Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 10

Some people have emailed me and have confronted me on my opinions of the D800 versus D4 camera bodies, and I just want to be on record that my needs and desires might be completely different to others who use these tools. I am actually a good candidate for medium format digital equipment, as I don’t think that I need high frames per second as much as I need larger file sizes for bigger print reproductions. Your needs might be different than mine, and I don’t pretend to think my needs are similar or dissimilar to others. The D4 is a great camera and I just prefer the D800 over it. It’s just that simple.

Yellow Billed Horn Bill

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1600 @ f/5, ISO 500

What about the Canon 5DMk3? Well, a few of my travelers have that camera on this trip and from what I see it is also an excellent camera. The autofocus is in a completely different league than that of the 5DMk2, and for that reason I can easily recommend it to wildlife photographers. Even though Nikon stole some thunder with the D800, the 5DMk3 is a much more capable camera than the camera that came before it. Since we don’t have the 1Dx out in the marketplace as of this blog post, I have absolutely no idea which one I would choose if I were still shooting with Canon. It is likely that I will rent an entire Canon kit for my pair of Botswana safaris this November, and I will be in a better position to have some opinions on the matter.

As far as sightings go, we had a hunting male leopard on some warthogs (unsuccessful hunt for him), a large male lion who was intent on finding other lions to socialize with and the finale for the day was…….drum roll please…….a mating pair of leopards. We had the most amazing afternoon, as we sat and watched the mating pair for at least 8 copulations. On one occasion the male mounted the female about 2 meters from my front seat in the Land Rover. Mating leopards are fascinating to watch, as the female instigates the action and the male follows suit. The male will bite the back of the female as a sign of domination and the female will growl back as the end nears. This action happened 8 times before the light faded and we needed to head back to camp. It had been a few years since I had seen mating leopards, and the sights and sounds were jaw dropping. Nature really has a way of impressing me.

Mating Leopards In The Road

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/200 @ f/5, ISO 2500 (not enough shutter speed!)

Mating Pair Of Leopards

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/500 @ f/3.2, ISO 2500

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1250 @ f/4.5, ISO 400

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 5

We were up at 5:30, a quick coffee and tea at 6 and we were out before sunrise. I loved the cool morning, as it is hot back at home and I am already tired of 70+F temps at night. We had some amazing sightings of elephant and giraffe this morning, and we took the time to try and get the best shots possible. Drive-by photography rarely pays off in the safari world, and the best photographs take time to unfold. I love photographing anything that is in front of me, and giraffes and elephants are actually my favorite subjects. They can be the most challenging for me, and think that is part of the fun.

Giraffes are difficult from a composition standpoint. What to include? Head? Head and neck? Whole body? Vertical or horizontal? So many options and my choices rarely seem to have me happy in the end. I put my camera down for much of the day, as I wanted to spend time working with people on the rear autofocus button on their cameras, as well as discussions about composition, metering and storytelling.

We did get a report of an often-not-seen animal in the Sabi Sands, and that was of a cheetah out on the southern open planes. We hoofed it to the area and tracked the cheetah to a place where he was resting underneath a tree. The light was harsh, but our time with him was enjoyable because of the rarity of the sighting. One of the vehicles did get a great opportunity to photograph him later on as he jumped up onto a very narrow top of a termite mound. Very very cool.

We broke for a late brunch back at camp, and the staff had set up a really nice table for us out underneath a shade tree. Cold cereals, fruit, breads, cheese and eggs to order from the kitchen. It’s nice not to have to worry about my guests when we have such wonderful staff around.

We had tea at 2:30 and promptly left for our afternoon drive, and headed towards the Sand River in the northern part of Singita. We had a great sighting of a dominant male leopard of the area, and we followed him on one of the roads for quite some time. We drove behind him at a distance, as well as drove offroad to the side of him to capture him walking. The goal was to get some tall grass in the foreground as to make the road less obvious in the shots. He was walking more quickly than we could drive, as the terrain offroad was littered with large stones. Eventually he went off into the thick bush, and the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to intercept him on the other side of the thick bush. We lost him and never found him again, but we did get a great sighting nonetheless.

I feel like today was one of the better days I have had in a while, as a cheetah in the morning and a glorious male leopard in the afternoon is tough to beat.

Male Leopard

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/400 @ f/8, ISO 250, Hand Held

Male Leopard, as seen from a moving vehicle

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/10 @ f/22, ISO 100

Chris, Barry and Scot

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/250 @ f/7.1, ISO 400

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.

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.

Photo of the Day - Tamboti Leopard, Mala Mala

Tamboti Female Leopard

Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa.

