The Chase

Cheetah were born to chase. I am sharing what I call a “story telling” series below; these images are not meant to be “great shots” but in my opinion they show the behavior of a chase very well.

To set the scene, there are two cheetah, waiting for the perfect opportunity to hunt. As it starts to gently rain the cheetah prepare and move closer to a herd of wildebeest. The rain can distract their prey and cheetah are very aware of this. As the cheetah make their way closer to the herd they are selecting their target. Cheetah are not large animals and a full grown, healthy wildebeest would be very hard to take down on their own. Two cheetah would have a better chance but it would still require a lot of work. They are also looking for a wildebeest that is not too young as the very young are still in mother’s care and a female would fight for her young. One year old wildebeest are out of mother’s care and are left to fend for themselves, so that would be a good target for them. Also, an injured, sick or old adult would make a good target.

Having an idea of the behavior is very good when trying to capture a chase. It is imperative to keep both eyes locked on the cheetah at all times as they stalk their prey.

The first image (left to right) starts when the young wildebeest decides to stop running and turn to defend itself. I call it the Stand-off. The second image shows the wildebeest as he decides to charge the cheetah, hoping to use its horns. In the third image you see the second cheetah coming into the frame. It is at this point you know the wildebeest will not make it. The fourth image is the Take-down. Note the way the herd in the background reacts. They are moving on as they realize the chase is over and the young wildebeest is supper.

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Our 2021 Tanzania trip is full. Plans are under way for a 2022 trip. Those interested can get on the interested list by emailing me or responding in this post. Thank you. Tentative dates: March 15-25th.

Home From Tanzania

I just returned home after conducting a workshop with Paul McKenzie in Tanzania. While we were there Tanzania reported its first case of Coronavirus. That all happened close to our last day on safari, it added a bit of tension as some folks scrambled to re-book cancelled flights. My direct flight from Nairobi to JFK was never cancelled and I got home early this morning without any issues.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about the virus as many of you have been living it day to day on the news, social media and with all kinds of closings that affect your everyday life. I do need to address some issues with my upcoming workshops. Do know that if I can conduct a workshop I will, but I need to consider everyone’s well being and the nations health above a photography workshop. That said, I will be reorganizing my schedule and postponing many of my workshops (see below). This will cause a lot of extra work and loss of income but there are more important things to consider at this point. Everyone will be making great sacrifices during this pandemic and I realize I am not alone.

Our Tanzania trip was fantastic. The photo opportunities were endless and our last day was incredible. I have many images to sort through but I have limited time with all of the other stuff on my plate. Hopefully I will be getting through the boat load of images I came home with! The Serengeti is much larger than the Mara, so things are spread out a lot more. We had light rain some days but it never lasted. We were lucky with the weather, only slight showers while we were out. To tell you the truth, I was hoping for more rainy photo shoots with lions shaking their heads in the rain.

Zebra and wildebeest as far as the eye could see. Lions in trees and hippos upon hippos. I love watching the behavior of the animals and trying to figure out what they will do next. My guide and I saw a lion walking out to an area that had vultures swarming above. The lion was going there in hopes of food. While we were heading out to follow him we saw a cheetah, the cheetah was running away from the direction of the meal and was hesitant to leave the area completely. That got us thinking that she probably had cubs…bingo she did! Four young cubs to be exact. We watched to make sure that she and her cubs got far enough away from the lion. We were careful not to crowd the cheetahs as mamma has a lot to keep up with. Female cheetah not only have to nurse their cubs but they have to protect them from just about every creature out there. In addition to the babysitting around the clock she is also the sole provider. The male is not a part of rearing the cubs.

After she and the cubs got settled we were able to photograph them on a termite mound as they kept a watchful eye on everything. I’ll share some of those later.

Almost every image was captured with either my Sony a9 that I had attached to my Sony 200-600mm lens or with my Sony 7r3 that I had attached to my Sony 24-105mm lens.

