Lions, rhinos, and zebras, oh my!
pathfinder
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I see Harry has already started posting images from Marc & Andy's African workshop. Like Harry, I have thousands of images, many are duplicates captured in high frame rate shooting, but a few are worth taking a second look at i believe.
Unlike Harry, I shot with a 7D and a 1DMk4, with a 70-300 IS L, and a 400 DO IS L lenses for most of my wildlife shots. Shooting late after sundown I envied Harry the low light ability of his D3s and his 200-400 f4.
Harry and I shot some of the same scenes, as the game cars tended to gather around the interesting locations, but we also shot apart at times as well.
This is one of the young lions in a moment of repose, from about 6-8 feet, 7D, f8, 135mm with the 70-300 IS L
Here are two young lions hunting after dark, captured with a 7D at ISO 1600, f8, 70-300 IS L
Less warm and friendly is this black rhino with his own bird, 7D f5.6 ISO 200, 70-300 IS L
And a zebra in motion, 7D, f25, 1/6th sec, ISO 100
Like Harry said, this workshop is far more than just wild animals, but the landscape of Africa, and its people, as well as the animals.
It was just a superb adventure, and I will return to Africa; I can see why people are seduced by it.
More images can be found here - http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Travel/Kenya-October-2011/19588642_t7tvng#1534516761_jPZQG2L
Please leave comments, positive or negative, if you go there so I can gather some feed back from your viewing experience.
Unlike Harry, I shot with a 7D and a 1DMk4, with a 70-300 IS L, and a 400 DO IS L lenses for most of my wildlife shots. Shooting late after sundown I envied Harry the low light ability of his D3s and his 200-400 f4.
Harry and I shot some of the same scenes, as the game cars tended to gather around the interesting locations, but we also shot apart at times as well.
This is one of the young lions in a moment of repose, from about 6-8 feet, 7D, f8, 135mm with the 70-300 IS L
Here are two young lions hunting after dark, captured with a 7D at ISO 1600, f8, 70-300 IS L
Less warm and friendly is this black rhino with his own bird, 7D f5.6 ISO 200, 70-300 IS L
And a zebra in motion, 7D, f25, 1/6th sec, ISO 100
Like Harry said, this workshop is far more than just wild animals, but the landscape of Africa, and its people, as well as the animals.
It was just a superb adventure, and I will return to Africa; I can see why people are seduced by it.
More images can be found here - http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Travel/Kenya-October-2011/19588642_t7tvng#1534516761_jPZQG2L
Please leave comments, positive or negative, if you go there so I can gather some feed back from your viewing experience.
Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com
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You guys are making me envious. I so love heading to Africa.
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I'm with you about returning to Africa. I am hooked.
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Kathy and I agree it was the best trip we have exer experienced, thank you so much for helping put it all together.
This one's for you Andy.
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<< Africa; I can see why people are seduced by it >>
Having worked there (some decades ago) for nearly 4yrs, I'd not disagree ...
pp
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Zebra is a very artistic image
Good work
Gale
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The 70-300L seemed to work very nicely for you.
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The annual great migration in the Masai Mara is a special case in that the terrain is very open, and the location of animals is predictable and their numbers immense. Consequently your shooting can be relatively planned and unhurried, tripods etc can be used, and with extreme length you have more photo opportunities. I was surprised to see that even at Lena Downs the terrain was quite open compared with my experience in Tanzania. There I went to the Fox's camp at Ruaha River in a national park:
http://www.tanzaniasafaris.info/Ruaha/intro.htm
It seems to be a different experience to the one you had. The terrain is more "closed", the animal encounters more serendipitous. Therefore the photography is harder and less certain, you have the sense of hunting your shots. You need a lot of time. On the other hand, when I was there in October 2006, our vehicle was the only one wherever we went! As well, if you want to add more variety to your trophies, not just the large animals, there is a huge variety there. But once again, getting shots is commensurably much harder work and much more uncertain.
One indelible memory I have from there is being woken in my banda in the middle of the night by blood curdling screaming from some small animal, everything in pitch blackness. I took my flashlight and crept to the door, which was a wooden frame closed in only with insect screen. I turned on my torch and shone it outside. The beam caught two great yellow orbs looking straight back at me from a couple of yards away. In the morning we found the footprints of a panther through the camp!
Neil
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I could get pretty fair shots in the dark at ISO 1600, but faster than that and I had a problem, even with the 1DMkIV... Meanwhile, Harry just kept banging away at ISO 6400 with this D300s.
The amount of game on the Mara was staggering at times
Here is a shot of wildebeests from the air to show just how many there were on the Mara
In Rokero camp along the Talek river along the Masai Mara, our tents stretched out along the river over 300 yards, and at night we had to have a Masai guard escort us to and from our tents "for safety's sake". I though maybe they were being over protective at first, and then I saw a pride of lions cross the Talek river about 50 yards from our mess tent, and I was quite happy to wait for our escort at night after supper about 10pm.
Even with all the game, hunting for certain species required more effort. Lions were easy, cheetahs and leopard required more effort.
The caracals, our guides found, required us to spend all evening waiting until they finally climbed out of the grass well after dark. Our guide had only seen 8 or 10 caracals in a 20 year career as a guide in Kenya. They are small carnivores, about the size of a house cat, and so hide in the grass very easily. Under exposed ISO 3200 on a 7D, dark enough that autofocus was beginning to fail.
The environment you describe in Tanzania is completely at odds with that we saw at Amboseli, which was a large dry lakebed with animals scattered about on their way to watering springs.
The noisy varmit you mentioned sounds like a hyrax, we listened to them one night at the Ngong house in Nairobi.
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Yes it did, Joel.
It is not fast at the long end, but it does seem to be nice and sharp with good contrast. And it is pretty small, easy to handle, and light.
I would love to be able to use a 300mm f2.8 IS L and a 500mm f4, as well as a 70-200 f2,8 IS L, but the weight is a real issue, and one does not want to be swapping lenses in the Land Cruiser as it can get pretty dusty at times.
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Uh, what hippo shot in B&W?? You mean my rhino, maybe ?
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You might be right that the unfortunate animal that contributed to the panther's dinner that night was a hyrax. Its screaming was so primal, though, that it could have been coming from you or me!
At Ruaha we also had the benevolent protection of armed Masai to and from our bandas after dark, but armed with spear and flashlight only. That is trust!
Neil
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These are terrific, Jim! I'm loving the aerial shots in particular. It sure looks worth getting in an airplane when you have a good photographer behind the lens!
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I have been totally immersed in the processing of my images since our return from Africa. I've looked at thousands of captures so far. I have a goodly number of close-ups of the various animals and they are OK and fun to look at but I could easily get the same results at a zoo or park.
The images that really invoke a response from me and bring me back to the experience of the trip are the images showing the subject in its setting.
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How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
What a fantastic set of images Pathfinder. It really was a pleasure viewing them. Like the rest the Zebra really is an eye catcher. Well done.
Cheers
Bob
LIke this one, maybe, Harry?
Bob, I am glad to you enjoyed the blurred zebra.
Here is a wildebeest in a similar rendering.
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How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
What a corker Jim! Glorious!
Neil
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