Post Damaraland

I had such an incredible week up in Damaraland and I do plan on blogging more about this experience soon. I apoligize for being out of touch, but I wasn't anywhere near the internet for a whole week, but its slowly breaking my facebook addition!

Recent News:
The WWF Great Plains tour kicked off their Namibia tour today. I'm making some great connections with many people on this year's tour. Dan O' Brien and his other half Jill flew in and I've always admired Dan's writing. He is one of the authors for Mike Forsberg's [National Geographic] new photography book coming out in September. Its a great group and I wish I could attend more of the tour, but because Namibia is such a large country, flying is often cheaper but limited in space. But I'll catch the recap and a few other local events. Some fellow sandhillers did make it over here too.

It was great to see my friends and neighbors, The Switzers, Calamus Outfitters, and participate in amazing round table discussion about the conservancy system here and its possible applications back home in the Great Plains. There are some new insights developing about how our ranches can work together like the freehold conservancies here in Namibia and I'm so fortunate to be surrounded by my incredible colleagues and others during this process. More to come on this subject soon. Back to the game count and previous week...

Basically, I participated in the world's largest game count, the Sesphontein Game Count. It was my first introduction in the Namibian bush. And what a great way to kick things off. This is some of the best scenery in the country. There is NO ONE out here in this part of Namibia and I'll find the number of KM we drove but we only came across two other cars in 4 days of driving around and we made our rounds. I could see the Atlantic Ocean at one point and Angola was only a 5 hour drive.

This count covers 16 million acres, requires nearly 300 people, 60 cars, and 7 different routes to gather this information. I finally saw my first elephants on this count and have plenty of elephant stories. I can't wait to tell the one about Nils, a very naughty elephant who stormed my colleagues camp and forced us to stay in a lodge the falling day when I arrived with the ABC film crew! I was also mocked charged by a mamma elephant while we were on the count [15 yards away], but managed to snap 5 good pictures before I fell on my back on top of the WWF truck. Don't worry, Dan and Almean captured everything on film and I have a hunch it will make the 6 minute ABC news cut! Only one other route saw elephants like ours did.

One of the main highlights of the trip I'll write more about later, was having Dan Harris from ABC news come along with his producer. They're doing a 6 minute piece on Namibia's conservancies and how its helped the communal areas. Luckily, I brought along my new camera and big lens. Many of my photos will be linked to the story online and might even be featured in the 6 minute video story. This piece will air on Primetime, Dateline, and Good Morning America and its estimated to reach 60-80 million people. I took nearly 1300 photos this last week and I'm only beginning to sort everything out and edit.

I'm so thrilled to have this amazing opportunity to show my photographs of Namibia 8D If one of my photos can make someone think, "Oh, thats just beautiful and what a great concept and cause. I must go visit Namibia" I've done my job as a conservationist photographer. I finally feel comfortable calling myself one.

I also saw some extreme poverty conditions in the communal conservancies. There is so much to tell, but spending a few days with these amazing farmers and mothers gave me new inspiration and energy for the work WWF does with conservancies and other NGO's. Totally life changing experience to say the least. Having kids reach their hands in your pockets asking for food and money with snoty noses, hardly any clothes, and large starving bellies would change anyone.

There is a horrible cold bug floating around and I picked it up during the tail end of my trip. Trust me, there is nothing worse than having a burning throat in the middle of the bush, while worrying about a naughty elephant wandering around the bush looking for water and apples. Sure makes one feel alive when you feel like dying. But it makes for good stories I will tell later.

AE Price