Bat Fish Under A Ledge

I can't remember if I had posted this photo or not, but maybe it is worth posting again if I had already...A group of Batfish hiding from the raging current under a ledge...a tricky shot to get with the current and movement from the waves above...

An Artist's House?

This was the side of a house in Papua. Any normal person walking by would think it was a mess, but I love the side of the house and the way it is painted...looks like an artist had his way with the painting...sure beats just a solid color of paint, don't ya think?

How About Two Million, and Call It Even...?

Below is the photo by Andreas Gursky of the Rhine River which sold for a record 4.3 Million Dollars at an auction held by Christie's...FOUR POINT THREE MILLION...whoa!!

Here is a photo by Scotty Graham of some unknown river in Africa...I'll take half of what Andreas sold his for....how about TWO Million even?...I'll even make a massive sized print for you...sounds fair to me...any takers? Should I put it up for auction at Christie's?

Giraffe Coffee Break

In the middle of a deserted landscape in Namibia, there was this very small pond of water...These Giraffe were huddled around the pond getting into position for a drink. I guess it is no easy task to drink...they must have one hell of a pump to get that water up those long necks to their bodies...

Speaking of coffee, I had the pleasure of meeting Stuart Taylor of Highlander Images yesterday in Jakarta. Stuart has been following my blog for a couple of years, and we follow each other on Google+. Very cool to meet in person. We had a long talk about photography, blogging, Google+, software, HDR, and other fun topics. We may even team up for some fun photo excursions in the future. He is a long time resident of Asia like myself, and we think we would make great guides for photo excursions around Asia. Stay tuned...

Early Morning Grazing

This is the herd of Buffalo that the lion in yesterday's shot was near...such a peaceful scene in the early light of the day...

The Stare of The Lion

There was a large herd of Cape Buffalo near-by. We followed some lions hoping we could see them hunt the Buffalo, but the hunt never came. This female was checking things out in the high grass.

Flying Over Victoria Falls

Continuing with "the lost files" from my Africa trip a few years ago, here is one from the air over Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Zambia. We took off from a small float plane on the Zambezi River, made a couple of passes over the falls, and then landed back on the river...very cool!!

Elephant Crossing

I was cleaning my office yesterday. I have three generations of Macs sitting my office. I have the old G4 Machine that has been sitting neglected in the corner of my office, and then an old iMac sitting on my desk with my new iMac. I had not turned on my old G4 in years, but decided to turn it on, and see what was there. To my delight, all of my Africa photos were there, so I started to browse those old photos...most of them un-edited. I have now copied all of those files over to my new machine, and backed them up onto some external hard drives.

In any case, I am going to post for the next week or so some of those photos from Africa which were taken on my old Nikon D2H and the Nikon D70....top-of-the line cameras at the time. The D2H was only a 4MP camera...compare that with the D800 today...36MP...and the D2H was a 4-thousand dollar camera!! Unreal how things change...

Onto the Photo...


So, this photo was taken at our first reserve we visited in Botswana...Cobe. We were in a small boat cruising down the river, when this herd of Elephants started to cross. They came very close to our boat...a pretty uneasy feeling having these HUGE animals coming towards you only a few meters away...that didn't stop me from firing away with my camera, though...

Ready To Dive

Now we move ABOVE the pier. This is the top of the pier from yesterday's photo...how would anyone know so much action was taking place just beneath us? Ah, what a nice spot to decompress...

Action Under The Pier

While most stayed on the boat tied to the pier for lunch, I peeked under the pier where the kids were fishing, and saw lots of action...so what does a guy do? Suit up, and jump in!! I was rewarded with an incredible sight...the scene below...

Kelly and Kayla

I have been slack with the blog the past few days...finally feeling better from that nasty bug that attacked me, and now that the stupid medicine I had to take is finally out of my system, I feel even better. Whew...glad that is over with....will have to stay away from salads when eating out...

Here is one of my "test" images from the D800. I would upload the full resolution version, but it is over 40MB, so will just post this "for the web" version. In any case, a very impressive camera indeed...the details are simply out of this world...

I did make my final decision in regards to cameras. I am keeping my M9, and will use the Leica for my travel photography. I have a D800 on order (who knows when I will actually get it), and will get the new Ikelite housing which is very affordable. I will then have my dream arsenal for photography...the Leica for travel and photowalks, and the D800 for everything else including underwater...the dream lives!!

My daughters, Kelly (left) and Kayla (right)

The Incredible People of Indonesia

Don't ya wonder sometimes what you would do if your house burned down and you lost everything? No car, no computer, no camera, no bed, no shower, no running water, no dishes, pots or pans, nothing but the clothes on your back...To make matters worse, what if you had no insurance on top of it all, and no job. What would you do?

In America, this would be a rare event, but here in Indonesia, it is quite common. I am always amazed at how well people cope with this awful scenario. In America, people would get bitter and would want to blame someone for their misfortune...they would demand their government to do something for them...not here...here, the people keep smiling, and life goes on. It really is amazing, and one of the reasons I just love the people here...

After I took the photo below, the guy turned around and gave me a smile from ear to ear, and asked me how my day was going...You look at where he lives, and he is asking ME how my day is going...that says it all.