Bill, I sure am enjoying your trip report. And, as usual, your photos are so wonderful. I love all the cub shots (Ndutu game drive 6) and the portrait of the lioness and cub, the flamingo and loverbirds are spectacular (and so many others!).

I don't seek out birds to photograph either but when I chance upon them I wonder why I don't. They are so beautiful. Are most of your bird images full frame or do you crop them?

I look forward to reading & seeing more of your trip!

Cindy

I agree Cindy, I tend to ignore the birds, I guess thinking that "big game" may be close by and have to get to it. But I'm going to start looking longer and closer at birdies, they are so beautiful, at least the way Bill and Carolyn photograph them. And this just after I've learned to identify about 7 species of antelope, I now have 700 birds to learn
regards - tom
ps - but I refuse to carry around a proper bird lens.

Are you the same Bill Hilton who likes (or did like) to go marlin fishing on the reef?

Bill .. the pictures are absolutely stunning!

I see you have some pictures of the same pride of lions around Ndutu as I do

OK, three more Ndutu game drives are now posted, including the trip to Gol kopjes. So the links for Ndutu should be valid up to drive # 10.

<b>I see you have some pictures of the same pride of lions around Ndutu as I do</b>

Hi Nikao, check the first pic for game drive 10, I think you guys were out this same morning based on your description of the incredible sky

I hope the Ndutu lions were more active for you than for us because except for the cubs all these lions did was eat and sleep this trip.

Bill

Cindy - <b>Are most of your bird images full frame or do you crop them?</b>

A few were full frame but a high % were cropped, some just a bit on the edges but some of the smaller, more wary birds I cropped to as little as 25% of the original frame (much less than this and there aren't enough pixels).

On a page I just posted (Ndutu drive 10) I put up a cheetah uncropped (except for the horizontal edges) and then a tight crop from the same image ... this is about as much as I'd crop a bird pic. But this one was also with stacked tele-converters and none of the bird pics were shot stacked.

I remember your pics from Bots (I think you went with Charles G, right?) so thanks for the compliments ... I am trying to arrange a trip to Bots myself but can't find what I want.

Bill

Wonderful! For those of us following this daily it would be helpful if you gave us start points for each new batch (although it's great to view these incredible photos again).

Tom, thanks for all your comments and the Oscar If I ever hire a press agent you will be the guy ...

Hanuman - <b>Are you the same Bill Hilton who likes (or did like) to go marlin fishing on the reef?</b>

Probably. We went twice for a week each time, I think in '98 and '99. Once from Lizard Island and then south to the Ribbon reefs, the other time from Cairns and then north. Wrote an article about it for a fishing magazine.

Released a monster over 1,200 lbs the first trip and a handful of others 600-900 lb and an acquaintance fishing with Peter B. killed one 1,252 lbs the 2nd trip, so it was pretty incredible fishing.

I personally loved it and would have gone each year until the money ran out but living on a small boat was too harsh a trip for my wife, who has problems with skin cancer and diet allergies that make it hard for her on a small boat for a week.

Plus the heavy tackle, rough water and huge fish were a bit intimidating for her, though she got one about 600 lbs and lost one about 900. She enjoyed the morning snorkeling on the reef until that big shark swam up to check us out too.

I think on the last trip she may have let her discomfort spill over and we probably wouldn't be welcomed back on that boat, but if I won the lottery I'd go back for several weeks each year.

Bill

<b>For those of us following this daily it would be helpful if you gave us start points for each new batch</b>

Good idea ...
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/ta...07/ndutu-8.htm

WHAT A SMALL WORLD! Bill it's me - I'm the one who caught the 1,252 with Peter B. How the heck have you've been? Please email me at [email protected] and I hope to catch up on what we've both been up to. Great photos, I see we also share another passion and camera model as well!

<b>WHAT A SMALL WORLD! Bill it's me - I'm the one who caught the 1,252 with Peter B.</b>

You are Apiwat from Thailand? I'll be damned

Good to get in touch with you again, I last saw you at the small airstrip in Cairns when you and your family were flying to Lizard Island.

Will email separately and catch up!

Bill

<b>Hi Nikao, check the first pic for game drive 10, I think you guys were out this same morning based on your description of the incredible sky</b>
Based on your pics I would say this was our second morning, with the mist coming up with the sun. The first morning was more beautifull I must say.. (more orange colors instead of pink/blue)

<b>I hope the Ndutu lions were more active for you than for us because except for the cubs all these lions did was eat and sleep this trip.</b>
Well....we didn't even see them eat haha.. they were only lying around.. Allthough we saw the 4 females coming back from a hunt the 2nd morning.. but other than that..just sleeping lions

OK, finally a few more game drives posted, finishing up Ndutu with Ngorongoro to come later (due to the NCAA tourney probably a lot later) ... I think next trip I'll stick to cherry picking 20 or 30 images and stop since this is taking too much time

The new stuff starts here ...
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/ta...7/ndutu-11.htm

These pages cover the following:
11 - flamingos

12 - serval catching mice (including some high jumps), honey badger

13 - if Brad Pitt were a lion this is what he'd look like ... The Migration

14 - new-born gazelle fawn, cheetah mom with big cub, cheetah mom with 3 young cubs

Bill

Thanks Bill,i really enjoy your report by episodes,the great coffe table book like others said.

Again those serval pictures are amazing,you may consider yourself lucky but you also did the job and very well done,congratulations.

Paco.

Your pictures are so lovely they make me cry. If I see 1/2 as much as you did when we go in October I will die a happy woman.

Wonderful pictures and fabulous text. I liked reading about what goes into taking the photo, because it's so easy to think that things fall into place easily because the photos are so perfect.

I never saw the eagle-owl before and, of course, I liked Brad P, errr, I mean the lion. The small cats are such a treat to see as well.

CW

Bill and Carolyn,
I just looked over most of your report/pictures. If I had any pride, I would burn my negatives (if my digital memory had any) and I would just hit &quot;delete&quot; on the draft of my trip report. But what the heck, I'll just press on.

hguy47, DO NOT try to compare your pics with Bill and Carolyn's. I'd probably bury myself, my reports, my photos, and my entire safari experiences if I were to start to think that way.

Bill's bird pics look better than the way my eyes see the birds themselves. Maybe I need new glasses.

Bill, more great photos, as expected.
A few days ago I suggested to a poster here that his photos, in fact all photos, here on the web look better when seen against a black (or very dark) background. That is, NOT as seen in the KodakGallery or other galleries that put up the photos against a white background. My reasoning being that a white background is fine for reflected light viewing as for prints. However, for viewing with transmitted light source as with a PC monitor, a black background is better. With a monitor, to me, a (large) white background overpowers or washes out the colors in the photo. (A small white border like you use is good to separate and contrast the photo from the background).
You have any comments on this?
regards - tom

Leely, I agree with your comments. Not only have Bill and Carolyn upset my relationship with my bird photos, they have tainted all future birdwatching because what I see in real live doesn't look anything near as lovely as those photos. And when am I ever going to see a ground hornbill juggling a grasshopper?