Suppose you’re a crocodile and you want to cross a river. What would be better than avoiding water altogether by walking on the back of hippos? Nothing, except that hippos are not zebras. Click on the picture to see the whole story.

Copyright (C) Vaclav Silha/Barcroft

After all, there is no surprise when you know that, in Africa, the hippo is the worst wildlife killer of men.

Photograph: Vaclav Silha/Barcroft, for Guardian.co.uk.

The guys at DARPA have developed a neat camera for ground surveillance of the battlefield: The ARGUS-IS (Autonomous Realtime Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance – Imaging System). This is a digital camera that can be strapped under a helicopter at a 15,000 feet altitude and provides an amazing view. Actually, not all the data (1.8 giga-pixels by 15 frames/s) is streamed down to HQ, but up to 65 independent video windows are tracked simultaneously.

ARGUS-IS

Source: Engadget.

Fabian Tischer is obviously gifted to create small videos from visual effects supposed to be simple (but actually quite tough to master) in order to offer us some cool movies:

Check his page often in the future. I believe that his future work will be worth it.

During a (forced) stop in one of the journeys between cities in Nepal when I recently traveled in this Himalayan country, I took a short moment to do some portraiture in the setting sun.

Copyright (c) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved	Copyright (c) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved
Copyright (c) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved	Copyright (c) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved
Copyright (c) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved	Copyright (c) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the picture

Back from a few days of photo trip to Nepal, I feel it is time to share with you some of this astonishing experience organized by Amawanda and guided by Alain Pons.

I am more or less a wildlife photographer attracted to the African wide-open spaces. But I had been attracted mostly by the presence of a seasoned pro photographer (Alain Pons) assisted by a very serious organization (I had been able to appreciate them in a previous trip to Kenya in 2008). I had also noticed that costs were relatively moderate (taking into account that this is a wildlife trip – which is often very expensive) including -we could check this later on location- a significant share reserved for local actions for development and nature protection in full coordination with the local structures and the local wildlife organizations.

The flight to Kathmandu was without surprise on Qatar, despite the long night stop in Doha airport where the only Duty Free shop cannot be considered as a commendable tourist spot (but they have a nice stock of alcohol or cigarettes for those who prefer to prepare themselves for later needs).

The Kathmandu-Bardia journey requires about 20 hours of bus or car. The stops provided in the program are a good way to break the inevitable monotony. A faster plane journey would be possible (it is included on the way back) but it would be a pity to avoid the view in the valleys and from the mountain roads out of Pokhara.

All along this journey, I will try to make a few recommendations about what a photographer might find more interesting to stop for.

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Sometimes an image (from Nepal or elsewhere) hesitates on the better orientation to give to the photographer. Which one of these two Nepalese paddy fields would you choose?

Copyright (C) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved - Click on the thumbnail to enlarge it

Copyright (C) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved - Click on the thumbnail to enlarge it

When visiting Nepal, I could take a plane trip for some sight seeing, from Kathmandu to the Mount Everest (the highest point of our world at 8848m or 29028ft).

Its Nepalese name is Sagarm�th� (Nepali: सगरमाथा), and it is very near to the Lhotse, another 8000-summit (precisely 8516m or 27940ft).

Everest and Lhotse

The image here was taken from the pilot seat when we were at the nearest point to the Everest during the flight (click on the small image to enlarge it).

The unlabeled peak on the right is probably the Makalu (8463m or 27766ft). But this needs to be confirmed by somebody more expert than I am.

It’s been quite some time already that a company named Red prepares not only a photo camera but a full photo & video system with a very high level of configurability. I recently stumbled upon the description of the various sensors that intend to included in their cameras.

See the size of the larger sensor: The RED 617 Mysterium Monstro sensor has 261,352,000 pixels (about the same number as sensitive cells at the back of a human eye).

The images to come out of it will certainly be monstrous as suggested by the sensor name.

Pygargue à tête blanche - Copyright (C) Yves Roumazeilles

The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a bird of prey found in North America that is most recognizable as the national bird and symbol of the United States of America.

You can buy an original print at RedBubble.

I am leaving France for a photo trip to Nepal. Why did my colleagues pay a part of that trip?

I couldn’t resist and I bring you this image I found on an automobile-oriented blog (autoblog).

For once, here is a photography trip to the Espace Rambouillet (near Paris, France) which allowed me (last weekend) to bring back a picture clearly representative of the rut (mating season) for red deers. Two stags fighting for supremacy: shocked antlers, flying dust and sexually aroused males.

Red deers fighting (during the rut)

Also, some portraits of other stags which are obviously calmer (for now).

Two red deers

Two red deers

Met in the forest of Rambouillet (near Paris, but more precisely in the fern land at the end of the Espace Rambouillet of Office National des Forêts), two roe deers that were stuck in the sights of two camouflaged wildlife photographers.

Roe deers (Click to enlarge)

On August 30, 2009, I shot a few images during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Paris, France. Here is a selection.

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If you are looking for this camera, all the updated information I collected is on http://www.YLovePhoto.Com/en/ where I now publish all my photography-related news.

Nikon launches a Nikon D3000 (entry-level SLR), a Nikon D300s (enthusiast SLR). Sony reveals accidentally the future Sony Alpha 850 as a relatively inexpensive complément to the Sony Alpha 900 (Full Frame SLR).

Find all about it on YLovePhoto.

The Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin is a museum presenting a large mount of technology history. Quite naturally, they are biased toward presenting a lot of German achievements and this country is known for hosting some of the very best optical engineers and being rightfully proud of brands like Carl Zeiss, Leitz/Leica.

Charlie Sorrel wrote a piece of article for Wired.com, titled “Gallery of Sawn-In-Half Cameras” that I intensely recommend reading.