Kavey

How did I miss this? (Aaah, just checked the date, I was away myself).

WELCOME back and thanks for the report! Sounds like a fabulous trip!

vicki1

Hi Carla,

Love the photo's that you took. They are fantasic. Did you really take them with a Canon S2!. What else did you have to take such terrific shots.How did you get so close to the animals.I am very interested as I am going to South Africa next year for the second time and would like to buy a new and easy camera to use.I have a slr Canon at the moment.Did you have it set to Auto or did you adjust it.Please let me know. Regards Vicki

CarlaM

Vicki, it was just my little ol trusty Canon S2. And believe me, I had lens envy as all my other vehicle mates had some impressive camera gear. Getting close to the animals was thanks to our rangers/trackers. I shot on manual and used the cloudy or foliage modes most of the time. Occasionally I would try the auto mode. We had all sunny days at Mashatu and all cloudy days at Mala Mala so that played havoc with the photos. I used my video mode quite a bit more on this trip which is fun to watch now that I am home. Thanks for your comments. I just enlarged my Mala Mala leopard photo to an 11x14 and all I can say is WOW~ I really need to start printing and framing some of my favorites rather than leaving them on my computer.

cary999

Once again, just now, in Sep I took the S2 primarily for its video mode. It also does mighty nice still shots. Carla, try having Costco make some large prints for you, 11x14 for only $2.95. 12x18 same price. You may find a difference between what you see on your monitor and the Costco print. Color management is the problem. You may have to make a test print with Costco, if you don't like it they will refund cost. Then tweek the original photo jpg you give Costco. The idea being to correct for their printing/your monitor difference so you get prints you like.

For S2 settings (stills and video) I use the "P" mode with white balance set for "cloudy", and auto ISO. This makes for somewhat "warmer" photos that I like. Especially with overcast skies and even night shots with vehicle headlights look fine.

regards- tom
ps - I also had too many cloudy days on safari. Usually makes for flat looking photos. Trip report coming in a little while, Kings Camp and Ngala Lodge.

CarlaM

Thanks Tom. When I bought my memory cards at Costco there were coupons for 50 free prints in each package so I have 200 free prints coming. Probably for 4x6 though.

For anyone interested, there were 25 wild dogs at Pete's Pond today on the Wildcam. 13 adults and the 12 pups visited (for the first time)!! Very exciting news. &lt

But no one go to Mashatu...it's really crummy there!!!

CarlaM

Here is a video from YouTube of the Wild dogs and pups:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt4eQ_0oKfU

cary999

Hi Carla - Watched first 3 minutes, assuming next 6 minutes are the same. Did he ever zoom in so to see a dog big on screen? Needs much editing. No color, except sepia, in the video. YouTube problem? Decent sound.

How's your S2 video editing coming? Maybe someone here will offer an easy way. I use the program TMPGEnc or edit in Proshow. Have you tried editing in the camera?

Have you read sniktawk's recent report on Mashatu? Your experience much better than his, yes? Sundowner agree with you?

regards - tom
ps - where's Sundowners photos using that colossal Canon lens?

GreenDrake

Great scene Carla - pups plus elands!! I was wondering if they feed upon elands. Quick web search on The African Wild Dog Conservation website states they will feed on more medium sized antelopes. They will chase eland and buffalo, but rarely kill them.

Off to Mashautu in 2 weeks and hoping to get a first hand look at the pups!

scootr29

GreenDrake = Lucky

atravelynn

Carla, The word that came to mind when the video played was swarming. Dogs everywhere and coupled with eland, what a unique combo!

I'd be interested in your observations of collared animals, #s in your vehicle, horseback riding trips that you may have encountered and jumping courses. Sniktawk was not happy with some of these things on a recent Mashatu trip and I wondered if you noticed them as well.

Thanks Carla!

CarlaM

Green Drake, it is really interesting to watch the interaction between the wild dogs and other animals. Quite frequently we watch them "play" around with the waterbuck at the pond. Waterbuck are so amazing how they guard each other and especially their young. A couple weeks ago one of the females chased the dogs away. I will see if I can find the video, it was great. I haven't heard of them catching anything bigger than impala (and there are thousands at Mashatu). The Elands are multiplying like crazy there at the moment.

I didn't check out the horse safari's. We saw several leopard on our regular game drives and only one collared while with Andrei, the predator researcher. I think he said there were 4 total that were collared. We saw cheetah every day except one and none were collared. Out of the thousands of elephants that are there, 4 are collared. None of this was any surprise as I had researched and read every page on the website about their activities. We saw lions and none were collared.

The 4 of us had our own vehicle the entire time except on 2 game drives which we shared with one other couple. If we had any special requests, they were happy to oblige. We were up before sunrise and out on drives when the sun came up and stayed out way past the normal time. I never felt we were shorted time on game drives for one minute. Even after our poor tracker got smacked in the head with a large tree branch, he wanted to stay out but we thought it would be best to go back to camp.

I am sure Cindy will be happy to chime in. This was a return trip for her to Mashatu and Mala Mala.

CarlaM

Green Drake,
Here is that video taken at the Pond of the wild dogs and the waterbucks. It gets interesting around the 3-1/2 min mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-eEjJmXb8E

These are not my videos from the trip, but captures taken on the Nat Geo Africa Wildcam.

GreenDrake

scoote29 - you have that right. In fact all of us that have had the opportunity to see these animals in the wild are one lucky bunch!!!


Carla - thanks for the link! I have been trying to time my peeks at the webcam to try to catch them live and have just missed them several times. I tell you watching a mother waterbuck protecting her young against this pack is one impressive sight!

Not sure if you have seen this one from the Pond, but I came upon this one on youtube right after I viewed your link. 14 dogs versus 3 female waterbucks and their 2 calfs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxmXLfzqBWw

CarlaM

Yes GreenDrake, that was one of my other favorite interactions.

The wild dogs and pups just made another appearance at the pond. The pups are really growing fast!

CarlaM

Here is the link to Cindy's (Sundowner) photos:

http://www.pbase.com/cjw

CarlaM

This is hysterical! Talk about lens envy. A mystery person took this photo of us at Mashatu... we have no idea who... and posted it on this website. Cindy found it accidentally while googling info about the release of the wild dogs.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=537800

cary999

Ok, found it, way down past the wild dog photos. (Nice shots).

That's you in the center with that little silver thing, right? Well, at least it's a Canon and not Nikon

regards - tom

KayeN

Hi Carla

What a coincidence that Cindy even found this photo! So, you never know who is taking your photo. Fancy taking a photo specifically of you guys with all your camer equipment - as amazing as Cindy's camera stuff was! You really don't see those huge lenses a lot and I still laugh when I think of how much fun Rob had when other rangers arrived at the sighting!

Kind regards

Kaye

CarlaM

Yeah Kaye, you just never know! So not only were we being spied on at Mashatu, but by the smelly ones at Mala Mala too.

Oh Tom, I forgot to tell you that Rob is no longer at Mala Mala. I don't know what happened but was sad to hear the news.

sundowner

It is kind of weird to find a picture of all of us on the web. Katie was disappointed that she wasn't in the picture

Rob's gone? So sad! Every ranger I've had at MM has left shortly after I've been there. Tim, Leon and now Rob.