East Africa Safari I - Tanzania

[Okayyou]

I decided I would share some of my shots from a Safari I took in early 2010. Since there isn't a building in sight in any of these shots I think it would be inappropriate to try and post them in the city photos sections. It doesn't seem like people make very many photo threads in the General Photography forum but I didn't know where else to put them.

I have too many shots to put into one thread so I'll keep it country specific. I visited three countries, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda so those of you that have been following my city threads are going to have to put up with another trilogy. The focus of this trip was wildlife. Other than travel days I was in the game parks from sun up to sun down. I have a few people shots from rest stops or out the window of a speeding jeep. The ratio is so skewed towards animal shots that I will probably post them in a later thread.

First up Tanzania. I think blathering about the names of the parks would be too boring. If you have specific questions I'll be happy to answer them. I think I remember most of the species I photographed so I will do my best to answer any animal questions too. I was pretty green to photography when I went on this trip and I was making some fundamental mistakes with my shots. Wildlife photography is a different animal (sorry) and I had a lot to learn when I started out. e.g. the camera can be rotated to favor vertically framed compositions . My experiences from this trip eventually pushed my life in a different direction, and led to me quit my job and travel and photograph the world. So forgive some of the crummier shots and the boring title, on with the show.














































































































































































Next up, Kenya.

[ColDayMan]

Simply wonderful.

[Xander202]

Wow, absolutely amazing. You are a great photojournalist/ people photographer, but it turns out you have some other tricks up your sleeve. Some of these are genuinely world class wildlife photographs.

I love the second one of the vulture landing, and the one of the lion chasing the zebra. Is it normal to be so up close and personal to a lion hunt on a safari? I kind of always imagined a safari to be a bit more "and over there in the distance are some lions sleeping" than that.

[brickell]

Originally Posted by Xander202

Is it normal to be so up close and personal to a lion hunt on a safari? I kind of always imagined a safari to be a bit more "and over there in the distance are some lions sleeping" than that.

That was always my impression too. Really surprised by the variety and the type of action shots you got. Seems like you didn't really miss out on much. Is this normal, you did you have to go deep in the bush?

I like the wide angle stuff. The Wildebeests to the horizon shot is surreal. And If there are more don't shy away from the landscapes. I love them.

[circle33]

That was fantastic.

I echo the surprise of getting so close to the cats. I've been to a couple of African game parks and Xander's description perfectly reflects my experiences.

[mr.John]

What lens did you use to capture the closeups maybe a 400 or 500mm? I wouldn't get too close to one of those lion badboys, did you get any shots of my favorite African animal superstar the mighty Rhino? finally why does everyone pick on those poor Zebras

[Okayyou]

Thanks guys,
I was quite surprised how close I was able to get to the animals. Every park except one that I visited the vehicles were required to drive on the roads. This usually meant the animals were in the distance and if the road didn't go near them you couldn't get any closer. Certain animals were less shy towards the jeeps than others, leopards couldn't care less and often would approach a vehicle to lie in its shade. Cheetahs didn't seem to mind either. Some lions were skiddish, others were like the leopards. I remember one instance where three female lions were relaxing in the shade of our parked vehicle. The windows were open and I thought about reaching out to touch their heads. Common sense prevailed but I certainly could have if I wanted to. Most of the other animals didn't seem to mind the vehicles. The few exceptions were certain species of antelope that kept a good 100 yard buffer.

One park, Ndutu, a sub section of Serengeti, allows vehicles to travel off road. If we saw a lion in the distance we could drive over to see it. This is where I saw the most kills, I think 6 in total. That zebra in the lion chase photo was able to get away. However when we returned in the morning the lions had killed another zebra, this one was pregnant, which was a little sad. Another day I saw a male lion take down a wildebeest (there goes the myth that they don't hunt) and as he was about to start eating a local man (not tribal) came out of the bushes and scared the lion away. There was a camp nearby and I think the guy was a security guard. He was literally 15 ft from stepping on the lion. Lucky for him most Lions are terrified of people. The guides said the man would probably take the lion's kill for food. Part of the circle of life I guess.

I was there during the wildebeest migration so the predators had easy picking. Lot's of baby wildebeest, you can see one shot of a newborn that I saw birthed.

I had a 150-500 mm sigma lens which was great for distance on a 1.6 crop sensor. Another reason why I was able to get such close shots. However the lens' image quality just isn't on par with other high end glass. I think I would have preferred the canon 100-400mm which just about every Canon photog had with them. The leader of the safari, who has been doing wildlife trips for 30 yrs had the canon 800 mm lens I got to hook up to that a few times which was pretty cool. I think that lens new costs $11,000.

mr John - Yes, I got to see some rhinos but not in Tanzania. I have some pics of them in Kenya.

Brickell - I realized I have some great landscape shots that I forgot to post on my flickr account. Ill add them to this thread when I get them online.

[Robert Pence]

Beautiful and dramatic photography! Wow!

[Jimby]

Fantastic shots! I toured Kenya and Tanzania in the fall of 2009 and had an amazing time.
Our little group of travellers wants to go to Madagascar next.

[Okayyou]

Thanks again. Like I said I forgot some landscape shots. Here are a few more:















Jimby, you have any shots from your trip? You should post them if you do. I've wanted to go to Madagascar for a while. It looks like a very unique place. Namibia is also high on my list. I'd love to see the elephants that live near the sand dunes.

[Jimby]

Yes I have a million pics of my trip, plus Egypt and Amsterdam.
My first trip to Africa was Zimbabwe and Namibia in 2001.
We canoed the Zambezi, saw Vic Falls, and then flew to Namibia. We were in the desert for 9/11 which was a very strange experience not having access to radio or TV or phones or newspapers for 2 days. After dinner on September 11th, the manager of the lodge told us to pour ourselves a stiff drink and he had some terrible news to tell us. Without CNN to instantly refer to, is it still real?
Namibia is a totally awesome place like no other on this planet with the bonus of good German bakeries. We saw desert adapted eles, rhinos and cheetahs.
Since we bonded as a group of strangers, we went back in 2003 to Botswana and South Africa.
Botswana is an African success story in good governance and a unique eco system.
I enjoyed South Africa but that was the scenery on the Garden route to Capetown, not the wildlife.

In the Masai Mara, we came across Disney filming "African Cats"! The scene we saw filming was used in the movie.


Disney Nature film crew by LUMIN8, on Flickr



Disney sign on truck by LUMIN8, on Flickr

[xzmattzx]

Incredible! It's amazing that you got so many pictures of predators in action!

I am also amazed to read that you quit your job to photograph the world. Is that working out?

[Okayyou]

^^Jimby, that's funny you saw the Disney film being shot. I saw a few Nat Geo vehicles that had the same signs warning people not to follow them off road.

xzmattzx, thanks, yeah the guides said we saw an unusual amount of kills. I was there during the Wildebeest migration so the predators were easy to see.

As for quitting the job, I guess I should have clarified a bit more. I just took a year off to travel and then returned to school to pursue a master's degree. I used to work in oil & gas and am now studying developing world infrastructure so I'm hoping more travel is in my future. I know I will be living abroad next summer and there is a a chance I could be back in East Africa for three months.

[bunt_q]

Holy cool. Our next trip is narrowed down to 3 options, and Tanzania is one of them. You might be swaying me.

[arkitekte]

All of these are amazing. I really enjoyed all of the landscape shots of yours.