m8o in Northern Tanzania '07 (serious d/l warning!)
I finally made enough progress in converting RAWs to JPGs to mirror my growing post I'm evolving on Pentaxforums here as well. Because I am 'telling a story' as I post I decided on including it here in the "Journeys" Forum as opposed to Nature & Wildlife. I will post a pointer there to here too tho...
-steve
Now, we begin...
Pictures are beginning to trickle out... A bit under 4000 RAWs. With time for 'life' I figure I'll be doing about 1/4 to 1/2 day's shooting every night. Everything will be found under here in date order.
Tanzania 2007 | m8o | Fotki.com
Finally some things 'memorable' posted to my gallery; there are some pretty nice captures still to come, but no Rhino sadly!
In one way starting backwards (because there were so few shots), the last day's shooting at KIA Airport Lodge was pretty 'ok' tho... have a look @ 070820 - Serengeti and Day Room @ Kilimanjaro album | m8o | Fotki.com
(hi-rez orignals can be had there; a lot of noise treatment via Lightroom, hardly touched color/brightness/contrast. )
Photos taken on a cloudy, misty, lightly drizzly day, handheld, wide open, with the Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens. Most of them at the link above are shot at high ISO (save some of the bird shots @ the beginning until I realized my error trying to use ISO100). First three subjects were near minimum focus limit (ya, close) so focus was razor thin; keep that in mind as only part of the bird is in the DOF zone (either body, or head, not both
). Tiny taste below... all at link above:
DOF was a lot deeper here, but shot was taken at about EV10 or EV11 with the bird at the edge of the tree canopy on the drizzly day.
edit: How did I miss seeing and sharing this pic in the past?!
The third page of the link titled "070820 - Serengeti and Day Room @ Kilimanjaro album | m8o | Fotki.com" contains pics of two of these birds in a little bit of a 'shoving match' fighting over the one apple. The newcomer prevailed. He's also the one that didn't give up eating once he lost his balance and spun upside-down.
-steve
Now, we begin...
Pictures are beginning to trickle out... A bit under 4000 RAWs. With time for 'life' I figure I'll be doing about 1/4 to 1/2 day's shooting every night. Everything will be found under here in date order.
Tanzania 2007 | m8o | Fotki.com
Finally some things 'memorable' posted to my gallery; there are some pretty nice captures still to come, but no Rhino sadly!
In one way starting backwards (because there were so few shots), the last day's shooting at KIA Airport Lodge was pretty 'ok' tho... have a look @ 070820 - Serengeti and Day Room @ Kilimanjaro album | m8o | Fotki.com
(hi-rez orignals can be had there; a lot of noise treatment via Lightroom, hardly touched color/brightness/contrast. )
Photos taken on a cloudy, misty, lightly drizzly day, handheld, wide open, with the Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens. Most of them at the link above are shot at high ISO (save some of the bird shots @ the beginning until I realized my error trying to use ISO100). First three subjects were near minimum focus limit (ya, close) so focus was razor thin; keep that in mind as only part of the bird is in the DOF zone (either body, or head, not both
). Tiny taste below... all at link above:DOF was a lot deeper here, but shot was taken at about EV10 or EV11 with the bird at the edge of the tree canopy on the drizzly day.
edit: How did I miss seeing and sharing this pic in the past?!
The third page of the link titled "070820 - Serengeti and Day Room @ Kilimanjaro album | m8o | Fotki.com" contains pics of two of these birds in a little bit of a 'shoving match' fighting over the one apple. The newcomer prevailed. He's also the one that didn't give up eating once he lost his balance and spun upside-down.
Camera: Pentax K-5 & K10D / Profile: Introducing...Me on DGRIN / Some Pix: The 'm8o Gallery' Best of m8o In Tanzania '07
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Once we made our way from the place in Arusha to Tarangire National Park, ate, got settled in our lodge (was supposed to be a tent but we got an upgrade :cool:), our guides took us out at 4pm for some wildlife viewing.
