World Image issue 18 March 2015

The Magazine of the Peoples Photographic Society 

Issue Eighteen - March 2015 

Website = photosociety.net Page 1 email = magazine@photosociety.net

Society Management 

Management Committee: 

Gordon Longmead - England 

Peter Hogel - Uganda 

Dave Walster - England 

Scott Hurd - Namibia 

Tom Coetzee - South Africa 

Paul Welch—Australia 

Steve Cook - USA 

Robert Murray - Scotland 

Regional Co-ordinators: 

Entebbe, Uganda - Peter Hogel 

Benton, Kentucky, USA - Jack Glisson 

East Herts UK - Gordon Longmead 

Lincoln UK - Dave Walster 

North Scotland, UK - Robert Murray 

Peak District, UK - Kev Sidford 

Yorkshire UK - Rodger Lee 

In this months issue: 

3 Chairman's Bit 

4 Portrait Pro - Use and review by Gordon Longmead, England 

7 Yellowstone Winter by Phillip Tureck, England 

12 Back in the Studio by Gordon Longmead, England 

15 Ilford Press Release 

16 Eden Adventures by Peter Hogel, Uganda 

17 Exploring Patagonia, The Magic of the Andes by Michael Shmelev, Russia 

18 Photo Spot, Cat Survival Trust 

19 Pride of Lions takes down a Blue Wildebeest by Tom Coetzee, South Africa 

22 Pen and Shutter, an Introduction by Swati Prasad, Kenya 

23 Shoot the Moon, Tips for Beginners by Geoff Bowers, England 

25 Roi- The Story by Swati Prasad, Kenya 

30 Zihuatanejo, Mexico part two by Tina Andreasson, Sweden 

39 Pictures from Kyrgyzstan by Michael Shmelev, Russia 

40 Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs, Book Review by Kev Sidford 

41 Just Proof Stations Press Release 

43 About the Wave by Michael Shmelev, Russia 

47 Wildlife Garden Birds part two by Gordon Longmead, England 

© Please remember that all articles and images published in this magazine are copyright protected 

Cover Picture Smiler by Gary Bridger, England 


Chairman's Chat 

Fine Art America: 

We have a few things developing within the 

society, not least of which is the loading of the 

World Image Magazine with the Fine Art 

America website. The purpose of this union is 

to raise the awareness of more photographers to 

the existence of the Society and the Magazine. 

While I am not putting to much effort into the 

FAA site, I have started to run some fun 

competitions for photogs to enjoy which in 

themselves will raise the awareness of the 

Society and the magazine. 

The only prizes on offer are that the 

competition winners, selected by the votes of 

the FAA members, will have their pictures 

featured in the magazine and the first of these 

can be found in these pages. As will the editors 

choice from each group. 

The first competitions, like our internal member 

only ones, are for colour and greyscale. The 

first open colour competition in FA attracted 

653 entries to the colour and 471 entries to the 

greyscale competition. In future I will set 

specific subjects or themes. 

April Competitions: 

On the same subject matter, the submissions to 

our member only competitions is not as we 

would desire this close to the closing date. We 

have potential sponsors and supporters looking 

at the society and the support it gets from its 

members. Ask yourself, if you were a potential 

sponsor, would you be impressed with the 

quantity of entries to these competitions? The 

dozen sponsors that we have already lost 

certainly weren’t. 

Society Members Store: 

On a brighter note, we will shortly have a 

dedicated sales platform for your pictures. 

The platform will be administered by the World 

Image Magazine / the Society, although it is 

expected that those of you who sell through the 

site will control your own galleries. 

The concept is being administered by me due to 

the currently UK based nature of the 

opportunity which I can convert into a globally 

available market for your pictures. 

At this time I can tell you that there are some 

spin-off ideas and opportunities that will benefit 

all members and some that will be very specific 

to specialist members. I am still working on 

these and will pass them on once the full 

package has been finalised. 

International Exhibition June 2015: 

The Society exhibition in June is progressing, 

the main details are shown in the website 

(another page to this), but there are 

developments that I would bring to your 

attention. 

We now have most, if not all, the pictures for 

the exhibition. There are 450 to be displayed. 

We are in the process of generating a full 

colour souvenir exhibition guide for the event 

in a printed magazine form. The cost to the 

Society will be dependant on a number of 

factors including the advertising revenue, 

sponsorship, and the number of copies printed. 

To that end we are inviting readers who would 

like a copy of the guide to let us know. The 

price is not known just yet, but those interested 

will be notified of both price and postage when 

available, after which advance orders can be 

placed. 

Those interested should advise us by email to 

gordon@photosociety.net giving your name, 

town / country Please head your email 

‘Exhibition Guide’. 

gordon 


Portrait Pro is an easy to use computer program 

that assists in the manipulation of portrait 

images. 

The opening screen is simple and provides two 

options - Open Single Image or Open Image 

Batch. For this part, I have opened the single 

image of Poppy, below left. 

The software uses facial recognition to identify 

the features in the portrait, although this does 

not always work, where the program fails it 

asks you to identify the required locations on 

the face. 

Portrait Pro - Use and Review 

By Gordon Longmead 

point, and probably throughout the process to 

see what is being altered. 

In the before panel you will see a series of blue 

lines with move points, these points will need 

to be adjusted to ‘fine tune’ the recognition 

software. 

This fine tuning will need to be used when 

features are obscured as in the picture where the 

hair is covering part of the eye. The point needs 

to be moved to where the edge of the eye is 

located or the whole facial image will be 

distorted. 

The second request it makes is for you to 

identify the gender and age group of the 

subject. In this case ‘girl under 12’. 

This allows the program to use inbuilt settings 

for the type of face being processed. It is wise 

to use the before and after view option at this 

Once you are satisfied that the points for the 

eyes, mouth, nose, cheeks and hairline are in 

the correct place, then you can look at the 

‘after’ image. 

In the panel on the right you will see two main 

groups, Presets and portrait Improving Sliders. 


In order to see what the software is doing, go to 

the sliders panel and turn off the controls. This 

is done by left clicking the green buttons. To 

start with turn them all off. 

The settings for all of these are hidden but can 

be viewed by clicking on the title bar. However 

at this point leave them hidden. 

Starting at the top click on the aforementioned 

button which should now be grey, it will go 

green, but watch the ‘after’ picture and view the 

changes. 

Work your way down the controls, turning each 

one on, then off before moving on to the next. 

Once you complete them all, then turn them on 

one at a time to see the combined effects. 

The second picture of Poppy has the controls 

turned on at their basic levels, but you can open 

the groups and alter the sliders to increase or 

decrease the effects. 

In regard to the subject matter shown, young 

female, you should now look at the presets in 

the top box. 

There are four that are designed for the subject, 

ok, strictly speaking there are three but the 

Child preset is also valid. The main ones are 

for Female Young. Selecting these changes the 

sliders and how or which are used. 

Depending on which preset is used different 

slider groups will be turned off, and the sliders 

in the remaining groups will be altered. 

Once the basic settings give you the desired 

results, they can be tweaked to refine the effect 

to your personal taste. 

The software will allow you to remove wrinkles 

up to a point, it removes blemishes, pores, 

brightens and sharpens the eyes and can even 

recolour the hair for you. 

It also has the ability to move the lighting used 

on the subject, within limits, and can introduce 

a left and right kicker light. 

As with all software, a little practice goes a 

long way. Do not just load an image, use the 

preset and save, any fool can do that. 


Learn first what the presets and sliders are 

actually doing to your picture. And learn how 

to refine the process. The less you change, the 

better the results will be. Over do it and it will 

look like a disaster. 

Impressions. I am using the Studio Max version 

of the software which is the most expensive. It 

is easy to use and is very user friendly as are 

the two other versions that are available. The 

difference is in the number of presets that have 

been included. 

Everything that is done here can be 

accomplished in Photoshop, but is much 

quicker and easier to accomplish, that is what 

presets are for. But it should be remembered 

that they are not there to provide the finished 

picture, that is for you to accomplish. 

It takes out the time consuming effort to 

accomplish the changes, but still leaves you to 

supply the finishing touches according to your 

own taste. 

The major addition to the software is the 

facility to adjust the lighting after the shoot. 

Although this is minimal as in a single light 

source and two kickers, it could prove useful. 

My only concern here was with the colouring in 

the shadow areas. It sometimes appears ‘dirty’ 

which can be corrected in part using the kicker 

light. 

The program can be used as a stand alone or as 

an add-on to Photoshop. Like all post 

processing software it is only as good as you 

are in using it. It will not make a bad image 

good, but can certainly make a good image bad. 

The program would certainly be a bonus for the 

event / wedding photographer by reducing the 

time spent in post processing a large number of 

images. 


Yellowstone in Winter – January 2015 

Phillip Tureck 

Visiting Yellowstone in winter is not 

everyone’s idea of a place to visit. Yes it is a 

little colder than the UK and many visitors 

enjoy the warmer seasons. 

The riot of colours within the water make for 

good viewing and many animal tracks make 

you wonder what wildlife had passed this way. 

I was last there in April and May 2009 and 

yearned to return to see the scenery and wildlife 

from a different perspective so with many 

layers of clothing I set out on my adventure. 

The background of the snow adds to the 

amazing scenes that you encounter and after a 

great afternoon there a relaxing meal at the 

Mammoth Springs hotel was most welcome. 

