Photo Safaris By Region AFRICA - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya - Namibia—Land of the Himba - Cape Town—Photo Tour for Women ANTARCTICA - Ultimate Antarctica ASIA - Angkor Wat & Bagan - China's Winter Tigers & Giant Pandas - Japan's Winter Wildlife - India—The Palace on Wheels - Snow Monkeys & Giant Pandas - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - Great Rivers & Mountains of China & Tibet - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival EUROPE - Britain's Winter Birdlife - Eclectic Holland - Wildlife of Hungary & Transylvania - Transylvania—Romania of Myth & Legend - Venice - Tuscany - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Provence - Spitsbergen—The Pack Ice Voyage - Ultimate Puffins - Albania, Macedonia & Montenegro NORTH AMERICA - Ultimate Wolves - Ultimate Yellowstone - Horses & Icons of the Wild West in Winter - Nature & Digital Photo Seminars with John Shaw - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - Great Smoky Mountains - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Predatory Animals of North America - Action & Adventure Sports - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage - Glacier National Park Field Workshop - Denali National Park in Autumn - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - South Dakota Wildlife—Bison Roundup & Mount Rushmore - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women PACIFICA - Papua New Guinea SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA - Patagonia' Mountain Landscapes - Baja California—Whales, Wildlife & Wilderness - Easter Island & Machu Picchu - Mexico's Colonial Heartland Photo Safaris By Date JANUARY - Ultimate Antarctica - Ultimate Wolves - Ultimate Yellowstone - Angkor Wat & Bagan - Britain's Winter Birdlife FEBRUARY - China's Winter Tigers & Giant Pandas - Horses & Icons of the Wild West in Winter - Nature & Digital Photo Seminars with John Shaw - Japan's Winter Wildlife MARCH - Baja California—Whales, Wildlife & Wilderness - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - India—The Palace on Wheels APRIL - Nature & Digital Photo Seminar with John Shaw - Patagonia' Mountain Landscapes - Eclectic Holland - Great Smoky Mountains - Wildlife of Hungary & Transylvania MAY - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Transylvania—Romania of Myth & Legend - Venice - Tuscany - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Snow Monkeys & Giant Pandas JUNE - Predatory Animals of North America in Spring - Action & Adventure Sports - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - Provence JULY - Spitsbergen—The Pack Ice Voyage - Ultimate Puffins AUGUST - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage - Glacier National Park Field Workshop - Denali National Park in Autumn SEPTEMBER - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - Great Rivers & Mountains of China & Tibet - Albania, Macedonia & Montenegro - Namibia—Land of the Himba - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival - Predatory Animals of North America in Autumn - South Dakota Wildlife—Bison Roundup & Mount Rushmore OCTOBER - Papua New Guinea - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women - Nature & Digital Photo Seminars with John Shaw - Easter Island & Machu Picchu - Mexico's Colonial Heartland NOVEMBER - Wet & Wild—Andean Condors and Iquazú Falls DECEMBER - No tours scheduled for December 2008 JANUARY 2009 - Cape Town—Photo Tour for Women

		By Wayne Lynch & Aubrey Lang Ultimate Antarctica February 2–March 1, 2006 Spring Fever in Galapagos April 29–May 15, 2006 Polar Bears & Wildlife of Spitsbergen June 26–July 8, 2006 Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya September 8–22, 2006 Emperor Penguins of Snow Hill Island, Antarctica October 19–November 3, 2006 and October 31–November 15, 2006 In the mid-1980s, Maun was a dusty little town on the southern edge of the Okavango Delta, in Botswana. Back then, the bar at the airport was the place to meet the locals and wash down the dust of the Kalahari. While cradling a cold beer, we decided that aerial photographs of the Delta would be the best way to begin our photo coverage of this famous wetland. Clive was to be our pilot, and we agreed to rendezvous at the hangar at 4:00 PM. An hour behind schedule, we were finally strapped into our seats and ready for takeoff. Clive yelled "All set?" and hit the starter. Dead silence. "The damn thing has been acting up all week!" Clive shouted as he jumped out of the cockpit and walked around to the propeller. He heaved on the blade and the engine roared into life, and off we went. There was just one small problem. Clive was outside the plane and we were strapped inside, rolling towards other small planes parked beside the runway. Clive took his job seriously and, since he was hired to fly this machine, he was determined to come along. As the plane gained speed, our trusty pilot jogged along outside trying to jump in. Suddenly the idea of aerial photographs of the Delta seemed less attractive than it had a few hours earlier. Clive eventually leaped inside and, perspiring and red-faced, he apologized for the moment of excitement, then roared down the runway, carrying us into the hot African sky. Our high flying experiences have all been memorable, and even amusing at times. A poster in the main airport in the Falkland Islands reads: "Don't be sick in someone's lap because the sick bags are behind the seat. Don't disturb the pilot by coughing, shouting or snoring. Visit the toilet before boarding. Thank you." Although some of our experiences with aerial photography have been hair-raising, most