Safari Update - Serengeti

Our drive to Kusini yesterday yielded very little photographic opportunities, primarily because of the torrential downpour, so we decided today we would ‘fact find’ to see where we could find large herds of the migration.

Our destination / turn around location was intended to be the Moru Kopjes, some 75km to the north. The drive to Moru took us all morning, as we stopped to take photos of anything we came across. There substantial hills, kopjes, acacia woodland and small savannahs in between Kusini and Moru, and we had a difficult time seeing much megafauna. The wildebeest just weren’t there, which contradicted scouting reports that they had been seen only the day before, just north of Kusini.

We did have some good sightings along the way, such as a battling pair of hooded vultures, a lone male cheetah (18th individual so far), a lioness in a tree and a nice herd of elephants in the open grassland. We had a proper picnic at Mawe Meupe, and recounted just how much ground we had covered. We also couldn’t believe that we had not run into any substantial pockets of wildebeest or zebra, however just as we were discussing this somebody noticed a few heads of wildebeest just west of Makoma Hill. Upon investigation, we found a huge population of wildebeest in an area that I would have never looked: an area that has 1 road in that turns into a dead end. I felt some stress go away, as this is something I love for my guests to experience. It doesn’t always happen the way I would prefer, but this time nature rewarded our hard work.

The afternoon was spent hoofing it back to camp, as we needed to cover a bunch of ground in only a short amount of time.

I didn’t have the time to process any images today, and will have a chance in the next few days to do so.

Safari Update - Serengeti

We drove around the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater early this morning, and as we lost elevation on the way down to the Serengeti plains we lost the green vegetation and cool highlands air. There is a section of whistling thorn acacia bushes that routinely have grazing giraffes, and today had a very nice congregation of them on both sides of the road. As a side note, I love shooting them in this area, as I am able to put the Serengeti plains as the backdrop.

We had some water on some of the roads heading down, and I can definitely feel that the long rains are almost here. It did rain both evenings when we were at Gibbs Farm, and it rained when we were in Ngorongoro, and now signs of recent rain in the southeastern Serengeti. Good news, for sure.

We made it to the Ndutu area in the late morning, and we ate a picnic lunch under a large acacia tree, which overlooked Lake Masek and its flamingos. After lunch the cyclone of water began. I mean really began. We had a solid wall of water around the swamps west of Ndutu, and our vehicles were sliding sideways because of the heavy rain and mud. I haven’t been in a rain like that in many years, and it was awesome.

The drive from Ndutu to Kusini was, well, interesting. The solid wall of rain and wind followed us almost the entire way, and I wasn’t able to take a single image today. Not a single image. The rain was so hard it would have ruined all of my gear, so it wasn’t worth it.

The Kusini area has some amazing granite kopjes, and the Kusini Camp is settled on top of one. We arrived around 5pm, as we couldn’t continue our game drive any longer due to the rain. Since arrived before sunset, we all showered and came and enjoyed one of the most amazing sundowner dinks on top of their central kopje. The staff placed large pillows near top for each of us to sit on, and hoisted up a drink cart for the serving of drinks. It is the small touches that matter in the hospitality industry, and the staff here have it nailed to a ‘T’.

After our gorgeous sunset, we had appetizers around the fire, and finished with dinner in the dining room. Not much else to add, other than today was a great day, even though I didn’t take a single photograph.

Safari Update - Ngorongoro

I think my guests were itching to see the Ngorongoro Crater, as everybody was rearing to go very early this morning, with no stragglers. I rarely have people who are late for game drives, and today was absolutely no exception.

We spent the bulk of the morning with lions, wildebeest, zebra, hyena and black rhino, however the absolute highlight was a pair of adult male lions right next to our vehicle. It is difficult to explain the feeling I get when I am only a few feet from such large predators, and today really hit it out of the park. They were walking, lying down, sitting up, you name it. We had different looks every few minutes. Our heading into lunch had many happy smiles on faces, for sure.

After lunch the awesome weather continued, as we had warm, direct light early, then soft light and spotty cumulus clouds for the afternoon, and then warm light at the end of the day. The highlights for me were 2 sparring male zebras, as well as 2 adult cheetahs only a few feet from our window. I blew hundreds of frames on my D3 as the zebras reared up onto their hind legs and tried to bite each other.

Ngorongoro is one of those wildlife destinations that rarely disappoints, and today was another day in paradise. I won’t see the crater again for another year, as I have other safari destinations planned for the rest of this year: Botswana, Rwanda and Kenya.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Serengeti, and will be staying at Kusini Camp in the southern end of the park. Rumor has it that the wildebeest have moved north from Ndutu, and we hope to see them somewhere between Kusini and the Moru Kopjes.

Safari Udate - Lake Manyara

I met my safari group this morning at Arusha Coffee Lodge, had a nice breakfast and loaded up the Land Rovers for the first leg of my second safari. Our destination was Gibbs Farm, in the Ngorongoro highlands outside of the village of Karatu.

