Deciding on Africa for 2014

The Iceland trip of 2011 was getting more and more distant in the temporal rearview mirror. Where to go next?

From time to time, I search "photographer tour" or some such term to see what comes up. Or I'll scan through the workshop links at Outdoor Photographer dot com.

Somehow I came across a description of Joseph Van Os' Spitsbergen Pack Ice Voyage. I liked what saw and decided I should give it a go for 2014. But by the time I was ready to pony up with a nontrivial deposit, the tour was sold out.

I put in an inquiry regarding Natural Habitat's Ultimate Alaska Wildlife tour. But it, too was sold out.

These are not inexpensive undertakings, and the the economy is supposed to be down. So I was perplexed by all the sold outedness.

I decided to shift my gaze toward Africa. First I poked around Thomson Safaris in Tanzania. They came highly recommended by Luminous Landscape's Michael Reichmann. They had a promising photo tour led by Randy Hanna lined up for early in the summer. Really early; technically, late spring.

I also came across a Grant Atkinson-led photo tour being offered by Eyes on Africa that seemed intriguing.

I asked the Nature and Wildlife Photography Forum at Digital Photography Review for assistance in helping me decide the two. Commenters had suggestions, including one to check out Pretoria, South African-based Outdoor Photography Safaris. I did, and I liked what I saw.

They have photo tours going to interesting destinations in southern Africa seemingly all the time. For someone with generous but inflexible vacation time like me, that's huge!

I looked at ODP's calendar and signed on to the available African tours from June 16 through July 9. I worked with ODP's Loran Van den Heever to arrange things. I needed to secure flights to and from Johannesburg, South Africa. And flights to/from Maun and Kasane, Botswana. Side trips were arranged at Kalahari Plains Camp and Victoria Falls. Lodging had to be arranged at various interstitial points.

There were many moving parts to lock down, and a multipage spreadsheet was constructed and relied upon. But in the end, I spent nearly a month in Africa, touring several great locations with serious photographers for little more than it would have cost to spend less than two weeks in Tanzania or Sabi Sand/Tuli. A greater burden of logistics fell upon me, and this was the most complex travel undertaking I ever attempted, but I felt I was up to it and eager to give it a go.

Watson Lake, Arizona 2014

I joined in on an Arizona Highways weekend photo workshop in January. The destination was Watson Lake, a reservoir near Prescott, Arizona. We did some afternoon shooting, followed the next morning with sunrise shots. We engaged in an afternoon group photo critique before heading home.

It was a fun little unknown shooting location with charms all its own.

I was able to spend a few moments with noted Physics Go Girl, Morgan in Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport before flying back to Sacramento.

The fact that this workshop happened during the school year combined with my inability to walk and chew gum at the same time resulted in a bit of humor.

One, I forgot to bring my tripod. I have a really nice tripod with a really nice ballhead. And they held down floor and shelf back home while I was in Prescott.

Two, I brought a set of tests to grade. And left them in the room when I checked out. This resulted in me trying to track them down with the cleaning staff. I wished I knew more Spanish. They were picking through trash, not knowing what they were looking for, so I ripped a sheet of paper in half and drew the layout of the answer documents. The tests were found, and the soiling they endured mixed in with the trash left them salvageable. I might have aged a year or two in the process. There are times when my stupidity even surprises me.

2014 01 Watson Lake Gold

The Big AAPT Summer Loop 2013

Summer Travels: Leg 1 - Sacramento to Portland

This summer’s American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Summer Meeting was in Portland, OR this year. I took this as an invitation to create a summertime roadtrip with travel to the meeting as my first leg. Not as impressive as 2008’s roadtrip to Edmonton, AB, but we do what we can. This one had stops in Yreka, Bandon, and Astoria. Yreka so I could shoot some Northern California waterfalls and make attempts at a Mount Shasta shot worth keeping. Bandon so I could shoot sea stacks on Oregon’s lovely Pacific coast. Astoria as a transition from the coast to the Columbia Gorge. I also zipped a nearby zip-line circuit. There was physics!

Summer Travels: Leg 2 - Portland to Glacier National Park

With the close of the AAPT meeting, I was off to points east via the Columbia Gorge. I missed meeting up with Riverside alum, Pam (Krai) Pyrc in Spokane, but enjoyed lunch at Frank’s Diner. Spent a night at an awful hotel in Kennewick before heading off to Kalispell. My MacBook Pro decided it wanted to go on vacation and refused to start up. Apparently, one of the memory modules went bad. I had a second MBP with, and my iPad. And a local hardware store had the mini-screwdriver needed to get at the MBP’s innards. No data was lost, but I had to hobble along with 4GB (instead of the full 8) of RAM for the duration of the trip. I know: First World Problems! Glacier was the awesome spectacle that it always is, but there was very little sky drama that photographers hope for. I hiked out to Iceberg Lake to remind myself how non-trivial a 10+mile mountain hike can be (sometimes I forget). Spritely Zoe Zulakis would laugh at my geezerness. A subsequent walk along The Garden Wall put me up close and personal with a mountain goat.