of them have been enjoyable and we recommend that you take your camera aloft every chance you get. Here are a few suggestions. To begin with, why photograph from an aircraft at all? Shooting from the air can add a fresh new perspective to your photographs, as well as give you a greater appreciation of the environment. For 14 years, Wayne led polar bear tours to Churchill, Manitoba, and he always encouraged people to take the optional helicopter flight. No one was ever disappointed and, for many, it was a highlight of the tour. Believe it or not, good aerial photographs can be taken from commercial jetliners. The purists would argue that the windows in commercial airlines are always scratched and smudged, and the best seats are always in the first class cabin anyway, so why bother? Well, we've made marketable images from almost every section of a plane through some of the worst looking windows imaginable. We know one freelance photographer from Toronto whose best-selling image (it has grossed over $100,000 from repeated sales) was taken through the cockpit window of a 747 at 35,000 feet. He simply asked the stewardess if he could photograph the sunrise from the front of the plane, and shortly afterwards the shot was "in the can." The moral of the story? Have a camera handy whenever you step onto a plane. What about those scenic flights offered at most tourist attractions? We think they are a wonderful idea and a great bargain. We have made such flights over Íguazu Falls in Argentina, Africa's Victoria Falls, and the vast icefields of Kluane National Park in the Yukon, to name just a few. In every case, the flights cost less than $100/person, lasted 30 to 60 minutes, and gave us dozens of interesting, saleable images without breaking the bank. How many of you have been to Everglades National Park in Florida? Let's have a show of hands. Just as we thought: most of you. But how many of you have photographed them from the air? On our first visit many years ago, we flew with Happy Harry's Scenic Airplane Rides in Everglades City, Florida. Harry Enquist was such a pleasant, considerate pilot that we flew with him at three different times and made some exciting photographs on every flight. Our take-home message is simple. You don't have to charter your own plane to take professional-quality photographs. If you don't need to hire your own aircraft, why do so many professional photographers, including ourselves, often do it? The answer? Control. When you are the one paying the bill, you can usually control where the aircraft flies, how high it flies, the time of day, and even choose the weather conditions that you like. Naturally, control is expensive. Fixed-wing aircraft charter for several hundred dollars per hour, and a helicopter can cost as much as $1,000 per hour, depending upon the location. We did an assignment several years ago in the Canadian High Arctic which included 26 hours of helicopter flying time. The fuel alone cost several thousand dollars. Ouch! Photography from an ultralight is another aerial option. Neither of us has ever flown in one of these machines, nor are we anxious to do so. We believe if God had wanted lawn mowers to have wings, he would have made them that way in the first place. Having said that, a photographer friend of ours, Bill Fortney, is currently shooting America from 500 feet, while piloting his own ultralight aircraft. Good luck, Bill. Here is our standard checklist whenever we hire a plane to shoot aerials: #1 Select a single-engine, high-winged plane that can maneuver slowly, usually a Cessna of one variety or another. A low-winged plane is almost impossible to shoot from, without getting a wing in the photograph. We never fly with recreational pilots although we get lots of offers. Flying can be dangerous, and too many part-time pilots end up flying underground. Fly with a professional. Do your homework in advance and ask other pilots about your selected operator before you fly with them. #2 Make sure there are sliding windows on both sides of the back seat and in the seat beside the pilot. That way, a photographer in the rear can shoot from either side of the plane. Avoid bubble windows, which are great for sightseeing but hard to shoot through because of reflections. When we were younger and foolish, we used to remove the door of the plane because that was the way we saw the pros do it on television. We don't do that kind of macho stuff anymore, mainly because we don't think it yields more photographs and it makes for a much colder flight. Besides, who really enjoys having wind funnel up their nose at 90 mph? #3 Discuss your route with the pilot before you take off; if you do not, you may waste many minutes of expensive shooting time once you are aloft. Also, the pilot may suggest some routes that you had not considered. As well, you need to decide on your preferred altitude. The higher you fly, the greater the haze, so lower altitudes always yield crisper images. Typically we like to shoot from roughly 1,000 to 1,500 feet. #4 Bring at least two cameras with you. Each should have a motor drive and be loaded with a fresh roll of film. It's false economy to try to use up the last of a roll of film while you are in the air. Changing film wastes expensive flying time. On the ground, our standard camera is the Nikon N90S, but when we are aloft, we switch to the F5, simply because it has a much faster motor drive (roughly 8 frames/sec vs. 3.5 frames/sec). If we could only bring one lens with us it would be a fast 50mm, a f/1.8 or f/1.4. (Our second lens is usually a 28-70mm zoom.) Typically, when shooting aerials, you always shoot