So, then to set out each day with hope of what 

new day would bring in itself is exciting, 

leaving the lodge at mad o’clock before sunrise 

is the best time but oh my, it sure is cold at that 

time. 

Climate change has also reached this part of 

Montana and Wyoming and some of the towns 

surrounding the park are seeing unseasonably 

warm weather, rain instead of snow but people 

wonder why the changes are occurring. 

Yellowstone itself continued to be fairly cold 

with temperatures below minus 10 whilst I was 

there but this did not spoil the excitement of 

seeing the wonder of this park. 

Starting out with a visit to Mammoth Springs, it 

was a great place to visit with few visitors 

walking the boards above the warm springs 

fuelled by the caldera beneath the surface. 

I think I had 4 to 5 layers on keeping one in 

reserve in case it got colder but thanks to my 

guides we had provisions in our vehicle should 

we need to get a little warmer. 

Standing out with spotting scopes and cameras 

as well as short travels between potential 

viewpoints keeps you on your toes and eyes 

peeled. 


Two potential interlopers from the 8 Mile Pack 

also enhanced the sighting but after one chase 

for a grey wolf, a black wolf allegedly paid 

with it’s life for trying to interlope with the 

Prospect Peak Pack. 

Over the 6 days that I was there we encountered 

some stunning scenery brining the magical 

winter land of the park to life and this coupled 

with the wildlife made an incredible 

experience. Sunrises and sunsets ranged from 

misty to multi coloured extravaganza with a 

backdrop of snow covered mountain ranges. 

Having been a number of years back and 

having bear encounters as well as some of the 

other wildlife it was good to see 3 (possibly 4) 

packs of wolf, Prospect Peak Pack, Junction 

Butte Pack and the Lamaar Valley Pack. 

This was a most unusual situation, wolves to 

kill other wolves but not in sight, in reality this 

happened behind a boulder that we were 

watching the pack and the black wolf that was 

attacked crawled out to die in the open view of 

us all through scopes or large lenses, once the 

birds were on the dead animal we knew in 

reality that this was the end. Nature can be quite 

brutal and the theories went on all day with the 

wolf project as to why this happened. 

Another interpretation of this incident was that 

the wolf that died was due to injury sustained in 

a hunt. The lack of birds on a carcass swayed 

the interpretation and so it very possible that 

this particular wolf had died from an attack 

from others. The wolves were never that close, 

always a mile or more off but with spotting 

scopes and good lenses you could see more. As 

photographers you could be concerned at how 

this is developing with scopes. 

A good spotting scope which reaches far closer 

than a camera lens plus an attachment and a 

mobile phone can give you some incredibly 

close pictures, they may not be the quality just 

yet of cameras but if these phones develop and 

the scopes that can be hired locally there could 

be no need to transport heavy photography 

equipment to many places. 

The bison were out in force, there are around 

4,000 in the park and we saw many, they are 

enormous and the way that they dig for snow to 


find the roots is quite amazing. Some of the old 

bison die as in reality they have few predators 

when they are that size of animal as adults and 

this provides meals for the food chain. 

From wolves to coyotes to many birds, ravens 

were always a good sign of a carcass and 

following them also alerted you to of potential 

predators. 

Elk, pronghorn sheep, mountain goats, not to 

mention red squirrel and the elusive and shy 

mountain fox, these were other wildlife that I 

saw or in the case of the fox like on the last 

visit would have liked to have seen. 

My guide saw the elusive mountain lion but 

alas I did not, perhaps another time. 

The scenery to which I alluded to earlier was 

breathtaking, hoar frost early in the day turned 

some of the trees and the snow into shimmering 

and shining masterpieces. I took photographic 

images and although I still claim to be a very 

amateur photographer I am pleased with some 

of the results. 

The beavers in the semi frozen Yellowstone 

and Lamaar rivers enjoyed themselves but no 

sign of otter on this trip, numbers of water birds 

gave you the opportunity to look out for other 

birds such as Golden and Bald eagle, both of 

which I saw but not hunt. 

Colourful birds abound and set themselves as 

bright interludes against the background snowy 

trees and ground, another opportunity to 

capture something different. 


But there is another side to this great National 

Park that is soon to celebrate it’s 100 

anniversary, the pressure of wildlife in the park 

and outside is enormous. If wildlife stray from 

the park they can be killed by hunters or local 

livestock owners and the pressure out there on 

predators is as great as ever. 

I say in advance that these are not photographic 

images that are award winning entries for any 

competition, I enjoy the experience of the travel 

and seeing the wildlife which is my hobby. 

My photographic skills rely on ‘auto’ and a few 

other settings and the results are what they are. 

This is not the forum for the debate of 

humankind versus wildlife and how to live 

alongside each other but with all this expanse of 

land it is quite disturbing to think that for some 

wildlife does not have the right to share our 

planet. 

Apologies for wolf images which were taken 

too far away even for a good camera lens but let 

me tell you that the sight of seeing wild wolves 

(nearly 30 on this trip) together with hearing 

them howl singly and as a pack sends shivers 

up your spine. 


So returning from Yellowstone only leaves me 

yearning to go back again, there are so many 

places that one can visit and the world is getting 

smaller in term of travel but if you are a 

photographer and have a ‘bucket’ list I urge you 

to follow in my footsteps and visit this part of 

the world, you will not be disappointed. 

Phillip 


Back In the Studio 

Practice Makes Perfect by Gordon Longmead 

This studio session is all selfies because it was 

to be a continuation of the study of the various 

lighting and exposures previously published. 

I make no claim to the expertise used in these 

pictures, or the lack of it. Although I have been 

in photography for many years, I have never 

worked in a studio of any sort. 

In this series you will see my efforts as they 

occur, I am learning as I go by trial and error, 

so perhaps you will be able to learn from my 

mistakes. 

As a professional working in this field, you 

may be able to offer advise on some of the 

images about how to correct my errors, please 

do so and we will include your suggestions in 

later issues of the magazine. 

The camera used in all of these trials is the 

Canon 7D, set on a tripod one meter 20cm from 

the subject, with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 

IS lens. As I was working alone, I used the 10 

second timer for the shutter release. 

The backdrop is a vinyl autumn scene 

purchased through Ebay from a supplier in 

China. There was a concern that the vinyl 

would cause unwonted reflections, but in this 

experiment and others none have occurred. But 

as yet I have not tried them using direct oncamera 

flash. 

This series of pictures were taken in daylight so 

the flash became an infill light source. 

Unfortunately my ‘studio’ is of necessity 

located in a conservatory so the extra 

illumination caused by daylight is unavoidable, 

except at night. 

My first inclination was to take a control image 

so the camera was set at ISO 200 at 1/13th sec 

f6.3 . The effect of the daylight can be seen to 

the top right of my head and in the shadow on 

the neck. 

As you can see, I dressed for the occasion, 

cardigan and designer stubble was definitely the 

order of the day. This is winter, the studio has 

only one electric radiator, and it was cold. 

From this point I was using the Magneflash 

M302E (flash 1) and the M252 (Flash 2). These 

were triggered by Commlite remotes. In my 

case the Com Trig G430-Tx transmitter which 

fits on the camera hot shoe and accommodates 

the on camera flash. Two of their G430-Rx 

receiver units attached to the Magnaflash lights 

to complete the set-up. 

For these pictures I could have used the camera 

remote to release the shutter, but since I was 

adjusting the settings on the flash units there 

was not much point. 

One thing I will do in future is to set up a focus 

point and switch to manual focus. Yes, I forgot 

to change it so it focussed on the backdrop. 


Flash 1 was set to the above and to the right one 

meter from the subject, while flash 2 was set 

lower and to the left of the subject at a distance 

of 80cm. 

Just for interest I have also included the 

Greyscale version of this picture to give a direct 

comparison. 

The main flaw I can see in these pictures is 

highlighted by the greyscale image, and that is 

the heavy shadow on the neck caused by the 

jumper collar, and also to a lesser extent the 

nose shadow. Both of these could have been 

corrected by bringing the left side flash closer 

to the camera angle. 

In the full test I increased the power levels on 

the flash units in turn, but it only served to burn 

out the face. 

This image was taken at 1/160th at f6.5 using 

direct flash from both of the magnaflash units 

which were set on their lowest power. 

This image was taken by turning the flash units 

round and bouncing the flash from both sides 

into silver brolly reflectors. Flash 1 was still on 

the face while flash 2 was aimed to the 

backdrop. 


As you can see the lighting is softer so that the 

subject retains more colour. The shadows are 

also reduced because the light is being reflected 

back from the brollies at a wider angle. 

For this image I changed the brolly on flash 1 to 

a white, leaving the gold brolly on flash 2 

giving a harsher light. 

For this offering the brolly of flash 2 was 

changed for the gold. The picture shows well 

the difference between the harder silver light 

and the softer gold. 

As an oddment, this was taken with a studio 

reflector dish on flash 2. It negated most of the 

light from the white brolly on flash 1. 

Changing the second brolly to gold softened the 

whole image giving a more even illumination. 

To get this image I had to change the settings to 

1/320th at f11, but focusing the peripheral flash 

into a beam certainly changed the over all 

dynamic. 


