jenack

Howdy,
Here are some pics of my recent trip. Sorry for the personal photos at the beginning, but I made the album for family, and did not feel like making another, as I have been spending countless hours making a movie, which I finally finished!! Anyhoo, enjoy them, and if you have any questions about where things were shot, just ask!!
thanks

http://picasaweb.google.com/billygoldner/Fodors

matnikstym

Great pics! Love the chimps kissing! Mahale looks very nice!

cybor

Fabulous pictures.
Loved the Thompson birth, the wilderbeeste capture at the river crossing, the zebra pics. (the b+w one was outstanding. Excellant.

Would love to hear any and all details that you're up for sharing - itinerary, time of year, where you stayed, etc.
Thanks

jenack

Thanks a lot everybody; I see such beautiful pictures from so many posters here that I was almost not going to post, as I thought I had nothing to offer. I did not really feel that I used the light effectively(although I really learned a lot over the course of the trip regarding angles and times of day to shoot!!), and I felt my exposures were off and that I really needed a longer/faster lens to get clearer shots. But I did feel that a lot of my compositions were good, and that I had some off-beat and interesting shots, so I went for it, and I really appreciate the positive feedback. Plus I enjoy looking at other people's photos, even when they are not that good technically, so I figured what the heck.
Cybor, I posted some information under this thread:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35077919

I probably should have posted the photos to that thread to keep everything together.
I kept a journal, not really for day to day and minute by minute sightings and doings, but for informational things so that I could be of help with people who are interested in the camps/parks I saw, so any questions anyone has, please ask away.

I wrote a lot about the Mara camps; Ruaha was far and away my favorite park and favorite overall experience. Flycamping for 4 nights was an incredibly intimate and special experience with regards to feeling part of the scene as opposed to being a spectator. Nobody around except our host, and the camp staff which set up their tents about 75 yards away, so we never even knew they were there. Loved the bucket shower and even the drop toilet just sitting out there in the woods, and going to bed on a tiny bedroll on the ground in a tiny dome tent listening to every crackle right outside. Ruaha is a rough and rugged place, incredibly beautiful and dry, with many different landscapes which constantly change, from dried up river beds to small plains to steep mountain passes to river oasis, with a wild variety of trees, from the stunning and twisted baobab to the sausage tree to the palm tree....yeah, palm trees!! wild. The animals were in abundance, and when you came across them, they were in big groups; rarely did we see 1 or 2 lions, it was always 12 or 14, same thing with elephants and giraffe. The animals are not surrounding you like in the Mara, they take more work to find, but when you find them it is in a beautiful scene, and you are all alone, and every sighting feels so special. The two hour flight from Arusha is a breeze and they operate regularly, so it is not hard at all to get to Ruaha.

jenack

We had a leopard staying just at the edge of our flycamp for our entire stay, and a huge bull elephant came to camp one day and stood eating 30 yards away from where we were sitting; having an elephant in a camp like that where we had nowhere to run or hide except behind a tree is really exhilarating. Except, of course, when my father in law got too close trying to take a snapshot and the elephant burst out of the trees trumpeting and stamping his feet. Luckily it was just a false charge, because he was so close that if had not stopped he was already on us. That was kind of scary!!

thit_cho

Thanks, those are great.

The lion posing on the rock looks like a postcard.

going_2_africa

Thanks for sharing your photos. I'm glad you decided to. You have some really great shots.

cw

Loved your photos. Thanks for posting them. The hippos and the crocs are amazing. You have some really good pictures.

CW

schlegal1

Great photos! I always enjoy photos and yours were delightful.

Could you please re-post with spaces between the place names in your title--it's messing up the left scroll-bar. After you re-port, let this one sink past the first 50.

Thanks.

waynehazle

I am still going through these but I had to give a shout out about the baby Top!

cary999

and thanks for using no spaces in your subject (words run together with only commas) and screwing up the subject column width

regards - tom

Patty

Please continue the discussion here http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35077919 Thanks!

gatoratlarge

Wow! Those are great! Documentary good! Went to Mahale a number of years ago---very tough place to get good pics of the chimps---we got a few but they tend to absorb all the light and look like black blobs...one of the most beautiful places in Africa in my book!

raelond

Enjoyed your pictures. We are overnighting in Amsterdam on our way to Tanzania in March. Can you recommend a hotel in Amsterdam?

jenack

Raelond, For one night stayover you can't really go wrong with the hotel, it all depends on what your interests are and what part of town you want to be in. Are you exploring the city, or just sleeping before another flight? In case of the latter you should probably stay at the hotels at the airport. We landed at 7am and left the next night at 6pm, so we could hang out in the city. We like to explore and walk a lot, and did not want to stay in a very crowded, touristy area, so we stayed in the Jordaan, and from there we easily walked the whole inner city. We stayed at the Canal House, on a very quiet residential canal. Lovely place, but a bit pricey, might not be necessary. I would start with what part of town you want to be in.