the lens wide open at its maximum aperture. With these small focal length lenses, depth of field is virtually infinite once you are more than 50 feet into the air, so there is no need for a small aperture. Besides, if you are flying lower than 50 feet, then depth of field is probably the least of your problems. The choice of a large aperture lens allows you to use a fast shutter speed to counteract the vibrations and movements of the aircraft. We like shutter speeds at least as fast as 1/250th of a second (especially if we are in a helicopter which vibrates much more than a fixed-winged aircraft), although we often risk shots as slow as 1/60. Lenses with image-stabilizers allow you to shoot at slower shutter speeds. We have no experience with these lenses so we called our friend George Lepp to see what he uses for aerial photography. George estimates that image-stabilized lenses enable him to shoot at about two shutter speeds slower than he could with a conventional lens. His preferred image-stabilized lens for aerial photography is the Canon 28-135mm. George also adds a Ken-Lab gyro-stabilizer to his camera to get maximum stability. The gyro costs about $2,000, but enables him to use telephoto lenses up to 300mm with "remarkable results." So there you have it. Get high, and have fun spending those hard-earned dollars. Location: Barrenlands, NWT, Canada. It's surprising there is so much water in the Barrenlands since the tundra in this picture tilts downhill. Keeping the horizon level is one of the great challenges in aerial photography. We use a grid screen in the viewfinder of our cameras to help us along, but needless to say, it doesn't always work. Location: Lancaster Sound, Canadian High Arctic. We photographed these migrating belugas from a helicopter using a 90mm lens. On this occasion, we were being transferred to a different campsite in the Arctic and took advantage of this photo opportunity. Shooting wildlife from the air can rarely be done without frightening or terrifying the animals, so we use this technique very rarely. The low frequency sounds produced by helicopters seem especially upsetting to wildlife. Aerial shots of stampeding caribou, wildebeests, bison and pronghorn are all examples of animals being harassed, and this kind of photography should not be applauded or encouraged. Locations: Kluane National Park in the Yukon, and the Mackenzie River Delta in the western NWT. As in most landscape photography, early morning and late afternoon are the best times to be shooting aerials. The flowing glacier shot was taken in early morning, and the delta shot was taken after a late afternoon rainstorm. In both cases, the long shadows add texture and depth to the scenes. Location: Peel Sound, NWT, Canada We shot this Russian icebreaker while it was traversing the Northwest Passage. We made the photograph from a helicopter, but didn't notice that the rotor was in the edge of the frame. When you are looking through the camera it appears as a dark bit of sky, but at shutter speeds of 1/250 or faster the blade is visible in the final picture. This mistake might also happen if your viewfinder does not include 100 percent of the scene. For example, our Nikon N90S only sees about 90 percent of the scene so the rotor may not be visible through the viewfinder on the edge of the frame. We know this particular image was taken with the F5 so we have no excuse. Location: St. Elias Mountains, Yukon. We shot these snow-clad peaks using Fujichrome Provia 100 film. Normally we try to use the slowest film the flying conditions will permit to get the best color saturation and the finest resolution possible. Generally, that means either a 50 or 100 ISO film. Dr. Wayne Lynch and Aubrey Lang Canadian photographers, Dr. Wayne Lynch and Aubrey Lang have been married for 24 years and the couple have been photographing together since the first month they met at the the Eastern Ontario Children's Hospital. Four years after they were married, emergency physician Lynch and pediatric nurse Lang left their respective careers in medicine to experience the joys of fulltime freelance photography and their new life in poverty. Today, Aubrey and Wayne are an inseparable team of field photographers who thrive on wilderness, and specialize in capturing wildlife in wild places. The couple spend at least six months of every year in the field working on book projects, photo assignments, stock photography and leading photographic tours. Together, they have studied and photographed wildlife on every continent, and in over 50 countries. Wayne is also a popular guest lecturer and an award-winning science writer who has authored 13 books covering a wide range of subjects from the biology and behavior of penguins and northern bears, to arctic and grassland ecology, and the lives of prairie birds and mountain wildlife. Aubrey, who readily admits that she prefers the rewards of rollerblading and weight lifting over those of writing, has four books to her credit. The couple's impressive photo credits include hundreds of magazine covers, thousands of calendar shots and tens of thousands of images published in over two dozen countries. Wayne and Aubrey are veterans in the tour business, having led over 100 tours worldwide. Wayne began working for Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris in 1986 and the couple now leads for them exclusively.

	Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc. P.O. Box 655, Vashon Island, Washington USA 98070 Phone: (206) 463-5383   Fax: (206) 463-5484    Email: info@photosafaris.com Copyright © 2008, Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc.