GEO October 2011 – Lake Eyre Story

GEO October 2011 – Lake Eyre Story

Our 2.5 month winter expedition this year to outback Australia’s Lake Eyre Basin is now out in the German GEO Magazine!

Tauchen Magazine – West Australia 2008

Tauchen Magazine – West Australia 2008

FLASHBACK – October 2008

We were boarding the fabulous diveboat MV Febrina on Yogi’s birthday in 2008 when a fellow guest from Germany chased Yogi with a magazine upon finding out he was Jürgen Freund. The newest issue of Tauchen Magazine had our West Australia story in it and the cover was Yogi’s! Here’s a chance to show it off for the first time in 3 years!

A Raja Ampat Video of Freund Factory at work – WWF Coral Triangle Expedition

A Raja Ampat Video of Freund Factory at work – WWF Coral Triangle Expedition

While we were in North Raja Ampat, we were incredibly fortunate to have professional photographers and videographers Claudia & Leon Joubert document our stay and experience in what is arguably the epicenter of marine biodiversity. Claudia Pellarini-Joubert and Leon Joubert of the Bittenbysharks.com fame used to work with Max Ammer to manage and market Sorido Bay Resort.

WildPhotos 2011

WildPhotos 2011

A photographic event happens every autumn at the Royal Geographic Society in London. It is the UK’s largest nature photography symposium. WildPhotos plays host to some of the world’s top wildlife and environmental photographers – including winners of the prestigious Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

This year, I have been invited to speak at WildPhotos about a very special subject – The Coral Triangle. On October 22, the title of my talk will be “Revealing the richest place in the sea: Dive-tales from the Coral Triangle”. I hope you can make it to this event.

Rolex Laureates Collaborating – Jürgen Freund on Assignment for Rolex in Ningaloo 2008

Rolex Laureates Collaborating – Jürgen Freund on Assignment for Rolex in Ningaloo 2008

FLASHBACK – May 2008

Rory Wilson and Brad Norman - two Rolex Award for Enterprise Laureates joined forces to study whale sharks of Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. Yogi was given this “difficult” assignment of spending luxurious time onboard the boat of retired NBA basketball player Luc Longley to photograph these two scientists. First thing he told me about the boat was that it was custom built for Luc who towers 7’2″ and Yogi’s feet were dangling when he sat on the toilet!

With the many Rolex press releases that came out about this collaboration, one particular article from Qatar Airways’ inflight magazine Oryx led to Yogi winning the 2010 PATA Gold Award for Travel Photographer! Search for the winning picture in the December 2009 issue of Oryx Magazine!

AIMS CReefs – Census of Marine Life, Lizard Island 2008

The Census of Marine Life (CoML) is a grand global project with an objective to survey and analyze changes from past to present in marine life biodiversity, distribution and abundance, and to compile the resultant data into a comprehensive database called the “Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS),” to be used in forecasting the future of marine life. We are so fortunate to have been a part of this mammoth marine research project, which recently won the International Cosmos Prize 2011  in Japan. Congratulations to the Scientific Steering Committee of CoML.

With our rich and varied collection of images from the Great Barrier Reef, an big article called Great Barrier Reef: Das blaue Mysterium came out August 2010 in GEO Magazine.  See the GEO Fotogalerie of the GBR story here.

GEO Snake Expedition – Australia 2008

GEO Snake Expedition – Australia 2008

FLASHBACK – February 2008

Way back December 2007, Yogi was asked by the GEO photo editors to do a photographic snake expedition with scientist Dr. Guido Westhoff. The assignment required them to go to the Queensland outback for land snakes and Weipa for sea snakes. This expedition marked our first big collaboration with GEO Magazine and I was so happy for Yogi. It finally happened. For those who are not familiar, GEO is Germany’s most prestigious science, nature and geographical magazine, which also come out in 16 other countries worldwide. Simply put – it is an fantastic publication! See Yogi’s GEO Portfolio here.

Now I was (pre-expedition) petrified of snakes. The mere mention of the S-word was enough to turn my knees into jelly and make my stomach turn. But it was either stay home alone for a month or bite the bullet and go with the team to look for snakes and photograph them. EEEEEEK! So, not wishing to be left behind, I joined the team comprised of the GEO writer Hania Luczak, Guido Westhoff and his wife, Katja. It was awesome.