Nikon D700, 200-400mm f/4 VR, 1/400 @ f/4, ISO 3200

When photographing leopards, especially up close, I think the connection with the viewer is all about the eyes of the subject. I had to balance depth of field to obtain sharp eyes, minimum shutter speed so I didn’t have a blurry photograph, and a blurry background. I took about 6 images in the series, and I ended up choosing one of the images taken at f/4. I do like to bracket my depth of field in situations such as this, moving between a couple of stops. I have images at f/4 through f/11, and the problem with my f/11 images were a sub-optimal ISO (6400) and shutter speed (1/160).

Photo of the Day - Leopard

Leopard

Chitabe Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana.

Nikon D700, 200-400mm, 1/200 @ f/5.6, ISO 6400

I do prefer dramatic lighting wherever I can find it, and if I can get a golden rim light on my subject I am going to race towards it. In this example, I waited and waited and waited for her to have a golden rim light on her chin, and the added bonus was the light on her right paw. I have about 30 shots of her prior to this one, but the sun was behind clouds for the earlier shots. This shot required a high ISO of 6400, and even then I was only able to get 1/200 of a second for my shutter speed. My exposure compensation for matrix metering was +1 2/3, as the only thing that matters in this scene is the leopard, and not the blown out sky.

I am leading more and more safaris to Botswana in 2012 (will be a total of 4), and I should have more safaris listed very soon.

Serengeti Safari Update

Today we ate a leisurely breakfast at our lodge in Arusha, and took off for the airstrip shortly afterwards. The drive through Arusha was slow going, as the hustle and bustle of the once-frontier town is now a city with over a million people. I remember back in 2002 when I could drive through Arusha in about 20 minutes. It isn’t so easy now, as the safari industy is much more developed now.

After boarding our private plane, I felt a sense of relief over me. I was finally heading back to the Serengeti. I had not been back since March of last year. Earlier in my photo safari business, I used to run 6 safaris each year in Tanzania alone. Now that my business has grown, and my customers are asking for more locations and experiences, I have to split my time between Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda and Namibia. So it was great to heading back to the Serengeti, where I really cut my teeth and learned how to run a well-run photo safari.

The flight took around 45 minutes, and we landed at the Seronera airstrip where the Thomson Safaris guides were waiting for us with smiles on. Kileo, my head guide, greeted me as his brother.

The savannah did not look very dry, rven though there hasn’t been much rainfall. There was a rain a few days ago, and I guess it was enough to make the plains green. We immediately went out on our game drive, and we had some early successes. Without naming all of the species, we had a lion pride of 5 adults, a leopard and some great scenics of the open plains with zebras.

We checked into camp around lunch time, and as we went to our tents I could hear mumblings like “this isn’t camping” and “if my wife saw these accommodations she would say I wasn’t camping”. You see, I don’t know how to properly describe the accommodations. Technically they are mobile tents that are setup for the season, however down comforters, solar light fixtures, en suite shower and bathroom are not consistent with the word camping. Such as it is, my travelers loved it. Home away from home. And maybe one day I will have the words to describe what these camps look and feel like.

After a hearty lunch, we took off for our afternoon game drive at 3:30. We decided to try our luck with the Makoma Hill area, and tracked down another pride of lions, 8 in total. There were 3 subadult males, and they were at the age where they won’t be allowed in the pride any longer. They are growing up and will need to have a pride of their own soon.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with another amazing leopard sighting, and this time she was only a short distance away in a tree (see image). I prefer dramatic lighting, so we positioned the vehicle to shoot directly into the sun. I love this angle, and it requires shooting in manual mode with some significant exposure compensation. I can live with lens flare, to be honest, as it can add another dimension to an image.

We also photographed 2 adult male cheetahs on a termite mound, and I had a devil of a time trying to get the second male to do anything other than show his back to the camera. Cheetahs are regal and graceful, and I could never get used to shooting them through a lens. The light wasn’t the best, but it was an enjoyable time, nonetheless (I think my friend Hari will ask me about my cheetah sightings when I get home, so this is a reminder for me to remember all of them!).

On the way back to camp, we stopped to watch a herd of giraffes browse just outside of camp. I didn’t come away with any useful images, as I was just starting to get used to a square crop on the camera. With the square crop lines in place, I have realized that I don’t need as much lens as I tought I would need. I am probably needing at least 100mm less focal length to make it all work.

After dinner we all headed straight to bed, as the previous 48 hours was filled with travel and an assault on the senses. Today was one of those days that reminded me of how much I love being out on safari: great wildlife, guides that are good friends, rich photography and that feeling of being in the middle of nowhere.

Photo of the Day

Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa. November 2010

Nikon D3x, 200-400mm f/4 VR, 1/400 @ f/4, ISO 800

Photo of the Day

Metsi the Leopard

Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa. November 2010

Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, 1/250 @ f/3.2, ISO 3200