Playing around with water drops. Ingredients: water, milk, food colouring, patience.

Canon 40D, Canon 24-105L, 430EX Flash.

Within the boundaries of Etosha Nationalpark in Northern Namibia there are three campsites. The biggest of them beeing "Okaukuejo", located at a big waterhole with the same name. I spent the first night of my recent visit last November sitting at the waterhole, watching different animals drink and interact. But not only the animals but also the scenery of the waterhole itself, changing colors during the sunset was amazing. That's when I took this picture of an elephant and a giraffe drinking right next to each other at the waterhole.

Canon EOS 40D, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, ISO 800, 1.3 sec., 33mm, f/4. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom 2, finishing touches in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

The second camp in Etosha, Halali, is located next to the Moringa waterhole. I spent my second night in Etosha staying at this camp and watching the waterhole for most of the day. When the Sun began to sink behind the horizon I watched this matriarchal group of elephants drinking at the waterhole. While observing the animals we also had an amazing sunset with an orange so saturated - I never saw anything like it before.

Just after the elephants had gone we saw a small group of black rhino drinking and also had some hyena and a leopard later that night. This is a magical place!

Canon EOS 40D, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/80 sec., 40mm, f/5.6. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom 2, finishing touches in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

I was very lucky to take this shot of a male leopard in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. I took a couple of shots, but I like this one most where he looks up, seeing some possible prey and you can see the killer-instinct in his face.

Canon EOS 40D, Canon 70-200mm f/4, ISO 400, 1/250 sec., 173mm, f/13. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom 2, finishing touches in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Early morning at Saint Bathans, New Zealand. I processed this as an HDR to get a bit more pop from the sky.

Canon EOS 40D, Sigma 10-20, Photomatix Pro 3.0

I took this picture on my recent trip through Southern Africa. We went to climb up the famous Dune 45 close to Sossusvlei in the Namib Desert at about half past five to see the sunrise from the dune. This picture is taken just before the Sun appeared over the horizon. The colours were amazing and the untouched dune before me was truly magical.

Canon EOS 40D with Tamron 17-50mm 2.8. RAW file developed in Adobe Lightroom 2 and Adobe Photoshop CS4.

A classic shot of the gannet colony at Auckland's Muriwai beach. About 1,200 pairs of gannets nest here from August to March each year. Each pair lays one egg and the parents take turns on the nest. A few weeks after hatching, the chicks begin to exercise their wings in preparation for the one-shot jump off the cliff. Once airborne, the young gannets leave the colony and cross the Tasman Sea to Australia. A few years later, surviving birds return to secure a nest site at the colony.

Canon EOS 40D, Sigma 10-20, Singh Ray Reverse GND, Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Porth Nanven lies on the northern Cornish coastline, and is renowned for its ovoid rock beach. On holiday earlier this year I was able to photograph a rather cloudy sunset there.

Canon EOS 40D, Tamron 17-50mm f2.8, B&W ND110 filter, Manfrotto 410 head and 190 tripod. Processed in Canon DPP and Paint Shop Pro.

Lat/Lon: 50.07.08.73N, 05.41.59.18W

In 2009, I spent Christmas at the southern-most point of Africa: Cape Agulhas. I was eager to see another amazing sunset as I did so often being in Africa for a couple of months. However, there was a big layer of clouds covering the whole sky and I was pretty disappointed. That was when the idea for this shot struck me. There was this small strip just over the horizon where the Sun illuminated the clouds, restrained by the Atlantic ocean below and the thick layer of clouds above. I exposed for the sunlight and left everything else pitchblack to achieve this result.

Canon EOS 40D, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, ISO 200, 1/800 second, 44mm, f/8. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom 2 with finishing touches in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

This picture was taken in city Dubrovnik, Croatia. The weather was cloudy all day, so I was expecting an interesting sunset.

Canon EOS 40D, Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM at 10mm, f/11, HiTech 0.9 GND, HDR.