Fireflies season is usually from the end of May to the end of June, just at the beginning of summer time. To find them, you need a very dark place and avoid pollution, both light, water and air ones.

All of this makes quite difficult to find them from my home (I live in very downtown Milan), and I have been wondering about since last year, when Covid made it definately impossible to move around!

Finally I got my chance this year where I joined a workshop organized by a local foundation, the same one that organizes the italian exhibitions of  Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The big plus of this, is being accompanied by renowed photographers and having access to special places for spotting fireflies.

During a week night, I travelled 3 hours to reach a private forest in the Apennines nearby Bologna, where I met a local photographer.

Shooting fireflies is quite tricky for 2 reasons:

1. you need very long exposures, from 30 seconds to 3-5 minutes, so you need to use a remote for setting up the bulb shutter mode
2. you need to set up your frame and your focus BEFORE it gets pitch black! once its dark every light will disturb the fireflies and possibily scare them away, so it is crucial to set up your scene and decide everything before the night comes. You can eventually turn on a light to change your frame (and refocus), but you will risk to not having so many fireflies after

As you can imagine, this takes a lot of practice, and it is quite difficult (at least it was for me) to get it all right the first time! I am quite satisfied with just 3 shots:

This was one of the first frames I did in the night, and to amplify the number of fireflies in the frame I merged multiple shots, and gave it a blue tint. It really reminds me of  Starry Night painting of Van Gogh.

I really like the movement of this shots, its dynamicity. The vertical frame I believe empowers the shape of the tree in the background, which, by the way, is out of focus, but it adds to the scene. I’ve tried the replicate the frame in the next one.

The tree here is fully focused, by maybe the photo lost its dynamicity. I’ve posted it anyway because I can’t decide myself!

Here’s the resuly instead of a very long exposure of 3 minutes, it looks almost like daytime!

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Kolmanskop

Namib Ghost Town of Kolmanskop

For Kolmanskop take a look at my full article here.

Namib Desert

This is the oldest desert in the world, with world famous spots such as the dune 45:

Deadvlei, a dead salt lake with fossilized trees.

Tall, impressive dune that you can ride on

In the surrounding area of Soussuvlei there are scenic lodges that will put you in front of endless desert. This one for example is the Desert Homestead Lodge, seen from the drone perspective

This area has also one of the darkest sky in the world, making it the perfect place for astrophotography.

Sandwich Harbour

Namib Desert is connected to the coastal city of Swakopmund with a lonesome road into the wilderness, with the only famous outpost of Solitaire.

Solitaire is a remote settlement in Central Namibia, and is has been a stopover for travelers for more than 60 years.

It is the only place for gas and food in the 5 hours journey that crosses the Namib Desert to the coastal town of Walvis Bay. It features a gas station, a lodge and a bakery, nationwide famous for its apple pie, the best of Namibia.

I didn’t have the pleasure of trying it during our road trip: we were short on time and I got to chose between tasting the cake and taking photos: the hard choices of a travel photographer!

Solitaire

Along the way, you can encounter wildlife such us Oryx just next to the road.

Once in Swakopmund, the main sight is a day trip to Sandwich Harbour, where the desert meets the ocean.

Skeleton Coast

“The Land God Made in Anger”: this is how Bushmen used to call the Skeleton Coast, an unwelcoming stripe of more than 1.500 kilometers in the north of Namibia. Also straightforwardly referred by Portuguese sailors as “The Gates of Hell”.

The scenario is made of arid dunes that end up in the ocean, where violent waves and sudden fogs show up to welcome the few visitors that shows up. Actually, only lions, hyenas and occasionally elephants walk around here, since the whole region is uninhabited.

The only witnesses of human presences are the many shipwrecks on the coast, like the Zeila in this shot, a fishing boat that crashed on the shore only 10 years ago, the last victim of this hostile, end-of-the-worldly land.

Cape Cross Seal Reserve

This massive colony of hundred of thousands of seals will allow you a very, very close encounter with seals. Just beware of the noise and the smell!

Damaraland and Spitkoppe

Spitzkoppe is a rock mountain in the region of Damarland, with some of the most scenic landscapes of Namibia.

Spitzkoppen

A true gem is the Spitzkoppen Lodge, a majestic resort hidden in the rocks of the mountain. You can actually spot it in the bottom right corner of the above picture!

Otjitotongwe Cheetah Guestfarm

This place, between Damaraland and Etosha National Park, lets you get a very close look to some domesticated cheetah.

The struggle between large carnivores and farmers is real in all Africa. While in Kenya it often ends up in a tragedy (for the animals), in Namibia often it is converted in a touristic attraction.

