As a professional travel photographer, Wolf has traveled to over 160 countries around the world. We continue the countdown of his top 10 favorite destinations.

by Michelle Alten

Wolfgang rises before dawn, hops in a four-wheel drive, and rumbles through Botswana’s Okavango Delta, scanning the grassy plains for wildlife. He spots a lioness and her three cubs prowling through wispy brush, searching for prey. Discovering a cluster of foraging warthogs, the lioness begins teaching her cubs the art of hunting. She carefully places her young on one side of the swine then stealthily creeps through the tangle of tall grass to the other side of the beasts. She makes her strategy was clear: you youngsters approach our prey; when the hogs get scared, they will stampede right into my trap. But an impatient cub moves before mom is ready and the startled warthogs dash away. The next day, Wolfgang finds the same group back for lesson two. This time the cubs wait. Once mom positions herself, they chase the hogs into the lioness’s ambush: the fattest critter lands right in the mother’s jowls. It is this opportunity to witness untamed Africa that makes Botswana Wolfgang’s second favorite destination in the world.

In Botswana’s Okavango Delta, Wolf photographs wild dogs tracking lechwe, leopards dragging their bounty up trees to keep it from other predators, and baboon families as they preen and care for each other. The region’s unique environment makes it one of the world’s most spectacular wildlife havens. Here water courses through the land like blood-filled veins and the earth pulses with life. Predators thrive in the water-soaked environment finding a wealth of creatures to hunt. The abundant bio-diversity means zebras, giraffes, impalas, buffalo, hippos, elephants, cheetahs and countless other mammals, along with over 400 bird species, inhabit the region.

Wolfgang has been traveling to Botswana to photograph the wildlife since 1994 when he was first inspired by the magnificent African wilderness. While he laments that earlier, more rustic camps have been replaced with luxury safari lodges, Wolf is still crazy about Botswana and will return in 2014 to follow wild dog hunts, observe intriguing elephant behavior, and capture a Cheetah chase.

As a professional travel photographer, Wolf has traveled to over 160 countries around the world. We continue the countdown of his top 10 favorite destinations.

by Michelle Alten

Wolfgang’s Top 10 – #3 The Pantanal, Brazil

In Brazil’s Pantanal region Wolfgang rumbles over marshes in a four-wheel drive, scanning the watery landscape for armadillos, giant anteaters, capybaras, and other wild denizens. Dozens of black-hooded parakeets fill the sky like a dazzling chartreuse cloud, while storks wade in a quiet pool. As he travels on, he spots caimans sunning themselves next to a small pond. Wolf climbs out of the vehicle, surreptitiously drops down to his belly, and with his wide angle mounted on his camera, begins slithering through mud and grass towards one of the caimans. Trying to get close enough to capture the reptile with the sky’s billowing clouds in the background, he continues until he is within two feet and eye-to-eye with the reptile. Wolf shoots a few photos before the caiman dashes off into the pond. While he is pleased, Wolf insists, “This is one thing you don’t want to do with crocs in Africa or alligators in the Everglades!”

Wolfgang loves the Pantanal because the wildlife show’s little concern for photographers and other visitors; this makes it possible to approach animals and get that perfect shot. Also, in this unique region, wildlife coexists with ranches and cattle. Staying at working ranches gives Wolf a chance to observe the region’s pantaneros, Brazilian cowboys, on horseback as they round up their cattle. Staying at a ranch also means ending the day with home-cooked Brazilian dinners including juicy steaks.

One day, after a safari photographing giant otters frolicking in a river and hyacinth macaws lacing the sky, Wolf watches the sun swath the horizon in glowing carmine. As darkness falls he heads out to scan the landscape for creatures on a night hunt. An ocelot, prowling through a thicket of tall grass, appears in the beam of the headlights. The magnificent cat, glares at the intruders, and then continues its search for prey. Before heading back, a surprised, striped owl appears in the darkness roosting on a fence post. Its curious countenance adds to the success of the nighttime scavenger hunt.

                                                                                                 Indri, the largest lemur

As a professional travel photographer, Wolf has traveled to over 160 countries around the world. We continue the countdown of his top 10 favorite destinations.

Wolfgang’s Top 10 #4 Madagascar

by Michelle Alten

As whispers of morning sun seeped through the slats of Wolf’s thatched hut, he heard them: the long eerie calls of indri. Wolf was on the fringe of Perinet Reserve in Madagascar. The indri, the largest of the island’s lemurs, wailed back and forth, their voices piercing the sleepy dawn as though they were warning that morning had come. It was the early 1980s and Wolf had come to the island for the first time. By day, he stomped through the forests of Madagascar in search of lemurs, chameleons, frogs and other island denizens.