PRESS RELEASE 

ILFORD has launched five new premium fine art papers for 

Museums: Galerie Prestige Papers in Baryt and Cotton 

February 9th 2015 

For those who prefer structured media Ilford 

offers two papers which differ in the strength of 

their structure, the Galerie Prestige Cotton 

Artist Textured, has a watercolor textured 

surface and Galerie Prestige Textured Cotton 

Rag has a smoother one. 

New Edition: Famous ILFORD Fine Art papers 

in baryt and cotton. 

Ilford, the traditional brand in the market of 

photography, proudly presents five new fine art 

papers for museums and galleries where matte 

papers are highly demanded. 

The new ‘ILFORD Galerie Prestige’ contains: 

Gold Fibre Gloss, Cotton Artist Textured, Fine 

Art Smooth, Textured Cotton Rag und Smooth 

Cotton Rag. 

According to Arnoud Mekenkamp, Joint 

Managing Director at Ilford Imaging Europe, 

the company's goal is to provide the market 

with premium papers. 

So what do they have to offer with this release? 

Galerie Prestige Gold Fiber Gloss – the glossy 

complement to the popular ILFORD Fiber Silk, 

has a baryt-like surface, a traditional photo fibre 

base and the look and feel of a traditional baryt 

photo paper. 

It is considered ideal for high quality black and 

white and colour images, and offers a wide 

colour gamut for vivid images and excellent 

sharpness, making it perfect for digital toning. 

Due to their different surface structures Ilford´s 

three new matte fine art cotton papers address 

several applications and target groups: 

All cotton papers have a weight of 310gsm, a 

high colour consistency and colour gamut. 

They are water-resistant and contain no optical 

brighteners. They meet criteria for durability 

according to ISO 9706 and are base 

manufactured in a traditional paper mill. 

Galerie Prestige Fine Art Smooth – is a 

warmtone paper with excellent image sharpness 

and large colour gamut. It is made from alpha 

cellulose and has a durable light resistance with 

pigmented inks making it excellent for fine art 

printing, photography and portrait. It has a 

weight of 200gsm. 

All new papers are available in page formats 

A4, A3+ and A2 and on roll in 17, 24, 44 and 

50 inch. 

All ILFORD Galerie Prestige cotton papers are 

in agreement with DIN 6738, ISO 9706, ANSI 

Z 39.48-1992. The ISO certification is of very 

high importance and often strictly demanded by 

museums and galleries. 

It guarantees a very long durability, complying 

to the highest durability class with a life 

expectation of more than 100 years. They all 

are 100% acid-free and have a neutral PHvalue. 

The Galerie Prestige Smooth Cotton Rag, has a 

very smooth surface for motives with very fine 

structures making it ideal for photo-realistic 

prints showing every detail of the photo. 


Eden Adventures 

Uganda with Peter Hogel 

Eden Adventures is the new venture launched 

by Society member, Peter Hogel, who has 

relocated to Uganda. 

The new venture will be opening doors to the 

green pearl of Africa which is Uganda, and to 

the wonderful scenery, wildlife and nature the 

country contains. 

To discover more, why not take a peek at the 

video introduction on youtube at: 

http://youtu.be/PdBDX4RfiHc 

Relax and enjoy as the images let you drift 

through a few of the wonders to be seen in this 

beautiful country. 

Below for your pleasure, one of the famous 

Gorillas of the Ugandan Forests. 


Exploring Patagonia - The Magic of the Andes 

Michael Shmelev, Russia 

The magic of the Andean mountains in the 

spring of 2014 as snow fell on her head at me 

ticket won in a photo contest. The conditions 

included flight to any city that has a contact 

with one of the largest airlines. That is, virtually 

anywhere in the world. 

The next six months have already been 

organized, so I began to explore areas that are 

suitable for trekking and camping life in 

October-December. 

So the choice fell on South America and, more 

precisely, to the South it is Patagonia. Edge of 

the wilderness, blue glaciers and lakes and 

harsh, but extremely picturesque Andean 

mountains. 

The early November-the time when the spring 

is surely comes into its own. Daily average 

temperature +5 and this means that it will fit in 

the backpack 23 kg baggage allowance. 

Fees in such travel is generally easy and 

pleasant-just open the list of equipment, taking 

into account the travelling weather features to 

throw out all the unnecessary and pack your 

faithful marching Deuter. 

How was planned and realized my single 3- 

week journey along the borders of Argentina 

and Chile, I'll try to tell in several subsequent 

posts. Patagonia, a land of great beauty, with 

pristine nature, wild, sparsely populated. 

Certainly, in these places we want to return, and 

the choice of those who decided to go here for 

the first time, I very much support. After all, I 

already tried the berries Kalafatè, Stay tuned! 

Michael 


Photo Spot 

www.catsurvivaltrust.org 

Website = photosociety.net Page 18 email = magazine@photosociety.net

South Africa 

Pride of Lion takes down Blue Wildebeest by Tom Coetzee 

You could tell by looking at the sub-adults that 

they were in a playful mood. We watched their 

antics as they made their way up the road, 

playing & jumping on each other. 

They reached the airstrip on the reserve and 

went down posing in golden light with short 

grass, allowing for some nice portrait shots. 

It was a nice morning during the month of 

October 2014. We quickly located the pride of 

lion lying of the side of the road. 

Two of the lionesses were lying down when the 

young male approached & annoyed them, 

giving us a lovely snarl! 

This led to the one lioness getting up and 

moving on a bit. 

As I was going to suggest to the group that we 

move on, the lioness suddenly stopped and 

stared off into the tall grass. She went in the by 

the reaction of the other pride members I could 

tell they were onto something. 


We went around onto a small track further east 

of them and found a herd of Blue Wildebeest 

looking rather nervously towards where we 

came from! The herd then started trotting past 

us and I said to everyone that they must’ve 

picked up on the Lion and I don’t think they 

will get one. 

She did not expect this and hesitated, giving the 

Wildebeest change to run past us, but one of the 

sub-adults then appeared and went for the 

animal. 

Then suddenly one Wildebeest appeared out of 

the tall grass, but being “lost” by the herd it 

simply just stood there in front of the vehicle. 

The same thing happened with the Wildebeest 

trying to attack the young lion, but the 

opportunity was already then created for the 

adult lioness to move around us and get the 

Wildebeest as it ran away from the sub-adult. 

The lioness came charging out of the grass and 

surprised us all…but then the big surprise was 

the Wildebeest acting defensively by being 

aggressive towards the lioness. 

With a firm grip around the neck the rest of the 

pride quickly came in to subdue the beast. 


I firmly believe that this is what caused for the 

individual to fall behind the herd and the 

weakest link got taken out. 

What sighting we had, unexpected and almost 

perfect prior to the kill, but then perfection took 

place as we waited it out! 

Only after looking at the images did I notice 

that the Wildebeest had an old wound in its top 

jaw. 


Pen and Shutter 

By Swati Prasad, Kenya, June 2013 

I wanted the first article to be an explanation 

about its name. The many attempts I made to 

try and explain the dream behind it did not 

please me at all. 

I settled for a brief “about us” section. And 

wrote, instead, about our Easter weekend at 

Masai Mara. The explanation of our vision 

would happen when the time was right. 

The World Wide Web is a curious place. It has 

opened to me a world that is completely 

unknown and yet seems to be filled with like 

minded folks. On one of these forays into the 

various groups I have chosen to become a part 

of, I found a link … I get a lot of these links in 

my inbox. 

For some reason the title compelled me to open 

it and read it. Sometimes we all need some reaffirmation 

of our beliefs. Sometimes we need 

guidance. A teacher. When the student is ready 

the teacher appears. That is, I believe, an old 

Buddhist saying. 

Mr.Guy Tal has a point of view I happen to 

share, as – obviously – do a lot of his other 

readers. Many, many years ago I had 

researched and written a piece on the evolution 

of man for a class project – and had said 

practically the same thing – that we need to 

realize and accept our insignificance in the 

cosmic scheme of things. And from there will 

arise our future existence and well being. 

To apply the same idea to art is so obvious, so 

simple and so beautiful. This, then, was the 

lesson I had to learn. 

I had to share the original writing with you. 

I contacted Mr.Tal and have his express 

permission to share that article of his here. 

Thank-you Mr.Tal. http://guytal.com/ 

wordpress/2013/04/02/the-grateful-mind/ 

This article got me thinking about myself and 

this article. 

Why am I finding myself so happy being in the 

wilds – African bush, Indian jungle, 

Singaporean mangroves? 

Why this pleasure in photographing the beauty 

there? Why the urge to write about it all? Why 

the need to share the results of all these 

endeavours here. 

I have it, I believe in my blood, to love flora 

and fauna in wilderness. It runs in the family! I 

have the amateur photographer’s need 

to “preserve for posterity” just in case memory 

fails me. I have been taught to love the 

language – that is perfectly self evident! 

I have had something else also, fortunately. I 

grew up in the age of television documentaries. 

I grew up on a weekly diet of Jacob 

Bronowski, Carl Sagan, Kenneth Clark, David 

Attenborough, Jacques Cousteau and the likes. 

These are people who brought together the 

physical & biological sciences with the arts of 

picturization and writing to create some of 

the most memorable films and books. 

