Safari Camp Photo Album - Contributions Needed!
 

Hello,

Just as all men are handsome and all women are beautiful in the dark, all safari camps look brilliant when being photographed by a highly paid professional photographer who takes pictures of the best room in camp in the best possible weather and lighting.

I've received a lot of requests for my pictures of Londolozi and Duma Tau, which got me thinking -- now that we have the Trip Report indexes and the Photo Kit in a Bag thread, why not start a Safari Camp/Lodge Photo Album with photos taken by real travellers?

This could help out both people who want to know whether they will like a camp, and those who want to know what the best rooms are in a given camp.

So now I'm asking everyone to send me their camp and lodge photos (Southern and East Africa), ideally re-sized for Kodak. I'll put together a set of albums by country and post the link here for people to access.

To make the albums as useful as possible, it would really help to have the following information:

1. Name of camp/park/country
2. Room number and type (e.g. Suite 1, Mombo Main Camp) or name of public room (e.g. Boma, Londolozi Tree Camp)
3. Month and year of visit
4. Any comments about the room/camp (e.g. 'This room has a great view!')
5. Your Fodors username (unless you would prefer not to have it posted) so people know who has stayed at that camp

Pictures of interiors, exteriors, views from rooms, and shots of camp dining areas/pools/spas/etc will all be helpful.

Cheers,
Julian

Hello,

For those who don't use Kodak:

Aim for a maximum file sze of about 0.7 MB or 1008 x720 pixels -- this will enable the images to load quicker, particularly for people without broadband.

If the above seems to be written in a foreign language, you can always send the full-size file and I will downsize it as needed. It's just faster to get them up on the web if the photos are already downsized.

Cheers,
Julian

Hello,

Sorry -- please send files as JPEGs if possible.

Cheers,
Julian

Julian,

Good idea. Ok, will look for camp pics...

Hari

I have pics from Mashatu, July 2003. If you want, you can take them from http://www.pbase.com/cjw/mashatu_ten...a&page=all (just right click)

nice idea!

Julian - Thanks for putting this together. For the camp info, would you like to have it embedded into the jpg? That is, written directly on to the jpg at the bottom of the image so that it shows on the image when viewed. Or would you rather have the written info in some other format, separate from the jpg?
regards - tom

Thank you very much for this wonderful idea and for undertaking the task. As someone who will be going to Southern Africa for the first time in October, I look forward to seeing what turns up. I only wish I had known about this Fodor's Forum before we settled on our itinerary and our travel agent. I can well imagine that I might have made a few changes. On the other hand, the discussions here have made me relatively comfortable with our plan.
I've been trying to participate when I can (such as on photography discussions) so that I can be a responsible member of this community but obviously haven't been able to add anything specific about the destinations. In order to encourage additions by those who have been to the places we're going, I'll list the places we're visiting. I'm not completely obsessed by food but I think I may have to make reservations at some restaurants fairly soon so that's why I'm listing the possibilities (all gleaned from comments on this Forum).

JOBURG, early AM arrival - Airport Intercontinental. Recuperate from trip from L.A. and ?? -- perhaps Apartheid Museum. What is a good 1st day activity?
LONDOLOZI Tree Camp 2 nights
JOBURG - The Grace 2 nights -- Soweto & Cradle of Humankind tours. Dinner at Yum and maybe Moyo, Auberge Michel, Soi, The Butcher Shop, or Pomegranate?
VIC FALLS, The Royal Livingstone 2 nights -- hoping to take a micro or ultra light flight (though my husband refuses to do it)
SAVUTI Game Reserve 2 nights
VUMBURA PLAINS 2 nights
MOMBO 2 nights
JOBURG Airport Intercontinental 1 night
WILDERNESS, Wilderness Manor 2 nights Explore Garden Route. Dinner at Pomodoro. Any suggestions for highlights accessible from Wilderness would be greatly appreciated.
PRINCE ALBERT, De Bergkant Lodge 1 night -- stop in Oudtshoorn along the way. Dinner at ?
FRANSCHHOEK La Petite Ferme 1 night. Dinner at Bon Vivant. Lunch Bread & Wine or Picnic at Boschendal, Cotage Fromage
CAPE TOWN, Cape Grace 4 nights -- Dinner at The Showroom, Ginja/Haiku, Bukhara, Africa Cafe/Mama Africa/township restaurant. Picnic from Melissa's in Kirstenbosch. High Tea at Mt. Nelson

