Nikao

With all the rains and stories about people getting stuck on safari am getting a little frightned about our own safari (im going to tanzania on januari 16).
So I check the forecast everyday on www.wunderground.com .. and it now says half cloudy (and no rain) for friday and saturday. Will the rains be finally over?

Bill_H

Nikao, you can drive yourself nuts worrying about this ... just relax and accept that it will be what it will be and that it will in most likely be great, with the green short-grass in the Serengeti ...

We are also going to Tz at the same time as you and are looking forward to it ... roads are better than in Kenya, where the worst reports of stuck vehicles are coming from.

In January 2006 we did a 14 day safari to Tz and it was during the final phase of a 3 year drought ... we had a great time so decided to return a few weeks later, getting a "rainy season" discount in April and figuring the drought would continue and we'd pay 'rainy season' prices for a 'dry season' trip.

WRONG! The drought broke and we had record rains in early April, with reports similar to what we're hearing now for Kenya ... there were a few off-road spots we couldn't access in the Serengeti and parts of Manyara were flooded but we still were able to go almost everywhere else.

It will be OK ... repeat after me, "It will be OK" Here are pics from those two trips, as you can see there were a lot of bugs in April but we still did OK photographing and the scenics and bird photo opportunities were better with the rain ... it will be OK! http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/africa/

Where are you staying? Our dates seem to overlap ... we are at Manyara (Serena), Ndutu and Ngorongoro (Sopa) this next trip.

Bill

divewop

Bill-
I don't know how I missed your photos the first time around but just wanted to say they are fantastic.

Love the cheetah on the hood of the truck!

Nikao

hi bill,

thx for the reply.. Im definately looking forward to it, and it will be a whole different experience compared to last year (we went in december, so also in the drought )
here you can see my complete trip:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...ikao&fid=4

Nikao

by the way, those are realy good and nice photos bill..
what gear are you using?

Bill_H

Nikao, I posted details about our gear in an earlier post but in brief, Canon digital cameras, about 90% of the shots taken with the 500 f/4 lens, the rest with a 24-105 and 70-200.

Here's a link suggesting the weather may be drying out as of Dec 29 ... in April I found that, despite very heavy rains, after six hours of clear skies the main Serengeti road became dusty again, so I guess it doesn't take long to dry out the volcanic soil ... http://www.atta.co.uk/nomad/index.html

Couldn't find your itinerary at the link you gave.

Bill

sundowner

Hey, Bill. I'm headed to Kenya in a couple of weeks for the first time. I can't decide which lens to take - the 300 f2.8 or the 500 f4. I haven't used the 500 near as much as I have the 300. And I can handhold the 300 some. Would the 500 be better in the long run? (I'm travelling solo on most of the flights or I would take them both.)

Bill_H

Sundowner, if you are on a private trip and have lots of room in the vehicle, and also if you have a good roof mount or solid bean bags then for sure you'll have more opportunities with the 500.

OTOH, if you don't have at least one extra seat to yourself and don't have a way to 'get solid' from the roof or window then the 300 would be better, I feel.

I had the 500 f/4 and a 300 f/4 along in April and only used the 300 a couple of times (but did use the 70-200, which, with a 1.4x, is of similar focal length).

I wrote up a more complete description of what the 15 people on our first trip took, including the two professionals leading the trip, and also posted some info on roof mounts etc, so go to the link I provided for our photos and send me an email from that and I'll give you the URL to the gear-head link. I think 9 of us had 500's or 600's (one the Sigmonster 300-800) and 6 topped out with something like the 80-400 Nikon VR or 100-400 Canon IS zooms.

Maybe Andy Biggs can chime in about now ... he has the added experience of guiding dozens of photographers each season and sees what gear they bring and thus what works and what doesn't ... would be curious to hear from him how many bring the 300 and if they feel it's long enough, but I'm pretty sure he's in love with the 500 f/4 L IS too .

But me personally I'd really try to bring the 500 and get a solid mount for it ...

Bill

divewop

Bill-
Sundowner and I are traveling together. She is meeting me in Rwanda and then we're going to Kenya.

She and I have briefly discussed this.

In Rwanda, there is a strong possibility Sundowner will not need a 500mm for the majority of the gorilla pics. I've been a few times and they are close enough to use a 300mm, if that, especially if you bring a TC, just in case.

And then a tripod or monopod would also be necessary with a 500mm because hand-holding a 500mm would be very difficult. But trying to lug around a tripod/monopod during gorilla trekking can by difficult especially if they are mobile and you don't have steady ground placement. Vines, plants, etc.

The 500 may work great in Kenya but we do not have private vehicles and we're not sure who's going to be sharing our jeeps.

