50 reasons to go to Africa
 

Sometimes pictures say much more than words ...

http://www.aardvarktravel.net/chat/v...?p=96312#96312

Johan,

Excellent photos, of course.

My favorites included the cheetahs on the road or runway, the wild dogs and the lions, especially the ones in sepia and b & w.

Thanks for sharing.

Absolutely stunning photos. They were such a pleasure to watch.

Leann

These are amazing. Where were you and what time of year was this? Which operator did you use? Which camera?

Really enjoyed these! Too hard to choose a favorite-wish my photos came out this good.

Wow! Johan beautiful photography - They were all great, but we particualrly liked the lioness moving around the shrub, the lion cub in the candle acacia , the wild dog yawning in the waterhole and the birds in flight - Jacana, Roller, stork - astounding!

Are you going to post a trip report? Or is your itinerary already posted - we searched and couldn't find it. When was this trip?
Fantastic !

Wonderful shots as always. You nailed the night time shot of the African Wildcat! I really love the dof in your shots as well as the lighting. Do you do much in the way of selective sharpening? Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Eric

Great gallery,really enjoy it.
I like many, but my favorites are:
The 2 cheetah , the roller flight , the lion cub with the trunk , the kudu and specially the hippo, maybe not the light you will like ,but tha´s and impressive image!!.
The bad thing about looking at this pictures is that my november trip looks even farther,is soooo far away.

Thanks for sharing.

Paco.

Johan, Incredible pics, they pretty much sum up most of the reasons to go, without a word. If we could just bring home the sounds and smells, the feelings and people- then we could have it all! thanks for the beauty in my day!! Suzi

Johan - I have DSL internet service and it took minutes to download your photos. (Around 20 megs of data). Those with dial-up service may never get to see them. If you could post them at 1/4 their present pixel count it would help a lot. The size say that Bill Hilton uses. Also, notice that Bill Hilton, Andy Biggs and a few others, use a black background, not white, for their photos. White works ok for prints (reflected light) but not for monitors (transmitted light). If you use a black background the photos will appear to have more color and snap out at you. All around more impressive.
Having said that, my photos are now on the Kodalgallery with white background. Bummer. I'm in the process of moving most of them to Smugmug where I have control of the background color and of other viewer stuff. (I don't know if you can do such at aardvarktravel).
regards - tom
ps - it rather amazes me that the KodakGallery has such poor presentation of photos. You'd think they, of all people, would know how to do it.

Well, those are 50 more reasons why your photos always ROCK!
Another well-done, beautiful gallery of your work. Thanks for sharing!

Tom,
It only took me about 30 seconds at most to download the photos. Maybe your server is a little slow?

And the best background for photos to stand out is usually a neutral gray. I may be wrong but it looks to me like that is what Johan is using.

Thank you for sharing those. All are stunning, especially the birds, but I kept coming back to the hippo. I felt as though I could touch him.

CW

Something was slow on my download compared to you. I started seeing complete pictures in 30 seconds but all 50 did not get down for a while. If 20 mega bytes total photos that's 160 mega bits, DSL is usually no fastest than 1.5 mega bits per second. (We have to keep our bytes and bits separate here, 8 bits is same as 1 byte). So the download time is expected to be 110 seconds minimum. My DSL service promises only about half that speed. But if you have cable internet service (do you?) then that can be a whole another world better yet.
So, Johan's backgrounds look very light gray to me, agree, at least it's not total white. I agree that neutral gray is best, light gray for prints and a very dark gray for monitor viewing. A dark gray like Hilton and Biggs use :-)
regards - tom

Johan, The pics that I saw were FABULOUS but I'm afraid I'm on a slooowww dial up and haven't managed to see all as my server times out each time I try to download :(
I did manage to see the Hippo tho and completely agree with CW - AMAZING!!

Imelda

Johan,

An outstanding, coffee table book of professional quality photos. From birds to mammals to people to indoor plumbing. It's all here--subject, composition, lighting. You are The Man with a camera.

The title of your post inspired these next lines. If you are unfamiliar with Paul Simon's "50 ways to Leave Your Lover" you will think I've gone nuts.

<i>Plan your itinerary,
Hilary.

Time to pack,
Zach.

Hop on the plane,
Jane.

To the Land Rover,
Grover.

Snap a few frames,
James.

Board the return flight,
Dwight.

Type your report,
Nort.

Plan to go back,
Jack.</i>

Speaking of going back. Isn't it about time for Duba Plains? Packing the bags yet?

Thanks Johan! Particulary love the warthog....

fern

I forgot a big one.

<i><b>Tip the guide,
Clyde.</b></i>

Thank you everyone for the very nice comments you made.

I'll try to come with some answers this week but right now I'm quite busy because next weekend I'll organize with some friends an exposition about Africa.

Best regards,

Johan

These photos are spectacular, Johan. Thanks for sharing. I can't even pick a favorite because they were all amazing.

Lynn,
Loved your lyrics. :-)

Hello everyone,

Most of these pictures were taken during the last 2 years during several trips:

- Botswana(April 2005);
- Namibia/Botswana (June 2005);
- Zambia (September 2005);
- Botswana (December 2005):
- Botswana/South Africa (May/June 2006);
- Namibia (August 2006):
- Botswana (September/October 2006).

I visited the following camps:

- Chief's Camp (2);
- Palmwag Rhino Camp (2);
- Serra Cafema (1);
- Duba Plains (2);
- Duma Tau (1);
- Chitabe Trails;
- Lebala (3);
- Kwara (2);
- Mala Mala (1);
- Wolwedans (1);
- Ongava tented camp (1);
- Damaraland camp (1);
- Kulala tented camp (1);
- Skeleton Research Camp (1;
- Nsefu (1);
- Tena Tena (1);
- Shumba (1);
- Lufupa (1);
- Lechwe plains tented camp (1);
- Islands of Siankaba (1);
- Sausage tree camp (1).

