Sabi Sands Safari Report - Day 3

Today we decided to try and track/visit the Kikilezi female leopard with her two cubs, but we knew we needed to wait to visit the den until they had a chance to warm up after the sun came up. We drove the roads towards Clarendon dam in hopes of picking up signs of cheetah, but that turned out to not yield what we had hoped. That gave us some time for the day to heat up a bit, and when we arrived at the leopards the two cubs were racing around and as active as I have ever seen. The cubs were about 8 weeks old, and as a result have a schedule of playing, sleeping and nursing with their mother. So our time was filled with playing, and after they settled down after an hour we decided to move on. We did revisit the cubs in the late afternoon, however we had better memories than photographs due to the dense vegetation that was in the way.

Ok, let’s chat about cameras for a few moments. I have the new Nikon D4 and D800 cameras with me, and there are some major differences between the two that should be noticed. Since I only have a few minutes to write this entry between game drives, I am going to use a bullet point format to explain.

D800

• Camera is too small for my hands, and will need to purchase the portrait grip.
• Resolution is absolutely stunning.
• The ability to crop an image, as the result of an absurd amount of pixels, is fantastic.
• Low frames per second works for me, but might not work for somebody who is less familiar with African wildlife photography. I tend to shoot only when I need to, as opposed to letting the camera rip off 20 shots.
• Autofocus is pretty darned goof for a $3,000 camera. I am not seeing any differences between the D800 and my old D3, D3x and D700 cameras.
• I am not a fan of the new autofocus mode switches. I wish we still had a switch on the back of the camera, as opposed to having to use the A/M switch and button on the front of the camera. This is a step backwards.
• I am finding that ISO 1600 is my limit, which is similar to what I did with my D3x. ISO 800 or lower is more ideal, but 1600 seems to be the edge of the breaking point.

D4

• The best camera ergonomics of any camera I have ever used
• I absolutely love the autofocus joysticks for both normal and portrait modes. This was sorely lacking in previous cameras.
• I like the nice balance between file size, dynamic range and high ISO capabilities. ISO 6400 is turning out to be my limit, but 1600 and 3200 seem to be more common over the past 3 days since I began using the camera.
• I do wish the D4 had two identical compact flash slots. Boooooo

It was a fantastic day, filled with leopard cubs as well as general game! Until tomorrow…..

Cubs of the Kikilezi Female Leopard

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8, 1/500 @ f/5, ISO 400

Breakfast In The Bush

Nikon D4, 16-35mm, 1/800 @ f/5.6, ISO 400

Matt, Terry and Jim

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/160 @ f/8, ISO 250

Elephant and the Sand River

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/640 @ f/5.6, ISO 250

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sands Safari Report - Day 2

Up at 5:30 this morning and in the vehicle around 6. We decided to take a simple breakfast with us, as my small group of 3 of us didn’t want to eat so early nor come back to camp later on in the morning. We poured our coffees and got settled into our vehicles for the morning’s game drive.  The temperature this morning was in the mid 40’sF, so the wildlife early on wasn’t exactly very active at first light. We headed towards the northern part of Mala Mala, where there are some open areas where cheetah like to spend time. Near Clarendon Dam we didn’t locate any cheetah, however we did have a nice sighting of a rhino who was intent on sniffing out another of his own kind. I find rhinos difficult to photograph, as there aren’t many angles that are good to photograph from. Trying to line up the vehicle for a head-on view was our preferred approach, but we mostly ended up with side shots of his head and horn.

Rhino Profile

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8, 1/1250 @ f/4, ISO 400

After our rhino sighting we went towards an area that had a confirmed sighting of one of the adult male lions who had taken down a nyala the evening before, and when we arrived we actually saw a leopard in the vicinity. The young-ish male leopard was curious yet calm, so we sat and watched him for the next couple of hours. He sat behind a log and didn’t give us a good angle for quite some time, but I enjoyed working with blurred grass in the foreground to try and create a dreamy look to the scene. Eventually he sat up and looked at a flying bird overhead, and that probably yielded the best view of him. At one point he looked into the bushes and noticed the male lion sitting there, which was only about 40 meters away. The leopard inched forward over the next 10 minutes to see what the lion would do, and you can suspect what happened next. The lion burst out of the bush and chased the young male leopard away. I couldn’t help but laugh at how young cats tend to take bigger risks than when they are older.

Male Leopard

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8, 1/2500 @ f/2.8, ISO 500

This afternoon we decided to drive back to the wild dog den, and when we arrived we had 4 adults lying in front of the entrance. The view wasn’t the greatest, so after a short while we moved out for somebody else to come and take a look. As we were leaving we drove a road towards the Sand River and intercepted the same dogs as they were heading out for their evening hunt. The light was superb, and watching the now 6 dogs trot towards the river was an invigorating exercise. The dogs made it to the water and crossed over as the sun was fading. What a huge honor to be in the presence of one of the most endangered predators in Africa. The last research I have read has indicated there are around 4,000 wild dogs left in the wild.

