Tanzania, Africa - Day 9 - Hippo, Baboon, Lion, Elephant, Lizards and more

Welcome to Day 9 of our safari. This was our last day of being out in the wild, as the next day and a half would be travel back to the city and some much needed shopping for gifts. 

Even though we had a wet and wild ride to the Hippo pool the day before, we thought that is was worth another trip before making the long drive to our next resort.

As we were making our way towards the pool, we saw this large group of female Impala who were hanging out, and following the one male lead. I liked the way that they were all bunched up. I changed the settings of my Canon 1DX to f/11 so that most of the Impala would be in focus. I zoomed the Canon 100-400mm lens to 240mm to fill the frame with all the female Impala. 

After another 20 minutes of driving, we came to the Hippo pool once again.

As the evening before, there were many Hippo hanging out on this morning.

Mike was the first person to notice that some of the Hippo would come together, mouth to mouth, and form the shape of a heart.

This was the cropped photo I posted on Valentines Day. 

When looking at my photos from the afternoon before, I noticed that I did not have enough wide shots of the pool, and made sure to get some on this visit. This one large Hippo stood up in the background and I saw that as a great time to get my wide shot.

But with all the action happening in front of us, it was hard not to zoom in tight and take more photos like this. 

After taking a lot of photos of the Hippo, I decided that it was time to try something new. I decided to put on my Tiffen Digital HT Circular Polarizing filter to cut the light coming in to my camera, and try some slow shutter shots.

I was walking back to my vehicle to get the filter, when I turned back and saw many of our group taking their shots. I am glad that I took this photo of them, since it shows them in action and also gives you an idea of the shooting environment at the pool. 

I also decided to grab my Gitzo tripod with Acratech ball head to give me a sturdy platform for the slow shutter shots.

This first shot was taken at f/22, with the polarizer essentially turned off, giving me a shutter speed of 1/8 second. I was happy that the front Hippo stayed still, but wanted more motion in the water. 

For this next shot, I changed the camera to f/25 and achieved 1/5 sec. Good, but still not enough motion in the water.

Using the Tiffen HT Circular Polarizing filter at it's full potential, I was able to achieve a slow shutter speed of 1/2 second. Being that we were in morning light with cloud cover, this was not too shabby. And the effect was exactly what I was hoping for. I had good motion in the water, and the other Hippo, but my subject stayed nice and still for that 1/2 second, giving me a nice unique shot.

One last big mouth shot before heading out for the long drive across the Serengeti.

As we were leaving the Hippo pool, we saw a small group of Baboon along the side of the road. We would have kept driving (since we already had a lot of Baboon photos) but there were more babies. Time to stop once again.

(Canon 1DX, 100-400mm lens at 400mm, ISO 320, f/5.6, 1/800 sec) 

This little baby peeked around it's mother and I grabbed this shot. I love the look in this little one's eyes.

We were driving across an old stone bridge when our driver stopped and said that we had to wait. It turned out that a Monitor Lizard was crossing in front of us. I waited for it to get to the other side of the bridge and took this photo of the lizard looking back at me.

We also saw this Lilac-breasted Roller high atop a nearby tree.

Hey look - we came across another pride of Lion, and they were walking along the road.

The Lion walked from the road out into the grass. They were heading for this old tree and I was hoping they would climb it. Lucky me, a couple of them climbed up and stood watch up there.

Further along the same road, we saw these Elephant off in the distance. I asked our driver if it was possible to drive off road in the mud to get closer to them. Sam said that this should be no problem, so off we went.

I asked Sam to stop to give us this shot. I really liked the adult and baby Elephant in the foreground with the large rocks in the background.

In case you are wondering how close we got to the wild animals in Africa, check out this photo. This large Elephant walked right by one of our Land Cruisers and started throwing mud onto it's back. You can see all the mud flying in the air behind Tina and Mike. I think that Mike's smile says it all!

