Wildlife / Animals nominee

The endangered desert elephants of the Namib desert have developed some special adoptions to their live in this hostile landscape. Therefore they are a species for their own. Only 100 to 150 of these giants are left and try to survive in the dry river beds of the desert. The main risk for them is still the human being. These fine art photographies are all taken within the same dry river bed during our observation of a group of roughly 25 elephants. The biggest group i have ever seen in this area. The light and colors are as different as this river bed. Within a few kilometers the ground and surrounding changes completely - from sand to marsh environment. This is a surreal landscape with the surrounding mountains of granite and cliff.

"Seeing the magic" stands for the philosophy which the landscape photographer Martin Krajczy uses as a guideline for his FINE ART work. His FINE ART photographies are characterized by a well-directed deduction of colors and structures.The specific use of long exposure times and depth of field shows magical moments of the nature in a way which is sometimes not visible for the human eyes.The FINE ART photographies are a result of intensive photo trips in Europe and Africa. His favorite subjects and techniques are panorama photography, the Namib desert, Iceland and the misty woods of Europe. So far he got several awards, e.g. in the "Epson international pano awards" and in "International landscape photographer of the year". You can follow his work on his website www.seemak.de.