Botswana - photos including pangolin!
 

Hi Everyone,

Here is the link to my photos. I hope it works! And I hope you enjoy them.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2105151737

My trip report is http://fodors.com/forums/pgMessages....mp;keyword=439

jjmb

Congratulations JJMB
This is the best collection of lion photos I have seen here in the year I've been in the forum. Many other great shots also. Nice crisp clean colors. What photo gear were you using? And this always comes up, what focal length (35mm equiv.) lens for the lions and then again for the birds? Did you flash for some night shots? Thanks for sharing.
regards - tom

Fantastic pix! The variety of lion action shots at Duba and Zib was amazing. Do you know the ages of the lion cubs at Zib?

Great bird pictures too. Lovely Zib sunsets/sunrises. Majestic cheetah poses. Not only did you get a pangolin on film, you got it in good light! A triumph.

Where did you see the aardwolf at Duba Plains? Just running along, in its den?

There was one photo that I think was a landrover going through water at Duba Plains. It looked like the vehicle was well submerged. Did you do a lot of "snorkeling" there?

Thanks for the wonderful pictures. Is image station a free site? I liked their setup.

WOW! Excellent! The elephant with the buffalos was huge! Too many to list favorites, they are all outstanding! Thanks for sharing them.
Dennis

Fabulous!

Fabulous photos.

Almost too many to take special note but a few favorites:
Really liked the composition of the the elephant with the water bufffalo.
Adored the very young giraffe and the lion portaits.
The birds in flight - the kestrel, the harriar, were special indeed.
Also very much enjoyed all of the smaller animal shots; the squirrel, the frog, fox and mongoose, but ezpecially the genet.

Thanks so much for sharing all these!

Wow, great shots of the pangolin and aardwolf. I have seen aardwolf at Savuti Camp, but haven't seen pangolin, yet.

jjmb,

Fantastic pictures!!! Loved them all......nice to see the duba boys, the silver eyed Tsaro lioness and my fav cheetah boys......some stunning light capturing the pics of the two of them.
Thanks for sharing.....now i'm going to read the trip report.

Hari

Jimb,

Thanks for sharing this impressive collection.

I especially liked the lions at Duba, some of your bird shots and of course the aardwolf and the pangolin, which I never saw.

Best regards,

Johan

Jjmb;

<b>WOW!</b> Beautiful - thanks for sharing!

Cyn

Stunning Images
Thanks

Jimb,

One little remark, the jackal at Duba Plains is a side-striped jackal.

Greetings,

Johan

Absolutely breathtaking photos! Thanks SO much!

How exciting that you saw a pangolin, a springhare and that colorful frog AND got fabulous photos of all! I so enjoyed your album. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks so much. Loved the birds!

Deb

Fantastic photos! Really brought me back to Duba Plains. Great bird shots, I am especially partial to owls and really liked the 2 pearl-spotted owls of which the 2nd at Zib is actually a barred owl identifiable by the white spots going up the wing to the shoulder so you can twitch a new bird if you are into that. The barred is in the same genus as the pearl- spotted and they look very much alike. Also, loved the barn owl. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for all the lovely compliments on the photos. How can one go wrong with such beautiful subjects? And it's nice for me to share them with people that love safari-ing as much as I do. Some of my friends don't get why we keep going back.

Now to answer the questions:
Tom - I use a Canon 10D, with a 75mm - 300 mm Canon lens (with IS). 99% of the birds are at the full 300mm. With the lions it varied a bit. I used a Canon flash for all the night shots (lion kill, springhare, leopard, dikkop, owls, etc.) I also used a monopod on those. I would stand it on my thigh or the seat of the jeep. I found that there were far fewer shaky shots than on previous attempts.

Atravelynn - the lion cubs at Zib were approx 8 weeks old. There was still a faint blue tinge to their eyes. At Duba, we actually saw 2 aardwolves (or the same one on 2 different days?)The first time we were watching a pair of jackals and we noticed another pair of ears, and it was just sitting in the sun outside it's den, very relaxed. Exciting for me, as it was a first. A couple of days later, we saw one trotting along. The water was getting high at Duba; at the point where the guide gets his seat wet, and we have to lift our bags and feet off the floor. And the floods are still coming in. Image station is a free site.

Johan - so right! Thanks.

Happy to share the pictures with all of you.

I, too, would be very interested in any special technique and lighting you used to get this marvelous collection of images. I guess this may be an example of the value staying in one place for an extended time.
Congratulations.

These are incredible. I had never even seen a photo of an aardwolf before. You had some amazing sightings.

Thank you for sharing those amazing pictures - quite inspirational. I still have 4 months to go before visiting Botswana and now I am really looking forward to Kwara and Duba Plains. :)