Tanzania Road Block

Hippo Stare

Let Sleeping Lions Lie - Paul has a different version of this scene and I like his a lot. I was trying to get all the curly tree branches but got caught up in the flow of the branches instead. That’s the beauty of photography, we all have our own point of view.

High key Zebras

The one that got away, this is a large crop from a moving vehicle. Not my best but I wanted to share this image of two lion fighting for a female.

Female Thomson's gazelle after just giving birth defending her hidden newborn against a Golden Wolf (used to be called a Golden Jackal-thanks to Mike Cristina for ID) I have another shot that shows the face of the gazelle really well. It has such beautiful sweet eyes. I’ll get around to that image and more once I get some time.

Lion Ear Abstract

Now that’s what I call a mane! ‘The King”

Love Birds

Vitelline Masked Weaver bird building a nest.

Cheetah cub keeping a watchful eye out for predators before retreating back to mom.

Over the next few weeks I hope to get a lot of workshops sorted out. Please don’t email me about workshops that are 6 months out as I am trying to reorganize on a priority basis right now and I am swamped-thank you. Charleston workshop is cancelled. Most folks will receive a credit for another workshop and will have 12 months to use this credit.

Some of the international trips that I have already paid in full are being postponed a year. I am in the process of changing/negotiating with my guides and agencies now and will be in touch with everyone with new dates as soon as I get things worked out.

If you are on the Vietnam 2020 trip you were recently sent new dates. Unfortunately since my Namibia trip will most likely be postponed too I am forced to change the new Vietnam dates. My sincere apologies for that, I had no idea that things would shut down as they are when I made the new dates. I will be re-sending dates to everyone soon but it will most likely be June 2021. Again, thank you for your understanding and patience. I truly appreciate your understanding during these difficult times.

If you are on my April Namibia 2020 new dates (most likely April 2021) will be given to all clients in a few more days as I need to finalize with all vendors. Patience at this time is a virtue and I understand everyone’s concerns. Please know that I am doing my absolute best to accommodate everyone.

I am still hopeful that my Palouse and Olympic National Park trips are still on…fingers crossed.

SONY APS -C vs CROPPING vs TELECONVERTER

Since I started using Sony, there have been load of folks asking me which is better, using the APS-C setting, a teleconverter or cropping in post? Here are some of my thoughts…

The APS-C/Super 35mm setting — aka “crop mode” on the camera effectively chooses which sensor size you want to use. For shooting still images, the camera uses only part of the full-frame sensor, effectively shooting with a cropped sensor rather than a full-frame sensor. The setting is in the menu and where it is located varies according to your camera model, but you will most likely find it in the first menu group. I have assigned mine to C3 so that I can access it very easily while shooting. This feature offers a 1.5 x magnification. When using this feature you are essentially cutting your megapixels in half.

A teleconverter is a short tube that fits between the lens and camera body and increases the focal length of the lens. By using a teleconverter you will gain some reach but you may sacrifice some sharpness and autofocus (same is true with using the APS-C mode). Adding a teleconverter will also reduce the light by 1 stop for a 1.4x converter and by 2 stops for a 2x. However, adding a teleconverter doesn’t change the lens’ minimum focusing distance. For example, if you add a 2x converter to a 300mm lens that focuses down to five feet, you get a 600mm lens that focuses down to five feet.

Cropping in post—well that it self explanatory but many ask “How much can I crop without losing quality”. My answer is this. First, what are you going to do with the image. If you are going to make a large print than you really should’’t count on cropping much. If you are only using it for web viewing, than you have much more flexibility with cropping. You can make a heavily cropped image still look good for the web, but do you want to? That is an individual choice. Another thing to consider when cropping, whether in post or in-camera is how many megapixels does your camera have? The Sony a9 has 24.2-megapixel where the Sony 7r3 has 42.4-megapixels and the Sony 7r4 has over 60!!