Instead of killing of cheetahs that are threatening the hers, Namibian farmers are domesticating them, letting travelers have a close up encounter with them. Better off dead than domesticated for these majestic animals? Or this could raise awareness on their conditions?

If you are (literally) good, maybe some of them could decide to taste you a little bit. Truly an amazing scene like this one!

Etosha National Park

One of the main attractions of Namibia, this national park is famous for its self-driving safari. Human-build waterholes let you easily spot wildlife that comes to drink, with the opportunity to have a close look to elephants, giraffes, lions, zebras, rhinos and if you are lucky leopards.

Okonjima Nature Reserve

Okonjima is a private reserve home to the AfriCat foundation, and an unmissable place to meet cheetahs and leopards

One evening this majestic male leopard had quite a company during his tasty Oryx dinner: from one side there was me, silently and breathlessly taking photos of this amazing wildlife scene.

On the other side two hungry brown hyenas, that patiently were waiting for the big cat to leave them some leftover.

This temporary wildlife restaurant happened at the AfriCat Foundation, a Namibian non-profit organization. Its goal is to mitigate Human-Wildlife Conflict on commercial farmlands, through the education and research of large cat carnivores.

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I have personally see all three of them, and even if my favorite are Iguazu Falls, the Victoria Falls are very dense with wildlife and special activities, making them a true wonder to spend at least a couple of nights.

You can either choose to sleep in Victoria Falls in Zimbawe or in Livingstone in Zambia: you will have to see the falls from both the sides, and crossing is very easy. Also, you will most of the times move around in taxi.

Here some suggestions on the top activitities I have tried:

Devil’s Pool Tour

Devil’s Pool are natural pools literally at the edge of the falls, on the Zambia side. To go there, there is only tour and option that you can take, that will bring you to Livingstone Island (where the pools are), let you sink in and then have breakfast or lunch. Everything is super organized and safe, so you don’t have to worry about anything.

Angel’s Pools

Devil’s Pool are open from end of August, so during August you will sink in the Angel’s Pool, which are almost identical.

It is THE best experience you can have, and nowhere else on the world you can be safely at the edge of such impressive falls.

Victoria Falls Devil Pool

Downside is that you won’t be alone, and taking good pictures is quite challenging: terrain is slippery, and the guides will take some shots for you, since you have to be careful on where to walk. Plus, the moisture in the air is really strong, so using a regular camera (without waterproof casing) is out of the question.

Here’s a quick peak on what to expect on video (not a fancy one, just an informative video

Victoria Falls Helicopter Tour

We did the shortest flight of 12-13 minutes called Helicopter Flight of Angels with Shearwater, located in Victoria Falls. And it has been an amazing experience. Seriously, save on everything, but not on this. Seeing the falls from the sky let you really appreciate how beautiful they are. Plus you can take amazing photographs from the helicopter!

I managed to take the front seat next to the pilot, and you should try to catch the same! Unfortunately I take the blame for choosing the worst hours to do it: midday: I thought that the sun would have lighted the falls from the top, but actually it made all shots a little bit flat. Stick to the golden hour!

The Victoria River Safari

Among the many, many river cruises (remember that in none of them you’ll see the falls), we have picked this one “The Victoria River Safari” with Victoria Falls Guide 

This because it was super intimate (we were 5 people out of 12), with a private bartender and small eats for appetizers. Boat is small, quiet, and you can get close to wildlife, like hippos!

We’ve also seen one of the best sunset of Africa (definitely the best of all our travel). Unforgettable.

During the cruise I spotted in the sky a microlight, another activity that you can do. We choose the helicopter over microlight because they didn’t allow to bring any camera on board of it.

Microlight over the falls

Chobe day trip safari from Vic Falls

It is a full day excursion (7am – 6pm) that will bring you to Chobe National Park in Botswana, where you will do a safari on the boat in the morning, and by 4WD in the early afternoon.

It is a unique occasion to see wildlife in and around the river, and we have been very lucky in terms of sightseeing. Definately a great warm up for our African holiday!

We had the luck to see a group of elephants crossing the river and swimming, truly an amazing sight.

The afternoon safari was lucky as well, if not more, as we spotted a male leopard. Definitely the most majestic sight you can see in Africa, and it was so close to us!

Lunch at Victoria Falls Safari Lodge

Victoria Falls Safari Lodge has an amazing bar and restaurant with an open view on the surrounding savana. Plus at around 1pm there is a free tour to know more about vultures, and feed them, and learn more about the importance of these birds to the life chain.