Most of all I have had the opportunity to 

experience the wonders of the wild in various 

countries with Siddharth who shares all 

these interests. Whose career has made it 

possible for us to live in these countries. Who 

indulges – indeed shares – all my dreams. 

I have been handed on a platter so many 

incredible gifts. How then could this blog not 

have been? A grateful mind is offered here. 

The offering is this article. A combination of 

Siddharth’s photograph y and my 

writing. Siddharth’s reading & editing and my 

pictures. Pen & Shutter. 

We hope it brings the readers as much pleasure 

as it brings us in its creation. 


Shoot the Moon - Tips for Beginners 

By Geoff Bowers 

The moon is usually a very bright object, but 

hanging in the dark sky it fools most automatic 

modes in your camera when you want an image 

of just the moon. 

The first thing is to go to your full manual 

mode. This usually the letter M on the mode 

dial. Many better compact cameras have a 

limited manual mode and will take a 

surprisingly good image. 

Secondly find you ISO settings and turn it 

down to about 200. As I said the moon is a 

bright object. 

Thirdly find your Aperture setting, A. On 

compacts it is probably somewhere in the 

menu, you just have to play with you camera, 

go through the menus and settings, and set it to 

F8. 

Next find the Shutter speed, S, except on 

Cannon cameras where it is usually Tv, (stands 

for time value) Set this for 250th of a second 

and make sure you have the S value ready to 

adjust. 

Zoom out to the longest your lens / camera will 

zoom, focus on the moon, brace yourself and 

CLICK. Now review your image. If it is bright 

and some areas a bit blown out increase the 

shutter speed by one click and shoot again, and 

again and even again. 

If your first image is to dark slow the shutter 

down my one click, and again if needed. If you 

have a tripod use it. Remember when you 

review to zoom into the image. It may look 

very small on the screen but when you zoom in 

you will be amazed. 

There are a few other things that I do with my 

camera. I set it up for spot metering and spot 

focussing. I also use the self timer when it’s on 

the tripod set to 12 seconds to give the camera 

time to settle and get the least vibration, and 

turn off the image stabilisation. 

When I am just hand holding the camera I set 

the biggest aperture the lens at full zoom will 

allow to get the fastest shutter speed, and have 

the image stabilisation switched on. One can 

also increase the ISO but this can loose detail in 

digital noise. 

Anther fun thing is to play with your white 

balance. I love to use each different setting 

once I’ve sorted out the best shutter speed. The 

moon looks great in purple or blue. The most 

realistic setting is probably black & white 

(monochrome). 

It is obviously best to shoot the moon in the 

clearest sky you can find, and on a clear night 

you will get the best image when it is at the 

highest point in the sky. The moon will look 

smaller in your viewfinder but there is the least 

atmospheric distortion. 


On stormy nights you may want to capture the 

mood not the definition and get some of the 

“glow”. For this I change my settings, use the 

biggest aperture (lowest number on your 

settings) push up the ISO into the thousands 

and slow the shutter down to 200th of a second. 

This should still freeze the motion but capture 

the scene. If not just delete and try a different 

setting. 

Play with the camera. Try F2 at ISO 600 and 

half a second. No good then increase the shutter 

speed, or decrease it and look at what you get. 

Each camera is different so even the same 

settings on the same model can give a different 

effect. 

They say practice makes perfect, well not many 

of us reach perfection but we do improve with 

practice, and with digital it does not cost more 

than your time. 

SO - get out there in the dark and Click Click 

Click 

Geoff Bowers 


Roi – The Story 

By Swati Prasad, Kenya, January 8, 2015 

2015 began beautifully. And it continues to 

shower surprises. We got an email from the 

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust that they had 

been approached by National Geographic to do 

a story on Roi. 

They wanted to use our pictures! Now that was 

fantastic news for amateurs like us! 

But what really grabbed our attention was the 

coincidence. Ever since the tragic sighting of 

baby Roi with her mother’s corpse, we have 

been haunted by a need to “do something”. We 

have adopted her, yes. 

Thus, in October, last year, we were pleasantly 

surprised to see a large breeding herd of 

elephants quite close to our camp and spent 

many hours on our various game drives in their 

company. Elephants are social beings. They 

raise their young in families. Mothers and aunts 

nurture all the young ones. When they are 

relaxed and sense no threat, they come quite 

close to you. 

But that is nowhere enough. The world needs to 

adopt her and her brethren. The world needs to 

know the truth about elephants and poaching. 

And that is something we can try to do – tell the 

story 

So … Roi – The Story. 

Olare Motorogi conservancy of Maasai Mara is 

one of our favourite safari grounds. We choose 

to stay at the Porini Lion Camp What the 

conservancy offers in terms of wildlife viewing 

is impossible for words to convey. 

To be amidst these huge and gentle creatures is 

truly beautiful. Observe them long enough and 

you can see how the social hierarchy works. 

Mothers suckling calves. 

The variety of animals and the viewing 

proximity are fantastic. As is the lack of 

teeming hoards of tourists. Every safari of ours 

has had a very private and privileged feel to it. 

We have spent time and photographed 

practically every species of mammal of the 

Mara there and quite a few birds. 

The creatures of the wild seem to find the 

conservancy a safe haven to live and procreate 

in significant numbers 

Next to the rhinoceros, probably the least seen 

animal in this part of the Mara is the Elephant. 

We have done trips where we met none on the 

conservancy. 

The little ones being disciplined. The silent 

communication with each other. The antics of 

the young. The loving tolerance of the older 

elephants. 

The unswerving obedience of the entire herd to 

the matriarch. If you are fortunate, you will see 

the big bulls on the fringes of the herd. And 

those are simply magnificent. 


On our last game drive for that visit, we went 

looking for the elusive leopards and failed to 

find them. So around 9.00 am when we spotted 

the elephant herd on the horizon we decided we 

must go and say a quick hello to them. 

One of the other younger female elephants 

gently pushed the baby into the centre of the 

herd. The matriarch was at the head of the 

body. She lifted the head with all her strength 

and gently lay it down again. 

As we approached the herd, we could see that 

one was lying down. Now this is not unusual. 

Elephants do lie down to rest their feet – a few 

of them at a time – while the rest cluster around 

just feeding. 

But as we got nearer, we realised that there was 

something wrong. None of the other elephants 

were feeding. In fact, they all surrounded the 

one on the ground. And they completely 

ignored our approach though it was perfectly 

apparent that they had taken notice of our 

presence. 

As we got closer our guide, Big John said 

“there is something wrong”. And by then, even 

we knew that. He picked up his binoculars and 

after a long look said “she’s dead”. While deep 

inside we knew the truth, I don’t think any of us 

wanted to hear that. Coming from our guide it 

could only be a correct analysis of the situation. 

He said she may have died of eating something 

poisonous or possibly gastroenteritis. 

All the other members of the herd gently 

nudged and tried to lift the prone one. Then, 

slowly, led by the matriarch, they 

circumambulated the corpse and walked away – 

not once, not one of them turned back. 

A few meters away, they stopped and waited. It 

was the most silent and dignified ceremony we 

have ever witnessed. 

We moved in closer still. And witnessed the 

most heartbreaking funeral we have ever 

attended. We saw a tiny baby (Big John said he 

or she was surely less than an year old!) trying 

desperately to tug on the mother. The little one 

finally put its trunk on her in complete defeat. 

We could clearly see the confusion and distress 

in its body language. And sorrow in its eyes. 


Big John called the conservancy officials to 

notify them. We talked about the orphan. He 

said that the little one would only survive if one 

of the other lactating mothers chose to adopt 

and feed the baby. 

We followed the herd for a while. We knew we 

had a flight to catch and time was limited. But 

we still followed them. We saw the little one 

reaching out to other calves. And to our horror 

we saw it being kicked. 

They left behind the grieving calf with the same 

young female. It was almost as if they were 

giving the baby the space and time it needed to 

come to terms with its loss. After a while the 

elder one (Big John felt it could well be a 

sibling to the dead mother) slowly coaxed the 

baby to walk towards the rest of the family. 

And though the matriarch was being very 

protective of the little one, she had a calf of her 

own. She was not allowing this one to feed 

from her. And neither were any of the other 

lactating mothers. 

The baby went but stopped and came back. The 

aunt (presumably) patiently came back and 

stood with the baby a while longer. We were on 

the opposite side of the body. At one point the 

baby raised its trunk and, though fanciful, it 

seemed as if it was asking us to come help 

wake its mother. 

After a while the two of them walked away to 

join the herd. And this time the orphan did not 

look back either. 

There was pain and sorrow in each of the 

elephants eyes. There was loss and heartbreak 

and pathos in each line in the body of each 

elephant. 

And people say animals have no feelings … 

This was devastating to watch. For it essentially 

signed the death warrant of the orphan. A milk 

dependent elephant cannot survive without its 

feed. 

For us it went without saying that we needed to 

reach a phone. The first thought that occurred 

to us was “The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust” 

– they had to be called in. 


And whether or not that was a politically 

correct act, we knew we would be making that 

phone call as soon as possible. From that 

moment we could not wait to get on the plane 

and get to Nairobi. We made that call at about 

half past 12. 

To our relief (indeed we felt a bit foolish for 

assuming responsibility for informing them!) 

they had already been notified and their rescue 

team were on their way. The next day they were 

kind enough to let us know that the baby had 

been rescued and brought into the orphanage. 