I decided I'd start with using the 1.4x Sigma TC with the 300mm f/2.8. What I didn't realize was I had kept the Polarizing drop-in filter in-place; I had thought I replaced it with the clear UV filter. After having a terrible outing here at work around the pond one day with the 2x TC and filter together, I realized the loss in light is too much to use both TC and pol filter at the same time. More unfortunate is I didn't realize it was in, and didn't make use of it and turn it to bring the best out of it for every lighting angle and condition. ...mark that up to lesson learned...
There's some pix worthy of sharing still...
All here: 070811(b) - Tarangire National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com
We saw Ostrich here and there:
Many Zebras:
Africa's version of "ham" (lol):
Numerous Birdiez (as time went on, I actually learned how to shoot these with the bright sky behind):
Elephants ... a -lot- of Elephants ... Dang things are too big to fit in frame even with only the 1.4x TC (in two days I went to the 2x) and they got close enough to almost touch even at times. If I wasn't convinced before I was now, I'm angry only Canon Nikon and Sigma get the 120-300mm f/2.8 Zoom from Sigma. :mad: Later, I finally got my guides/drivers to understand closer to the animals was not good for me! Wifie and In-laws shouldn't suffer however, so, that was the dilemma. (I came to learn I needed a photographer's Safari, which Thomson Safaris does do)
Result being, mostly a survey of Elephant body parts...:p (yes, there were some from afar) The majority of "parts shots" remain in my Fotki Albums; I didn't want to bore you with trunks, tusks & ears here...
...continued in next post...
070811(b) - Tarangire National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com
Ok, enough of the Elephants ... well, just two more:
Africa's version of Venison:
Dang those trees the birds sit on, and Elephants and Giraffes (and others) eat are nasty:
A duck survives in Africa?!
Days later, I flew in a balloon ... but for now, "eet eez Baboon!"
Finally a glimpse of what became all our favorites, the giraffe:
Later in the Segengeti, I got shots of Giraffes fighting. That's in a few days.
There are very many other animals to be seen in our Fotki gallery. Have a loot there if you wish.
Our first glimpse of Lions from afar... I couldn't really make them out through the view finder. I shot almost blindly. Amazed I get 'anything'!
...So many more far far superior lion shots to come days later... Just be patient.
Finally, to close out the day, I finally saw the Milky Way with my naked eye. It's was more visible there then anywhere else I've ever been in my 44 years... Taken with the Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens:
The softness isn't softness of focus. If you look @ the original in my Fotki gallery, you can see the motion blur of the 1/8 degree the world turns in that 30 second exposure time.
Still using the 300mm w/1.4x TC ... still had the polarizer filter in place w/o realizing, so didn't turn-it and make use of it properly. There's a few pix that display the polarizing 'signature' tho. Like the 2nd landscape photo below.
(not in chronological order)
While driving from camp into the Park, I shot some pix of the two most dramatic types of trees in the area.
The 'tree of life' all over in Tarangire. Amazing how the elephants rips the bark off, or holes through the whole thing, or gouge 1/2 the trunk out and the tree keeps living. Here's a mostly unmollested version:
I had the driver/guide stop as I saw the mountain stacked behind the tree. The 'polarizing signature' I was talking about, with color enhanced in Lightroom:
Got some sharper birds this day then the day before:
Tho don't look at the full rez original of this below cus it's -real- noisy (morning clouds hadn't burned off ; was practically raining)
(I need to give NoiseNinja a try)
A closer view:
The morning was primarilly filled with primates and zebras. But there were some others....
Like the Dik-Dik:
(loads more of these later)
And elephants are everywhere in Tarangire ... this one needed a Q-tip:
...and some others animals interested us.
We got into the park pretty early. This one must have missed morning call... Or is the tough monkey life just too much for this one?
Is one bite'n the other one's wiener?!
...and...umm....
Monkey's version of "you wash my back I'll wash yours"?
...continued in next post...