As reported on their website:

The Vulture Culture Experience is a supplementary feeding programme that aids the survival of these remarkable but endangered birds, and allows visitors to enjoy the spectacular sight of hundreds of these birds swooping down to be fed on leftover meat scraps from onsite restaurants.

The activity, which occurs at 1pm daily, begins with a briefing on a deck beneath Victoria Falls Safari Lodge about the ecological importance of vultures and the plight they are facing, before visitors take a short walk down a bush path to a hide to view the vultures feeding. Here there is the opportunity to spot white-headed, hooded, lappet-faced and white-backed vultures, as well as marabou storks.

The project also allows vulture numbers to be monitored, as populations are dwindling due to a variety of human created issues, including electrocution by power lines, loss of available and safe food supply, direct and indirect poisoning and the use of their parts for traditional medicines.

This Vulture Culture Experience, which appeals to all age groups, and is free – although visitors are encouraged to make a donation, which goes to the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust.

Victoria Falls Safari Lodge vultures

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The second chapter of my video project Life UnderWater has been shot here: best seen in 4k, full screen.

The post Life UnderWater II – Tulum, Mexico appeared first on Enrico Pescantini Travel Photographer.

Let me give you a feeling of the place with this footage!

During the planning of our Mexican trip (check the previous post on Teotihuacan pyramids), it has been an hard choice between Isla Holbox vs Isla Mujeres, and after a long research we have decided for this beach-town island. Why? Mainly to avoid the crowd.

Isla Holbox From Above: the town in foreground, Punta Cocos in background

Before describing I have to say to everyone that’s making the choice: if you are looking for pristine, blue waters crowded with corals and fishes, HOLBOX IS NOT THE CHOICE!

We loved this place, but for many other reasons, not if you are a snorkeling fan and looking to spend your time swimming and looking for fishes. This mainly for the really shallow waters and the green not-so-transparent water: amazing, but not ideal for snorkeling.

Beach near town

Holbox is the perfect destination if you are looking to relax walking on the beach, eating good food, avoid crowds, stay in the nature, enjoying the sunsets, avoid cars and pollution, sleep in small and family-type hotels, and finding a piece of beach where you are (almost) alone.

Beach in Punta Mosquito, north of the island, reachable by bike and walking

Easiest way to get here is ask your hotel a transfer from Cancun Airport: it is 2 hours of car-bus, than less of 1 hour of boat and a short golf cart transfer to your hotel. For a roundtrip transfer Cancun-Holbox consider around 130 USD.

I strongly recommend you to stay in a hotel ON the beach, and the best choice in my opinion is Casa Las Tortugas: it is in town, yet has one the best private beach in front of it, at a reasonable cost.

You can move around Isla Holbox in 3 ways:

1. walking: consider that from town to the far west point (Punta Cocos) is 30 minutes by walking
2. bike: you can rent a bike everywhere, and it is the best way to move
3. taxi cart: they take you everywhere and quite cheap: from town to punta cocos is 100 MXN

It is easy to orientate: the north part is Punta Cocos, a beautiful beach perfect for sunset on the sea:

Then there is the town, full of shops and restaurants. And also of wall arts, which I found amazing. You can walk around trying to collect as many of them!

I can recommend to places to eat: for tacos, burritos and traditional mexican food go to Taco Queto,  it is delicious and for a good price. For more fancy dining, and wonderful breakfast (like huge pancakes and french toasts) Básico. In any case, try the local beer “Los Peleones”!

Local artesenal beer “los peleones”

Moving east, comes the wild part, until you reach Punta Mosquito.

Here’s the crowd is very very few, and you can make some amazing wildlife encounters, like for example the jurassic Horseshoe Crab, completely harmless, and an endangered species.

Horseshoe crab hiding below the sand, in shallow water. Don’t step on them!

Dead horseshoe crabs on the beach

You will find many of them lying on the beach upside down, dead, unfortunately. If you find one still breathing, it easy to help him flipping back, and guide him back to the sea:

I was amazed to find also eagles, like these couple of black-and-white hawk eagles, protecting their nest nearby.

Black-and-white hawk eagles

The view here is the best of the island, just beach, nature and wildlife, and very few tourists. Definately a perfect place to spend you holiday!

Punta Mosquito

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In the package you can’t do a walk among the hanging bridges, and see the cloud forest from a slower pace! Beware of the heavy rains in Monteverde, otherwise you will literally drawn like we did!