And then began a long and tortuous wait. 

The first few weeks of an orphaned elephant are 

very critical. They can die of a variety of 

causes. Some could die of dehydration – even 

the few hours since the last feed from the 

mother could be too long for the delicate body 

to cope with. 

But often they die of sheer despair. And no. 

That is not us being dramatic. That is the plain, 

unvarnished truth. They cannot cope with the 

loss of their mother and their family. They die 

of heartbreak. People do not die of this. 

Elephants do. 

We understood that we could not keep calling 

them. And yes, to an extent, there was an 

unspoken, superstitious feel to the wait. 

On 11th November we awoke to the jubilant 

news that DSWT had chosen to announce Roi, 

the newest female member of their pachyderm 

family, to the world. Its too early yet to say that 

Roi will grow into an adult elephant one day 

and walk free into the wild. 

The best that can be done for her is to give her a 

fighting chance and that is being done by the 

DSWT. They are giving her as much love and 

care as another species can give her. 

They are giving her the best material comfort 

they can offer in terms of food, shelter, medical 

aid and space to grow. They will nurture her 

and do their best to rehabilitate her into a wild 

herd. 

But the immense sense of relief that she had 

made it this far is tempered by horrific news – 

further investigation has revealed that the 

mother had been poached. 

More heartbreak. And this time pure anger. 

A beautiful animal has been murdered in the 

prime of her youth. Probably a first time 

mother. A close knit family has been plunged 

into grief. A baby orphaned. Horror, pain, 

desolation. 

And all to appease man’s greed. This is 

inexcusable. Its a blasphemy on the term 

“human” being. No creature should be 

condemned to a childhood without the 

protection of its natural mother. No creature 

should be made to live without its natural 

family. 

So, as a matter of principle, the DSWT does not 

make public any rescue until the orphan has 

stabilised and seems to have decided to fight for 

its life. And this often takes weeks. 

They requested us not to talk about the rescue 

either and not to share our pictures yet with 

anyone till they knew the fate of the calf. 

The bigger tragedy is the enormous number of 

such murders being perpetrated across the 

world. Elephants, rhinoceros, lions, leopards, 

seals, whales … no species seems to be safe 

from the gutless, greedy grasp of man. 

While we can rant and rave endlessly on the 

subject, we will – for now – stop here. 


With an appeal to each of you. Think about the 

issue. Read and educate yourself. Tusks do not 

fall out – elephants are brutally killed. Rhinos 

are killed for their horns – often they are shot, 

immobilised and their horns sawn off and the 

animal is left to bleed to death. 

Baby seals are clobbered to death – on their 

heads! – to ensure that their beautiful fur is not 

damaged! None of this sounds “nice”. Simply 

because it IS gruesome. 

If you want to contribute money – do so. There 

are organisations working hard to save these 

precious lives. 

They need funding. To house and feed and 

rehabilitate the rescued animals back to the 

wild. To pay staff so dedicated they spend not 

just the whole day with “their” babies, but sleep 

with them in their stalls – trying to make-up for 

the lost mother. 

To fund anti poaching teams. To educate local 

communities to value their natural heritage. To 

provide economically viable living options to 

current and potential poachers … The list is 

never-ending and the need urgent. At the 

DSWT it costs about US$ 900 per month just to 

feed one orphan! 

The one way you can all do your bit is to spread 

the word. Please do so. Think about this issue. 

But not for too long. An elephant is poached 

every 15 minutes in Africa. 

Experts believe that in less than 10 years, 

elephants will be history. Ecological 

conservation is no more a page 3 issue. It is 

our only hope for survival. 

Our first act on getting home that day, was to 

call The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in 

Nairobi to report the tragedy. We were told that 

they had already been called in to rescue the 

orphaned calf and the team were on their way 

to the Mara. 

They also requested us not to talk about the 

rescue just then. A lot of calves don’t survive 

the initial few weeks after their mothers die. 

The DSWT announces them for adoption and 

introduces them to public viewing only after 

they have settled in and their chances of 

survival are not so fragile anymore. 

You will be please to know that this particular 

orphan, Roi, made it through with their help. 

We were hoping that the mother elephant died 

of natural causes. But we are not surprised to 

learn that this is another case of poaching. What 

is of even greater concern is that this herd was 

in or very near a conservancy when this horrific 

crime was perpetrated. 

While the sense of misery and helplessness 

remains, there is also deep gratitude that people 

in the world care enough to rescue these 

orphans and give them a second chance. And 

that they do not do this for profit. 

The DSWT does incredible work towards 

rescuing orphaned elephant calves, hand rearing 

them till the age of three or four and then 

slowly reintegrating them with wild herds. 

This gives them a fighting chance to return to 

their natural environment and life style. During 

this long battle, for each calf, the staff work, 

literally day and night, year long. 

Bottle feeding the babies every three hours. 

Sleeping with the babies all night, every night. 

Ensuring medical aid when needed. Giving 

them more love than can be imagined. 

This last is what, we believe, brings back so 

many of these orphans from the brink of death. 

For elephants do die of grief. 

The rescue of Roi and her brethren kindles hope 

– for animals that have been condemned to 

death by barbaric humans. And for the 

collective conscience of the human race too. 


Zihuatanejo, Mecico - Part Two 

Tina Andreasson 

Welcome back, to continue ... 

There are only approximately 65.000 people in 

Zihuatanejo, and I'm starting to recognize just a 

hand-full. More than a hand-full seem to 

recognize me, but surely it is easier for them as 

I must stick out as the tourist with the fast pace. 

Only walking down to the beach yesterday (it 

takes seven minutes, strolling) a man in a shop 

said: "Hey, you were at the lagoon yesterday, 

weren’t you?" (most conversations in Spanish 

of course), well, he was there with his 

daughters and recommended if I wanted to see 

crocodiles, I should go there at 8am. 

A second later, another man in a restaurant 

went: “Hey! You’re the girl from Sweden 

right? Remember me?” With a bad memory for 

faces (and all other things really), I lift up my 

sun-glasses, smile, and say, “Of course, how 

are you today” 

Today I started with a beach walk that turned 

out much better than expected. I headed for 

Playa La Ropa but as I got to the end of that 

beach, I asked if I could go all the way to the 

beautiful and protected little white sandy beach 

of Las Gatas. And yes I could! 

I just needed to follow the little path, then climb 

the rocks by the water, and it would take me 

there round the bend. 

So I moved my feet swiftly, grinning to myself 

each time I cheated a wave from getting my 

feet wet, as I skipped along on the slippery 

rocks that lead me to this amazing beach with 

its turquoise waters. 

For ONCE I didn’t bring my heavy camera, as 

this initially was just going to be a short walk in 

the cloudy morning before a quick visit to the 

vegetable market. 

We chat and wish each other a good day… 

Today, stretching my legs on a brisk walk along 

Playa La Ropa again, a man shouts “Hola! 

Where’s your camera today?” I answer, “at 

home” and pretend to know his face and end 

with a chilled “hasta luego”... In my mind 

thinking “who the HELL, what the…When?!” 

I like it. It’s small, quaint, and friendly. Very 

laid back, just like a sea-side town in the Pacific 

should be. 

The joy of youth AND sea! 

But the hot sun soon melted away the clouds 

and as usual my curiosity and excess energy 

(just a cooler expression for internal fear, 

chaos, and disorder…) kept me going. So I will 

have to return for photos another day. 

Like previously mentioned, I have spent hours 

wandering the lusciously green hills nearby. 

Boy Playing 

One day, I decided to take another route, and go 

a bit further and up the back way. It seemed ok 

at first, then as the road turned to path, it 

gradually turned into slum. 


The madmen of the bush don’t normally look 

strangers in the eye because they DO have 

something to hide… Their perfect prey are little 

girls (or even grown women) who stop and play 

with the precious mimosa plants. 

Man with net 

Garbage, dirt and shit, covered the path I 

tiptoed along. Holding my breath to avoid the 

stench, my brain was too slow to even react to 

the pig dashing across in front of me squealing 

like it knew its future (inferno a la barbacoa)… 

The few people I met here didn’t even look at 

me, they didn’t say hello, even if I said it first 

They CATCH one, drag her along as she 

BURNS on the hot tarmac as she screams and 

fights for her useless little life, but to no avail… 

They POKE her eyes out before suspending her 

in the eye-lids and make her blink, GOUGE her 

intestines out with the flute that sounds like a 

parrot, then HANG her by the neck from a 

crooked tree using a rope made of her own skin 

where her lifeless (but still alive!) body dangles 

as the salty sea-breeze STINGS her open 

wounds, as the vultures feast on the remains… 

Now – THEME TUNE!!!! “The hills are alive, 

with the sound of music” (three flutes of 

various birds do the A-a-a-aaaaaaah), are you 

with me?! HAHA! Never a dull moment! 

They looked down, as if they had something to 

hide. It made me feel quite sad really, for them, 

but my restless mind, of course started playing 

tricks on me, making up stories, making me 

imagine the perfect setting for a horror movie… 

Forget “The hills have eyes”, this will be a 

gruesome movie called “The hills are alive” 

and the theme tune will be similar to the 

famous song from “Sound of music” but all out 

of tune and eerie! 