As he traveled around the vast island off the southeast coast of Africa, he was astonished by the numbers of endemic species. A range of ecosystems, including rainforests, semi-arid spiny forests, grasslands, and dry deciduous forests provided ideal habitats for animals that couldn’t be found anywhere else on earth. Wolf wandered the rainforests, photographing indri lemurs, with their panda-like coats, and the elfin mouse lemur, no bigger than a kitten. In the more arid spiny forests he found ring-tailed lemurs straddling trees or scampering along the forest floor. Boldly colored chameleons, slinking through the tropical vegetation, became ideal subjects for his photography. Madagascar’s unusual ecosystems and some 150,000 endemic wildlife species quickly made the island one of Wolfgang’s favorite places.

Since his early jaunts to Madagascar, Wolf has witnessed an ongoing battle between man and nature on the island. Rainforest, cut down and used for charcoal for cooking, has rapidly disappeared with the deforestation leading to erosion. For Wolf, Madagascar became a place to document the struggle as well as the determined efforts to save the forests. The subject is so intriguing that he will return to lead a photo tour in September 2012.

http://www.wkaehlerphoto.com/photoTourTitles/Madagascar_2012.pdf

On Wolf’s early trips, he stayed in tipsy huts with dirt floors and no running water. Today, while some accommodations are simple, there are also comfortable resorts that appeal to adventure travelers.

What is being done to preserve the forests and habitat of Madagascar?

This article talks about a loan from the World Bank aimed at protecting the habitat and biodiversity in Madagascar.

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0622-madagascar_world_bank.html

This article explains how the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) seeks to protect forests in Madagascar.

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0929-hance_mad_cites.html

Poverty in Madagascar

Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest countries. This article talks about how the skyrocketing price of rice has impacted Madagascar’s people.

http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/madagascar-where-rice-is-becom

As a professional travel photographer, Wolf has traveled to over 160 countries around the world. We continue the countdown of his top 10 favorite destinations.

by Michelle Alten

#5 Iceland

On his first trip to Iceland, Wolfgang was hiking and camping with a friend. He was enchanted with the diverse landscapes: lush green valleys resting at the feet of volcanoes; rugged moon-like landscapes with lava flows, basalt rock, and volcanic craters; hillsides spilling over with waterfalls; glacial lagoons with ice flows sailing like lonely schooners. Wolf was so enchanted that he traveled around the country for six weeks, rarely putting down his camera. Often it was cool — sometimes drizzly. One day the dampness, slipping through their clothes, began to vex them. Shivering, they approached a hot spring. First testing the water to be sure it wasn’t scorching; they stripped off their clothes and plunged in. Their shivers instantly vanished in the steaming turquoise water.

In addition to the alluring hot springs and striking landscapes, Iceland offers the traveler great hiking and other interesting subjects for photography. Wolf loves photographing the stocky and affable Icelandic horses with their bushy blond manes and tails. Wandering the island, he also frequently finds farmers on horseback guiding their herds of sheep and colorful, traditional homes, or farm houses with sod roofs. He never runs out of subjects, and Wolf appreciates that from farm houses, to the nature, to the Icelandic people, this is a country that doesn’t put on airs. Void of the self-consciousness of America and other European countries, Iceland and Icelanders boldly flaunt their stunning and natural beauty.

Wolfgang is planning another photo tour to visit Iceland soon. Please contact him if you are interested in joining him and keep checking the tour webpage at: http://www.runwiththewolfies.com Email: photos@wkaehlerphoto.com

http://www.wkaehlerphoto.com

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As a professional travel photographer, Wolf has traveled to over 160 countries around the world. We continue the countdown of his top 10 favorite destinations.

by Michelle Alten

Mongolians are epic equestrians: I can picture them galloping across the grassy steppes as far back as the 12th century – the time of Genghis Kahn. On Wolf’s many trips to Mongolia, he has marveled at skilled horseman racing across infinite, wind-swept plains, clouds dancing overhead. One day he was eyeing a herd of horses grazing outside a ger (yurt). He stopped to photograph and saw the herder outside feeding his sheep and goats. Wolf could not communicate with the man, but through gestures requested permission to photograph the horses. The herder proudly pointed to his own horse and waved to Wolf that he should go for a ride. Wolf, who didn’t have the keen riding skills of a Mongol, thought he should politely accept the gesture. He climbed on the horse, and with his legs flapping like butterfly wings, he galloped, nearly airborne, across the steppe. He trotted back, grateful that he had managed to hang onto the saddle, and humbly handed the reins to the herder who smiled understandingly. Wolf knew that while the Mongolian belongs on a horse, he belonged with his feet on the ground and his hands on his camera.