At one point, the baby decided to lay down and take a rest. The adult Elephant came by and used it's trunk to get it back up again. We all enjoyed this show.

We got about half way across the Serengeti and stopped for lunch at the park exit. While hanging out and getting ready to have a bite to eat, I saw these Agama lizard and was amazed by their colors. I figured that lunch could wait, and grabbed the camera to photograph these beautiful little guys.

And then after lunch, I continued my quest to get a nice shot of the male Agama. This guy was at the top of this rock, checking out me and my camera gear, and so I took his portrait.

Continuing on our long drive, we saw many more Zebra in their common stance, watching in both directions. 

We ended up back at the overlook over the Ngorongoro Crater. The weather was very different from our previous visit to this location. But it was a good chance to get some portraits of ourselves in this iconic spot.

Stay tuned for the blog of Day 10 - our last day in Tanzania.

And, for those of you who missed this amazing opportunity, we are going to do this amazing safari again next year...check out the site HERE to sign up for the 2017 trip! We have a limit of 12 people.

_________________________________________________________________________________

If you are interested in purchasing any camera 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.

_________________________________________________________________________________

And also, remember that you and your friends can enter your email address at the top right of this blog to get an email any time I write a new blog post or send my monthly newsletter.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Tanzania, Africa - Day 8 - Hot Air Balloon ride, Hippos and more

Our 8th day in Africa started out totally different from the first seven, with us getting up especially early and heading out for a hot air ballon ride over the Serengeti. We were up and out by 5:45am and made the 30 minute drive out to the launch site. We had overcast skies, but I was just happy that it was not raining. The night before, it had poured rain, and I thought that this would wash out our balloon ride. So many of us were excited about this excursion, it would have been a let down if we could not go. And it was Matt's birthday, making the day even more special.

We ended up with nice calm winds, and the pilot said that we were good to go!

The crew started by laying out the balloon...

For those of you wondering what equipment I brought for this ride, I decided to bring two cameras. I brought the Canon 5D Mark III with the 16-35mm lens and the Canon 1Dx with the 100-400mm lens. This gave me the option of shooting both wide and long shots, without the need to change lenses in the basket.

...and then used large fans to blow the cool morning air into them.

Once the balloons were partially inflated, they crank up the hot air to give the balloons lift.

The basket gently tilted up and we were off and flying. Here is a photo of our captain, Moses, controlling the lift.

As you can see from this photo. we started off cruising at really low altitude. This was really cool, since the last balloon ride I was on, we took off and went straight up.

A couple of minutes into our flight, I turned and looked back to watch the other balloons coming up behind us. I saw this pond of water and hoped that the balloon would come over for a cool reflection shot. I had just enough time to prep the other photographers for this moment, before cranking out these shots.

These reflection shots were my favorite from the balloon ride.

We saw this Hippo cruising across the Serengeti and followed it for a little while. It was really amazing to see how fast these multi-ton animals can move.

The day before our balloon ride, we had checked into the company's office to get a briefing and sign waivers. At that time, I asked them if there would be more than one balloon launching. They told us that there would be three. I was really happy about that, knowing that this would give us the opportunity to photograph from one balloon to another. For this shot, I waited for the other pilot to crank up the heat and hit my shutter. The dark sky helped to accentuate the flame.

We were cruising along when I saw this cat. I thought that I was seeing a Cheetah, but Moses told me that this was a Serval Cat.

Towards the end of our flight, we flew low over a pool of Hippo, which let us get some overheard shots of these massive creatures.

I took this last photo of the two trailing balloons, using the line of trees to create a visual element to draw the viewer's eye from the bottom of the frame to the top.

And then we ended our flight with a really nice champaign toast and a fancy breakfast out in the middle of the Serengeti. This was the perfect ending to the morning. The crew even surprised Matt with a birthday song and dance. This made all of our days!

We took a little break back at our camp before starting our afternoon safari. We pulled up and I saw this Superb Starling in a nearby tree and got this photo showing the amazing colors of this bird.