So the next time I spent hours in the hills I 

started to think… What if the rustling in the 

bushes really isn’t lizards? What if the birdsong 

really isn’t just birdsong, but a bunch of 

lunatics sitting there with flutes mimicking 

various sounds of different species, arguing 

each morning who gets to play which 

instrument? 

The sigh of the wind causing the trees to 

whisper the names of loved ones who travel 

with me with every step that I take, as I carry 

them carefully in my heart, is in fact, REAL 

whispers by total nut-cases that stalk me and 

know my every secret… 

Paco at Playa Linda 

Yesterday evening I went with Paco, a 

neighbour of mine, to Ixtapa. He wanted to do a 

little surfing and offered to show me Playa 

Linda and a little bit of the neighbouring town 

A perfect way to spend a relaxing evening, at 

the beach in the orange sunset. 

As we were chatting in the car on the way back 

Paco told me he knew a Swedish girl once, he 

said “Her name was Patte”. After a second’s 

hesitation of “did I hear him right?” I started 

laughing and explained to him that she must 

have fooled him as “patte” in Swedish means 

“tit”!! 


Paco surfing the waves at Playa Linda 

Naturally this steered the conversation into the 

importance of language and certain subtitles… 

Small variations can make the world of a 

difference. 

For instance – if you wish to say “What a 

pain!” (pain as in trouble and not something 

that can be relieved with Panadol), you need to 

say “Que pena!”. Don’t say “Que pene!” as that 

means “What a penis!”, unless of course you’re 

in the (delightful?) situation that would call for 

such an outburst… 

If you want half a kilo of chicken, you want to 

say “medio kilo de pollo”, and not “medio kilo 

de polla” or you might get half a kilo of cock 

(and not the one that says cockadoodledoo, I 

mean the one-eyed-snake-cock). 

Be careful what you ask for. 

I hope I made myself clear. 

As you may know, much time in my life is 

spent on the move. 

Whether it is walking, running, or travelling, I 

don’t like to stand still. It suddenly hit me 

though, as I was walking briskly on the beach 

with the warm sand under my feet… Here I am, 

running and running, but perhaps, I am not 

moving at all. 

Perhaps the world is just spinning under my 

feet, like an empty barrel at a circus, me being 

the clown running on top (with that STUPID 

music). Or like a treadmill. Maybe it is time to 

“change workout”… 

Until I make any changes inside me, in my 

soul, I don’t think I will move an inch. 

The question is, do I really want to? 

Again I think of a beautiful quote from the 

movie Shawshank Redemption: "I have to 

remind myself that some birds aren't meant to 

be caged, that's all. Their feathers are just too 

bright... and when they fly away, the part of 

you that knows it was a sin to lock them up 

does rejoice.. but still, the place you live is that 

much more drab and empty that they're gone. 

I guess I just miss my friend" 

I am not a colourful bird with bright feathers. I 

would be more like a black raven with ruffled 

wings if I was to be a bird at all. And I am the 

one missing my friend. 

Life is damn peculiar. 

And damn good. 

Green as can be! 


It is a perfect walk, that one, that takes me to 

Playa Las Gatas. 

tried looking at him with the craziest eyes my 

sweaty face could possibly achieve. 

We rambled on a little about the meaning and 

meaningless of life. It was precious moment, of 

two nutcases sharing the same bench. 

After four, it started to rain. 

The next day I returned. The weather forecast 

had predicted rain and thunder, but sun shining 

and heating turned to HIGH, I took my chances 

and walked to Las Gatas. I told Raul about the 

forecast, and he said, not until tonight. 

I actually went in search of a man called 

Franco, he had told me he could take me to the 

lighthouse if I wanted. I hadn’t even told him I 

loved lighthouses, that perhaps I want to live in 

one some day… So I was pleased as well as 

surprised at his suggestion! 

I felt slightly hesitant at first, following a 

stranger to the lighthouse, but I did some 

“research” about the guy (it turns out the guys 

working there sometimes take curious people to 

see the lighthouse) and felt confident after that. 

Franco wasn’t there yet that morning, so instead 

I went with a young man by the name of Cruz. 

Fishing in the sunset 

It’s an hour, uphill and downhill, through the 

short beach La Madera, the long beach La 

Ropa, across the rocks and past Raul. 

Raul is a man that helps people on the dock, 

with various chores. I had passed him a couple 

of times, and stopped to talk a little one time as 

I sat down to put on my “fast shoes”. 

I said to him something about expecting rain. 

And he looked out with his knowing eyes at the 

horizon, and said, “no, no rain until after four”. 

Raul has a face that tells of a life of experience. 

Of laughter and tears, good times and bad, love 

lost and found. I didn’t doubt for a second that 

he knew when the rain would come. 

He then started talking about how the moon 

affects the water. I said “yes, I know, and it 

certainly affects some people too”, and then 

I am so glad I did. The path took us through an 

overgrown jungly bit, Cruz being very 

chivalrous moving the thick cob-webs with its 

fat spiders aside as we prodded along the 

narrow path, at times with steep cliffs on one 

side having us holding on to branches on the 

other side… 

My worst-case-scenario-mind played scenes 

where I would grab a branch, get stung by a 

scorpion in my hand, let go of the branch to 

plummet down the hill and smash into tiny little 

grimy pieces as I crashed along the side onto 

the rocks in the sea… But I’ve been in jungle 

before, I tried to remember the laws – one is: to 

look before grabbing anything! 

After an adventurous hike we finally got there, 

to the “end of the world” where the lighthouse 

stood. Proud and glorious! 


Waiting for a wave to wash the sand off my feet 

Raul 

There was a front porch (I could imagine 

sweeping it clean, adorning it with pots and 

plants of my fancy, hanging a “love seat” from 

the roof to softly swing in, in the late afternoon, 

with my “bearded man of the sea”, sipping 

wine and talking about the days adventures). 

We went round to the back, climbed into the 

back “sun-deck” where Cruz showed me the 

water-tank underneath the floor. The doors to 

the house were locked, but we could climb up 

on them and peek in through the bars above. 

There were a few chairs, a book shelf, and a 

washing line with pegs on it. In my head I 

could imagine painting the walls, filling the 

shelf with books, adding utensils in the kitchen, 

hanging garlic by the stove, filling a bowl with 

sweet smelling fruits and placing it on the 

wooden kitchen table, making a big bed with 

sheets that have dried in the sun and the wind 

from the Pacific. 

I would put those multicoloured glass balls in 

nets, out on the back with the stunning view, 

and the orange evening sun would reflect in 

them like a light-bulb in a lamp before 

disappearing in the horizon. 

I’d put my easel up wherever I wanted and 

paint and lose myself in dreams of the past and 

the future, of near and far places, and of the 

present moment… 

The only door that Cruz and I could open was 

the one to the toilet, and what a VIEW that 

toilet has!!! I mean, there’s no way any 

lighthouse has a view into a brick wall, but still, 

I was amazed. 

We then climbed up onto the roof, checked out 

more view and the modern solar panels, the 

tower with its light, before heading back 

through the bush to the beach. 


As I mentioned wishing to live in a lighthouse, 

Cruz said “but it’s very dark”. Such a 

contradiction in a way! So much darkness in a 

Lighthouse! 

I had almost forgotten how wonderful it is 

down there under the surface in the big blue 

ocean… Last time I snorkelled was in 

Australia, and as soon as I dove under, it all 

came back to me. 

The sound especially, reminded me of the joy 

and tranquillity this magical underwater world 

can give you! The rays of the sun shone down, 

piercing the turquoise water like thin golden 

spears standing parallel in millions, shimmering 

through the schools of colourful fish dancing in 

the warm waters (approx.27 degrees Celsius for 

your info!). 

Sea, dear sea, how could I forget? You treated 

me so well and you were never boring. 

Water Lily 

If it were mine, I’d fill it with light. Sometimes 

colourful lanterns, sometimes nice electrical 

light (solar panels are great!), and sometimes 

with candle-light (stuck in old bottles, found 

with messages in them perhaps), and 

sometimes, without my help of course, the 

place would flood with moon-light… Perfect 

for dancing in with “surfy-beardy-man” to 

Jason Mraz’s “Bella Luna” for example… 

Back at the beach Cruz asked if I wanted to 

come with him spear-fishing 

Claro que si (of course), so off we went on his 

little yellow kayak, snorkel and fins onboard, 

then I kept track of the boat and snorkeled 

along whilst he caught three fish which I later 

tasted (from his plate haha) under the shade of a 

parasol on the beach, warm sand under my feet. 

Morning walk on La Ropa 

Oh wonderful ocean, reliably unpredictable, 

sometimes frightening but more often soothing 

and kind, a great provider and you certainly 

generate employment on a huge scale! 

Next time I see you I shall run into you, smash 

into you, like two lovers after too much time 

apart! 

I love the way you leave my hair in a mess after 

we’ve been together. How dare I forget?! 

Te adoro. 

I found out later, Raul is Cruz’s father. And of 

course it rained later that night, like Raul had 

said. 

I have seen hatchlings! Tiny little bundles of 

life in the shape of baby Oliver Ridley Turtles! 


It was wonderful to listen to them all discuss 

the various issues of the project. All of it 

bringing me back to the awesome time I had in 

Costa Rica where part of the rainforestexpedition 

involved turtle conservation. 

