untamed tour earlier this year. Two years ago we decided to add a surprise boat cruise off the coast of Walvis Bay. This is a great opportunity to photograph thousands of seals, dolphins and pelicans. My personal highlight of this boat cruise are the pelicans – amazing creatures and very photogenic. This year we had a couple that landed on our boat and I was able to get very close with my wide angle lens. I’ve got plenty of pelicans in flight shots, so I was interested in creating something different. I decided to turn my pelican shoot into a study of shape and light, creating very graphic images.

After a while, the pelicans got so used to my presence, that I was able to move in closer and closer. So close actually, that depth of field was turning into a problem – I had to stop down quite a bit to keep everything in focus, especially with some of the other shots in this series that I will show later.

The processing was pretty straightforward, apart from the conversion to black and white. Black and white is so much more difficult than colour photography, because you don’t have those pretty colours that people like so much, and colours are helpful to separate shapes. Without colour, certain shapes that were separated from each other in the colour version, will suddenly merge in a black and white version. Good black and white images are therefore often created on location – that’s when you can already see what is needed for a good bw image.

If you would like to join us to Namibia, then you’re out of luck for 2016 as we’re fully booked. Even our 2017 tour is already fully booked, but we opened a second tour for 2017 that is going to be led by amazing landscape photographer Ryan Dyar. It will take place from 17 June to 1 July 2017.

If you want to visit Namibia, look no further. There is no better organised Namibia tour out there. We were the first company to offer photo tours to Namibia, and we are still the only one that offers microlight flights over the famous Namibian sand dunes – the best and most exciting way to do aerial photography.

If you’re interested in joining Ryan to Namibia, please check out our website for more information, images, video clips, and a very detailed tour PDF: http://www.squiver.com

Marsel

©2015 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

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Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 – V by MarselvanOosten

Little over a week ago I won the overall title Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 (tpoty.com) with two black and white portfolios – a landscape portfolio and a wildlife portfolio. I’ve already posted all the winning landscape images, so here’s the first one from the wildlife portfolio.

All four images in this portfolio were shot on our Namibia Untamed tour earlier this year. We were the first company in the world to offer photo tours to Namibia, and every year we make small changes to the itinerary to stay ahead of all our copycats. Two years ago we decided to add a surprise boat cruise off the coast of Walvis Bay. This is a great opportunity to photograph thousands of seals, dolphins and pelicans. My personal highlight of this boat cruise are the pelicans – amazing creatures and very photogenic. This year we had a couple that landed on our boat and I was able to get very close with my wide angle lens. I’ve got plenty of pelicans in flight shots, so I was interested in creating something different. I decided to turn my pelican shoot into a study of shape and light, creating very graphic images.

After a while, the pelicans got so used to my presence, that I was able to move in closer and closer. So close actually, that depth of field was turning into a problem – I had to stop down quite a bit to keep everything in focus, especially with some of the other shots in this series that I will show later.

The processing was pretty straightforward, apart from the conversion to black and white. Black and white is so much more difficult than colour photography, because you don’t have those pretty colours that people like so much, and colours are helpful to separate shapes. Without colour, certain shapes that were separated from each other in the colour version, will suddenly merge in a black and white version. Good black and white images are therefore often created on location – that’s when you can already see what is needed for a good bw image.

If you would like to join us to Namibia, then you’re out of luck for 2016 as we’re fully booked. Even our 2017 tour is already fully booked, but we opened a second tour for 2017 that is going to be led by amazing landscape photographer Ryan Dyar. It will take place from 17 June to 1 July 2017.

If you want to visit Namibia, look no further. There is no better organised Namibia tour out there. Also, we are still the only one that offers microlight flights over the famous Namibian sand dunes.

If you’re interested in joining Ryan to Namibia, please check out our website for more information, images, video clips, and a very detailed tour PDF: http://www.squiver.com

Marsel

©2015 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

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Botswana Sunset by MarselvanOosten

Well, there you go, I’ve done it: the subject is in the middle of the frame. The composition police will not be pleased. Yet I like it as it is. Sure, I could have shot it as a vertical with less dead space on both sides, but then I would have lost the interesting clouds and the sense of space.

