John: I like to go to a nature place to shoot animals and landscape. A quiet meeting in the landscape ... like wetlands by a huge river like the Rijn .... Buddy, you are in?
Frank, if we form up a small group (I would even be in if we formed several small groups split up over a few weekends) then I do know a place or two where we could walk around and take pictures. And I would love to see new places too.
Smaller groups do work better in my opinion because when out in such an environment we would move a lot. Getting the good shots would mean we would have to wait for others to complete theirs before moving on too far. I know that for me, when walking through nature, I find myself in a state of mind that could best be defined as "in the zone" for lack of a better description, and if we organise something like this I would want to give everyone a chance to find their state of mind as well.
Sounds complicated, is simple. Find location, find ech other, keep groups small and be prepared to walk a lot. Carrying a light bag helps there. I normally carry no more then 10 kilos on such occasions. When with Kristina, she carries the dog supplies, I carry the camera gear. We normally travel about 10 kilometers in 4-5 hours time, which includes kneeling down, sitting down and lying down to get the shots we want.
Yes, I would most certainly be in (as soon as the car is fixed).
As far as animals go, Millingerwaard has wild horses, Stevensweert has wild cattle. Both are quiet approachable, as long as you are cautious. Kristina and I spent an afternoon surrounded by 40-50 wild horses in Millingerwaard. That was a "once in a lifetime" experience as the horses grew so accustomed to our presence that they rolled thorugh the dirt, let their foal come within arms length of us and behaved as if we were not there at all. At one point I had to carefully shove the horses away from Kristina who was sitting down and was surrounded by horses. As with all animal encounters, I can not guarantee that we would meet them on a next visit.
I will use the occasion for a single picture in what I do consider to be Johns thread. For that reason, I'll post the link only.
https://flic.kr/p/sMj7AzOk, here is another one
https://flic.kr/p/tJg1Mp