The monkeys and baboons of Tanzania, Africa

When people think about the wildlife in Africa, they typically think of lions, elephants, zebras and giraffe. But along with those animals, there is also an abundance of monkeys and baboons. Although the baboons can be a bit pesty and aggressive, they are also fun to photograph.

Today's blog post is all about the monkeys and baboons in Tanzania.

Throughout the month in Tanzania, we encountered many troops of Vervet monkeys. They generally hang in packs between the size of 10-70 animals. They have very human-like characteristics and are fun to photograph. For most of these images I used the Canon 1D X Mark II camera with the Canon 200-400mm lens. I should also mention that I shot almost the entire safari on one 256GB Pro Grade Digital memory card.

As our guests were photographing the monkeys I kept reminding them to wait until the animals had catch light in their eyes before firing the shutter. For those of you who are not photographers, the catch light is that little burst of light that shows life in the animal's eyes. It is most prominent when the animal looks into the sun or out into the sunlight of the day.

This little baby vervet was looking down at me as I shot up into the tree.

This monkey cracked me up with his different hand positions, And I was happy that he was sitting in perfect sunlight.

And then there are the baboons which are everywhere in Tanzania. We see a lot of these primates while on our photo tours in Africa. They have existed in Africa for more than 2 million years.

The baboons and monkeys will feed on the termites, and can be seen climbing termite mounds for a snack or just to get a good view of their surroundings.

This little one was getting it's nourishment from mom...

...while this little one was hitching a ride.

I have been to the Ngorongoro Crater 5 times now and know that the baboons like to hang out by the "check-in" gate. I usually prep our photo tour guests to get their long lenses ready at this location to get some tight baboon shots. At this location, the primates are used to people and will not run away. Actually, it is worse than that. They will scavenge food from any vehicle that is not totally secure.

I saw these baboons breaking into a vehicle and laughed as I quickly raised the camera and got this shot of them exiting the Land Cruiser.  Their guide scared them out of the vehicle but not before they stole food from the unsuspecting tourists.

Having close access allowed us to get some nice shots of the mothers and their babies.

And we got some great facial expressions too. You can see that the baboons have dog-like muzzles. Under those muzzles they have very powerful jaws and extremely sharp canine teeth. Believe it or not, they eat not only insects and small birds, but they actually eat the vervet monkeys too.

This is my favorite baboon shot from the trip. I just love the clean coat and the piercing eyes.

All the guests enjoyed watching the baboons interacting with each other.

Ahhhhhhhh.....

This was one of the younger baboons that we saw.

Before and after a little nursing session.

The female baboons have a 6 month gestation period and only give birth to one baby at a time. These primates typically live for 30 years in the wild.

I hope you are enjoying my "blog by animal type" this time around. So much more to come.

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If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

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Come and see me at the WPPI show next week!

I am back from Africa and right back to shooting senior portraits and a big event this weekend. Then I take off for a week in Las Vegas where I will be presenting at the WPPI show.

If you have not signed up for this photo show, you can click HERE to get a free expo pass and save money on platform classes as one of my guests.

Here is where you can find me next week:

Wednesday, Feb 27

10:30 to 11:30am - Tiffen (Booth #347)

12pm to 1pm - Zenfolio (Booth #556)

4pm to 5pm - Camera Bits (Booth #1249)

Thursday, Feb 28

11am to 12pm - Zenfolio (Booth #556)

12:30pm to 1:30pm - Tiffen (Booth #347)

Friday, Mar 1

10:30am to 12:30pm - Master Class: Streamline Your Way to Success: The Ingredients to Running a Profitable Business (Tradewinds D)

WPPI is my favorite trade show, not only because of the quality of the education, but also because it is a great place to hang out with so many amazing photographers. If you have never been, you should come and check it out. And for those of you already signed up, I look forward to seeing you all in Las Vegas next week.


__________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

__________________________________________________________________________ 

Tanzania, Africa - Endless herds of elephants

The one consistent thing about safaris is that there is nothing consistent about them. One year you might see very few sitings of a particular animal and another year an abundance. This year we saw a record number of elephants on our photo tours, and it was awesome!

I am excited to share the images with all of you.

Here is a family of elephants in varying age groups. African elephants can live up to 60 years.

I captured this photo of these elephant in front of the infamous Baobab trees which can only be found in the lower elevations of Africa.

I shot this photo at a slower shutter speed (1/125th of a second) to get some motion blur in this elephant's tail.

This photo was taken at 1/1250 of a second to capture the elephant feeding. Their trunks are comprised of approximately 40,000 muscles and are strong enough to rip large branches from the trees. They also use their trunks to suck up water and spray it into their mouths.

We saw herds everywhere, on land and in the water.