I mentioned Primates and Zebras filling the morning. We had one of the most very wildlife filled 100 yards we ever could have imagined.
We first came upon a pretty decent sized heard of Zebras:
You can see by example here the stripes doing what are meant to do; confuse the eyes.
We moved on after a good while. Though I didn't get a lot of good shots at that point (the pic above is actually from a few minutes later when we came upon the baboons below). Dunno exacly why; had trouble focusing.
We immediately came upon baboons to the right and left of us. Stopped a while then moved on. And after passing a bush on our left immediately came upon ... well...
(not very sharp sadly
As we were approaching, and I'll 'assume' the male was done
Is it just me, or is this the same behaviour exhibitted by humans after sex? The dreamy eyes of the female looking at the male, and the complete dis-interest of the male looking off some other way...
And the old "I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille..." shots. How nice of him (I think if was 'him' not 'her) to stop and pose for me!
(which do you prefer? eyes of the 2nd are caught pretty well)
...and while there, there was a hawk (or eagle?) but still far away (heavy crop, it's a big sky out there!):
... continued in the next message ...
We then decided to move on. Didn't get very far; a few dozen feet?
There was a heard of Zebra just walking down the road. So we stopped to let them go whichever way they cared:
The colts look at lot less like a Donkey then the adults above:
And did you know their strips are brown when young to camoflage with the landscape better?
And turn blacker as they get older (far right):
...and to conclude... Are you look'n at me?!
Keep in mind, from the beginning of Post 2 of 3 above to the end of this one, was over the course of about 100 yards! (if even much less)
This is only 1.5 days in. Eight days of the Safari and a bit under 2500 RAW images still to go through... so there will be more...
These shots are all from the album 070812 - [Best of] Tarangire National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com ; peer albums starting with "070812 ..." contain more shots of the animals that I didn't categorize as "the best"; but most still good (some have soft focus, yes). I'm throwing away RAWs liberally if they're not worth sharing.
Example of "more to come..."
We hear from a passing guide there's a female lion on the prowel in the tall grass down the hill. But we can't really see her from the height of the grass. Plus, we're looking into the setting sun; also doesn't make for optimal photo shooting conditions either. There's about a dozen Land Rovers on the hillside on the other side of the field in-front of us. We can see where they're looking, but no joy for us. You can see the aggitation of all the baboons. And we continue to struggle to figure out just where that lioness is in the weeds.
So finally, this baboon [me
But we didn't have the angle the baboons had way up in the sausage tree. The lioness must have been crouched in a hunting position and we still couldn't get a good glimps of her. We soon gave up and left; had it been a photographer's safari we probably would have stayed.
I could have brought some detail out in the Baboon using fill light and lowering the black level (I'm luv'n Lightroom!); I did a tad. But that would have negated the natural effect of shooting into the setting sun, with light causing the glow of the hair and leaves.
Hope you enjoyed this circuitous route I took going from the the front to the back stories. ...and all for that matter. I certainly felt
Jumping ahead (I'll come back to the middle of the day's shots later -- a lotta real nice ones) ... So towards the end I come to some Dik-Diks. They're not shy. Probably the sharpest of the whole trip.
(great life in the eyes) ...and some crops:
So I notice detail in the reflection of the eye.
Here's a 500x500 crop up-sampled to 800x800 plus some unsharpen mask (too much?) to give you a good look but not subjecting you to pixel peeping.
So from the right that's a Tree of Life w/o leaves (it's winter there), Sun (flaring increase from sharpening but yes, lens has some CAs), Land Rover, Acacia tree .... umm, what was that 2nd to last?
I had been struggling to achieve good focus for most of the trip, and had been wondering if my K10D + Sigma 300mm + 1.4x or 2x TC is capable of the razor sharp detailed photos I see from others of these brands and others. My mind is now at ease...
...my frustrations of why there are times where I can't achieve sharpness in any shot until I relocate is a subject for another thread however...
Jesse
So I'll pick back up with the late morning, after the Zebras...
