Zeiss Infinity Tour - South Africa


Cape Town - The Mother City

Located in the Western Cape province in South Africa, the city's name is derived from the world famous and steep Cape of Good Hope cliffs. Cape Town’s history and natural beauty attracts more foreign visitors than ever before. With over 3700 hours of sun, rich cultural diversity and a breathtaking natural landscape, it offers unique locations for landscape and portrait photography.

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For my third stop on the ZEISS Infinity Tour, I’m going to introduce you to an African city rather than a country. 
I was invited to conduct a workshop in Cape Town, the primate city of the Western Cape province in South Africa. It was a quite short trip, and I only had four days to explore this fantastic location situated on the shore of Table Bay.

I was fascinated by how modern Cape Town is: this pulsating, vibrant city has a vivid urban flair surrounded by beautiful ocean scenery. Of course, as a landscape photographer, I was quite keen to capture with my lens the many memorable perspectives this city offers. Any landscape photographer who has visited Cape Town will mention the world-famous Table Mountain and Signal Hill as unique highlights. 

Table Mountain, the natural landmark overlooking the city, offers an epic view of the metropolis below and was chosen as one of the new 7 wonders of nature in 2012. 
As for Signal Hill, when you look at it together with the Lion’s Head, people claim that it looks like a sphinx.

For the practical part of our workshop, we decided to shoot Table Mountain and Lion’s Head from Signal Hill. I decided to use the ZEISS Milvus 15mm lens, which is generally my go-to lens for most of my landscape images. And I must admit that we were quite lucky in terms of timing.

Just one day earlier, there had been a thunderstorm. For a photographer, there is nothing better than the time before, after and sometimes even during the storm. I had a good view from my balcony the night of the storm and was able to capture the lightning as it spread like roots through the clouds

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The second morning, we witnessed the sun piercing through the vanishing storm clouds, creating amazing sunset scenery. It is worth mentioning that in South Africa there’s a huge community of photographers. Some of the participants who attended my workshop traveled from neighboring countries, but the majority came from South Africa. I asked Leslie for her view of infinity, and she brought yet another perspective to my attention. For her, timelessness best encapsulates her understanding of infinity. I suspect this comes from the rich and moving history of Cape Town where she’s a resident.

There is a huge art scene and a lot of galleries, and I guess this has a lot to do with the diverse cultures found in South Africa in general. You should definitely plan to visit the various boutiques and galleries for inspiration when you visit!

I will definitely visit Cape Town again and will certainly stay for longer next time. But before I end this blog, I would like to add something I just learned: I didn’t know that there are penguins in South Africa! A visit to Boulder’s Beach might be interesting to see these little creatures and take some nice shots - not only of the penguins, but also of the beautiful scenery during a sunrise.

During the workshop in Cape Town, we had an awesome support from Singer Photography at all level, they provided all type of Zeiss lenses to the participants for testing. I was using all the time my favorite Zeiss Milvus ultra wide angle, 15mm on Nikon mount.

Zeiss Infinity Tour - Namibia


Namibia - Endless Horizons

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I grew up in the Middle East. I was born in Lebanon where it’s quite green. And while there is no sign of sand, there are plenty of cedar trees which unfortunately are shrinking in number. However, I have moved to and lived in other countries where the desert dominates the landscape. Each has its own unique character, and so does the Namib Desert.

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It had always been a dream of mine to visit Namibia. I didn’t have much time – only 5 days including my arrival and departure day. I had prioritized, and so I asked myself: "Where should I go?" I marked Sesriem on my map which is located in the Namib Desert and is the main access point to Namib-Naukluft National Park. Here you can visit the very popular Sossusvlei Dune 45, Hiddenvlei, Big Daddy and Deadvlei.

I arrived at night after a very long drive, and I spent the next few days conquering the impressive Dune 45 and the drought Soussusvlei plan. There I met a roaming Oryx with its striking black and white face. But my goal was clear: I had to visually capture one unique feature of the desert, namely it’s very low light pollution.

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Usually it's almost impossible to access Deadvlei at night, however I was quite lucky and was allowed to stay for a while after dark to shoot this image. Time was in short supply, but the result was excellent and I ended with this beautiful photo. I live in the city where it's impossible to see a starry sky, yet away from all the light pollution in Deadvlei you can see the constellations. Once the sun is down the landscape becomes quite mystical, with the breathless skeletons of trees, the vast sand dunes and a sky full of stars. All this provides the perfect composition for a long exposure shot – truly exceptional.

During my travels I met the park ranger Bradwin. It was intriguing to learn how he felt about nature, the human spirit and even infinity itself from working in such an extreme environment

My main lenses during the trip where i shot the movie with and the images, Zeiss Milvus 135mm, Zeiss Milvus 15mm & Zeiss Otus 28mm on Nikon mount.