Self drive trip to Namibia (2012)

[devilry]

very good use of the flare to your advantage for the landscape shots!

 

[framemylife]

Really lovely shots, especially enjoyed #3, #15, #57, #77!

 

[lhjz]

very good use of the flare to your advantage for the landscape shots!

thank you devilry, am impressed with your solo trip to Alaska

 

[lhjz]

Really lovely shots, especially enjoyed #3, #15, #57, #77!

thank you framemylife, glad you love those photos

 

[lhjz]

somemore photos b4 i go for dinner

after so many trips to Africa, we finally convinced ourselves to go up for aerial photos for a change.
its money well spent if you find the correct operator, our pilot was not very professional, he just followed the route without taking into consideration both sides of the passengers are seeing different sceneries.
in the end, my friend had the plain sceneries most of the time and has to shoot into the sun.
we were also assigned to the narrower seats with smaller windows, probably due to our skin colour (anyway i could be wrong)
with the plane shaking and under tight conditions, mine wasn't any much better

anyway here goes.....

#82 you can see the sadn storm coming

#83 sand dunes from sossusvlei

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[lhjz]

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#91 the desert and sea meets

 

[devilry]

i didn't know there are flights over the african desert! I have always thought that there's only hot air balloon available to obtain a bird's eye view of the desert, interesting!

did the quality of the plane's window glass affect the image quality by a fair bit?

 

[lhjz]

i didn't know there are flights over the african desert! I have always thought that there's only hot air balloon available to obtain a bird's eye view of the desert, interesting!

did the quality of the plane's window glass affect the image quality by a fair bit?

Namibia is quite famous for their scenic flights due to the numerous shipwrecks along the coast and also the uniqueness of the coastline
usually people fly from Swakopmund and fly along skeleton coast.
you can fly over sossusvlei and deadvlei to check out the dunes from above.
there are also old diamond mines along the routes in the middle of the desert
if you are lucky, you can photograph wildlife from above provided the pilot is sporting enough to fly slightly slower and lower
then along the coastline, you can see several colonies of seals and shipwrecks in the desert/sea (some were washed into the desert)

yes the window does affect the IQ slightly
generally, if you place your lens perpendicular to the glass, there's no issue but once you point up or down, u will get blurred edges

photography opportunities are there, but some factors to consider
- where you are seating
- the sun
- pilot's initiative when he/she sees interesting landmarks/subjects

i believe all these can be discussed with the operator but we left the arrangement to our guesthouse so turn out not a very good experience for the money we spent

 

[lhjz]

back to the ground

Kolmanskop aka Ghost Town - its a town in the Namib desert where the forces of desert is slowly swallowing it after it was being abandoned in 1954.

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[TWmilkteaTW]

fantastic. Really nice.

 

[weekh]

Great shots!

 

[lhjz]

fantastic. Really nice.

thanks again TWmilkteaTW

 

[lhjz]

Great shots!

appreciate the kind comments

 

[lhjz]

was fortunate to encounter big group of elephants coming for drink at the waterholes

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[lhjz]

sand bath

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#105 big bird meets big ele

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[lhjz]

more ele

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[LifeInMacro]

Thanks for sharing. This is such a good trip as I can see. I'm now wishing that my 10 y/o wildlife loving daughter will grow up faster so that we can go on this trip together.

Cheers!

 

[lhjz]

Thanks for sharing. This is such a good trip as I can see. I'm now wishing that my 10 y/o wildlife loving daughter will grow up faster so that we can go on this trip together.

Cheers!

Thank you LifeInMacro, we saw a lot of younger children with their parents enjoying their vacation.
As long as your daughter can appreciate the nature now, she is good to go haha

Kruger and Namibia are 2 places where you can consider doing the self drive. Not difficult even for first timer.
Drop me an email if you need any details

 

[senate747]

Your pictures are simply stunning...

 

[DECKS]

Firstly, I want to thank you for being so diligent in churning out such beautiful pictures ( it's no mean feat )
IMO you must have taken much more shots than the ones you have published.
Every photo has a lead ..... something to tell behind the scenes... you have done it WELL