070812 - [*Best of*] Tarangire National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com
We came up to these little guys soon after; my first time seeing them. Had trouble focusing on them for some reason after the 1st one; deleted them all. Is it the black and white spots that messes the camera AF up?
They are everywhere however so I ended up some nice ones later:
Magnificent, I think is the word... (better later)
One male can easily have a dozen females or more in his 'harem'...
The second watering hole we came to had a really happening scene
Where did everyone go?!
There was some great avian action around us while we were watching the watering hole action...
...continued...
and then quickly moved on... No dilly-dalling, if you want to stay alive!
These buggers love the water
Finally left the watering hole...
Here's another instance of aggravation. The beauty was just sitting there posing for me on a stick with nothing around it. I shot a whole bunch of shots. Only this one is relatively sharp! Why does that happen?! :mad:
Finally, I give you Giraffe parts!
Like this ... (though that's more like a 1/2 mile or more
That was shot from the look-out at the Tarangire Lodge just before lunch. This fella was very acclimated to people and hanging out feeding on the flowers as passers by came to and fro...
After lunch, back out for some more of the same... (love the polarizer signature)
...continued...
Say, wasn't there one more of them a second ago?
...Absorbed by the pile of flesh I guess.
Ohh, the light... the colors... I think I learned if I shoot in a bright mid-day sun, use the polarizer! If I would have only realized it was in, I would have been turning it instead of just getting its advantage when the sun's angle was at a particular point, by luck. However, after this day I move to using the 2x TC. So I took out the polarizer, as there just too much light loss with both. These pix are dang purty though aren't they?
(dusty)
This time, elephant parts:
That little guy will be the size of big momma one day...
And finally, the original that "baboon to lioness:: I see you" crop I posted much earlier came from, with a different subtler treatment closer to the way it was shot.
edit: I just realized. It's been the same day since post #4 in this thread to here! Like I said in that post ... 8/12 was a really good day!
Still haven't touched the 2500 or so RAWs that I still have to go. Needed a rest. Will start again tomorrow. Travel to Ngorongoro and the shots of and from the crater should start trickling out this weekend.
Enjoy,
-steve
It's been a while. This is getting painfully slow.
070814 - [*Best of*] Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com
070814 - [Avian] Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com
070814 - [Beasties -n- Zebras] Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com
070814 - [Cats -n- Dogs] Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com
070814 - [Other] Gibbs Farm to Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com
(honestly, it wasn't that great of a day tho. Previous day shooting was better, and days to come. I'd learned the restrictions of the 2x TC by then! Wait 'til you see when I jumped forward a few days for some cats in a few post...
Hope you enjoy these excerpts... you can visit the links above for more (though not many more ... many more from the crater from the 15th tho to come next weekend or week).
First, interesting sight on our way there, at the gate to the Ngorongoro Crater park gate ... didn't you think these guys were wild animals? (in the background, not foreground...
This is shot with the Tamron 28-75 @ 75mm. It is a crop (and I see now is over sharpened), but you can still see how I could have just walked up to this guy/gal and picked off some tics.
An (un-stitched) panorama of the Crater ... from this perspective you can see how dusty it is down there. Finally a sharp pic from the DA 12-24mm (not the foreground). Yep, gotta stop this lens down a lot.
Once in the crater, I began using the 300mm f/2.8 w/2x TC. I tried the 1.7x AF TC, but didn't have good result with AF. So switched it out.
As opposed to in Tarangire, these herds were much larger, and much farther away. I could tell the choice to use the 2x TC was a good one. (do these look more like paintings rather then photographs to anyone else?! it's because of the noise, dust, and heat distortion ... and I love it!)
(that's not sky off in the distance in the background , but rather the crater wall. and it's steep in most of the places around the circumference!)
Our first glimpse of Hyenas finally... There were many more to come tomorrow and other days. They weren't much for posing tho; the one stand-out of the bunch:
Finally our first glimpse of some male lions too. They like the Hyenas, weren't much up for posing for us this afternoon however...
