In the Trees

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During my several of us drove into the research area, while the rest of the group enjoyed a wonderful early morning balloon ride.  We spotted a pair of male Cheetahs in the distance and started tracking them.  Before we knew it, they were heading straight for us.  To my amazement, one of the males was up a nearby tree in nothing flat, but not without a bit of a struggle.  Built for speed, the Cheetahs don’t have the shoulder climbing muscles or sharp retractable claws that the other cats have, making climbing a bit of a challenge.  While you won’t find them very high up in trees, you occasionally find them making use of lower trees for improved viability.  Somewhat uncomfortable in trees, they will not stay there for long.  In this case, we are able to maneuver the truck around to get a head on shot of him in the tree.

Nikon D3x, 200-400mm f/4.0 @ 310mm, ISO 250, 1/640 sec at f/6.3  This image was taken here.

After the Cheetah struggled with maintaining his balance in the tree,  down to the ground he came and rewarded us with a quick game of peek-a-boo before he was off with this brother for their daily hunt.

Nikon D3x, 200-400mm f/4.0 @ 400mm, ISO 250, 1/250 sec at f/5.0

Cheers and happy photo’ing

River Crossing Time

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I have been very blessed on my last three safaris to have seen and photographed river crossings along the Mara River.  All three crossings were differing in size, intensity, and actual location however, witnessing a crossing is still a bonus anyway you call it.  When one of my safaris ends up in the northern area, my senior guide and I start working the information network the day we arrive.  From this point on, we are in constant contact with other guides in the northern area keeping tabs on the wildebeest activity.  Once we arrive in the northern area, we always do our best to preposition ourselves for the best opportunity for viewing a crossing.  At the end of the day and with the best laid plans of mice and men, mother nature remains firmly in control and the crossing simply may or may not happen.  For our August safari, I briefed the clients the night before on what to except and warned them that this could turn out to be a hide and wait with the understanding that things simply might not happen.  We broke camp around 730 (really late for us) and started making our way along the banks of the Mara River.  Soon we were watching a large herd of wildebeest running along the opposite side of the river.  It was now up to us to guess which of the nine crossing locations they were likely to use.  Watching the herd behavior, Kelio and I settled on one location and instructed the other vehicles to conceal there positions to avoid spooking the animals.  Funny thing about these animals; while vehicles on the opposite side of the river from the herd could cause them to select another crossing point or abort the crossing all together, once they start across the river, nothing will stop them.  With one truck positioned high on the hill top as a lookout, the rest of us gathered behind a thicket of trees and scrub brush.  All of a sudden, I head a huge splash followed by the crack of the radio – “they are crossing”; then race to get to the edge of the river was on.  Funny thing, as I looked around some 15 other trucks were doing the same thing.  I felt like Mario Andriette for a moment as Kelio and the other guides raced to position our trucks for the best photographic positions.  As luck would have it, our efforts really paid off with a great crossing event.   As soon as the herd bolted into the river, the force of the current had them spread out into the classic “S” curve in no time flat.  Repositioning the truck allow me to capture the S curve, which had always eluded me before.

Nikon D3s, 200-400 f/4 @ 200, ISO 800, f/8.00 at 1/400 sec

Nikon D3s, 200-400 f/4 @ 200, ISO 800, f/9.00 at 1/400 sec

If you have Google Earth, these images were taken here.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Fog Fall Over The Crater Rim

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Early morning in the Crater treated us to a wonderful light show as a huge cloud bank moved over the top of the crater rim and finally onto the lower elevations of the rim.  Although the photography was a bit slow in the crater, it was still enjoyable with Rhino sightings, huge male elephants and the grand landscapes that the Ngorongoro Crater has to offer.