Summer Travels: Leg 3 - Glacier to Yellowstone

It’s a good long drive from Glacier to Yellowstone. YNP’s North Entrance puts you near Mammoth Hot Springs, Rustic Falls, and various other treasures. I moved on to accommodations in West Yellowstone (late planning kept me out of in-park lodging). I crisscrossed the park in my days there and eventually met up with fellow skeptical teacher (and TAM veteran), Barbara Drescher and her family. They were in the park seeking out wildlife sightings and had done quite well. They tipped me off to the hike up (and I mean three miles of steep grade, lung-busting up) to the Mount Washburn fire lookout. I walked it near sunset and frolicked among the herd of bighorn sheep that grazed to mountain slopes. They were adolescents, so no big racks to shoot, but they weren’t exactly camera shy. I had never seen YNP so completely overrun with visitors. And these were well-fed, American visitors driving big Fords and Dodges, speaking with southern drawls. The economy is officially back!

Summer Travels: Leg 4 - Yellowstone to Grand Tetons

The Tetons were not so overrun as Yellowstone was. There was a bit of unhelpful haze that obscured some of the contrast in the views of the Tetons. But I found a nice new view to photograph, one that required a four wheels of my 4WD Nismo. And I tried my hand shooting a different dilapidated Mormon Row barn. Oxbow Bend wasn’t in full cooperation mode, and Schwabacher Landing was off limits due to the sequester. That would sting less if I had ever been down there for a shot. Restaurant find: Bubba’s BBQ—it’s a real-deal kind of place with a free-standing smokehouse, and they run out of meat if you show up too late on a busy night.

Yosemite Spring Getaway 2013

Once state tests and AP exams were done, I flew the coop for a four-day Yo-Mo-Bo weekend. (That’s Yosemite National Park, Mono Lake, and Bodie Ghost Town.) 

This was a chance to get in some more practice with the Nikon D800E, a new wifi memory card, and a new bluetooth “cable” release. When the technology is working, you can use your iPhone as a shutter release that also tags images with GPS info. Then that image can be sent to your iPhone’s camera roll for immediate sharing. 

A technical snafu (or oversight on my part) resulted in some school drama on the Monday of my long weekend. No sub showed up and I my iPhone had no wave. The school secretary worried I was face down in a pool of blood and sent teachers to my home looking for signs of life or the stench of death. They found neither. A chance Facebook connection and late breakfast at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls (with wifi) ended the drama.

2013 05 Yosemite Springtime

San Francisco 2013: Night Owls and California Academy of Sciences

I was getting itchy to shoot something, so I signed up for this evening photoshoot. We met at Baker Beach, but the Golden Gate was socked in. So we moved on to the Palace of Fine Arts (former home of San Francisco’s legendary Exploratorium). The Palace looks nice in the blue light of twilight (under the fog). 

Next it was Lombard Street, The Crookedest Street in the World™. We shot some 100+second bulb exposures when cars came through to get some nice carlight trails. I love what I got there! The final stop was The Embarcadero’s view of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Happy with what I got there, too.

The next day I visited the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. There were plenty of critter to shoot there!

2013 03 San Francisco Night Owls

2013 03 California Academy of Sciences Aperture Academy San Francisco Night Owls

Red Rock Whirlwind: Nevada/Utah 2012

At the end of TAM2012, I had a fever. And the only prescription was Red Rock. So I booked a night at Zion and a night at Bryce. I rolled through the Valley of Fire and Red Canyon while in transit. I hiked much of Bryce’s Peek-a-boo loop, sinking deep into the mud of a rain-soaked section of trail. And I explored Zion’s Canyon Overlook trail early enough to have it all to myself (except for a few mountain goats).

2012 07 Fire Kolob Bryce Zion Finalists Photo Album

PAEMST Washington, DC 2012

PAEMST Recognition: Washington, DC (June 27-29)
Awardees are allowed to bring a guest, so I brought Jean (Mom). We flew to DC on 7/26 and checked in at the historic Willard InterContinental Hotel, where the term, “lobbyist” is said to have originated. PAEMST events began on 7/27 and continued through 7/29. Dinner at Decatur House with guest speaker/White House Chef, Sam Kass, sessions at the National Science Foundation and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with Physicist S. James Gates and Department of Education personnel. An awards ceremony at the Reagan Building with US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and a photo-op at the White House with President Obama.

Well, that last part didn’t work out. Colorado caught on fire before we arrived, and President Obama was in Colorado when we were at the White House. So we got Joe and Dr. Jill Biden. We got an official group photo with the veep and the Second Lady. Someday we hope to see this photo. And we were treated to our requisite gaffe (a guaranteed part of The Joe Biden Experience™). He stayed afterward to shake hands with all 97 of us, and assured me he had recently been to Sacramento. My PAEMST adventure is documented (in detail) at phyzpaemst.blogspot.com.

Here’s the short version of the video that resulted.

PAEMST Extended Stay: Washington, DC (June 30-July 5)
Jean and I stayed post-PAEMST to tour the District. We saw many monuments, memorials, and museums, and got proficient at the Metro. We met up with former students: the intense Jason Kamras (Rio ’91; National Teacher of the Year 2005) for breakfast near Howard University, and the effervescent Morgan Lambert (who was in the video I submitted in the application) for some photo-shooting at the National Zoo. I schemed to stay through the 4^th, because I figured they might have some fireworks in DC. I even scoped out a prime place to shoot (photograph) them from. And I was able to snap some keepers with the D800E.

Here’s the Director’s Cut / full-length version of the video (which includes the extracurriculars).

2012 06 PAEMST Official Photographer’s Events Photo Album

2012 06 PAEMST Dean’s Events Photo Album

2012 07 Dean’s Extracurriculars Photo Album