(another un-stitched panorama)
(ok, more of the same. But honestly, I just can't get over those colors and the detail and sharpness even tho they were so far away! I love my monster lens!)
Speaking of that... An accidental snap of my weapon of choice, taken while I had the DA 12-24mm on the camera for some panoramas while on a large hill in the center of the crater (see the 'Other' link in the previous post if you want to see some of them). Partially blocked by the roof's leg, and the 2x TC isn't even in the frame. Not to take anything away from the Bigma, but the 300mm f/2.8 +2x TC makes her a Biggerma... :cool:
Isn't it interesting how in the wild, the cats rule in stature and the food chain, but when domesticated, it's the dog? This is about as big as the latter gets out in the wild ... a Jackle I had just missed this guy/gal munching-on and swallowing a mouse. As I think mentioned already, due to technical difficulties of my aperture ring's screws getting shaken loose from the hard ride, resulting in the camera not seeing the lens at the most in-opportune times! :eek: (fixed that only two days later)
(I should have straightened this some more ... I can blame it on an off camber road. ya, that's the ticket!
Everyone found it all very interesting...
(I'm not sure what was actually in focus on the last one ... back to my AF woes of the K10D and 300mm f/2.8 lens ... sometimes I can AF in on something hiding deep behind layers of leave and branches in super low light -- case in point, see the 4th picture in the 4th post of this thread -- while other times I can't focus on the simplest of things unobstructed right in front of me!
...and others enjoying the croc free waters...
On our way out of the park, we came along one of the large areas where rangers did some controlled burning of the grass & brush. Yet another Lion uninterested in posing for us, enjoying the extra heat from the black charcoaled land...
A couple of shots from back at the lodge at the crater's rim, still with 300mm f/2.8 and 2x TC. That's a way's down there! A good many miles away.
Black specs are the Wilda-beasts and other animals... (w/a 600mm lens and 1.5x sensor crop
The evening brought an even better execution of my fun w/the 50mm f/1.4 ... the clouds soon rolled in over the crater rim and spoiled the fun that night.
Some spectacular mornings to be had tho... (my wife was getting up around 5am to work-out by jumping rope, so that allowed me to catch what otherwise I would have slept through!)
....Still a few thousand pictures to go through and convert from RAW to JPEG, so check back whenever you see this thread in the "New Posts" list... :cool:
As I wanted to share one of the Cub shots in a Fotki contest, I decided I'd convert more then just them, and do a few of the momma too.
The Serengeti has these huge rock outcroppings all around it called Kopjes. The lions sit ontop or them, or on the trees growing on them, and watch over their territory. As we were leaving the one large pride of lions that were laying around and munching on the Giraffe they'd just killed (pics to come in a few weeks ; not all that striking) , we came upon another kopje with this one lone female and her three cubs. One stayed by momma, while the other two were climbing up and around the cliff face behind her.
I put the camera on bracket exposure and was shooting 3 images at a time. Big long prime lens + 2X TC has its disadvantages at times; wish I had a zoom ever more here to fit more of momma in the shot, or show the rock-scape behind her some. Oh well. Ultimate quality and sharpness has its downside.
So, I'm jumping ahead 3 days for the moment. I'll come back to the remainder of 07/08/17 in a few weeks to come (at the rate it's taking me to go through each day). What an incredible series, with a herd of Giraffe fighting for their pecking order (you ever see Giraffes fight?), the lions around their Giraffe kill (unrelated to the herd previously mentioned), other lions atop other kopjes, sunset, the balloon ride at dawn, and shots of sunrise. You'll just have to wait! :cool:
But for now, I give you my best 'taste' I had of the magnificent cats of the Serengeti...
(very little annotation needed. Originals can be had off each image page under here:
070817 - [Cats] Serengeti National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com
and like any of my pics from Tanzania you can order prints (no charge, just the cost Fotki charges).
