There is still time and there are still a few spots left on this incredible adventure, as shown in my TV series Travels to the Edge.
The Pantanal offers a wetland environment like no other on the planet. At 54,000 square miles you could hide the whole of the Florida Everglades in the center and never find them. It’s no secret that I love photographing wildlife and the Pantanal offers some of the best avian photography anywhere. While the Amazon rain forest may be larger, the Pantanal has a concentration of wildlife that allows you to see (and photograph) 100 times more birds and animals than you ever would in the Amazon. I chose the Pantanal for my TV show for this very reason.
You will have the chance to photograph capybaras and caimans and many of the 400 species of birds that live in the Pantanal. Nearly a quarter of these birds weighing in at over a pound (1.6kg) – which is a pretty big bird when you stop to think about it. We may even get to see Giant Otters (big as a grown man) and Giant Anteaters. If you’ve seen the episode of “Travels to the Edge” from this region you have some idea of what you’ll be in store for. But don’t worry, when it comes to the caimans, we’ll keep a respectful distance (this time).
Through traveling to photograph wildlife, I have been blessed with getting to know some of the most interesting and diverse cultures around the world. For this tour, I have scheduled visits to two working Brazilian ranches so we can get a taste of what it is like to pull a living from this land and call it home. To visit a country without getting to know the people is an incomplete story for me. There is so much to be learned from others who share this earth with us but have different perspectives and unique viewpoints. Seeing the challenges they face can bring a new perspective to our own lives.
And if you’re not hooked yet… on my previous trips I have stumbled across a very remote corner of the Pantanal where there is an incredible opportunity to see Jaguars in the wild. This particular group has become habituated to seeing people much like some of the lion troops you would see on safari in Africa and they no longer instinctively retreat and hide in the dense forest. It may take a while to swallow your heart back down from the middle of your throat, but seeing a Jaguar in the wild is a experience you will never forget.
What to do with April Showers? – Get an umbrella, grab your camera and get outside.
I spent 2 days photographing in the Columbia Gorge and along the Southern Washington Coast, in the rain, and I couldn’t have been happier. The previous 2 days were beautiful. Blue skies, sunshine, unseasonably warm temperatures – and I wasn’t at all interested in getting outside with my camera.
While I’m always open to any subject, on this trip I had very soft, high key, moody images in mind that I could render in black and white. The coastal and inland waters of the Columbia Gorge in addition to having one spectacular waterfall after the next are littered with old pilings from a bygone era of wealth and prosperity from the timber barons of the late 1800 and early 1900s. I have photographed these subjects in the past and knew they needed the right atmospheric conditions, namely fog, to be successful. Here in the NW fog isn’t all that predictable or persistent, but when you don’t have fog, rain can be an excellent (and even better) substitute.
The overcast skies provided the perfect soft box to light the subject, the falling rain softens the image and disturbs the water such that the long exposures necessary with my smallest apertures render the image as a high key, mysterious and quiet, yet powerful image. I knew I would be rendering these in black and white and positioned myself to maximize the white background where the sky was indistinguishable from the sea. I could have stayed with these as a subject for the entire day working different angles, focal lengths and exposures. It was food for my soul and I felt like I was at an all you can eat buffet.
I wasn’t going to overlook the waterfalls as this was the perfect time of the year to photograph them through the fine lines of the trees. The leaves have only just begun to come out adding a touch of color while not obscuring the view of the falls. Most people would say I was “too early” to shoot the falls but you’ll find in about 2 weeks time the trees will have leafed out to where the shots I was able to create with patterns of lines and positive and negative space would be impossible to replicate.
Lastly I met up with friends early in the morning to photograph the Portland Japanese Gardens. With an annual pass you can visit the gardens 2 hours ahead of the general public and photograph largely unencumbered. Again the time of year allowed for some subtle color in the maple trees as they had only begun to leaf out while not obscuring the fine details and patterns of the intricate under-story of their branches. Yes it was a bit too early for bushels of blossoms but when you look at the patterns in nature, the energy contained in a balance of positive and negative space, you’ll find there is rarely ever a bad time to photograph areas like the Japanese Gardens. And when you realize the potential you may never look at a rainy day the same way again.
Art had a great time with his workshop participants in South Africa. The seaside community of Arniston on the Western Cape was a superb location and now enjoys national monument status.
Also, he was able to get his first shots of the endangered African penguin. These penguins are also called Jackass because of their braying call.
11 days/10 night Photography Expedition led by Art Wolfe
Change is coming quickly to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. New elections have brought the hope for democracy, Nobel peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is in parliament, and now is the time to travel to this fascinating country!
Explore the ancient cities, Buddhist temples, and vibrant culture of this country just opening up to the outside world.
Begins at the birding paradise Kutch Wildlife Sanctuary, winds through a truly dazzling array of bazaars and ends at one of the oldest continously inhabited cities on Earth, sacred Varanasi on the Ganges.
What an incredible year it was! I got to meet so many very nice people all over the world. I also turned 60 and became an orphan this year.
Thank you all for participating with me in workshops, tours, classes and in the studio. We all learned so much from each other.
Thanks also to my incredible staff and fellow associate instructors for supporting me and helping me be prepared for the multitude of places and events I touched.
Before we launch into the next year with a full head of steam, enjoy a brief backward glance of some of the places I traveled to this year teaching workshops and classes. I find this is a great way to catch my breath before diving in again. Forgive me if I didn’t mention your spot, even though I was really there.
India
Japan
China
Olympic Peninsula
Canadian Rockies
Eastern Oregon
Seattle
San Francisco
Vancouver
Iceland
Alaska
Canadian Rockies
Palouse, WA
South Africa
Botswana
Ethiopia
Namibia
Montreal
New York City
Art Wolfe, photographe animalier mondialement reconnu, nous livre ici la quintessence de son travail photographique. Ses récits émaillent l’ouvrage divisé en sept chapitres : Amérique du Nord, Afrique, Antarctique, Europe, Océanie, Amérique du Sud et Asie. Chacune de ces parties est précédée par un texte dans lequel Art Wolfe lui-même se confie sur son expérience unique.
À travers de nombreuses anecdotes, il nous livre les situations insolites auxquelles il a été confronté lors de ses nombreux voyages aux quatre coins du globe. Il nous raconte, par exemple, ses longues promenades en compagnie de manchots royaux, sa rencontre extraordinaire avec un gigantesque lion, ou encore la fois où, alors qu’il cherchait le bon angle pour une photo, il s’est retrouvé coincé sous un bébé éléphant de mer. Le récit de ces moments rares est illustré par des photographies exceptionnelles, dont seul Art Wolfe a le secret, et qui reflètent l’immense talent de ce photographe animalier hors du commun.
224 Pages, 160 Photographes, 280 mm (largeur) x 300 mm (hauteur), broché
This is the last offering of this class this year. It has been applauded by so many photographers and it will motivate you to get out there and try new ways of seeing that can improve your compositions immensely. We all need inspiration and this is a great one.
Saturday, November 12 – Nature Visions Expo Keynote
I am the keynote speaker this year at the 2011 Nature Visions Expo. This is an event that comes to us through the Mid-Atlantic Photography Association. I will be giving my favorite lecture “Between Heaven and Earth”. This talk is a grand adventure tracing my formative years and development as an artist. There will be a Q&A following. Tickets available at naturevisions.org