Nice one Julian, I can't wait to send you the photos of the long drop toilets in TZ ;-)

Marvelous idea Julian thanks!!!

Matt - hurry! You may be able to set one of my pre-trip jitters nightmares at rest :))

Hi,
Great idea - I have got pics of Okonjima, Impalila, Ongava and Little Kulala in Namibia that I can look out for the album.
Would you include national park accommodation too? I also have pics of restcamps at Kruger and Etosha.

This is a brilliant idea. It seems that many people returning from safari post trip reports and some do put up photos - but almost entirely of animals. And it's great to get itinerary help but photos of lodges or camps with pertinent comments would be really useful in helping those of us in the planning stages. Has this project gotten underway ? Where to look ?

Brilliant idea, Julian, I'll definitely try and find some photos to contribute if I can...

Julian: Fantastic idea! Ditto re: pulling pics from our pbase galleries. As you know, some of these camps are no longer open. I also do not remember the tent numbers we stayed in for any of the camps...sorry!

http://www.pbase.com/deseml/camps_and_lodges
Sept 2002 Kenya - Larson's (Mara), Mara River (Mara), Tortilis (Amboseli), Indian Ocean Lodge (Malindi)
Oct 2002 Tanzania - Tamarind (Tarangire)

http://www.pbase.com/deseml/camps
June 2003 Botswana - Kings Pool, Jao and Little Mombo

Hello,

Glad to see such a great response to this idea -- hopefully the album will be helpful to a lot of people!

For the camp info, it's probably best to send it separately from the JPEG -- I don't think Kodak enables you to read information imbedded in the JPEG so I'd have to enter the comments separately.

Thanks for your contributions! Unless I hear otherwise, I'll assume that people are fine about my putting their Fodors username with the pics so people will know who stayed at each camp.

Cheers,
Julian

PBase users,

I have a Mac, not a PC, so I can't 'right-click' -- how can I download the photos?

Great pics by the way!

Cheers,
Julian

Julian-
Would be easier for you if we sent jpgs to you at your email address? Send them as attachments? Then you would not have to search them out from slide shows or whatever. They would be there, bang, in your mailbox. The only problem I can see with this is matching the photo together with the correct description/info. Also, in Photoshop, and probably most other jpg editing programs, you can add text on to the jpg itself. The text becomes part of the image/jpg. I think it would be good if possible, that each image have at least simply the camp name on it so that there are no mix ups. But you are the one doing the work so however want it is ok with me.
regards - tom
ps - if you are looking for a good and versatile jpg viewer try IrfanView. (Irfan is the name of the developer). It is free to download, very intuitive to use, you can color correct, crop, add text, resize, create slideshow, and more. Veeerrry easy to use.
http://www.irfanview.com/

Julian, if you can't "right click", how do you steal people's pictures? Just kidding! Can you "File/Save as" and store them on your harddrive until you upload them? I can send them to you in an email but you still have to save them to your computer to upload them so it's all about the same. Except taking them off of pbase keeps your email from getting full.

I'm new to the Mac world but I think if you use control-click, it is the substitute for right click, and you can save the image that way.

CW

Sundowner,

That is funny...I was alarmed for a second and then rushed my eyes back up to the top to see the author before relaxing a bit and then seeing it was all in good fun.

It is only stealing if you get caught! ;) --Anonymous

okay, so I have never seen it written before but don't want it attributed to me! :)