A bit tricky as it was all in Spanish, but I 

managed to not get completely lost for most of 

the time… 

Where are my Binoculars? 

Yesterday, Joao was supposed to visit the local 

turtle sanctuary – Campamento Tortuguero 

Ayotlcalli, to share his expertise in the matter. 

Joao has many years experience, having 

worked in places like Kape Verde as well as 

Costa Rica, with turtle conservation. 

So off we went in the morning, on a bus to 

Playa Larga (Long beach), which lives up to its 

name with its 16km of white sand and azure 

waters with strong waves rolling in forcefully 

but sometimes gently too. 

There we were picked up by Francisco and 

Janet, two volunteers, and rode in their quadbike 

to where we were supposed to meet more 

dedicated members of this organization. 

Riding in these surroundings is an amazing 

feeling, swooshing through landscapes of 

colourful flowers, tall palm-trees, and green 

glorious cacti in masses! Flying fast forward 

along the beach is fun too, but be prepared to 

get sand-blasted, and hold on to your hat… 

In the late afternoon, when basically all we’d 

consumed so far was the water from some 

coconuts Fransisco had picked, Joao and I were 

invited to stay and eat with these wonderful 

people as they prepared the most DELICIOUS 

meal EVER, right there on the beach. 

Mangos with salt, lime, and hot sauce for 

starters, then barbequed meat, chorizos, beans, 

onions, avocados, boiled fresh corn on the cob 

– so juicy and fresh as they burst in your mouth 

with sweetness – and hot salsa that I had the 

privilege to prepare, kindly assisted by a very 

nice lady whose name I forgot to ask… 

We shared a lot of laughs as I was a human 

blender for this spicy sauce, spilling some on 

my legs they suggested I should have a TVshow 

called "The hot chef", but I felt more like 

the Swedish chef in "The Muppet Show" 

After the sauce was finished and had gotten 

everyones approval, they said I am now ready 

for Mexican marriage - well, it's a good thing 

I'm getting out of here soon.!!! 

Cutie 

Inside the little sanctuary 


In the morning when we arrived, we were 

shown the little sanctuary, where they put the 

eggs sheltered from predators (here mainly 

dogs and man) but none were hatched yet. 

The ones covered with palm-leaves were 

expected to hatch at any time soon, so I had my 

hopes up of course. And later in the afternoon, 

Juan Avendaño (the father – I think this is a 

family business, the kind lady is his wife, the 

grandfather also by the name of Juan 

Avendaño, two daughters Jennifer and Paulina 

– if I’m not mistaken), takes me to the nests, 

and shows me a bunch of little hatchlings who 

have just emerged into this world. My heart just 

melted. 

How could anyone be un-cheered with turtlehatchlings?! 

They were the cutest little things I 

had ever set my eyes upon! Juan gently grabbed 

a bunch of them and placed them in my hands, I 

had two HANDFULLS of baby turtles. 

If I had no self control I would have cried tears 

of joy as I kissed each and every one like a 

hysterical auntie reuniting with her family in a 

South-European/Arabic/African country, I 

would have rolled around in the sand causing a 

minor sand-storm paddling my feet in the air 

like a child who can’t stop laughing, just 

bursting with joy and tender emotion. 

But no - I have Asian heritage so I control my 

emotions, and simultaneously keep a Swedish 

cool, so I just sat there, allowed myself a smile 

and a squeak of excitement and kept the action 

of my crazy emotions limited to the realm of 

my heart. 

The sea, such a forceful thing but also 

something we need to remember to look after. 

Despite all its glory and strength it is fragile as 

well, and we are the ones that have the power to 

take care of it. I think we should try. 

If there was a God and he had a restaurant I 

would eat there. But I know the secret recipe 

for divine sweetness, and if you are good, I will 

share it with you soon… 

Most of my days here are spent walking the 

five kilometres to the beach Las Gatas in the 

morning, staying there for an hour or two 

letting the sea care for my body and soul, 

helping out in the dive-shop in the afternoon, 

and doing various activities of fun in the warm 

evenings. 

Most of the walk to Las Gatas is beach too, and 

although the beaches are quite empty of people, 

I am never alone. I should have “read the signs” 

already before landing, when I saw the yellow 

butterflies outside the plane-window 

There are always butterflies! Beautiful, 

colourful and bright, they flutter past me as I 

stroll along in the white sand as the warm 

waves wet my bare feet from the turquoise sea. 

I am in heaven. 

One evening as I was having a beer with my 

new friend Pako (yes, spelled with a k), a big 

butterfly landed on me several times – on my 

neck, on my chest, on my shoulder – and stayed 

for quite some time. I’ve been told this means 

luck – but as much as I liked the visits from this 

little winged preciousness – I didn’t need it to 

tell me that I am the luckiest girl in the world, I 

already know. 

It is low season for tourism here now so it’s 

been very quiet at the shop. I’ve only sold some 

t-shirts and answered the phone, so most of the 

time I just spend on the internet or look in divebooks. 

Riding along the beach, SANDBLASTING! 

It’s good to know a little about diving I suppose 

when you are working in a DIVE-shop… 


Part of “La Banda” 

Are you ready for some cooking? Do you want 

a good recipe? Well, come closer and I will tell 

you a secret… 

Take a little village and place it by the Pacific 

Ocean. Give it some mountains and luscious 

tropical flora, fill it with genuinely kind people 

(the kind that offer you a ride up the steep hill 

in their car in case you are tired). Place a few 

white sandy beaches in there – one is enough, 

but more will add a little extra flavour. 

Diving Equipment - Regulators 

It says “Mentally, you need a mature attitude, 

good judgment and the self-discipline to follow 

the guidelines and principles required for safe 

diving”. I guess diving is out of the question for 

me then haha… 

It also says stuff like “You can state the 

principle of buoyancy this way: An object 

placed in water is buoyed up by a force equal to 

the weight of the quantity it displaces.” 

My dormant brain needs to wake up and make 

room for new stuff! 

I have met a bunch of new and wonderful 

people here. We are already planning salsa 

dancing and a Halloween party amongst other 

things, I expect many more days and nights of 

fun with “la banda” (the gang)! 

Make the tequila cheap, the papayas sweet, and 

make the bats come out in the dark as the insect 

and gecko orchestra plays my favourite tune: 

“Tropical night” (there is a salsa version, a 

classical version, and a ballade version – they 

are all good). 

Let the sun shine most days and when it rains 

don’t hold back, just pour it in, make sure to 

add a lot of thunder! Chuck in silver threads of 

lightning, it makes it pretty. For extra garnish, 

sprinkle with millions of beautiful butterflies. 

The flavours are rich and I am eating like a 

ravenous beast whose famined days are long 

gone. Its vitamins and nutrients make me 

strong, its calories give me energy. 

It is delicious and I want more! And then I 

know what I want for dessert… And yes, it 

has something to do with cheese… 

Bon Apetite! Till next time ... 


Pictures from Kyrgyzstan, May 2014 - part one 


Our May trip to Kyrgyzstan was very busy. For 14 days we visited the most different corners of 

this small but vibrant and diverse country. The mountains were covered with snow, and in the 

southern desert plateau unbearable scorching heat. 

I took many pictures, so to follow the introduction article in issue 17 of the magazine, we have 

decided that we would show the pictures as photo spots. I hope you enjoy them. Michael. 

King of Fairy Tales on Kungei Ala-Too 

mountain range of Northern Tien Shan: 

Climbing "1B": snow, ice and "sypuha": 

Here it is, blends with the landscape: 

Periodically, I will show photos of participants 

of our expedition. Here Andrew, storm 

marmots 


Author: HENRY CARROLL 

ISBN: 978-78067-335-6 

Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs. 

Book Review by Kev Sidford 

Which is appropriately small enough to fit in a 

camera bag for those times when you get a bit 

of brain fade. 

So what is? Chromatic aberration, light 

sensitivity, f/16 and depth of field not to 

mention a whole pile of nomenclature that 

means gobbledegook to the average person 

wielding a camera. Normal if a am stuck and 

need to research some information, I head to 

the web and consult the trusty Cambridge in 

Colour site, which a wordsmith is cleverly 

written is such a way that even a dullard such as 

I can understand. However, there are 

sometimes; that I want to escape the drudgery 

of peering into a screen to access information. 

The cost is marketed at £12.95 but if you look 

on Amazon you can pit a brand new copy up 

for £6.00. So if you want some education, go 

out and buy it. 

Kev Sidford FRGS 

Enter the excellent A3 booklet by Henry 

Carroll, it is written with clarity and very easy 

to read. The content is broken down into five 

logical sequences, Composition, Exposure, 

Light, Lenses and Seeing. 

Along with, in depth information that any 

layman can understand, there are inspirational 

photographs by the likes of Ansel Adams, Bill 

Brandt and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Each chosen 

photograph has been selected to explain the 

issues related to the text. In the words of Carroll 

himself, there is “No scary graphs. No techie 

diagrams. No camera-club jargon. 

The content is definitely geared towards 

DSLR’s, compact cameras and even bridge 

cameras. I am pleased to say that the days of 

looking at Cambridge in Colour are getting 

fewer and fewer and I now refer to Carroll’s 

little back book. 


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About The Wave 


I very much love landscape photography for the 

fragility of the moment and unexpected gifts. 

First, I look out for the angle and are then 

guided by the sun as to where and when to wait. 

