Lechwe in the mist by Marsel van Oosten

Lechwe in the mist by Marsel van Oosten

I just finished packing for our Amphibian Safari in Botswana (half water-based, half land-based) and our Beyond the Great Rivers tour in Zambia. For the camera gear, I usually check my Lightroom catalog to see what cameras and lenses I have used on previous trips to these destinations, how much, and in which configurations. And I have a look at the shots I got and tried to get, just to refresh my memory. Also, it’s always good to have some visual references in your head when you travel to a location, and possibly some ideas. Here’s an example of an idea that I had for a previous Botswana trip: shooting a sunrise with mist. That doesn’t sound like a ground-breaking idea because it isn’t. But that’s not the point. The point is that because I had this idea, I turned it into a plan. I decided that one morning we would leave our camp super early to be able to cover a lot of ground and get to an area where you can sometimes get mist. If you don’t leave earlier than ‘normal’ and if you don’t drive there in a straight line, by the time you get to this area the mist will already be gone. You might not even realize that there’s ever mist here at all. In this particular case, the plan worked. When we arrived at the other side of the reserve there was mist. All we had to do then is find ourselves some animals and wait for the sun to rise. We found a couple of lechwe and decided they were perfect for our morning session. A goal without a plan is just a wish. [D810, AF-S VR 600/4.0, 1/800 @ f/5.6, ISO 200] Marsel | squiver.com

Marsel van Oosten: Photos