Aus Workshop 2016

Tree and Dune - Fuji x100s, 1/100, f/8, ISO 200, Polarizer

The Aus Photography Workshop with Wicus Leeuwner and JJ van Heerden was a great success! It was an excellent learning experience for me, I had much fun and got some decent shots.

I suspect that my blog has in common with Playboy that most people come here for the pictures rather than the text. So I'll oblige with lots of pics below the fold (SFW, don't worry), along with some descriptions.

Landscapes

Although not officially part of the workshop, a few of us took a day off to do a tour of the Sperrgebiet, the restricted diamond zone along the Southwest coast. Its history is fascinating (go read it elsewhere), and the landscapes are pretty stark. There are also various ghost towns and abandoned mining machinery rusting in the desert.

Bogenfels - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 60sec, f/16, ISO 100, ND Filter

This is the famous Bogenfels rock arch in the Sperrgebiet. I used an ND filter to blur the motion of the waves and clouds, making the arch look more solid and permanent in contrast. I was hoping for a wilder sea, which would have made the foot of the arch appear to emerge from fog, but the day was unusually calm. The arch is huge, by the way, I should have included a little figure for scale.

Nara Plant - Canon 40D, Sigma 8-16mm, 1/100, f/16, ISO 400

Naras are melons commonly found in Namibia. They're edible, but for some reason the horses there don't eat them.

Garub Plains - Fuji x100s, 8x1/250, f/8, ISO 200, polarizer

The above panorama gives a nice feel of the Garub plains, with the various workshop participants enjoying themselves. I stupidly left my polarizer on, hence the darker portion of the sky. Because only the region at approximately right angles to the sun is polarized, that region looks darker, which is not ideal for wide angles of view.

Petrified Dunes - Canon 40D, Sigma 150-600 C, 1/1250, f/8, ISO 400

Long lenses are great for compressed landscapes. That lovely Sigma 150-600 Contemporary was loaned to me by Sigma South Africa, along with the 8-16mm ultra-wide angle lens and the fast 35mm f/1.4 Art lens. All three lenses were very impressive. I wrote up my experience with them for Sigma's blog here.

The Celebritree - Canon 40D, Canon 17-55, 1/60, f/2.8, ISO 100

This is the Celebritree, one of the most-photographed quiver trees in the world (or would be, if more people came here), standing at the edge of God's Window with an amazing view of the Garub Plains. It really is a particularly lovely specimen.

View from God's Window, Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 3x1/8, f/8, ISO 100

Here is a view from God's Window. It's three shots, stitched into a panorama. I still didn't get enough in, so the bottom two corners are actually fake, courtesy of Photoshop's "content-aware fill" function. Did you notice?

B&W Sunset - Canon 40D, Canon 17-55, 0.4+1/10+1/40 HDR, f/5.6, ISO 100

Okay, not the world's best sunset image, but I made some HDR images of sunsets, and frankly this one looks better in black and white than any of the others do in color.

Geisterschlucht - Fuji x100s, 6.5sec, f/11, ISO 200, IR filter

JJ and I arrived a few days before the workshop and hung around exploring and taking photographs. I had a great time in the noonday sun with my little Fuji x100s and an infrared filter, while JJ napped, and photographed the charismatic acacia trees in the Geisterschlucht valley where we stayed. I can really recommend the little Fuji for infrared (and for little flowers, and for nightscapes...)

Wildlife

Six-Headed Hydra - Canon 40D, Sigma 150-600 C, 1/1000, f/8, ISO 640

Most of our time was spent at the Garub water hole, an artificial water source created for the feral horses. These six ostriches showed up nearly every morning.

Three Desert Horses - Canon 40D, Sigma 150-600 C, 1/200, f/8, ISO 200

The famous feral horses near Aus are the main attraction for this workshop every year. This year, though, the horses are in serious trouble. It hasn't rained here in ages, and there's almost nothing for them to eat, to the extent that they're getting fed once a week. Because they rely on the water, they cannot migrate away to greener pastures. That, combined with hyena predation means that the population has halved in the last few years, and we didn't see a single foal.

A Frank Exchange of Views - Canon 40D, Canon 70-200 f/4 IS, 1/125, f/4, ISO 500

This is one of the few instances of sparring between stallions that we saw. Most of the horses looked miserable and listless.

Desert Horse Sunset - Canon 40D, Canon 70-200 f/4 IS, 1/500, f/4, ISO 500

Rim lighting is always beautiful, which is why we often photograph these horses against the light.

