We are staying at a farm out side Keetmanshoop which has 4 rescued cheetahs that we photographed being fed this morning… anywhere from 2 to 10 feet away. Their enclosure is 40 hectares - so that's pretty good for a captive animal. The farmers in Namibia frequently shoot cheetah because the cats will hunt goats & sheep. The two larger cats are not tame, they tolerate people to get food & while not 100% wild, are most definitely not tame. The 2 young cubs of 13 months old are in a separate enclosure by the farmhouse. These cubs are completely tame (for the family anyway), when the farmer got them they were so tiny he had to rear them off a collie dog. So they accept the dogs here (all 13 of them) as family. The dogs all come and get cuddles from the guests - they seem to make a bee line for me a lot of the time, so I'm getting lots of doggie love.
This afternoon/evening it was Quiver trees again but in a different location & this time we shot sunset and then tried star trails. We have left our cameras set up to take a 4 minute photo with 1 second intervals until the battery runs out. This Quiver tree forest is on private property so the gear should be quite safe.
I won't bore you with all the technicalities, suffice to say it's very fiddly when you are trying to shoot the sunset and then quickly set up for trails. The hardest part is finding a good composition. The picture has to stand alone without the star trails; they should compliment the picture, not be the picture.
This afternoon/evening it was Quiver trees again but in a different location & this time we shot sunset and then tried star trails. We have left our cameras set up to take a 4 minute photo with 1 second intervals until the battery runs out. This Quiver tree forest is on private property so the gear should be quite safe.
I won't bore you with all the technicalities, suffice to say it's very fiddly when you are trying to shoot the sunset and then quickly set up for trails. The hardest part is finding a good composition. The picture has to stand alone without the star trails; they should compliment the picture, not be the picture.