Another consideration is that in Kenya, at the majority of the parks we're visiting, we're able to drive off-road, enabling us to get closer to the animals.

The Serengeti, and Tanzania parks in general, is a completely different story because driving off-road is not allowed or strictly limited most of them time. Then I would definitely take a 500 or 600.

My suggestion would be that Sundowner either take both the 300 and the 500 or take the 300 with a TC along with her other lens.

Just my 02.

Bill_H

<b>The 500 may work great in Kenya but we do not have private vehicles and we're not sure who's going to be sharing our jeeps.</b>

Ah, OK ... I would definitely not bring a 500 under those circumstances ... you really need at least one extra seat to hold the gear, I feel. We are using 7 passenger jeeps with only 2 or 3 people per jeep so everyone has at least a full row of seats available.

<b>In Rwanda, there is a strong possibility Sundowner will not need a 500mm for the majority of the gorilla pics.</b>

I haven't visited there but friends who did well photographing the gorillas told me something like a 16-35 f/2.8 and the 70-200 f/2.8 IS was ideal, due to the thick vegetation and typically close-up shots. I'm pretty sure a 500 is not the right tool for this.

<b>The Serengeti, and Tanzania parks in general, is a completely different story because driving off-road is not allowed or strictly limited most of them time.</b>

We're spending about half our trip near Ndutu, where off-road driving is allowed (part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area). Also, you are allowed to drive off-road in much of the southern areas of the Serengeti National Park like around the kopjes. Even then we prefer the longer lens to get more shots at birds and to keep from stressing the larger game animals too much.

Bill

Bill

Nikao

Hi bill. thx again for the reply.

Im always strugling with the url's on fodor. The thread I was refering to with my itinerary is this one:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34913835

one other question; what kind of roof mount do you use for your camera? I have a bean bag, but am also interested in the roof mount.
I will be carying a Nikkor 80-200 F2.8 with a soligor 2x converter. (on a Nikon D70s body) and think I could use a mount in case the lighting is somewhat dark (i will be fine with the bean bag in bright occasions)

Bill_H

Nikao, that URL worked a lot better You are at Olakira Jan 25 - 26 and we are at nearby Ndutu lodge the 19th - 25th, so we overlap the 25th and morning of the 26th. So if you see a Roy Safari's jeep with a tall guy with brown hair and glasses and blonde wife with big white lenses mounted on top that's us ... ask your driver to flag us down and say 'hi'.

<b>what kind of roof mount do you use for your camera?</b>

We have a T-mount that was designed and marketed by Todd Gustafson, one of the pros we went with last January. With a Wimberley pivot head for the lens it works great. You can see it in the April cheetah pics ... it's pretty stable, almost like a tripod, and the cheetah bumped it twice when he slipped on the roof covering and it still stayed on the roof, but it only works with a couple of kinds of roof structures so you need to know in advance what kind of roof supports you have. It's perfect with the really heavy stuff like the 400 f/2.8 or 500 and 600 f/4's but probably over-kill for the lighter lenses ... you can see it here ... http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/ta...06/cheetah.htm

Bill

divewop

Bill-
Completely understand the need for the 500 and 600 mm in the areas you mentioned.

Yeah, you looked like you weren't stressing the animals too much with the cheetah up on your roof.

Not stressing the animals is very important to me too. A priority.
I've used the same guides in a couple of the camps we're going to each time I go and their experience dictates how close we get to the animals. I defer to them and have never disputed their instinct and knowledge.

I don't think Cindy is too much of a birder. If she was, I'd tell her to definitely bring the 500.

She's got a tough call to make.
Cindy, I feel your pain. ;-)

safarimama

Just a hint about photographing the great apes: I just returned from 5 gorilla trackings. I tracked the Amahoro and Hirwa groups at VNP, Rwanda and the Nkuringo group from Mgahinga Lodge and the Habinyanja and Rushegura groups at Bwindi, Uganda. You're supposed to keep a 7 meter distance, but the gorillas came within inches from us many times. You don't need a big lens. However, the lighting can be difficult. One group was hidden inside a sort of enclosure surrounded by think bamboo, another hidden in the trees by branches and leaves. When the sun comes through the jungle it's very bright in spots, but only where it can penetrate the foliage. However, with 5 trackings as insurance I got many good shots. I use a Lumix FZ30, which to me is the perfect solution. It's very easy to switch internal lenses as needed. People with all their lenses missed many good opportunities fiddling with these things. The porters cannot go to the gorillas with you, but stay behind with your packs when you meet up with the trackers, who take you to the gorillas. You cannot take a backpack when seeing the gorillas. I think people with pocket cameras got better shots. It's all you need. The gorillas tend to be higher in the trees during the dry season when the fruit is ripe. Right now when it's wet they eat bamboo and &quot;salad&quot; which grows on the ground. We saw them in the trees too, but they weren't very high up and also sitting on top of low growing bushes.
The chimps however were high up in the trees eating iron-wood seeds and there you would need a long lens. The lighting offered similar challenges to the gorillas. Are you also tracking chimps? I saw them at Chambura aka Kyambura Gorge and also in the Kaniyo Pabidi in the Budongo Forest, both in Uganda. I hope this helps.