So I worked with Kwando safaris, WS safaris, Robin Pope Safaris; Busanga Trails; Star of Africa and Sanctuary Lodges.

In 2005 I used the following equipment:

D2X, D70 (2);
Nikkon 18mm-70mm F3,5-F4,5
Nikkon 300mm F2,8 + teleconverter 1,4;
Nikkon 80mm-200mm F2,8;
Nikkon 10,5mm F2,8

In 2006 I used the following equipment:

D2X, D200 (2);
Nikkon 18mm-70mm F3,5-F4,5
Nikkon 200mm-400mm F4;
Nikkon 80mm-200mm F2,8;
Nikkon 10,5mm F2,8

I downsized my pictures with the following program (easy thumbnails)and sharpened my pictures a bit and they are between 200 and 600 kb each.

Lynn, your lyrics were inspiring and it's still a couple of weeks before I am back on the mighty plains of Duba. I can't wait to go and I hope to see the Duba Boys one last time. The only thing that worries me a bit, it's the floods because of the huge rainfall in the Angolean highlands. Hopefully, I am still able to see the Skimmer Pride (crossing my fingers).

April should be a great start with Duba, Mombo and Little Vumbura.

Greetz,

Johan

Johan

Hello Johan,
I also am a user of Nikon and I would be charmed with if you had time to answer a few questions.
At these moments I have a D200 and a D100 and i am thinking about a D2x.

Which are for you the major advantages as for the habitual use during the safari of the D2x on the D200?

How often do you use the High Speed Cropped Image mode?.

I am also saving to buy the very expensive 200-400 f\4 for my november trip to Botswana:

Do you use this lens with a beanbag in the vehicle or maybe window mount tripod or monopod?

Do you have a bag that fits the 200-400 attached to the D2x and can go in the plane as hand luggage?

Thank you.

Paco.

Only a couple of not direct answers to your questions :-) The Nikon 200-400mm lens, $5,100, you call that expensive? I all it un-affordable :-). It weighs only about 7 and 1/2 lbs, 15 inches long. Right there you are half of your allowed carry-on weight for intra-Africa flights!!!! Or, do you just strap it to you, under your belt pant leg? Flight attendant says, &quot;That the Nikon 200-400 in your pocket, or you just happy to see me?&quot; (Flight attendant, of either sex).
Good news is that it with the body is probably &quot;only&quot; 18 inches long which is within the maximum hand carry-on box length of 22 inches. Of course you'd also have to convince airline security that it could not be used as a club. Just show them your purchase receipt ($5,100) and ask them if you look that stupid!!! No, wait, their answer might be yes, you'd have to be to pay that much for just a lens !!!
regards - tom
ps - so, if I can't have it, I can at least make fun of it :-)

Paco,

I bought the D2X first and probably wouldn't have bought it, if the D200 was available at the same time. I am not a professional photographer and I am satisfied with the D200 at the moment. Actually I find the quality of the lenses the most important in my photography.

I don't often use the High Speed Cropped Image mode because mostly I am close enough to the object I like to take picture of.

For a comparison between the D200 and the D2x have a look at the following article.

http://www.digitaldarrell.com/Review-D2xVsD200.asp

I use the 200mm-400mm mainly with a tripod (works well for me) and I like to sit next to the driver because I like to take pictures from the lowest angle possible.

All my camera gear is taken as hand luggage and till now I didn't had any problems with South African Airways on it. I have a bag that fits the 200mm-400mm with a D200 attached to it. I change bodies in camp if I need to.

Best regards,

Johan

Thanks Johan,

I guess i will leave the D2x for another time.

My lowepro nature trekker fits the d200 attache to my sigma 50-500,the d100 attache to the nikon 24-120,the sigma 105 2,8,the nikon 12-24,the nikon coolwalker,converters and some more small things but, i am not sure it will fit the 200-400 in stead of the BIGMA.

What bag do you use?

Paco.

Cary999,

Actually ,before the 200-400 i was thinking at this :

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/b...emberID=197302




but when i showed the picture to my wife she said:

&quot;tell me of what you presume and i will tell you what you lack&quot;.


I hope the translation spanish-english works



Paco.

Tom, along the lines of making fun of what I cannot afford...I refer to my &quot;jealousy&quot; of people traveling with humungous lenses as &quot;Pentax Envy.&quot; Regardless the brand.

Johan,

Great photos! Could you tell me the location of the shot of the split rock in front of the dune? Were there other similar rocks in the area or was this an anomaly?

Thanks,
George

Yeah Paco, go for it. Looks like it comes on a wagon mount so you just attach/unfold included wheels to move it.

Lynn &quot;Pentax envy&quot;, huh uh huh, more juvenile humor. Shame on you. (But love it)

regards - tom

Your pictures.....got me excieted about my trip, which is still quite sometime away(month and a half)...but, still enough to look forward to!!!

Rgds,
Hari

George,

That picture was taken at Wolwedans. I can't remember if I have seen anything similar on other locations.

Greetz,

Johan

Johan-

Awesome images!!

Your images are averaging about 1/2mb each, which is way overkill for the web. I would try to keep to around 50 to 125k each, with 125k being on the high side. I resize for about 650x475 max, which is still a very generous size. This being the web, I have to take into account all people that will access a given web page. Even if I threw a ton of images onto 1 page, such as your thread, it will take a while to download. I might suggest an external link to a page with all of your thumbnails, and people can choose to view any larger image after that.

Fantastic photos!!!

Andy

Lovely set of images, thank you for sharing!