Wild Dogs (Lycaon Pictus) Heading Out For A Evening Hunt

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1600 @ f/5, ISO 1600

African Wild Dog (Lycaon Pictus) In The Late Afternoon Light

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1000 @ f/3.2, ISO 800

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Safari Update from South Africa - Day 1

This is the first installment of safari updates from the Sabi Sands of South Africa. I am on a 3-day pre safari with two of my customers, and at the end of this pre safari I will begin two back-to-back safaris, each with 11 travelers. My goals for writing these daily safari updates are:

• To explain what we are seeing and photographing each day
• To explain some of the camera equipment used and any thoughts around them
• To show a day-in-the-life on one of my African photographic safaris
• To create a diary for my travelers, so they won’t have to keep up with what we saw each day

So, here goes!

This morning we left the D’Oreale Grand Hotel in Johannesburg, and were picked up by my good friend Gordie, who runs a hospitality transfer business. Gordie took us to the hanger where our flight would take us to the Sabi Sands. We checked in, if you can call it that, and boarded our Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. 50 minutes later we landed at the Mala Mala airstrip, and my good friend and head ranger Matt grabbed us and took us to our camp for the next 3 nights. Every time I visit Mala Mala I make sure that Matt is my main guide, and this trip is no exception. We grabbed a nice lunch on the deck, got settled into our rooms and then took off for our afternoon game drive.

The weather this afternoon was almost perfect at around 75F. When I left home in Houston it was already getting into the 90’s each day, with an average low of the mid 70’s. I am not a fan of hot and humid places, and it was great to be in such great weather.

We had heard about a pair of leopard cubs from the Kikilezi female leopard, and made sure that we went straight for the place where they were last seen. It is important to be sensitive around any young cub, and since their mother wasn’t around we didn’t want to stay very long at all. If anything bad happened during our brief visit, the cubs would associate the event with the presence of a vehicle, and would forever be shy around them. We did spot the two 6-week old cubs, and for a quick reference I have included an image. It isn’t a great one, but the purpose of the images on these updates is to illustrate what we have seen out here.

After our brief visit with the leopard cubs, we drove along the edge of the Sand River to see what was out in the open and easy to photograph. We happened on a small congregation of bull elephants, drinking and sparring at the waters’ edge. I love any animal that is near water, especially if there is interaction with the water (drinking, splashing, etc) or if there is a reflection. Or both! We took some shots and decided we would head down to the southern edge of Mala Mala where some wild dogs had been seen a few days earlier.

When we got to the southern edge of the property, we had to bushwhack our way through very very dense brush in an attempt to locate where we though the dog den might be. We had another vehicle in the area, and he was able to triangulate and figure out the location within an hour. We stayed a fair distance back from the den, and we only saw one adult female near the entrance. Awesome! This is the key to great wild dog photography, as you know where the epicenter of activity is coming from. All hunts begin and end from the den. We didn’t stay long, as it was obvious that the other adults had already left to go hunting, and there wasn’t much to see. We needed to make sure the dogs weren’t spooked by our presence, and staying back to observe and come back another day was the best approach.

We headed back to camp after dark, as it took a while to find our way back to the road from the dense brush. The temperature quickly dropped and my vehicle mates and I all had huge smiles on our faces from our first game drive of the trip.

Leopard Cub

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8, 1/3200 @ f/4, ISO 400. Hand held

Elephant in the Sand River

Nikon D800, 300mm f2.8, 1/640 @ f/5, ISO 400. Shot from a bean bag

View of the same elephant in the Sand River

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8, 1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400

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Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet. :-)

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Namibia's Remote Landscapes by Private Air

Are you interested in shooting the remote landscapes of Namibia with the best photographic equipment on the market? I have teamed up with Phase One and I am running a trip to Namibia alongside good friends Bill Atkinson and Kevin Raber. If you don’t already own Phase One medium format equipment, that’s totally ok, as Phase One will be providing cameras and lenses for all participants for a *very* nominal fee of $500. Here are some bullet points for the trip:

• All Phase One equipment will be provided if you don’t already own Phase One gear
• This trip is all about private airplanes, privacy and breathtaking landscapes
• This private flying safari covers fascinating attractions in Namibia while enjoying much of the stunning landscape from the air.
• We will fly to three amazing destinations in southern, central and northern Namibia: Sossusvlei, Serra Cafema and the deserted mining town of Kolmanskop.
• The Namib Desert may well be the world’s oldest desert. The apricot-colored dunes at Sossusvlei are some of the most beautiful landscapes on earth. Herds of mountain zebra, gemsbok and springbok roam the area.
• In all the parks you will have the opportunity to spend quality photographic time.
• Finish on a high note in the magnificent northern landscapes along the Serra Cafema mountain range near Angola.