So how do I apply all of this in the field:

When shooting with the Sony a9 and the 200-600mm lens for wildlife, I used the 1.4 teleconverter on safari with great success. The 200-600mm lens was much smaller and lighter and more manageable than a 600mm prime lens. I was able to get up and down in the safari vehicle with ease. I handheld the set-up all day without any shoulder or wrist issues. I also found that because it was more manageable that I didn’t even need to use a beanbag and that helped me with tracking my subjects. But… and it is a big but- I needed to be at f/9. This hurt a bit, since I was almost always in a struggle for light. Increasing my aperture to f/9 meant higher ISO’s. However, when shooting in Kenya, using the f/9 worked out good as I often had multiple subjects and it almost forced me to stop down my aperture which meant I had enough depth of field for most of my shots. Having all that depth of field was also a drawback, since I lost that beautiful bokeh that I”m use to getting with the 600mm primes.

When I am shooting with the Sony a9 I need to be more careful with my megapixels as I don’t have as many to throw around. When I was in Japan I used I the Sony 7r3 and the in-camera cropping (APS-C mode) so that I could get in tight for portraits. I had plenty of megapixels so why not. When I was shooting birds in flight, I used the Sony a9 and did not use APS-C or a teleconvertor as I didn’t want to lose any light, autofocus or pixels. I cropped in post if needed. I also used a long enough lens so that I wouldn’t have to crop too much.

In closing, there will always be a struggle between ISO, aperture and shutter speed when photographing. That is part of what keeps me engaged. I love having to work that struggle out in the field. That said, wouldn’t it be nice if we had a 14- 800mm lens with an f/2.8 straight through on a 36 megapixel body that shot 20fps? There is no perfect set-up and there will always be some give and take. It is up to you to know your gear and all of the options available to you so that in the field you can make the best decisions for your own photography.

Lofoten, Norway - 2021

Lofoten, Norway Aurora Photo Tour ~ March 1-8, 2021
A Creative Adventure Workshop
7 nights - $4400. usd

THERE ARE A COUPLE OF SPOTS LEFT FOR THIS GREAT WORKSHOP!

Join Denise Ippolito in Lofoten Norway for a winter wonderland photo tour scheduled for March 1-8, 2021. During this workshop we will arrive at the very best time to capture the Aurora and it will be our top priority to photograph this incredible show of color and lights. Our second focus will be to capture unique images of this amazing wonderland of snow and ice; the breathtakingly beautiful and world renowned mountains, colorful fjords and pristine beaches, as well as the picturesque and authentic red Lofoten cabins. I have carefully chosen our photography guide as he is extremely familiar with our location as well as our photographic needs.

Itinerary:

Day 1: Arrival - Evenes
We meet up at Evenes Airport (EVE), at 11:00am sharp, then get settled in our spacious minivans and head out on our Arctic adventure together. We start off by driving southwest towards the Lofoten islands. At this time I will go over our itinerary and discuss our photography goals for our adventure. If weather and time permits we’ll have our first Aurora and sunset shoot as soon as we get settled.

Day 2-4: Reine
We leave basecamp bright and early and will explore the historic village of Reine, Lofoten’s most prized jewel. We will photograph all the iconic viewpoints, traditional fisherman cabins, jagged granite mountains, colorful fjords and lots more. The surrounding area and islands are extremely picturesque. Highlights include locations such as Flakstad (Skagsanden), Fredvang, Nusfjord, Å, Ramberg, Selfjord and more.

Day 5-7: Leknes
This area is very close to the world renowned beaches such as Utakleiv, Haukland, Unstad and Vik. All of which are ideal in regards to Aurora activity. We will photograph the aurora from some of these beaches and look for interesting ice formations and foreground elements to make our Aurora images stand out. Surrounding beaches include; Ballstad, Vareid, Myrland and Valberg.

Day 8: Departure - Evenes
After breakfast, we will transport you to Evenes Airport (EVE) in due time for your flight home. Flights home should be made after 11:00am.

*Must be in good physical condition. This tour-though not strenuous will require some walking over uneven terrain. It is best to book a hotel stay at an airport hotel for the night before the trip so that you will not miss the group transfers.