Golden Dust - Canon 40D, Canon 70-200 f/4 IS, 1/1250, f/4, ISO 200

Yep, the plains are very dusty.

Cartoon Horse - Canon 40D, Sigma 8-16, 1/320, f/5.6, ISO 400

Okay, this is not a wild horse, but a tame one, on the guest farm where we stayed. Much fun can be had with ultra-wide angle lenses. This shot was taken a few centimeters from the horse's nose.

Sociable Weaver - Canon 40D, Canon 70-200 f/4 IS, 1/1000, f/4, ISO 800

Sociable weavers build enormous nests, which can house hundreds of birds. One often sees fallen nests under acacia trees, where the nest kept getting enlarged until the branch broke under the weight.

Lizard - Canon 40D, Canon 70-200 f/4 IS, 1/200, f/11, ISO 100

I have often lamented that my otherwise wonderful 70-200 has a back-focus problem when focusing on nearby objects, and my old Canon 40D doesn't do focus micro-adjustments to compensate for this. But this time I nailed it, using manual focus override to pull the plane of focus back to the lizard's eye. Luckily, the little fellow obligingly posed for me at a distance of less than two meters.

Gemsbok - Canon 40D, Sigma 150-600 C, 1/1000, f/9, ISO 400

There are plenty of gemsbok (oryx) in the region, though they are poached and hence very skittish. Otherwise they look sleek and healthy, in marked contrast to the poor horses.

Bat in Flight - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 1/250, f/5.6, ISO 800, flash

This little bat was flying regular patrols along the balcony of the lodge where we ate our dinners. Well, if you can anticipate it, you can photograph it. So I got Tanya's flash, mounted a wide-angle lens for an extensive depth of field, set the flash to manual (after almost frying the poor thing with my first test shot, I dialed the flash power down to about 1/32) and took a number of pot shots (which needed extensive cropping). The results, though amateurish, are surprisingly good, given the limited preparation. If you know what species this is, leave a comment.

Flora

Lithops - Fuji x100s, 1/80, f/8, ISO 500

There are very interesting plants in the Namib. These Lithops are also known as "pebble plants", and clearly try to game their surface area to volume ratio so as to conserve moisture.

Fenestraria - Fuji x100s, 1/110, f/11, ISO 200

These Fenestraria, or "window-plants" take conserving moisture one step further - photosynthesis actually happens inside the leaf, behind a transparent window.

Bushman's Candle - Fuji x100s, 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 200

Bushman's Candles are covered by a thick layer of wax, which remains long after the plant itself is dead and gone. This can actually be burned to produce a bright yellow flame, hence the name.

Kolmanskop

Staircase 1 - Canon 40D, Sigma 8-16, 1.6sec, f/8, ISO 100

Kolmanskop is a ghost mining town, that was once very prosperous and advanced. It had the first x-ray machine in the Southern hemisphere, though this was used for finding smuggled (or swallowed) diamonds rather than broken bones. The visit here is always one of the highlights of the workshop.

Staircase 2 - Canon 40D, Sigma 8-16, 0.5sec, f/8, ISO 400

Now the houses are being reclaimed by the desert.

My Door is Always Open - Canon 40D, Canon 17-55, 1sec, f/11, ISO 100

Triptych - Fuji x100s, 1/950, f/8, ISO 400

This is not really a triptych, but a plain photograph of three toilet booths which are overdue some maintenance.

After Dark

Setting Sun - Canon 40D, Sigma 150-600 C, 1/250, f/8, ISO 100

I was invited to join the workshop as a night photography "expert" (the real experts demanded real money, I guess ;). I had a great time in this capacity - I love being out in the desert, I love photographing and I love teaching, and here I had the chance to combine all three.

Crescent Moon - Canon 40D, Sigma 150-600 C, 1/200, f/8, ISO 800

The workshop was held over new moon to guarantee dark skies. So when the moon did arrive, it was a lovely crescent, and with the 600mm at my disposal I got some nice shots of the side-lit craters.

Saturn - Canon 40D, Sigma 150-600 C, 1/90, f/8, ISO 800

I even got a picture of Saturn, though it is only some 20 pixels across.

Galactic Heart - Canon 40D, Sigma 35 f/1.4 A, 15sec, f/1.4, ISO 3200

The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 turned out to be great for photographing the Milky Way. Clearly, aperture is king. The field of view is a bit narrow (on my 1.6x crop sensor), so I stitched a number of exposures into a panorama:

Milky Way Rising - Canon 40D, Sigma 35 f/1.4, 12x15sec, f/1.4, ISO 3200

I didn't anticipate how much people would struggle with their cameras in the dark; initially even experienced daylight photographers found themselves stymied by their lens caps, HDR modes, mirror lockup, etc. With hindsight I should have known: all of this has happened to me, too. Focusing was a huge challenge, and so the Focus Bush was born - a torch left in a bush some 20m behind us, which people could use to focus on.

