Featuring the beautiful landscapes and inhabitants of Botswana and Namibia
We did it again! But this time we wanted more! We traveled 6 weeks through the most beautiful landscapes of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa and shot literally every night – and day. We produced nearly 4 Terabytes of RAW data, shot with 4 Cameras and in total, I spent half a year on editing – by far, this exceeded the limits of African Skies 1 and any other film I did until now.
Background
This time I edited the whole film in 4K. The video footage, shot with the Nikon D800 and D7100 had to be upscaled a bit (still no reasonable 4K Film-Camera available…) – but due to their sharpness this wasn’t a major issue – the Time Lapse sequences, shot mostly with the Nikon D600 were downscaled from 6K. All of the editing and grading (video and time lapse) were done with LRTimelapse and Adobe Lightroom and then only cut in Premiere Pro – this lead to the amazing quality you can see – especially in the download-versions.
The Problems
The increasing industrial use by humans in Africa – like in the rest of the world – unfortunately leaves less and less space for nature and wildlife.
In particular, the expanding farming industry and mining, even in protected areas, leaves devastated and contaminated landscapes, it’s really worrisome.
After all, based on what we have seen in the last two years in Africa, we do not realistically believe that this development can ever be stopped – unfortunately.
However, what we can and are urgently obliged to do is to strengthen and expand those reserves that exist, and help create new ones to offer at least retreat and shelter for the remaining animals. In our opinion, this can only by done by strengthening the local animal and environmental protection organizations.
The Film
UPDATE – 2014, February – Thank you for your support!
We are really happy that, thanks to your support, today we were able to donate 1015 U$ to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust!
Their mission, quoted from their Webpage:
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust embraces all measures that compliment the conservation, preservation and protection of wildlife. These include anti-poaching, safe guarding the natural environment, enhancing community awareness, addressing animal welfare issues, providing veterinary assistance to animals in need, rescuing and hand rearing elephant and rhino orphans, along with other species that can ultimately enjoy a quality of life in wild terms when grown.
UPDATE – 2014, July – Thank you for your support!
We were able to donate another 338 US$, this time to the Desert Lion Conservation in Namibia.
In total, with African Skies 1 and 2 and your help, we already were able to donate 2.203 US$ to Animal conservation in Africa. Thank very much to all contributors!
UPDATE – 2015, January – Thank you for your support!
We were able to donate another 200 US$, this time to the Lawrence Anthony Earth Organisation.
In total, with African Skies 1 and 2 and your help, we already were able to donate 2.403 US$ to Animal conservation in Africa. Thank very much to all contributors!
UPDATE – 2015, July – Thank you for your support!
We were able to donate another 250€! This time for a German organization Rettet den Regenwald e.V., who is building a rescue center for orphaned and injured baby elephants in Tanzania. If you are interested in this project, please read here (german language)
Thank very much to all contributors!
UPDATE – 2015, September – additional donations
We are pleased that more donations went to conservation organizations!
We requested Mr. Reeger to donate 75,00 Euro to WWF for protection the rainforest instead of donating directly to us. Thank you very much for this!
We provided some time lapse sequences to DIRANUK and asked them to donate 720,00 Euro to „Rettet den Regenwald“ instead of paying directly to us. Many thanks for this!
UPDATE – 2016, January – Thank you for your support!
We were able to donate another 200€! This time for a German organization Welttierschutzgesellschaft, who has a project to rescue elephants in indonesia. If you are interested in this project, please read here (german language)
Thank very much to all contributors!
UPDATE – 2017, January – Thank you for your support!
We were able to donate another 260 US$ to the Lawrence Anthony Earth Organisation.
Thank you very much for your support!
Our gear in Africa
- Nikon D800, Nikon D600,
- Nikon D7100, Nikon D5200
- Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8
- Nikkor 10-24 mm f/3.5-4.5
- Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye
- Sigma 35mm f/1.8
- Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VRII
- Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 VRII
- GoPro HD Hero 3 Black
- Emotimo TB3-Black, TB3-Orange
- Dynamic Perception Stage One
- Speccctra Crane Junior ATX2 with MDK Motor
All Time Lapse editing and video grading was done with LRTimelapse / Lightroom 5!
Thank you to our partners!
- Kids of all Ages
- Emotimo
- Foto-Morgen
- togopod
- Calumet
- camforpro
- Speccctracrane
- Come Along Safari
- Timelapse SA
Music (all under CC-License)
- Zero Project – Cradle Song
- Zero Project – Land of Legends
- Ben Othman – La Marsa Chill
- Stidiek – The Bad Begins
- Ben’s Imaginary Band – Black Sheep
- Josh Woodward – Morning After (instr.)
Thank you to all the artists for sharing this awesome music under CC license!
Licensing Footage
All time lapse footage is available in up to 6K resolution. Please contact me for information about licensing footage.