Nikon D3s, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII at 200mm, ISO 500, f/9 @ 1/125 sec

This image was taken here (Google Earth required)

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Tolerance

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During one of my visits to the Serengeti and the Massai Mara Plains, I followed this large male lion around for a while.  While I was in hopes of getting an image with some really harsh back lighting, the sun and camera angles never really worked out.  Just before we decided to depart the area, he turned directly to me and presented me with a simple portrait. Back at the camera tent, I took a look at the image and suddenly I realized just how much pain this fellow must have been in.  Looking closely, you can see a massive amount of ticks on his face and those crazy fairly flies are biting his nose to the point that they are bringing blood.  All the time, he just sits there and takes it in stride.  And we think we have bad days?

Feb 2010  Nikon D300, 70-200mm f/2.8, ISO 250, 1/125 sec at f/10

Cheers and happy photo’ing

The Maasai Legend of the Sun and Moon

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Every time I go on safari to Kenya or Tanzania I make a serious effort to spend some quality time with the Maasai, mostly the warriors.  With just a little bit of coaxing and some good ‘ole southern charm, they will open up to you and before you know it, you will soon be learning all sorts of wonderful facts and folk lore about their way of life.  For a quick and fun read giving you a glimpse into a young man’s transition from a Maasai child, to life in the western world, give Facing the Lion: Growing up Maasai on the African Savanna (National Geographic) by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton a read.  It is a rather fast read however it is a truly amazing story about a boy growing up with his Maasai people in Kenya, and later – through incredible twists and turns in his life – comes to the United States for college, all the time never abandoning his African roots.

According to the Maasai, there is a reason why the sun is so bright, which they tell in the following folk tale:

Long ago the sun married the moon but one day they fought and the moon struck the sun on the head. Of course, the sun hit back, and damaged the moon. When they had finished fighting, the sun was so ashamed of his battered face that he became so dazzlingly bright that humans could not regard him without half-closing their eyes. The moon, however, was not in the least bit ashamed and anyone looking at her can clearly see that her mouth is cut and one of her eyes is missing.

More Wild Dog Encounters

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On one of our last days with the dogs, we found them lounging around in a small open area surrounded by low brush and trees. I really wanted to walk away with a low angle shot of the dogs; sort of an image taken from a dog’s view.  Steve Carey, our guide (AKA Wild Dog Man), mentioned that he thought I could get closer to the dogs by exiting the vehicle and maintaining a very low profile as I worked my way into the bush and to the edge of the clearing.  When I asked Steve just how close he thought I  could get, he simply answered ‘you will know’  – a man of few words, that Steve.  We repositioned the truck to cover my dismount and down I went into the brush.  Ouch, Ouch I thought as I crawled on my knees to a position just forward of the outermost tree, then it was down into a low crawl position.  Between the pain of the sheeps’ head burs and the acacia thorns,  I was in a great deal of pain with my every move and thought about just  giving it up.  As I made my way to the edge of the grass, I found myself concentrating on the dogs and their interaction with his 6.2  foot guy laying in front of them holding a really large camera and lens.  The pain that was previously killing me, was no longer in my attention span.  On several occasions the inquisitive young dogs would approach me to the point that they were outside of the minimum focus of the zoom that I was using.  Below is one of the up close and personal shots of one of the dogs  taken while in this position.  I used a shallow f-stop in conjunction with minimum focus range  in an attempt to blur theforeground grass that I was shooting through. Steve Kruger is in the background (in the truck) shooting me shooting the dogs.  BTW, I was crawling on my stomach With a D3s -200-400 and a D3x – 70-200.  What a load to crawl around with and maintain a low to the ground profile and not spook the dogs.  It was another great day in the bush with the dogs.

Nikon D3s, 200-400 f/4.0 VR @ 310mm, ISO 720, f/8.0 at 1/400 sec (8:38 am)

This image was taken here.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Photo of the Week – FULL CHARGE

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Every once in a while, I find myself in a position to capture the charge of a bull elephant.  Kelio, my long time guide in Tanzania, tells me that the bulls will make three mock charges.  The forth one is for real, and they will be coming thru your window.  Fortunately, the expert guides at Thomsons Safaris are keenly aware of the conditions that surround them and would never let any dangerous situation arise.  As much as I would like to tell you that this bull stopped only inches from our Land Rover,  it was all possible due to a telephoto lens.  Using a telephoto lens, you can compress distance a great deal.  As with this image, I was able to compress the distance between me and the elephant in such a manner that it appears like he was right on top of me.  In reality, we were safely tucked inside of our Land Rovers and at an appropriate distance…..the miracles of telephoto glass.  To get up close and personal with the wildlife, consider joining me on one of my photo safaris.