Ghost Car - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 2x30sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200

The above is a first for me: I had never used Photoshop for panoramas before, preferring to use the infinitely versatile and immensely frustrating Hugin. But in very simple cases (e.g. the above is made of only two exposures) it works quickly and easily.

The above car has sat at the entrance to Geisterschlucht for a long time, but has been mysteriously accumulating bullet holes over the decades.

Early Morning Shoot - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 10x30sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200

We left horribly early on our trip to the Khoichab River, and stopped for an impromptu night-sky shoot, which was great fun. So in the early morning the Milky Way has moved across the sky so that in a typical panorama, the two Magellanic Clouds lie outside the arch of the Milky Way, instead of inside it, as happens when you shoot this in the evening (example).

And if somebody can tell me how to get rid of that stupid panosphere icon that Google plasters onto my image, I would be very grateful.

Heavens Above - Fuji x100s, 4x30sec, f/2, ISO3200

This was pretty much the last serious picture I took at the workshop, and here I discovered that my little Fuji x100s is very well suited to night photography (the f/2 aperture is useful, especially combined with the excellent sensor), provided one makes panoramas to get a decently wide field of view. Also, I should shoot more in weak moonlight - in fact, perfectly dark skies are overrated - my best images typically involve some light pollution or at least moonlight.

I hope you enjoyed these pics. See you in Namibia next year?

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Come join me in Namibia!

God's Window - Canon 40D + Tokina 11-16, 0.6sec + 1/6 + 1/25, F/16, HDR

Here is the big news I alluded to last time: I'm going to the Aus Photography workshop, held at Klein Aus Vista in Southern Namibia, 5 - 11 June 2016. This time, I'll be going as an instructor, specifically to teach night photography under the leadership of Wicus Leeuwner and JJ van Heerden. Read on to see what you can expect at the workshop.

Night Photography 

 

I went to this workshop as a student in 2012, and photographically, it was the best experience I ever had. The photos in this post were all taken during that trip, though the night photos were actually taken at the Quiver Tree Forest near Keetmanshoop some days before the workshop, since the 2012 workshop was timed to coincide with the full moon.

Quiver Trees by Moonlight - Canon 40D + Tokina 11-16, 64sec, F/4, ISO 800

Early in the evening the moon was 90% illuminated, but quite low in the sky, so some stars were visible, while the moon illuminated the quiver trees in the foreground. Moonlight is the same colour as sunlight, just 18 stops or so dimmer, so daylight white balance will make the landscape look quite normal - except for the long exposure and the stars in the sky.

Quiver Tree and Milky Way - Canon 40D + Tokina 11-16, 30sec, F/2.8, ISO 3200

Later that night, after the moon set, the Milky Way was up in its full glory. In June we can see towards the centre of the Milky Way, which is the most spectacular part. Here I illuminated a quiver tree with my torch, but because I only had a white LED torch, its light is far too cool to produce a pleasing colour at any white balance which makes the sky look good. Ideally, one should take a daylight-coloured torch, perhaps an old-fashioned one with a halogen bulb.

Quiver Trees by Night 1 - Canon 40D + Tokina 11-16, 6x30sec, F/2.8, ISO 3200, 6 exposures stitched

That same night, I took the three full-sky panoramas that I have written about so much.

The Wild Horses

 

Garub Plains Horses - Canon 40D + 17-55 F/2.8, 1/100, F/8, ISO 200

Of course, night photography will be only one attraction at the workshop (which will this time coincide with the new moon). Arguably the main attraction of Aus are the feral horses, which have lived in the area since the end of the First World War. They rely for survival on an artificial water hole maintained there for their benefit.

Running Free - Canon 40D + Tokina 400mm, 1/250, F/80, ISO 400

These horses have lived feral for many generations, and it is fascinating to watch the interactions between members of a herd. They are not shy, however, and come close to investigate the people photographing them.

Window to a Free Soul - Canon 40D + 70-200 F/4 IS, 1/125, F/4, ISO 100

 

Spectacular Landscapes

 

Tranquility - Canon 40D + 70-200 F4 IS, 1/20, F/8, ISO 100

Southern Namibia has some of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth. Aus lies on high, rocky terrain, which soon sweeps down to the Garub plains, a gravel desert that extends some 100km westwards to the coast. An amazing viewpoint over these plains is at God's Window, see the image at the top of this post.