My friendly herder

Why does Wolf love Mongolia? It is the scenes of green sprouting in the Gobi desert after a spring rain; it is the evening light, clear and sharp, highlighting towering sand dunes; it is the surprise of edelweiss popping between the rocks on a mountain slope; it is the boldly-colored Buddhist temples and festivals teeming with the faithful; it is the visions of Mongols, who in the time of Genghis Khan, thundered across the steppes to conquer much of the world.

Wolfgang is planning a photo tour to visit Mongolia in June of 2012. Please contact him if you are interested in joining him and keep checking the tour webpage at: http://www.runwiththewolfies.com Email: photos@wkaehlerphoto.com

What will be #5?

http://www.wkaehlerphoto.com

Please feel free to forward this to your friends.  Thank you!

#7 Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

by Michelle Alten

As a professional travel photographer, Wolf has traveled to over 160 countries around the world. We continue the countdown of his top 10 favorite destinations.

When Wolf stepped onto a beach on Fernandina Island in the Galapagos, it was low tide.   He spotted two marine iguanas nibbling algae on the rocky shore.  Alcedo Volcano in the background would make this the perfect shot.  In order to photograph them at eye level, he dropped down on his belly and began inching towards the prehistoric-looking reptiles, the only marine-oriented lizards in the world.  The stones, covered with barnacles, sliced his stomach and elbows until he was I was covered with dripping wounds.  He continued framing the iguanas and shooting what would become a tremendously successful image.  “It was a bloody-good shot,” Wolf says with a grin recalling that it was widely published in many magazines and books.

On his first trip to the Galapagos Islands, Wolf marveled at the abundance of wildlife and the ease with which visitors could observe its behavior.  This must have been how Charles Darwin felt when he first encountered this natural sanctuary in 1831 during his journey on the HMS Beagle and later developed his theory of evolution.  Blue-footed boobies thrilled Wolf with their comical courting behavior, including a hokey-pokey-like dance.  Galapagos tortoises, weighing up to 500 pounds and reaching 150 years old, crept along the slope of Alceda Volcano on Isabela Island.   Frigate birds, with brilliant scarlet throat pouches attracted not only other frigate birds, but Wolf and other dazzled photographers.  And flocks of pink flamingos preened their silky feathers and strolled Floreana Island’s sandy beach.  Where else could he, like Darwin, marvel at such a stunning menagerie?

In the Galapagos, each season and month offers a different spectacle, so it is important to consider the timing of your visit.  Wolf likes to time his photo tours to take advantage of some of the most exciting breeding behavior like the courtship of the blue-footed boobies and the waved albatrosses.

If you are interested in visiting the Galapagos Island with me, please contact me. photos@wkaehlerphoto.com

Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia, Chile

As a professional travel photographer, Wolf has traveled to over 160 countries around the world. Here is the countdown of his top 10 favorite destinations

At the tip of South America, mountains rise like castle turrets above emerald meadows dotted with wild flowers. Glaciers sweep down the mountainsides and calve, creating icebergs that float like schooners in crystal lakes. This magical landscape is Torres del Paine National Park. Here, the wondrous extravagance of nature dazzles the mind, thrills the photographer, and inspires the poet. For Wolfgang, our world traveler, this is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Wolf roamed the hillsides of Torres del Paine photographing guanacos, relatives of the llama, as they foraged, mated and gave birth in this southern haven. The opportunity to watch animals give birth in the wild was something even Wolfgang had seldom experienced. Wolf was on assignment photographing for NHK, Japanese Public TV for 5 weeks. The extensive assignment meant that he could watch the young guanacos take their first steps on their spindly legs then grow strong enough to frolic in the meadows with the other calves.

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A unique wildlife sanctuary, Torres del Paine is a Unesco Biosphere Reserve. The guanacos, protected from poachers, are thriving. But they are not the only wildlife to be found. Rhea, giant birds resembling ostriches, foxes, geese, parrots, owls and flamingoes, all make the park a wildlife photographer’s dream.