Nikon D3, 200-400 f/2.8 @ 400mm, ISO 500, f/8 at 1/400 sec

Cheers and happy photo’ing

45 Days and Counting until Safari time.

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It has been a cold snowy past week (actually last week) in the Seattle area.  On the heals of this, the 48 hour flu ht me right between the eyes, just as I was planning to travel to San Diego to do some nature photography.

On my mind these days is my next safari in March.  I’m leading a private safari focusing on Wild Dogs and Rhinos in Kenya.  Operating exclusively in private conversation areas, off-roading and foot tracking will be the order of the day as we strive for outstanding up close and personal photography of these wonderful subjects.  We will also be spending time with a local Samburu Village for some wonderful travel shots.  Below is a shot from my recent trip to the Mara Plains area.  Place this in Google Earth to see where the image was taken at:

1 24.12921S, 35 8.3947E , elev 5182ft.

Drinking in the Mara

Nikon D3s, 200-400 VR @ 200mm, ISO 320, f/8 at 1/320 sec

 

Cheers and happy photoing.

2014 Photo Safari Schedule

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Safaris for 2014:
1. Rwanda – Gorillas in the Mist 1 Jan thru 8 Jan  DETAILS ARE POSTED HERE. Trip completed, full trip report in draft.
2. Tanzania – The Great Migration – Feb 15-25, 2014   TRIP IS FULL
3. Chile – Torres del Paine – March 2014,  Adventure Series Only*
4. Tanzania – The Great Rut – May 31 – June 10, 2014. Some openings remain.
5. Iceland – The Land of Fire and Ice – 10-19 Aug 2014 – DETAILS ARE POSTED HERE  Strictly limited to 8 participants, 4 openings.
6. Tanzania – Fall Migration – Sept 16-25, 2014 – DETAILS ARE POSTED HERE
7. Botswana – November 13-22, 2014 – DETAILS ARE POSTED HERE.

Looking forward to 2015:
Namibia – Landscapes of a Lifetime – April or May 2015- Details will be released in March of 2014.
Tanzania – The Great Rut
Tanzania – Fall Migration
Botswana – Adventure on the River
Lots More to Come So Stay Tuned.

*Adventure Series – Open only to previous clients and those who are willing to travel in conditions that require maximum flexibility as we explore new areas.

Shallow F-Stop Usage

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I almost always shoot in aperture mode, as it allows me to control the depth of field or zone of focus.  I use this technique to control what the viewer “sees” in my photograph or to call attention to a particular part of the image or to isolate the primary image from the foreground or background.  Combing this technique with the image compression of a telephoto lens, one can really start to isolate the subject.   In the image below, I used a wide open aperture on a 200-400mm zoom set at 310mm and focused just in front of  of the cheetah.  Focusing in front of the Cheetah allowed me to keep the first cat in crisp focus while allowing the second cat (only three feet behind the first one) to go past soft focus and begin the transition into the blurred background.  The result is a tact sharp cat in the foreground with a pleasing out of focus background, yet showing enough detail in the second cat to maintain interest.  Having shot with the 200-400 for a number of years, I am pretty good at guessing the hyperfocal distances (I’ll save that topic for another post) within my normal shooting ranges.  Like most shots, when you take your time and make use of your knowledge, you will increase your chances of walking away with a solid image.

Outside of the Massai Mara Plains, two brothers on alert.

Nikon D3S, 200-400mm VRII, set at 310mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.0, matrix meeting, aperture priority

Cheers and happy photo’ ing.