Wonderful photos! Such variety and you are an excellent photographer.

Rocco, a 400mm lens is great. While I shoot film, not digital, so its difficult for me to post photos, I get very similar shots to napamatt -- by that I mean, full frame photos of animals, including full frame face shots. I use a Nikon F100 with a 200mm - 400mm zoom lens, and I also take a second camera with a 28mm-210mm zoom lens. So I cover a wide range of distances and with the 400mm lens you get great photos. I think if you go beyond 400mm, you'll need a tripod. Also, with a 400mm, you can get bird photos similar to what you see in magazines.

You do sacrifice depth of field with a 400mm zoom, but I kind of like the blurry background since the animal really stands out.

Test drive the 400mm at the LA zoo before you go, and stand far away from the animals. You'll be astounded at the photos.

Michael, I too like shallow depth of field and actually I usually adjust my settings to deliberately give me that affect if the auto settings are likely not to...

Photoholic, thanks very much for the detailed and thoughtful feedback. Elke is going to take it on board and play some more in July.

Rocco - this was the first time with the lens. She bought it just after Christmas and every time we went to our local dog park, where we get some great raptor action (not dog hunters though) the birds were MIA or the light was terrible. So this was the first real experience with the lense. Prior to that she had a 75-300.

Brenda - we went to savuti last September and had a great time. Our guide was Brian who is terrific and if you ask him to will saty out all day and all night. the channel is terrific for nocturnal mammals such as Bat Eared Fox, Aardwolf and Porcupine. the Elephant hide is a terrific experience, you are so close to them and they are totally aware of you, its wonderful. If its dry around then you will get lots of antelope in addition to the Elephant coming for a drink. Elke got her best Zebra pictures here.

We also visited Chiefs in October 2002, it was very hot, but a lovely camp with great staff and a great setting. We spent siesta time watchimng the procession of animals come to the waterhole. Ask your guide to make sure you get to the Simbira channel if possible, its very near Mombo and a spectacularly beautiful spot. Jonathan was our guide and I believe he is still there, if you get chance say hello from us.

Dear napamatt,
I have next to no internet skills but I tried to look at those photos and got onto a site that didn't resemble what I thought I should be looking for. I realise that everyone else seemed to have no trouble so what am I missing? I am particularly interested in photos from MalaMala as I have been there a couple of times each year for the past few years and I am hopefully returning there is December 2005. You mentioned leopard cubs and I was wondering which female was the mother - Campbell Koppies Female or Jakkalsdraai Female, as I did see both lots in December 2004. Hoping that you can give me some tips on how to see these photos.

Thank you, Kaye

napamatt,

Tell Elke to keep on practising. I thought she may be interested in this book. It is only small, but gives some real insights. Easily fits in the pocket for travelling!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...924357-2566237

Kaye

We saw the Jakkalsdraai female and her cubs. Having seen her mother, the Kapen female in 2002 and also in 1994 as a six month old with her sister the White Cloth female and their mum the Trollips Crossing female we are on our fourth generation of the same family. We did not see Campbell Koppies this time, but saw her half sister Kikilezi who surprised us one morning. We were looking in tall grass near camp for her being directed by Leon and John when Elke for some reason turned to her left and there was Kikilezi standing on a dead tree limb not six feet from us at eye level. If she had coughed it would have been priceless.

Photoholic - thanks I will buy it.

Kaye

My usual problem, so busy talking Leopards I forget to answer the question. Just cut and paste the link and it should take you to snapfish, where you will need to create a free account, then you can view the album.

Napamatt: I have been unable to access your photos. Would you please send me the address again? I tried and came up with nothing but Kodak's page. Your trip description sounds so wonderful. Susan ([email protected])

Susan

I sent the link to your e-mail address. You will need to create an account to view the pictures.

Or use bugmenot.com to find a login you can use instead of registering...

Kavey thanks bugmenot.com was a new one to me and I've just used it.

Yeah, fab ain't it?

Gotta check whether my URL's are on there.