On the way down from Monteverde, you could stop to Puntarenas for a 1-day tour to beautiful Isla Tortuga, a small island famous for snorkeling and water sports. Best way to visit it is with the beautiful catamaran of Calypso Cruises:

On the way down from Puntarenas you can’t miss a crocodile tour in Rio Tarcoles, a national park along the massive river Tarcoles. You really can see them from an extremely close point of view and watch the guides feeding them, watch the video on here!

Next stop is Marino Ballena National Park, the best spot in Costa Rica for whale watching, and worth sleeping 1 night.

On the way down to Corcovado National Park, you should stop to have what I considered the best meal in Costa Rica, in a very nice restaurant along the way down, called Ballena Bistro.

Ballena Bistro Costa Rica Restaurant

Ballena Bistro Costa Rica Restaurant

Corcovado National Park is one of the most remote places you can visit in Costa Rica, but it is definitely worth while. Main village to access there is Carate Beach, a group of hotel and hostel right on the beach. Here you can mainly chill out in the jungle and walk along the endless volcanic beach: beware that you cannot swim here, at all!

costa rica carate beach

costa rica carate beach

If you are lucky, you can witness the green turtle nesting right on the beach, without any tour or ticket entrance, just right there on the beach. We’ve been that lucky, and this is what we saw right when we arrived in Carate:

The 1 day hiking activity to Corcovado National Park allows you to see different wildlife, according to your luck. Consider an 6-7 hours of walking, under a very warm climate, so be prepared.

Most beautiful sightings of the place are macaws, in Carate there are tons of them, and you can see in the sky always a couple of them flying around. Or even upclose like below

During the walk in Corcovado we were followed by menacing, angry White-headed capuchin monkeys, marking their territory:

We also spotted colorful frogs:

And a tarantula spider:

From the solitude of Carate Beach we went back north to Manuel Antonio National Park, one of the most famous parks in Costa Rica. The beach in the main town is mainly for water sports, not so good for swimming, while the beaches inside the national park are quite beautiful.

Costa Rica From Above: Manuel Antonio National Park Tombolo

There is an high chance of spotting sloths, which I found the most funny and interesting animals of Costa Rica!

Last stop of the travel was Tortuguero National Park: the main reason to visit it is to spot the turtles nesting during the night, and visiting the river canals around. Honestly, since we experienced a turtle nesting in front of us in Corcovado, this part of the trip was not particularly exciting.

On the long way from San Jose to Tortuguero (bus+boat) we stopped for another species of sloath, smaller and cuter than the usual ones!

costa rica pescart sloath

Best thing for us was the night tour for spotting nocturnal wildlife, and the presence of beautiful red frogs!

Thanks for reading and follow me on Instagram or watch the videos from my travels on my Youtube Channel!

The post Costa Rica part 2: from Monteverde to Corcovado National Park! appeared first on Enrico Pescantini Travel Photographer.

t is thought as a digital Aquarium that will show you the beauty of marine wildlife from all around the world, without interference.

This first chapter has been filmed in Asinara Island, a very unique place in Italy. It has been a prison since the Second World Ware, and from the 70s it has been converted to a maximum prison facility.

The worst of Mafia criminals of Italy has been held here, and for more than an hundred years only prisoners and wardens lived here, besides donkeys, sheeps and an unbelivable marine life.

In 1997 it has been declared a protected national park, and the prison officially closed down. There are no hotels, restaurants or buildings in the island, only the ex-structures of the jails and a hostel, that was the house of wardens in the past century.

It is one of the more pristine places of Italy, and the amount of fishes in the sea it is truly unique.

I hope that with my virtual aquarium you can be there, at least with your imagination!

Videos are best enjoyed on 2k and big screens!

The post Life Underwater Chapter I – Asinara, Sardegna appeared first on Enrico Pescantini Travel Photographer.

Best tour operator is Jose’s, and from the reviews on the web you can be sure of the choice.

I worked with the guide to shot this amazing close up of crocodile feeding: the insanely brave guide was feeding the crocs with one hand and handling my go pro with the other one!

Most of the travelers just stop at the famous crocodile bridge, where you can park the car and trying to spot the crocs from the bridge, which, if you are on the run, it is worth it anyway. But I strongly encourage you to save some time for this activity.

Some info on the river from Anywhere.com:

The Tárcoles River is formed by the convergence of two rivers, the Virilla and the Grande de San Ramón, and empties into the Pacific ocean. In total, the river’s watershed covers over 2000 km. It forms the northern border of the Carara Biological Reserve, and helps irrigate important agricultural areas of the country. In addition to its agricultural significance, the river also helps generate electricity. It is, however, not a good place to swim, as it is highly polluted.

