Expert guided photographic tours

Welcome

Add comment January 30th, 2012 10:48pm todd

Welcome to Gustafson Photo Safari. We lead dedicated photo tours to East Africa, South America, North America and other nature photography locations around the world. Our no-compromise safaris are designed to get you to the best locations to make great images.

Here you can find out more about how we work, view our upcoming tour itinerary, read about previous tours and see some of the fabulous photographs taken on our safaris.

Namibia Day 17 Etosha

Add comment June 30th, 2012 03:06pm todd

Another amazing sunrise, this time with wildebeest and zebras in the scene.  We took a last drive around our lodge area before we packed the vehicle and started the drive to Windhouk.  Etosha had been a huge success for us.  The sheer numbers of animals, the quality of photographable sightings, and the behaviors we were able to photograph every day make this a destination for future safaris!!

Every lodge we stayed in was great, with hot water, good food, beautiful spacious air-conditioned rooms with comfortable beds, and 24 hour electricity.  Our guides are now our friends and will be a part of my life forever and we thank them for their hard work, expertise, experience and always having our best interests, comfort and safety in mind.

I hope you enjoyed the blog and will look for the full photo gallery and HD video at gustafsonphotosafari.net

Next year we are doing a streamlined version ofNamibiacoupled with a week inBotswana’s Okavango Delta!

I’ll leave you with a few random photos that I like.

Namibia Day 16 Etosha

Add comment June 29th, 2012 02:57pm todd

Giraffes in the sunrise were another nice start to the day!  Having shot plenty of elephants, rhino, kudu, springbok and zebras we took today to look for smaller subjects and as a result got great photos of kori bustard, black koorhan, hornbills and bee eaters.  At lunch we took time to search out southern ground squirrels that had a burrow near the campsite area.  The best view was from eye level so I lay right down on the ground about 15 feet from the den.  The angle of view was fantastic, the backgrounds spectacular and the ground squirrels absolutely adorable!  The problem with the situation was the thousands of tiny sticker plants that surrounded the den and now coated my pants, shirt, elbows, foreams, hands……At least they were hard to find, uncommon (there were only 2) and very cute!

For our afternoon game drive Dirk did a hard break/quick stop and said “Oh, my God!  Ground squirrels!”  There were 30 of the little devils right outside our windows and we could shoot them as long as we wanted.  So much for uncommon and hard to find.  They were still cute, though.

Namibia Day 15 Etosha

Add comment June 28th, 2012 02:46pm todd

Lions were roaring all night but our attempts to find them came up empty.  The two watering holes we visited were also empty so we hunted our way back to camp hoping there would be more action at the Okaukuejo watering hole.  On the way we had lots of chances at goshawk, kori bustard, springbok portraits, Oryx, jackals and best of all, 2 giraffes on the savannah with the giant red sunrise behind them.

When we reached camp we found where all the animals were.  There were 100s of springbok, black faced impala, Oryx, a family of 7 greater kudu (we’ve now seen 28) fighting black headed herons and thousands of zebra!  I’ve never seen so many animals in one place at the same time.  I ran out of cards for my camera as well as battery for the D4.  I had to make the long 10 step trek to my room to download and recharge.

After dinner we hung out at the watering hole and watched 3 rhinos come to drink.  The reflections of mother and baby drinking in the black water gave another good chance to shoot the D4 at high ISO; 128,000!

Namibia Day 14 Etosha

Add comment June 27th, 2012 02:41pm todd

It’s our last morning in the Namutoni area so we went to our favorite watering hole for a goodbye photo shoot.  Zebras drinking, playing and yawning were highlighted by two bucking colts.  When they were done we thought it was time to hit the road for our next lodge at Okaukuejo.  A herd of 100 wildebeest had different plans for us!  They came down to drink with young ones bouncing and chasing each other.  Next came a herd of eland!  By the time it was over there were groups of zebra, eland, wildebeest, impala, and even a greater kudu all at the water’s edge.  Something spooked them and they all exploded from the oasis in a sight not to be forgotten!

On the way to Okaukuejo we went into the Central Pan, a 5000 sq kl salt flat that is the remains of an extinct Paleolithic lake.  I’ve never seen such a vast expanse of nothingness (perfect for fisheye shots).

We aren’t going for an afternoon game drive because our bungalows at Okaukuejo overlook a fantastic watering hole that is stuffed with wildlife!

The evening featured a visit to the watering hole by a mother and young black rhino (numbers 5 and 6 for the trip)  It was another good chance to use the high ISO capabilities of the D4 camera.  Shooting in the dim glow of spotlight the rhino photos are amazingly crisp.