For more information, please visit my informational page about this trip

Namibia’s Remote Landscapes by Private Air

The Skeleton Coast from the air

Flying above the dunes near Sossusvlei

The deserted mining town of Kolmanskop

Safari Preparation and What I Pack

I rarely get a chance to pack so early for a safari, but now that I am thinking about it I thought I would use a blog post as my packing list for my next safari in June. I will then use the blog post as a guide when I actually start packing in a week or two. I depart in late May for my back-to-back safaris in the Sabi Sands of South Africa. I will have sole use of Singita Sabi Sands Castleton Camp, which is a very private 6-room camp that will be my base for 16 straight nights. This list may change over time, so check back for any changes. I may get crazy and add my clothing to the list as well.

Camera Bags

• Gura Gear Kiboko 22L+
• Gura Gear Chobe 19-24L shoulder bag

 Camera Eqiupment

• Nikon D4 (rented from Borrowlenses.com)
• Nikon D800
• Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII
• Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR (rented from Borrowlenses.com)
• Nikon 1.4x teleconverter

Camera Stabilization for Safari Vehicle and Video At Camp

• Really Right Stuff Safari Clamp kit (Safari Clamp, monopod with leveling base)
• Really Right Stuff TVC-24L carbon fiber tripod
• Really Right Stuff PG-02 FG gimbal head
• Really Right Stuff BH-40 ballhead
• Cinevate Atlast 10 FLT 26” slider
• Manfrotto 701HDV video head
• Kinesis Safari Sack, filled with buckwheat hulls

Video / Audio Accessories

• Sony UWP-V1 wireless lav microphone
• Tascam DR-40 audio recorder
• Klipsch X10i earphones

Power

• Sanyo Eneloop AA rechargeable batteries
• Nikon D800 charger
• Nikon D4 charger
• Nikon EN-EL15 extra batteries (2 extra) for D800
• Nikon EN-EL18 extra battery (1 extra) for D4
• South Africa travel adapters (a bunch, as my travelers sometimes don’t have enough)
• Wonpro 250V Universal Power Strip

Computer

• Apple Macbook Pro 13” with 250gb SSD
• Apple Macbook Pro charger
• Apple iPad and charger

Storage

• Compact Flash Cards. I have 32GBx4, 16GBx6 and a few smaller ones. I prefer Sandisk Extreme Pro cards, but not all of them are what I desire. :-(
• Seagate GoFlex 1.5TB external hard drives (2)

Cleaning and Repair 

• Gura Gear microfiber cloth (too many to count)
• Giottos Large Rocket Blower
• Really Right Stuff hex wrenches (many sizes)
• Jeweler’s screwdriver set
• Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly 724 Cleaning Kit

Miscellaneous Items, excluding clothing and toiletries

• Headlamp
• AMOD GPS logger
• Gaffer Tape - I cutt off 1-foot sections, roll each section up and put them in all pockets in my Kiboko bag. These help cover up VR/IS switches and other places where we don’t want a function to be turned on or off.
• Micro Leatherman
• USB cables / Firewire cables

Photo of the Day - Sparring Elephants

Sparring Elephants

Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

Canon 1DsMk3, 500mm f/4, 1/800 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 500

Photo of the Day - Shooting in Antarctica

Shooting from a Zodiac

Somewhere in the southern Ocean around Antarctica, December 2011

Leica S2, Summarit-S 35mm, 1/4000 @ f/4, ISO 320

Leopard Jumping Through The Talek River

On last year’s September safari, which combined the mountain gorillas of Rwanda with the wildebeest migration in Kenya’s Masai Mara, we had great success with tracking and photographing leopards, lions and cheetahs. On this particular day we tracked down one of the more famous leopards of the Mara, who is simply known as ‘Olive’, and anticipated her moving across the Talek River.

We set up with our vehicles in one of the only places where we could have a clear shot of her, and luckily the light was in the best location possible. When I am photographing with water, rain, smog, fog or anything that fills the atmosphere I want to shot it off. The best way to do this is to place the light source, the sun, at an angle that puts the light coming towards the camera. This illuminates it in such a way that helps show it off, as opposed to hides it. I do prefer shooting into the sun anyway, as this helps define the edges of whatever I am shooting. Remember the adage “light illuminates and shadows define”. You don’t have definition without shadows, and without shadows you lose any sense of 3D to a scene.

We had just a few moments to set up, choose our best lens and camera settings and get the shot sequence. I set the camera to manual mode and selected a shutter speed that would freeze the splashing water and leopard, and whatever aperture did that would be fine with me. I took a quick exposure, looked at the histogram and made a quick change. I was more interested in getting the shape of the leopard than worries aboout blown highlights or ‘shadow detail’. Shadow detail is a term that drives me nuts, because it doesn’t reall mean anything and I hear about it all of the time in images that lack any contrast or soul. It all started when Photoshop introduced the Shadows & Highlights tool. But I digress. All shots taken with a Nikon D3x, 200-400mm f/4, 1/800 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 500.