(I wasn't too nuts about the quality of pix of the cubs climbing the rock, so they're omitted, at least for now. I may add more here later)
Wants to pounce on her sister... I know it!
These two climbed to the top of the kopje, behind brush, where we lost them.
And momma just continued to pant heavily...
...The Lions didn't get any better then that for me this whole trip.... Hope you enjoyed these -- I sure did when there!!!
and so many! makes me want to quit everything im doing at the moment and buy a ticket!
I highly recommend the trip. My wife chose to go with Thomson Safaris (no 'p' between the 'm' and 's'). I'm actually a little embarrassed I didn't state that and recommend them in the initial post.
http://www.thomsonsafaris.com/
They only operate in Tanzania and their guides and vehicles are top knotch; as a matter of fact, some of the other guide groups buy Thomson's vehicles when they get old! You really don't want to be out in the savanah in an old vehicle that might break down! The company sponsors a school and make many humanitarian donations to the local communities. Thomson mainly has a US clientele, but I'm sure they be happy to expand to have international (to us
Sure would be for me--a really super job all around. CONGRATS!!!
I have let this thread -- nay, my much bigger task of laboriously agonizing over the PP treatment of each image as I convert still over thousand (and a half?) more PEFs to JPG -- go for far too long.
For that reason, I finally went through the 2nd day of the Ngorongoro shots, and posted near 300 new images to my gallery. Tho there are a bunch of images of the stinky hippos to delete that are not that well focused. So a "Best of" album still of 08/15/2007 to come.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It's been a while since I've written one of these simulated 'photojournalistic' posts. Lets see if I can get the hang of it again.
Upon entering the crater, we came upon this Hawk, that did a good deal of posing for us:
As a matter of fact, it was a great day for Avians in general...
(all Avians seen here: 070815 - [Avian] Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area album | m8o | Fotki.com )
If I recall, these birds mate for life? As I understand, the more colorful Male:
The less colorful Female:
What colors!
A face only a mother could love?
Some fantastic Crown Crane action...
(here's where that greater DOF would have been good, but it was quite overcast at the time)
The flamingos that become pink from their diet, weren't quite that pink here, or this time of the season...
These buggers are extremely bold at all the parking areas where people stop to eat and rest. Will not necessarily swoop down and take your lunch...
However, these WILL and DO! I saw it happen to someone right in-front of me... And then taunt you by eating the meal they just stole at the tops of the trees well out of reach.
These Tanzanian 'pheasants' were also extremely bold around the feeding hole walking by me only feet away....
...finally, a gratuitous shot illustrating the exceptional Bokeh of the Sigma 300mm f/2.8 <wink> </wink>
To say "more to come is an understatement", would be an extreme understatement! <lol></lol></wink>
Some females
(Again, that blue is not sky but rather crater wall off in the distance color shifted from the air...)
Up periscope....
And the males were doing their darnedest to attract the attention of the females
With their skin becoming a blazing red. This male suddenly broke into a running dance, shaking his vestigial wings and body in check, as well as rubbing against the ground flapping his wings. Wow, that was pretty wild.
Being the looser I am I didn't get any even halfway sharp pictures of the whole showing; except this barely acceptably sharp image... Which I wouldn't otherwise share, but shared here only to illustrate the emblazoned coloring he takes on when trying to attract a mate.
Sadly for him, this 'little chickadee' wanted nothing to do with it/him as she went the other way... warning, ostrich crossing!
I'm talk'n 'bout love!
Whoop... false start. Let's try this again...
And FTW, I kid you not...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Malinda and Diego both saying... "Ya, whatever..."
Diego changes his tune, saying "Hmm... I got some free time..."
As Melinda exists stage right as she plays hard to get, Diego has a strange ritual to make himself more appealing
Getting back to Diego and Melinda...
Diego has a sit-down after that
HOLY CRAP! I swear I didn't realize he was sport'n a 5th leg before taking this shot.
And ironically all Melinda still has to say is "ya, whatever"...