To study the situation. At the proper time I 

come, waiting for the light, waiting for the 

moment. 

But where and how to manifest the story, until 

the end is intrigue. At one point clouds covered 

the sun, and in the other, because of this, 

emerged a stunning light. 

A trait the ocean so often indulges: go yourself 

and watch, a few simple waves similar to each 

other, then there may be a lull, after which 

comes a bigger wave. 

I saw his picture (see above). Saw and thought 

how large wave on the left was and I became 

suspicious and looked toward the ocean just in 

time. After a few seconds I got this wave 

(below). 

And things change in a matter of minutes so I 

pick up the tripod and change position. It is 

only at first glance that landscape photography 

seems leisurely and measured. 

Ocean loves to do so: first there are a 

succession of small waves, and behind them 

came a few large ones. 


I was interested in shooting and forgot about 

everything. I saw in my camera. Saw and 

thought - wow, how large wave! After a few 

seconds a wave swept me. I do not remember 

how, but during that time I had to jump five 

meters back on the hill, and raise the camera 

above my head. 

I lifted my eyes and saw my forgotten 

backpack, ready to face the elements. The last 

thought was - “The ocean should not take it 

away, at the bottom of the backpack is a 

telephoto, and it is heavy.” But the elements 

spared my fragile belongings, it retreated, 

leaving the backpack dry. 

Meet a "shower" standing on a rock? Not very 

pleasant thing! 

This rogue wave, multiplies in size due to 

resonance with its brethren, I have called 

"crazy." As an example, I will show a couple of 

pictures of crazy waves. Today, for example, is 

quite a powerful surf, and a proud fisherman 

prepares to take a photo of large waves: 

In the picture above, there is also a good 

example of a stray wave (and nerves of steel). 

The previous frame I shot standing on a rock, 

but this Indonesian was more adventurous 

walking on the sand at the bottom and did not 

have time to hide. Now he feels an 

unprecedented freshness. 

But then comes a stray wave, which he 

obviously did not order: 

It awarded him the victory in the competition of 

wet T-shirts (and underpants at the same time). 

You see how he is tense? By the way, he took 

off with the Nikon camera… Well, one more 

crazy wave, refreshing: 


Gone, now you can rest: 

And here is yours truly. Landscape 

photography, working steadily and slowly, so it 

comes to you: 

Another plot. "Moor!" – “No!! I will not be 

approaching" 

Crazy wave: "The photographer, I have come!" 

Do not know how to wash and clean the floor at 

one time? 


Another snapshot "photographer gift": 

But in general, when a large wave hits the shore 

and makes it tremble, that feeling is fascinating: 

And in the morning the next day at the same 

place you can find a warm and gentle calm. 

Want to come back to the ocean to feel that 

feeling again and again. 

Michael Shmelev 


Wildlife - Garden Birds - Part 2 

Pictures by 

Gordon Longmead 

Blackbird 

Turdus merula 

The winter flock of the Blue and Great tits is 

around the 25 bird mark, supplemented by the 

coaltits, blackcaps, long tailed tits and 

dunnocks. They are not easy to count as the 

garden is like city rush hour. 

We have two Dunnock pairs and two pair of 

Blackcaps visiting on a regular basis. They can 

be seen flitting about the plant pots and under 

the feeders. 

A few years ago a Wren decided to build a nest 

on top of a timer switch, the female wisely 

decided that it was not for her. The following 

year he built under a canopy in the back garden 

and she moved in. 

The brood was successful and I sat and watched 

as chick after chick fell from the nest and 

landed at my feet before scurrying off into the 

garden. 

Blackbird (female) 

Turdus merula 

Wren (Chick) 

Troglodytes troglodytes 

Robin 

Erithacus rubecula 

Dunock 

Prunella modularis 


Blackcap (male) 

Sylvia communis 

Blackcap (female) 

Sylvia communis 

Long Tailed Tit 

Aegithalos caudatus 

The starlings are every ones favourites, not, but 

we still get regular invasions from them. We 

also get early morning visits from the flock of 

Jackdaws. The 20 strong flock making quite a 

noise at 6 in the morning. 

One of our evening visitors is the Barn Owl the 

other is the Tawny Owl. Neither bird is easy to 

get pictures of as they both fly through, 

scouring the tree line for prey. 

House Sparrow 

Passer domesticus (female) 

We have had as many as three pairs of 

Blackbird in the garden, each one fighting over 

the feeding order. We also have a pair of 

Thrush, I do not know if they are song or mistle 

thrush. 

No garden would be complete without the feral 

pigeon and we do have some visitors, but the 

main mobsters are the abundant wood pigeon 

population. 

Pheasant 

Phasianus colchicus 

Pied Wagtail 

Motacilla alba yarrellii 


Collard Doves 

Streptopelia decaocto 

Woodpigeon 

Columba palumbus 

Magpie (chick) 

Pica pica 

Interestingly I recently saw one of them being 

attacked by a collared dove, one of a pair that 

has taken a liking to the garden. 

The Magpie is also a success here, we have 

three pairs and often see their young in the 

garden. Pied Wagtails visit very occasionally in 

the warmer weather but are not breeding 

locally. 

Red Kite 

Milvus milvus 

The Chaffinches have put in an appearance 

over the last three years, we now have three 

pairs visiting the garden. 

Not to be missed out, at the time of writing I 

have just seen a goldfinch gathering cobwebs 

for the nest, so maybe we will have more of 

them later in the spring. 


Web : magneflash.com 

Email: splash@magneflash.com 

TECHNOLOGY EQUIPPED FOR GRIP 

MacWet Technology 

Most gloves on the market today are bulky and uncomfortable, causing a negative 

impact on your favourite sport. MacWet's unique Aquatec® fabric responds to moisture 

and climate change, ensuring maximum grip, sensitivity, feel and comfort at all times, 

no matter how wet or humid. The groundbreaking MacWet Sports glove marks a turning 

point in glove technology with characteristics that ensure user comfort, durability and 

performance. MacWet gloves' groundbreaking technology uses natural 'wicking' 

properties. This allows water to be readily transported along, around and over the 

gloves` surface to the fabric face, where it quickly evaporates, thus providing the 

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The breathable, all-purpose MacWet sports gloves offer a comfortable fit and the 

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Email: tom@fstopsafaris.co.za 


Tour Operators 

Members who operate, or work on behalf of Tour Operators are invited to submit reports on their tours as a 

feature of the magazine. These can be a regular feature if desired and may include pictures to highlight 

aspects of the article. The first of these reports should be an introduction to the company area of operations 

and its tour guides and staff. 

Although the Society can not be held responsible for the conduct and safety of the tours, the tour operators 

that advertise on, or have links within, this site or provide reports within the societies magazine, do so on 

the understanding that they undertake to conduct the tours in a professional manner, be customer focused, 

with an emphasis on safety and value for money. 

As many of the tour operators and guides are members of the society, they are knowledgeable both on the 

areas they visit and on the subject of photography and will be willing to offer tips and guidance if required. 

Feedback about your tour is always welcomed and may appear in the society magazine. 

Magazine Submissions 

Members are welcome to submit Bio’s and other articles relating to expeditions and equipment 

reviews. Small file size pictures may be included. Recognised wildlife trust and Nature 

Conservation group adverts may be included free of charge per quarter page subject to approval. 

Any one who would like to write a feature article for the magazine, please do. I have no real limit 

on the magazine size but for ease I will find a comfortable limit depending on the method used for 

circulating it. 

Trade Adverts 

Adverts may be placed with the magazine at the editors discretion. A charge will be made in 

advance of publication towards the running costs of the society amounting to 10 GBP per quarter 

page per issue. 

Submissions should be emailed to magazine@photosociety.net please state ‘magazine article or 

advert’ in the subject line. 

The Photographer Academy is the largest European 

photography training company providing the award 

winning training to get inspired or instructed every day. 

http://thephotographeracademy.com 

The Cat Survival Trust was registered as a charity in 

1976. The Trust's on-site objective is to promote 

education regarding the conservation of wild cats and 

their habitat by housing an array of species in natural 

enclosures. 

http://www.catsurvivaltrust.org 

We hope you like the magazine, the size and content of future issues depends on you. 

Submissions for the next issue are being accepted 


TECHNOLOGY EQUIPPED FOR GRIP 

MacWet Technology 

Most gloves on the market today are bulky and uncomfortable, causing a negative impact 

on your favourite sport. MacWet's unique Aquatec® fabric responds to moisture and 

climate change, ensuring maximum grip, sensitivity, feel and comfort at all times, no 

matter how wet or humid. The groundbreaking MacWet Sports glove marks a turning 

point in glove technology with characteristics that ensure user comfort, durability and 

performance. MacWet gloves' groundbreaking technology uses natural 'wicking' 

properties. This allows water to be readily transported along, around and over the gloves` 

surface to the fabric face, where it quickly evaporates, thus providing the ultimate in 

comfort and gripping power. 

The breathable, all-purpose MacWet sports gloves offer a comfortable fit and the 

performance you desire. Man made fabric permits the hand to breathe ensuring 

maximum grip consistently, with absolutely no compromise to the feel or comfort of the 

products. The second skin fit allows for fine adjustment of equipment without the need to 

remove the gloves.

World Image issue 18 March 2015

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