Anyway, after months of running tours we’re finally back home, and home means office work. The good news for me is that office work often equates to image processing, so I guess it’s not so bad. I’m currently going through my archives for several reasons, and this image of a meerkat is one of many that I found in my Botswana folder.

If you’ve never been to Botswana, then you absolutely should. It’s wildlife photography heaven. We’re running two tours there in April/May, and due to a cancellation we now have three openings on the 25 April – 4 May trip. I hope you haven’t spent your Christmas bonus yet!

If you’re interested, and of course you are, then please check out our website for more information on this trip:
Squiver Photo Tours & Workshops

Hope to see you there!

Marsel

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©2015 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

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The Fire Within by MarselvanOosten

As we’re nearing the end of 2015, I finally have some time to look back at all the places that I’ve visited and photographed this year. It’s been one big rollercoaster ride, and although it was a lot of fun, it’s good to have some time off and reflect. And to process my images, as that seems to be the one thing that I never have time for. 414,733 images on my hard drives, of which I processed 6,664. I won’t get bored anytime soon.

Well, this is #6,665 and it was shot earlier this year on our Iceland Winter Wilderness tour. It’s pretty straightforward, but I liked how the light of the rising sun seems to illuminate that chunk of ice from the inside.

I used the LucrOit filter system on my Nikon 14-24/2.8 to slow down my shutter speeds.

– – –

If you’re interested in joining us on a Squiver photo tour, please check out my website for more pictures, tour impression video clips, and detailed PDF’s: http://www.squiver.com

Marsel

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©2015 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

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Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 – IV by MarselvanOosten

Four days ago I won the overall title Travel Photographer Of The Year 2015 with two black and white portfolios – a landscape portfolio and a wildlife portfolio. Here’s the last image from the landscape portfolio.

All four images were shot from a kayak or while standing in the water, on a scouting trip last year in the swamps of Louisiana – off the beaten tracks, and far away from all the usual photographic hot spots. This is surely one of the most magical places on this planet.

You can read more about this series on my blog: http://ow.ly/3yzTBj

In short: two years ago we decided to check out the swamps in Louisiana and Texas to see if we could set up the world’s first Cypress Swamp photo tour there. Last month we returned from our second scouting trip to this amazing place, where we searched for additional locations, finalized the accommodation, and fine tuned the logistics.

We will officially announce the new trip somewhere next week. As usual, we will first contact our most frequent flyers to give them first choice, but after that we’ll open the tours for the rest of you as well.

Special thanks to Daniella for her help setting up these shots.

Marsel

– – –

If you would like to join us on one of our photo tours, please have a look on our website. Only a few trips still have some openings left: www.squiver.com

©2015 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

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Primordial by MarselvanOosten

Very pleased that my image ‘Primordial’ is one of the winners in this year’s European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The image was shot from a kayak on a misty morning on one of the many bayous of Louisiana last year, and I’m looking forward to our next visit there in just three days time.

We are currently setting up the world’s first Cypress Trees By Kayak photo tour in Louisiana and Texas, so if you would like to join us in October/November 2016 to photograph these amazing trees and swampscapes on a thrilling kayak adventure, drop us an email and we’ll put your name on the list. Frequent flyers on our tours (aka Squiverati) have priority. More details later!

Marsel

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Granite Eye by RyanDyar

Just a simple long exposure over the Alabama Hills, but I more wanted to post about a very cool tour I’m involved with.

Way back in my early 20’s I discovered the work of Marsel Van Oosten. He quickly became one of my photography idols. Even to this day, when my photography buddies and I play the “who are your top 5 favorite shooters” game, Marsel is always at the front of the list.

So when he asked me if I’d like to come join his team at Squiver, I was absolutely blown away. One of the biggest honors of my career. If you told that 20-something kid with a camera that he’d be working for one of his idols in 10 years, he would have scoffed… and maybe called you a name or two. But now it’s official and I can say that I’m on board to lead his 2016 Namibia Untamed tour!

Ok, enough ass kissing. Namibia really is a photographers dream and this is THE BEST and most respected tour to the area. If you’re interested in joining me to Namibia and taking your photography to the next level, please check out the website for more information, images, video clips, and a very detailed tour PDF: http://www.squiver.com

Northern Lights Finale – With Arild Heitmann
Processing Tutorial Videos
Processing Instruction via Skype

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