Then it was time to get back into the Land Cruisers to visit a Hippo pool for the first time.

For those of you who do not know, the Hippopotamus kill more people in Africa than any other animal. Look at these teeth. I don't think anyone would want to get near those!

The weird thing is...this is one of the rare places where you can get out of the vehicle to take photos. They have areas where you can stand and watch the Hippo from along the edge of the water.

As you can see, there were a lot of Hippo in the pool. Although, due to the plentiful rainfall, there was a lot of water in the area, so the Hippo were actually more spread out than usual. Mike, our fearless leader, told me that this pool was usually filled with way more Hippo than what we saw. The rain did give us one really nice benefit here. The abundant water meant that there was a strong current running down the river and keeping the pool clean. I was told that, in normal conditions, this pool of water smells really bad!

It is not uncommon for the Hippo to raise their heads and open their mouths like this. This may look like a yawn, but it is actually a threat gesture. They are showing their massive teeth, which can crush a small boat with one bite.

The Hippo are very protective of their turf and their young.

They like to spar with each other.

Hippopotamus actually means "river horse". How about that?

After an hour and a half at the Hippo pool, it was time to head back to camp for the night. But...

The rain had done a number on the access road, and one of our vehicles got stuck. The drivers and I got out and started gathering rocks. Sam, my driver, was very smart and used the jack to lift the back of the Land Cruiser. This helped us shove the rocks under the back tire and we got the vehicle out. 

Once we got the first vehicle out of the mud, we then had to get the other two through the mud maze. I walked ahead and took photos of this challenge. 

After this long day, we enjoyed another amazing dinner at the camp and a birthday cake for Matt. He said that it was the best birthday that he has ever had. And I know why!

Stay tuned for the blog of Day 9 and more.

And, for those of you who missed this amazing opportunity, we are going to do this amazing safari again next year...check out the site HERE to sign up for the 2017 trip! We have a limit of 12 people.

_________________________________________________________________________________

If you are interested in purchasing any camera 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.

_________________________________________________________________________________

And also, remember that you and your friends can enter your email address at the top right of this blog to get an email any time I write a new blog post or send my monthly newsletter.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Tanzania, Africa - Day 7 - Big Elephants, Big eggs, Little Lions and more

Here we were on the 7th day of our safari, the completion of our first full week in Tanzania. At this point, we were all fully adjusted to the time change and the slower way of life in Africa. And let me tell you, it was really nice to be away from televisions and radios for two weeks. We did have cell coverage in most locations, so we were able to stay reasonably connected with our families, and send limited posts to social media. But other than that, we were living life in the present and not living the over connected world for which we are accustomed. People often ask me to tell them my favorite part of the trip, and, other than seeing all the amazing wildlife, I think this was it for me. Being a "Type A" person, I never seem to slow down, so it was refreshing to experience this for a change.

On this morning, a couple of us thought it would be fun to walk around the Ndutu Lodge grounds before heading off on our safari. After a quick walk around the inner grounds we thought that maybe we would walk outside the grounds. We didn't walk far before seeing the lodge employees eyeing us, and realizing that this may not be the best idea. We headed back. And it is a good thing we did...

Not long after our "walk", we got into the Land Cruisers and started out for our safari. We could not have been more than a couple hundred yards from the lodge when we encountered this Lionesse and her cubs. Good thing we did not walk much farther. :)

Look how cute this little cub is!

We watch the Lionesse and cubs for a while and then continued on our way. We saw his lone Giraffe who was enjoying his Acacia breakfast.

This Marabou Stork was high atop this dead tree just waiting for it's portrait to be taken.

And just like the day before, we saw the massive migration of the Wildebeest. This time, I decided to grab the Canon 5D Mark III with the 24-70 II lens, and shoot a whole bunch of photos to build a panorama at a later time. Well, that time came yesterday. Here is the final image. You can click on it to make it bigger. The original PSD file, which consists of 13 RAW images, is just under 1GB and way too big to post!