Dune - Canon 40D + 70-200 F4 IS, 1/50, F/11, ISO 100

A few hours drive to the north, one reaches the red dunes of the Namib Desert, the oldest desert on Earth, whose fauna and flora have had millions of years to adapt to the harsh conditions.

Gemsbok - Canon 40D + 70-200 F4 IS, 1/250, F/10, ISO 100

 

 

Kolmanskop

 

 

Miss Colmans Koppa - Canon 40D + Tokina 11-16, 1sec, F/16, ISO 100

Just outside Lüderitz, this is the ghost of a mining town, built during the diamond boom of the early twentieth century. It was spectacularly wealthy and advanced (it boasted one of the first x-ray machines in the Southern hemisphere - to image smuggled diamonds, rather than broken bones), but was abandoned in the 1950s. Since then, the desert has been reclaiming the houses one sand dune at a time.

Door in the Sky - Canon 40D + Tokina 11-16, 1sec, F/16, ISO 100

What to bring

 

I hope you'll be able to join me at the workshop. If you do, or manage to come here on another occasion, here are some tips of what to bring with you.

Desert Grass - Canon 40D + 17-55, 1/60, F/11, ISO 100

1. A spare camera body. This is not somewhere one gets to every day, how sad would it be if your camera packs up at the beginning of the workshop? For that reason I strongly recommend bringing a spare camera body as a backup. Remember also that the desert is quite a harsh place, and although your camera is unlikely to get wet, you do want to avoid getting sand in it, especially when you change lenses. The second reason to have a spare body is that you can then have two different lenses mounted, and can quickly change focal length without taking any lenses off your camera.

 Your spare doesn't have to be as fancy your main body (older, second-hand bodies should be affordable online), but if its control layout is the same as your main body, then you'll have a much smoother experience.

Born Free - Canon 40D + Tokina 400mm F5.6, 1/640, F/8, ISO 400

2. A telephoto lens, mainly for the horses, but there will be opportunities to photograph other wildlife too, such as Gemsbok, ground squirrels, birds, etc. A 100-400mm zoom is good, longer is even better, if you can afford it. I can't, so all I have is the venerable Tokina 400mm F/5.6 lens, but I found that it produces pretty good results, especially stopped down to about F/8 or so, and it's ridiculously cheap. Contrast is a bit low, but that can be fixed (somewhat) in post-processing.

Welcome Sky - Canon 40D + Tokina 11-16, 1/6, F/22, ISO 160, ND grad filter

3. A large-aperture, wide-angle lens, for night photography. You want the spectacular night sky in your shot, so you need a wide angle. There is very little light, so you need a large aperture. It's very hard to autofocus at night, so ideally you also want something whose focus ring has a hard stop at infinity, or at least an accurate infinity mark. Since you'll be shooting wide open, accurate infinity focus is really important. My lens for this ideal: the Tokina 11-16mm F/2.8. It's optically excellent, even wide open, and it has an accurate hard stop at infinity on the focus ring. Now, if it were 1-3mm wider, it would be even better.

In the day-time, you'll be using the same lens for sweeping landscapes and indoor shots at Kolmanskop (here a tilt-shift lens would be great).

Garub Sunset - Canon 40D + 70-200 F4 IS, 1/80, F/8, ISO 100

4. A medium telephoto lens, 70-200mm is ideal. This can be used both for horse portraits as well as a wide variety of landscapes.

Ant - Canon 40D + 70-200 F4 IS + Raynox macro adapter, 1/250, F/16, ISO 400, Flash

5. There are always opportunities for a macro lens as well, although you don't want to carry too much on your back, so a clip-on macro-adapter, such as the Raynox DCR 150, on your medium telephoto lens works pretty well.

6. A sturdy tripod is a must. You'll be taking long exposures at night, potentially several hours if you're doing star trails, and there might be some wind. Forget the super-compact travel tripods with their spindly legs - heavier is better.

A nodal-point adapter is pretty useful (but not essential) when taking panoramas, which you'll need to do if you want to capture more than just a small piece of the Milky Way.

A cable release is also essential, and a fancy one that acts as an intervalometer will be quite useful for star trails, but again, is not essential.

Also bring a lens-cleaning brush and cloth (Namibia is dusty), spare batteries, sturdy shoes, warm clothes (it gets very cold at night), a sun hat, etc. etc.

Boulder - Canon 40D + 70-200 F4 IS, 1/40, F/11, ISO 100

See you there!

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