The river is perhaps best known for its abundance of American crocodiles. It’s said that the Tárcoles River has one of the highest populations of crocodiles in the entire world – 25 crocodiles per square kilometer. Several tour operators take advantage of this fact by offering river tours that guarantee croc sightings. Much of the time these large reptiles (which can grow to a length of seven meters) can be spotted swimming through the river or sunbathing along the banks.

In addition to the crocodiles, the river also supports more than 50 species of migratory, native and coastal birds, including a variety of heron and egrets, crested caracas, roseate spoonbills, scarlet macaws and more. Iguanas can often be spotted scampering about the sides of the river as well.

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First shot is from beautiful Island Tortuga, a famous snorkeling destination in the Gulf of Nicoya. I recommend you to get there with Calypso Cruises, and their beautiful catamaran.

Island Tortuga

Calypso Cruises

Enjoy beaches, snorkeling and a ride on banana boat!

Island Tortuga

This is a short clip of what to expect on the island, shot with drone:

Another popular destination for enjoying sunbathing and beaches is Manuel Antonio National Park: a couple of hours of driving from San Jose, it is a protected marine park.

This shot is made stitching together other 20 single shots from around 500 meters of altitude.

Manuel Antonio National Park Tombolo

Along the road, I drove through endless palm plantations… just a road in the middle of a jungle of palms… quite an extraordinary view!

Palm Plantation

Palm Plantation

Palm Plantation

Palm Plantation

Moving south, an unmissable spot is Punta Ballena, a marine nature park where is common to spot whales. The best part is that the spot looks like the tail of a giant whale!

Punta Ballena

Getting to the south of Costa Rica rewards you with beautiful Corcovado National Park, an isolated jungle next to a long, volcanic and wild beach. Here I took this shot, one of my all favorite ones.

Colors of nature

And these many more, around the area of Carate beach, the village at the gateway of the park:

Carate Beach

Jungle Broccoli

Carate Jungle Resort

On the opposite side of the country, lies the remote village of Tortuguero, along the banks of 2 rivers.

Rivers Collisions

And that was taken from this funny turtle swimming pool!

Tortuguero Resort

The post Costa Rica From Above appeared first on Enrico Pescantini Travel Photographer.

A car is highly recommend if you want to see most of the sightseeings, as we did ourselves. A 4×4 is recommended, since roads are quite bumby, especially if you want to reach far south like Corcovado National Park.

There are so many things to see that I decided to split the travel into more articles, the first one is on Volcano Arenal and Rio Celeste.

Starting from San Jose, the capital, our first stop was Poas Vulcano , a nice place for a short hike on the slopes of a vulcano. Unfortunately recently it has been shut down, so we could only enjoy the view from the beautiful lodge Poas Lodge, which I highly recommend for the view on San Jose valley, really astonishing.

POAS LODGE

From Poas we made a stop on the road on the famous iguana brige, located between poas and La Fortuna, where we can spot from the main road huge and beautiful iguanas. Just park the car and look around the bushes to spot 1.5mt long iguanas!

On the way to La Fortuna, you should also stop at Projecto Asis, a wildlife rescue center, where you can interact with animals saved from the cruelty of humans, and learn how to respect more nature and animals.

Here’s a toucan which beck was melted with acid by someone….

This little guy is a raccoon, who stay awake during the day and sleeps at night, the opposite of which he should do…also nicknamed the drunk raccoon!

La Fortuna is home of the famous Volcano Arenal, here you can some quite few activities and enjoy the hot thermal baths all around the area.

On the main activities is walking on hanging bridges, which is perfect to enjoy the view of the jungle. I storngly recommend you to do it by yourself and not joining a group, otherwise you will lose the silence of the forest!

If you are lucky enough you can spot some wildlife like the beautiful Yellow-throated toucan!

A couple of hours of driving north of Arenal, there is one of the hidden gems of Costa Rica, an unmissable sight, Rio Celeste: it is a light blue river that sparkles among the jungle, forming a waterfall and different pools. It is located inside the Volcano Tenorio National Park.

The Waterfall is the first stop along the trekking: please remember that you can’t swim anywhere in the park, very very unfortunately. Just outside the park, however, there is a bridge where nearby you can park your car and take a swim in the river, that comes out from the national park.

The trekking trails reserves some “Indiana Jones moments”, like one-man bridges that you can walk on only one person at a time, while observing the unreal light-blue river that flows beneath you

Costa Rica Enrico Pescantini Pescart Rio Celeste 2

The end of the trail brings you where the river gets its color, which is due to some minerals in the water.

Keep following on instagram for the next article on Costa Rica!

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