*Itinerary subject to change due to local condition, weather, etc…

Dates:
March 1-8, 2021

Price:
$4400 US , Price based on double occupancy.
$1200. US, some single supplements available

Included:
Professional photography instruction
All ground transportation to and from Evenes Airport (EVE)
Accommodation for 7 nights based on double occupancy. Single supplement available at an additional cost.

Not included:
Flights to/from Norway
Alcohol, snacks and beverages
Food
All personal items

Deposit Info

A non-refundable $2,000/person deposit via the payment button above to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip. I also urge you to purchase travel insurance (see below). Your balance will be due on August 1, 2020. Please make your check out to “Denise Ippolito LLC” If I do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date I will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. If your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance. Please don’t book your airfare until this trip is confirmed that it is a go, thank you.

I strongly recommend that you purchase quality travel insurance.

Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check of running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print careful even when dealing with reputable firms like TIS. There are many other companies out there that offer travel insurance, some folks use Allianz Travel Insurance Co or InsureMyTrip. With any travel insurance, it is best to check out the company thoroughly. I have no allegiance to these companies and do not make one cent from the referral or sale of the insurance.

Disclaimer
When it comes to the Northern Lights there is no guarantee that they will appear on any specific day or time. We will make the most of all other photography subjects to maximize our time. We will be visiting at a great time for the Aurora and it will be a top priority for this workshop. This schedule is subject to change.

TO SIGN UP FOR THIS WORKSHOP CLICK HERE.

Greenland Midnight Sun Photo Adventure - July 13-18, 2022

Greenland’s pristine icebergs, quirky villages, and untouched, icy wilderness make it a great photo destination. During our midnight sun workshop the soft golden light is a constant, creating magical unique photo opportunities.

Our base for this photography tour will be a place called Disko Bay, which rests on Greenland’s west coast, well north of the Arctic Circle. This area is known for regular visits of humpback whales and seals, calm waters and reflections.

​For the duration of this trip, we will spend our nights at a 4-star hotel. This guarantees that the group will be well rested, properly fed, and within walking distance of plenty of Greenlandic culture. Ilulissat is known for its colorful houses, dog sledges, museums, fish markets, and hospitable locals.

​The villages of Greenland aren’t really connected by highways or motorways. Here the sea is king, and the natural waterways offer the best routes to take. Because of this, we will charter a private boat for the entirety of our adventure. On our journey we will visit several Greenlandic settlements, including Qasigiannguit, Aasiaat, and Oqaatsut.

​Join me for my very first expedition to Greenland. My itinerary and trip has been skillfully put together by one of my photography friends and co-leaders. He will have a group there at the same time but we will be on separate boats—allowing for maximum photography opportunities. I hate over-crowding…

Those of you have been on my maiden voyages know that I am meticulous about the itinerary, photo opportunities and chosen guides. I will make every effort to get you the type of photos that are in this post. BTW, they are all supplied to me by my guide.

Much of our travelling and photography around Ilulissat’s Icefjord will be carried out at night, when the midnight sun offers the best light to work with and the conditions are unlike anything you will have experienced. More often than not we will begin our sessions late in the evening and continue through the night, chasing the best light and the most spectacular scenes. With the sun low on the horizon the light will become more saturated, with deep icy blues and a sky tinged with fiery reds. This magical light lasts between 2 to 4 hours, so we will try and make the most of it by cruising each evening.

​This tour is suitable for all levels however, you must be able to hike over uneven terrain for about 1 mile. We’ve got a savvy captain who is used to working with photographers; he knows the area extremely well. A detailed information sheet with gear, clothing, flight information, etc… will be sent once we get our entire group together.

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Day 1: Arrival

Arrivals should be made by/or before 1:00pm to Ilulissat. Please check AirGreenland for available tickets. The best way is to fly from Copenhagen with one change at Kangerlussuaq (DO NOT purchase any airfare until you have heard from me). My guide and I will meet you on the recommended flight and transfer for check-in to the airport. After lunch we will meet for a briefing at our hotel and discuss upcoming sessions.