I love the varying colors and textures in these amazing creatures. Did you know that the wrinkles in the elephant's skin helps them cool down their bodies? The body heat is released through the creases in their skin, helping them release up to 75% of their body heat.

You will notice that many of my elephant photos here were taken wider to show more of the environment. I made a note in my iPhone to remind myself to shoot wider on this trip. It seems that every time I see these massive animals, I tended to use the Canon 1D X Mark II with the Canon 200-400mm lens to shoot very tight on them, but wanted to change that on this go around.

For most of these wider photos, I used the Canon 5D Mark IV with the Canon 24-105mm lens.

Elephants touch each other often, for greeting, playing and social interaction. Look at the interaction between this young elephant and its mother. So precious.

We saw this herd of elephant coming down this path and parked our vehicle to be right in front of them as they approached.

More young elephants....Ahhhhhhhhhh.

You will notice that older sibling is starting to grow its tusks. They grow throughout their lives and most elephants will favor one tusk over the other, much like we favor our right or left hand.

It is quite common for the elephants to spray themselves with water to cool them off in the summer heat.

I saw this interaction between the mom and sibling with this little baby and loved it.

We were photographing this large herd when this tiny baby appeared and happily pranced through the grass towards us. These are very social animals with the capacity to experience happiness, sadness, fear, remorse and excitement.

This cute little one seemed very happy.

I waited for the baby to catch up to its mother and captured this shot to show the difference in their sizes. This is one of my favorite photos from the trip.

The soil in the Tarangire National Park is very red, and the elephants frequently throw that soil and mud on themselves. The soil acts as sunscreen for the elephants. I really liked the coloring and curled trunk on this one elephant.

At one point, we had this one young elephant come right up to our Land Cruiser to check us out. I quickly changed from the long lens to the Canon 24-105mm lens and shot this image at 85mm.

Elephants can be very playful. Here are some youngsters playing around. I laughed as I shot this photo since it reminded me of a circus pose.

These two elephants were sparring for quite a long time. It was like watching two teenagers rough housing.

I think that we saw more than 400 elephants last month and it was an absolute joy to watch these gentle giants in the wild.

Next up on the blog will be giraffe, baboon, cheetah, lion and more.

__________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

__________________________________________________________________________ 

Tanzania, Africa - Lions and Leopards in trees

I have been here in Tanzania for a month now and tomorrow is my last day here in Africa until I return in August. This was my third and fourth safari photo tours here in the country and it never ceases to amaze me how each safari is so different from the other. In my previous safaris I had never seen a big cat perched in a tree, but this was something I always wanted to see.

As I said, things are ever changing here in Africa, and over the past 3 weeks of safari (with a one week break in Zanzibar) I have seen many lions and leopards perched in trees.

I am excited to share some of these photos with you now.

One of our guides found this leopard hanging out in a tree. There were some branches in the way, so I could not get a clean shot.

Unlike many people who come on safari and want to go from one siting to another, we decided to wait a little to see if the leopard would come down from the tree.

Our guide, David, predicted that the cat would come down fairly quickly and he was right.  I was excited to get this clean shot on the cat's exit.

At one point we came across a large family of lions who were sleeping in the grass. Once again, we stayed with the lions as they moved from one location to another. This one lioness rewarded us with a climb in the tree that was right to the left of our vehicle. Using my Canon 1D X Mark II and the Canon 200-400mm lens, I framed this photo of her making sure to include a little bit of the acacia trees in the background.

I also grabbed my Canon 5D Mark IV with the Canon 24-105mm lens to get an ever wider shot. I love them both and can't decide which is better. Your thoughts?

We were having fun taking photos of the one lioness in the tree to our left when all the other family members started climbing a tree to our right. As you can see here, we witnessed 9 lions in this tree at a time!! Even our guide has never seen so many lions in a tree. The lighting was not ideal, but the plethora of lions made the photo.

I know...this isn't lions in a tree, but these three were walking down the road towards this tree, and I loved the composition, so it makes it here in the blog.

Here is yet another lioness in a tree. The sun was shining and throwing harsh light and shadows on the cat. I decided to use my Canon 600 EX-RT flash to try and demonstrate how a flash can throw light a long distance and help mitigate shadows.

A couple of days later, we found this lioness lounging in a tree. This time, it was overcast and the light was perfect. We saw these giraffe coming into the background and waited for this moment to start shooting.

I was shooting images of this lion when I saw her start to yawn. I always fire off a lot of shots when the cats yawn, since it looks so ominous. Most people think that these images show an animal that is mad or aggressive, but most of the time this is not the case. Either way, it makes for some dramatic images.

We saw so much wildlife over the last month that I look forward to sharing more images with you in the weeks to come.

__________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

__________________________________________________________________________