The drive took a few hours, and in my vehicle I got up to speed on world politics and world events that have occurred over the past few weeks. For some reason I didn’t expect updates on Brad Womack, the current star of the tv show The Bachelor. Lol.

Our rooms weren’t ready when we arrived, so we took the oppportunity to have their wonderful coffee out on the veranda. The late morning breeze in the highlands is like no other, and it felt like coming back home. The staff at Gibbs Farm haven’t seen me in a few years, and it was great to be back.

Gibbs Farm is a quaint place to stay that has wonderful organic food for all of their meals, and I don’t lie when I say that the best, most fresh food in all of Tanzania is served there. I don’t know the current count, but I remember that they employ 100 to 150 peole from the surrounding area to help run the accommodation side of the business, as well as tend to the coffee and farming of food.

We went on our afternoon game drive in Lake Manyara National Park, and as usual the vervet monkeys and olive baboons were there to greet us when we arrived. Since the sun was getting low in the sky, we decided to leave the forest to see what was going on near the lake’s edge. Not much, actually. Just a bunch of Leopard Tours vehicles (yuck).

We did stop to shoot a few giraffes at the edge of the forest, and I was hapy to get something from the afternoon. I have to admit that it was fairly slow, as we saw few elephants or giraffes. I was in Tarangire a few days ago, and there were tons of both on the other side of Lake Manyara, so that must explain the lack of them over here.

We had a wonderful dinner at Gibbs Farm, and I could see the jetlag on my guests’ faces, and we turned in early for the night. Tomorrow is Ngorongoro!

Safari Update - A Day off?

Today I said goodbye to my safari group from our Ngorongoro Camp. I had great time getting to know those whom I had not met before, and also a great time reconnecting with past travelers of mine. I know that I have one of the best ‘jobs’ on the planet, and one of the biggest bonuses is being able to say that all of my customers I can also call friends. 

After I said goodbye to my guests, Troy and I headed over to Tarangire for the day and night. The purpose for the side trip was to shoot compelling video of the Thomson Safaris camp as well as to get some footage of their happy customers, camp staff and guides.

Upon entering Tarangire, the first thing we saw was a few very large herds of elephant. It was like a welcoming party, since they must all know that my favorite animal out on safari is the elephant (giraffe is a close second). The Tarangire River was flowing freely, which was the first time for me to see it overflowing in many years. A good sign, for sure.

We arrived at camp around lunch time, after a beautiful drive around the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater, past the Iraqw people’s town of Karatu, across the Maasai Steppe and into Tarangire National Park. The temperature this afternoon was, well, much much warmer than any of the past week or so.

We shot video all around the camp, primarily with my new Cinevate Atlas 10 slider, as we were after a high production value end result. I will try and post some samples on Vimeo when I return home. We also shot video of guests returning from their afternoon game drive, as well as a staged dining scene amongst the large and ancient baobab trees. Again, the Cinevate slider was used as much as possible, as well as simple straight shots with no movement on the slider. We captured some great interviews with the staff, and recorded audio on my Roland R-09 via a wireless lav mic setup.

Tomorrow I will be back in Arusha to shoot some video of the Thomson Safaris office staff, and then on to Arusha Coffee Lodge for dinner and then to greet my second safari group as they arrive from overseas. I will not post an update tomorrow, due to my having nothing to say. It’s a first, I know!

Safari Update - Ngorongoro

Today is this safari’s last day of game drives, as my safari group will be going home tomorrow. We were up at 5:30, and we were ready to get to the bottom of the crater at 6am, when we are allowed to do so.

Again, we met up with the lion pride along the Munge River and spent a few moments taking inventory of what we had to photograph. We noticed that most of the pride was missing, so we looked around with our binoculars to see where the lion cubs were. We spotted a few lions up on Mawe Meusi (black rocks) and headed in that direction.

Well, we hit pay dirt. As we drove up all 4 lion cubs were running and jumping all over each other, while the adult females and 2 adult males ignored them. The show lasted for at least minutes, and this was one of those challenging photo situations where they would run behind and amongst tall blades of grass. Talk about autofocus hell. They wouldn’t stay still long enough to manual focus, so my approach was to bump the ISO from 800 to 1600 and stop down the lens to f/11. Why? Depth of field. If I missed my focus point I could rely a little bit on an increased DOF to bail me out.

The drive around Ngorongoro is amazing, because you think you are close to the middle, but you aren’t. You also see things in the crater that may be less common somewhere else, like lions hunting in the middle of the day. I like my guests to have their best day on their last safari day, so we worked hard to find something unique and uplifting. We watched the moments after the birth of a baby thomson gazelle, and sat and watched his first steps. Gosh, how amazing it is to watch the first few minutes of life outside of the womb. It took a little while for the little guy to get up, and once he was up his mother would walk a little to make sure he was getting strength in his legs.

I ran into some friends of friends today from South Africa, and you should check out their blog. They are driving across Africa in 70 days, and they are updating their blog on a daily basis. www.serengetitrip.com. We chatted for a while in the middle of the crater, and we parted ways after a good chat. It rained heavily this afternoon, and I ended up taking 2 of my guests back to camp early as they were under the weather. The rain on my tent was one of those things that felt foreign to me, as I have spent the past 8 days on a fairly dry and dusty safari. Very refreshing, to say the least.