​After dinner we will board our vessel and depart to the Icefjord. There you will see some of the greatest icebergs in the world. The magic light usually lasts around 2-3 hours. Sun slightly touches horizon, giving incredible colors, and roll on distant mountains. During these 3 magic hours we will photograph icebergs around the fjord. Our trip is constructed for photographers, unlike touristic cruises you may book on solo trip to Ilulissat.

​We finish up the cruise around 2-3 a.m. in the evening. We will then have a break until breakfast. If you feel you can endure some more, you are welcome to walk around the Ilulissat after breakfast, observing how the settlement wakes up and starts its normal everyday life.

Day 2

After breakfast we will hike around the village and have a fairly leisurely afternoon, plan for the evening ahead and get some much-needed rest.

​After dinner we will once again sail out into the icefjord. We’ll start a little earlier on day two, as on top of our usual ice hunt we will be visiting several small settlements to the south, including Kangia, Qasigiannguit, and/or Ilimanaq. The final stop will depend on the conditions of the ice. Greenlandic settlements tend be colorful, with colonial buildings full of character.

​On our journey back we will look for some open-water icebergs, which vary in size, and come in a staggering variety of shapes. Castles, archways, towers – we will spend plenty of time under the midnight sun photographing these natural masterpieces. Our expedition will arrive back in Ilulissat between two and three in the morning.

Day 3

After another late one, we’ll take some time out to rest after breakfast on day three. Following a quick lunch, we’ll hop aboard our boat and head to, depending on the conditions, either Oqaatsut or Rodebay. Rodebay is a small settlement to the north of Ilulissat. There we will take a walk through the village, which currently has under fifty inhabitants. Despite the small population there is a church, a shop and a school!

​We will eat out that evening, in what is known as the “whalehunter’s pub”, a small restaurant with a big history. There aren’t a huge amount of options, so we may just go there for lunch instead – it’ll depend on their weekly schedule.

​After eating we will head back to Ilulissat and begin a night hike Sermermiut and the nearby Sermeq Kujalleq glacier. This is where all of the Disko Bay icebergs begin their journeys. Our walk will start from the outskirts of Ilulissat, before heading past Seqinniarfik, and up to the hilltop where local people meet the first rays of sun on January 13th every year. The path is straightforward, fitted with wooden paving for the majority.

​It’s around 1 hour each way, with striking views and comfortable slopes. We will have plenty of stops on the way, and enjoy the midnight sun while keeping an eye out for the local wildlife.

Day 4

After another late-night hike, we’ll settle in for a cozy sleep back at our hotel in Ilulissat. As evening rolls around again, we’ll prepare for another night out on the water. Just before midnight we will once again set sail, skirting around the Icefjord in search of the best compositions and light conditions. The area is a UNESCO world heritage site, so it’s definitely worth visiting as much as possible.

Day 5

After breakfast we will have some free time on your own to catch up on sleep, take a hike, work on pictures…As evening falls we will once again set sail in search of icebergs, wildlife and any spectacles that the midnight sun will illuminate for us.

Day 6

Day six will be our last in Greenland. After a hearty breakfast we will say our goodbyes and transfers back to the airport(transfers are included).

*Itinerary subject to change to accommodate local conditions, weather, etc..

Dates: July 13-18, 2022

Price: $6400, based on dbl occupancy. Single supplement available for $1000.00

Limit 8 clients

Included

·       4 stars hotel, the best hotel in Ilulissat

·       Breakfast, and dinners at the best Greenlandic restaurants

·       Private boat charter

·       Transfers to and from airport

·       Port taxes and fees, fuel

·       Instruction and classes from 2 award-winning photographers

Not Included

·       Air fare

·       Visa (if applicable, US Citizens do not require a visa)

·      All Lunches

·       Alcohol

TO SIGN UP FOR THIS ADVENTURE CLICK HERE.

Paul and I have several upcoming adventures including an exclusive Madagascar trip, Russia, Ethiopia, Bolivia and Northern Ireland-plus a few more in the works for 2022. Stay tuned!