We were driving along when Sam (our driver) stopped the car, once again with us wondering why we were stopping. Sam pointed out this incredibly large Ostrich egg, which had been left dormant. I had a chance to pick this up and fell it, and wow is this thing heavy! The shell is so thick that most animal can not open it. Sam was telling us that he watched Eagles pick up large rocks, fly high into the air, and drop the rocks down onto the egg to break it. That can't be an easy task.

We were slowly driving when I saw this dead tree and asked Sam to stop. There was something spooky about this tree, and I wanted to capture a couple of photos of this. After getting this shot, I decided to teach the group how to roll the zoom on their camera to get a different look. I was using my Canon 5D Mark III with the 24-70mm lens attached.

Here is the photo taken at 1/6 second while zooming the lens. Even spookier, right?

And then we came across a family of Elephant. I was back to using the Canon 1DX with the 100-400mm II lens to get in really close to these guys.

This was our first really close encounter with the Elephant, and it was amazing.

After getting a bunch of nice shots of the Elephant, I changed the settings of my Canon 1DX to ISO 100 at f/16. This gave me a shutter speed of 1/10 of a second. I carefully panned the 100-400mm lens along with the smaller Elephant to get this shot. This was not an easy shot, since I was zoomed all the way out to 400mm and trying to handhold the camera at such a slow shutter speed. Normally I teach my students that you want a shutter speed of equivalent to, or faster than, the focal length of the lens. This would have meant that I would have to photograph my subject at 1/400 sec. But that would not have given me the motion blur. I took the risk and it paid off. In case you are wondering, this was not the only photo I took. Many of the other successive shots did not come out this clear. Another reason why people should take a lot of photographs, especially when trying slow shutter shots.

At one point, this Elephant turned and started to walk away. I shot this photo of his back side. At first I debated on whether or not I should edit this one. But(t), the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.

Check out this baby Cheetah. Not only is the Cheetah a beautiful animal, but this little one was just precious.

Even though I had photographed the Impala numerous times over the last week, I was happy to capture this shot from the side of this large male. I really wanted a photo with both antler side by side like this.

Here is another photo of a Hyena. More about these animal in a minute...

During the afternoon, we had a long drive across the Serengeti to get to our next lodge. For those of you who do not know (and I didn't), the word Serengeti means "Endless Plains".  You can see from this photo how the area got this name. We drove for hours across these endless plains. I still remember standing up in the vehicle for much of the ride and loving the fresh air blowing in my face. It was awesome!

After the hours of driving, we came across this large group of Masked Weaver and their nests.

A close up of the Masked Weaver.

It is really fascinating to watch these male birds build their nests. Piece by piece, they gather the leaves and build these cool looking nests. After they are just about complete, the female will fly in and see if it is suitable to her. If not, she is out of there, and moves on to find a better nest and male.

This last photo is of two Topi. I liked the way that they were face-to-face for this shot. I was also drawn to the interesting purple color of their hides.

The day ended with us arriving at Ronjo Camp. This was our most rustic stop, but ended up being one of my favorite. Once again, we were staying in nicely decorated tents, with really comfortable beds, flushing toilets and "talking showers". For those of you, who are not familiar with "talking showers", check out this previous blog post.

Each of the two nights that we stayed in Ronjo, I would go to bed and hear Hyena right by my tent. Oh my goodness, these animal are loud! But it was exciting to hear them and I fell right to sleep.

And, for those of you who missed this amazing opportunity, we are going to do this amazing safari again next year...check out the site HERE to sign up for the 2017 trip! We have a limit of 12 people.

_________________________________________________________________________________

If you are interested in purchasing any camera 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.

_________________________________________________________________________________

And also, remember that you and your friends can enter your email address at the top right of this blog to get an email any time I write a new blog post or send my monthly newsletter.

_________________________________________________________________________________