If you venture to this 181,000 hectare park, bring good hiking boots to take advantage of trails and your camera to seize the dreamy landscape. At local hotels, enjoy a Pisco Sour, Chile’s national drink, or a glass of the renowned Chilean red wine. Don’t miss the tasty homemade empanadas, meat-filled pastries, ideal for a picnic.

To the End of the World: Patagonia and Atacama Desert November 7-22, 2011

If you ever wanted to travel to this part of South America, here is your chance. Over the past 30 years I have traveled many times to these spectacular places, and now I have designed my dream trip. Here is a link to more information:

http://www.wkaehlerphoto.com/photoTourTitles/Patagonia%20Itinerary.pdf

As a professional travel photographer, Wolf has traveled to over 160 countries around the world. Here is the countdown of his top 10 favorite destinations.

#9. Rwanda, Volcano National Park

Rain battered the forest as Wolf and a group of photography buffs followed a guide through the jungle of Volcano National Park in Rwanda. Amidst the hammering rain, they spotted a band of gorillas squatting together trying to keep warm. With a machete, the guide hacked through some brush so they could observe the impressive primates. A silverback, the adult male, hunkered in the brush enduring the unrelenting deluge. The water poured off Wolf’s hat and streamed down the gorillas back. Wolf eyed the silverback and the silverback eyed him. Neither seemed pleased with this uncalled-for assault. Wolf had no intention of photographing in such a torrent. But moments later, he couldn’t resist. He pulled out his Nikon and began shooting images of the silverback and other gorillas patiently waiting out the rain. Then it stopped. The sun pushed through the clouds and warmed the gorilla’s secluded hollow. The adult gorillas began nibbling on plants while the youngsters chased one another, romped through the bushes then approached Wolf to see what this big guy was up to. As Wolf focused his lens on a feeding gorilla he was observing through a tunnel of brush, another gorilla dashed by him, nearly knocking him over.

Clearly, he was the visitor here, so he needed to watch out for the gorillas. But this is what makes Volcano National Park so special. For a time, you are able to step into the gorillas’ world and have the rare opportunity to photograph and marvel at these impressive, social creatures as they go about their daily routine.

Wolfgang is planning another photo tour to visit the gorillas in Rwanda. Please contact him if you are interested in joining him. Email: photos@wkaehlerphoto.com

http://www.wkaehlerphoto.com/index.cfm?p=photo_tours.cfm

As a professional travel photographer, Wolf has traveled to over 160 countries around the world. Today we start a countdown of his top 10 favorite destinations.

10. Magical Easter Island

Wolf watched the MS Explorer sail west towards Polynesia as he stood on a sandy shore; he had stayed behind to explore Easter Island, a remote island in the South Pacific, on his own. A local family had offered him a room in their humble one-room stone house – a base for his wanderings. Each day Wolf set out to reach the many ahu – sacred sites – around the island also known as Rapa Nui. As the weekend approached, the family prepared to head for their cave near the beach of Anakena on the northeastern shore. On Saturday morning, the father gestured for Wolf to pack a small bag and clamber into the family Volkswagon van. They rattled along a red dirt road past windswept hills where clouds cast shadows that traveled over the grassy knolls like herds of wild horses. Arriving at Anakena, Wolf, along with a dozen children, climbed out of the van.

Before them, seven moais, perched on their ahu, stared across the island as waves crashed and prostrated themselves on the sandy shore. The family gathered wood and built a chattering fire on the beach then roasted a meaty pig. Later, when stars invaded the sky like a million little faces, they all crawled into the cave to sleep. When Wolf awoke, he was buried in a pile of snoring, sleeping bodies. The children had rolled along the sloping floor and were now nestled between his feet, and cozily resting on his belly. He gingerly lifted the children, placed them on a blanket, and slipped out of the cave. As he emerged into the morning light, the sunrise blazed casting a magic light on the moais and igniting the morning sky with red and yellow flames. The magic powers –manna– of the moais came to life. Mesmerized, Wolf gazed at the rush of clouds and light and shot one of his best Easter Island photos.

Why Easter Island Should Be On Your Bucket List:

1. It is one of the most magical and spiritual places on earth.

2. You can explore the many archaeological sites – including 250 ahus — at this intriguing World Heritage Site.

3. You can ponder the mysteries that intrigued famed Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl in the 1950s such as how these monolithic statues were transported from a quarry to their ahus around the island.

For more photos please visit:  www.wkaehlerphoto.com