Safari Update - Ngorongoro

I woke up 5 minutes before one of the staff came and brought hot water to the tent, and I cherished that 5 minutes of silence. The Ngorongoro winds were minimal, however the chill had settled in and I didn’t want to get out of bed. I felt alive this morning, as cool elevations often do, and once I was up and running I could not wait to get to the bottom of the crater. Uh, more like caldera. But I digress.

There is a pride of lions that hunts along the Munge River, and I often see them coming down from the crater’s edge at dawn. They hunt in the upper reaches of the northern Munge River at night, as their is a pasture that often has zebra, wildebeest and cape buffalo at night.

Well, we had great success today, as we were down at the bottom of the crater by 6:15 and over at the Munge a few minutes later. They were already inactive by that time, but we did notice a fairly noticable wound on a male cub. Poor guy. He did have a full belly, but I don’t like to see wounded animals. That’s just how I approach wildlife viewing and I tend to have a soft heart in this area.

General game was found throughout the morning, from buffalo to zebras to large bull elephants. The main highlight for me was a serval cat who was hunting along side our vehicle. I haven’t seen a serval in a little while now, so it was a good sight to see. He was actively hunting and eventually jumped high in the air to come down and catch his prey.

We also came very close to a mother black rhino and her subadult, and this was likely the closest I have ever been to a black rhino in the crater.

On our way to Ngoitokitok spring for lunch we found a lone cheetah (a total of 11 so far on this safari) in the grass. He was actively hunting, so we moved off and eventually continued on for our picnic.

After lunch I went back to camp a little early to shoot some video of the Thomson Safaris camp, as I need some more marketing video clips that can be assembled into a 2 minute video for my web site.

I took the time to clean my gear, clean my sensors and download my images from the past 2 days. I often skip downloading for many days, as I work with the staff to make sure all goes as planned. This takes time away from my own photography, unfortunately. It is my job, though, and I really love it. I work hard for my customers and trust that it is noticed.

Safari Update - Gear Used

Rather than give a morning wrap up of what we saw this morning, I thought I would write about the gear used by my safari group, as well as a few comments about them.

This safari has 11 participants, plus Troy (my assistant) and myself. The gear used is roughly split 50/50 between Nikon and Canon. We also have a Panasonic shooter, who has a pair of GH2 bodies and a GF1 for grab shots.

In the Canon camp we have 1DsMk3 bodies, 5DMk2, 1DMk3, 7D, and a few Rebel bodies. In other words a good sampling of the current available cameras on the market. Troy is primary shooting with the 7D for wildlife video, as 60p is preferred over 24p or 30p in many situations.

As far as Canon lenses go, we have 500mm, 100-400mm, the new 70-300mm, 70-200mm and smaller zooms. No issues whatsoever at this time with either cameras or lenses.

In the Nikon camp we have many D3s bodies, as well as D3, D700, D3x and D7000 units. The D7000 is the most intriguing to me, primarily based on the cost and ability to do video. We have had a D3s temporarily die on us, but it was caused by the dropping of the camera in one of the vehicles. All seems to be better after cleaning around the mirror (mirror was stuck).

The Nikon 200-400mm is the most popular Nikon lens in the group, and we also have 500mm, 600mm, 70-200mm, 28-300mm and other smaller lenses. The Nikon 80-400mm rarely shows up on these trips, as it has horribly slow autofocus. Nikon, please please update this lens.

We are all using bean bags to support our lenses, as they are the most stable and morphable solution out there. A gimbal could work, but you have to work fast. I have concerns about a gimbal head in the types of vehicles we are in, as they are slow to setup, the angle is often sub-optimal, and moving from side to side isn’t easy. In southern Africa they work great, though.

One of the most useful accessories I bring is gaffer tape. Before I leave home I make small rolls of tape that I can put in every camera bag pocket I can find. It helps with fixing eyepieces in place, image stabilization / VR switches and the fixing of sunglasses if broken. Almost every person on this safari has had their IS or VR button turn off without their knowledge. This happens when shooting in vertical mode on a bean bag. Gaffer tape to the rescue.

75 percent of the travelers are using Gura Gear Kiboko bags. The others are using various products from other brands.

Storage is a big issue on these trips, and a few people are shooting more than they anticipated. I always bring a few extra hard drives to loan out, just in case. As I migrate to larger and larger external hard drives (I am now using 1TB), I have extra drives in 250GB and 500GB to loan out if needed. I prefer that people bring laptops over Hyperdrives and Epson storage devices, as reviewing images at the end of each day is a great learning tool. We mostly have Macbook Pro laptop computers, and a few Macbook Air and PC laptops. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is the gold standard, with a single person who is using Aperture. One person is new to shooting, and hasn’t decided to go PC or Apple yet, and also between Lightroom or Aperture.

So that’s the technology in a short entry!