Nikao

ah that's nice bill! I will tell our guide to look out for you

we wanted to stay 1 night in ndutu lodge as well, but everything was fully booked quite early... I guess you have our places hehe

by the way.. what dof do you use most often for pictures like the lions and cheetahs? is that F4?

safarimama

WOW, I looked at all your cheetah pictures, Bill. My Gosh! Incredible pictures. Are you a professional photographer? Do you have shows? How much are your pictures on the average? Cheetahs are my favorite animals and elephants and giraffes and gorillas and warthogs. Sorry about my comment above - you certainly couldn't get these kind of shots with a pocket camera!

Toshi

We just got back from the Mara and two treks in PNV. For PNV we had a 70-200 2.8 on one camera and a 24-105 VR on the other. Although we got some good shots with both, the 70-200 lens on manual focus was the ideal setup. I don't think you could use a tripod/monopod near the gorillas (you can't even bring your walking stick past the bag drop point).

For Kenya we changed to an 80-400 on one and added a 2x teleconverter to the 70-200. This was fine for the Mara because offroading is permitted.

Regarding the weather, it rained all three days when we were in the Mara - but they were more like passing showers. Definitely didn't impact our viewing (although we never got stuck in the mud!). It also rained every day we were in Rwanda (again with the passing showers), although the weather was fine for our treks (seemed to rain in the afternoon).

Bill_H

<b>what dof do you use most often for pictures like the lions and cheetahs? is that F4?</b>

The 500 has exceptional optical quality wide open so we typically shoot at the widest aperture for shallow depth of field and faster shutter speed to cut down on any motion blur. Maybe 70% of the time there's a 1.4x on it so f/5.6, maybe 20% of the time a 2x so f/8 (prefer to stop down one stop to f/11 with the 2x), and with no converter it's usually f/4, sometimes f/5.6.

With the shorter lenses like the 24-105 or 70-200 we are almost always stopped down for dof, maybe f5.6 - f/16, depending on the focal length, etc.

<b>Are you a professional photographer?</b>

No, just enthusiastic amateurs.

<b>Do you have shows?</b>

We have had three exhibits of large prints (though nothing yet of Africa) and our work has appeared in seven magazines and two large newspapers (sometimes with articles we wrote) but we don't really push this. I had a job once but it was a LOT of work

<b>Sorry about my comment above - you certainly couldn't get these kind of shots with a pocket camera!</b>

Actually there are a lot of really nice photos posted by Fodorites who were using simple cameras ... but the bigger gear lets us make higher quality enlargements, shoot in lower light and get closer to smaller things like birds. Also we can shoot at over 8 frames/sec for almost 3 sec, handy when lions are fighting each other, and the autofocus is very fast. But sometimes I feel I don't own the camera gear, the camera gear owns me as we lug all that weight around and worry about protecting it from theft.

Bill

cary999

Bill H
Just want to add my admiration for your outstanding photography.
regards - tom

andybiggs

Bill, your replies pretty much say it all on the subject. Really nothing to add here, as all of your replies are dead on.

A 500mm is nice, but is too large in a vehicle that doesn't have enough room for the beast. Partly because you need the extra seat for storing your gear, and partly because you need more room when you are shooting.

I always tell people to bring the longest lens they can afford financially and size wise. If I don't have my 500mm (which I often rent out to my customers), I use a 400mm f/4 DO lens. Before either of those I had a 300mm f/2.8. And before that a 300mm f/4. I have just as many keepers with my first long lens as with my latest big gun. Just remember that there are always things to photograph, especially if you are willing to compose in very unique ways. My eyes and photographs are definitely moving into more animal-scape images, and I don't need long lenses for that type of work. Heck, I will be shooting with medium format digital on m y next safari in a couple of weeks.

Bill, I think we might be at Ndutu Lodge at the same time. I am not sure, but I will check my schedule again. Just look for our vehicles with all of the lenses sticking out of the side. Please say hello, as I always enjoy meeting new people and putting faces to names.