m8o in Tanzania '07

[daacon]

Since the mini challenge is wildlife I surrender ! Fantastic photo's - an amazing place to visit and you have the best weapon for a Safari

[m8o]

lol ... are you referring to this submission...? (one from the entire baboon clan up in a sausage tree looking down at eh lioness below on the prowel...you think he could have gotten further out on that branch??? )


Much thanx all. More to come today in a few hours ... excerpt from the 1st 1/2 day of my 2nd day out (and a link to the rest). It has become painfully slow going now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing in Lightroom and 'eye' for it. I fall into trying for perfection, which is -really- slowing down the works. I've only gotten through converting 1/2 day's of shots in the last three days! At this rate it'll be more like a month 'til I'm done. ARGH...

[m8o]

Boy, 8/12 was a good day in Tarangire. Here's some excerpts covering less then 1/2 a day, our 2nd day out. (a link to the 'best of' gallery: 070812 - [Best of] Tarangire National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com ... there's a separate gallery for the Zebras, Baboons, Elephants, others, and more to come for Giraffes)

Still using the 300mm w/1.4x TC ... still had the polarizer filter in place w/o realizing, so didn't turn-it and make use of it properly. There's a few pix that display the polarizing 'signature' tho. Like the 2nd landscape photo below.

(not in chronological order)
While driving from camp into the Park, I shot some pix of the two most dramatic trees in the area.
The 'tree of life' all over in Tarangire. Amazing how the elephants rips the bark off, or holes through the whole thing, or gouge 1/2 the trunk out and the tree keeps living. Here's a unmollested version:


I had the driver/guide stop as I saw the mountain stacked behind the tree. The 'polarizing signature' I was talking about, with color enhanced in Lightroom:


Got some sharper birds this day then the day before:




Tho don't look at the full rez original of this below cus it's -real- noisy (morning clouds hadn't burned off ; was practically raining)

A closer view:


The morning was primarilly filled with primates and zebras. But there were some others....

Like the Dik-Dik:


And elephants are everywhere in Tarangire ... this one needed a Q-tip:

and some others.

We got into the park pretty early. This one must have missed morning call... Or is the tough monkey life just too much for this one?


Is one bite'n the other one's wiener?!

...and...umm....

Monkey's version of "you wash my back I'll wash yours"?

...continued in next post...

[m8o]

I mentioned Primates and Zebras filling the morning. You see, we had a very wildlife filled 100 yards.

We first came upon a pretty decent sized heard of Zebras:

You can see by example here the stripes doing what are meant to do; confuse the eyes.

We moved on after a good while. Though I didn't get a lot of good shots at that point (the pic above is actually from a few minutes later when we came upon the baboons below). Dunno exacly why; had trouble focusing.

We immediately came upon baboons to the right and left of us. Stopped a while then moved on. And passing a bush on our left immediately came upon ... well...

(not very sharp )

As we were approaching, and I'll 'assume' the male was done, the female spun around an immediatly started grooming the male.

Is it just me, or is this the same behaviour exhibitted by humans after sex? The dreamy eyes of the female looking at the male, and the complete dis-interest of the male looking off some other way...

And the old "I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille..." shots. How nice of him (I think if was 'him' not 'her) to stop and pose for me!


(which do you prefer? eyes of the 2nd are caught pretty well)

...and while there, there was a hawk (or eagle?):


... continued in the next message ...

[m8o]

...continuing on... (3 of 3)

We then decided to move on. Didn't get very far; a few dozen feet? There was a heard of Zebra just walking down the road. So we stopped to let them go whichever way they cared:






The colts look at lot less like a Donkey then the adults above:

And did you know their strips are brown when young to camoflage with the landscape better?

And turn blacker as they get older (far right):


...and to conclude... Are you look'n at me?!


A bit under 2500 RAW images still to go through... so there will be more... much much more!

The shots from the last 3 (4 actually) posts of mine are from the album 070812 - [Best of] Tarangire National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com ; peer albums starting with 070812 contain more shots of the animals that I didn't categorize as "the best"; but most still good (some have soft focus, yes).

[J.Scott]

Nice shots! I am really enjoying this series - keep 'em coming!

[roentarre]

I enjoy these shots very much.

[m8o]

Processing the remainder of the day's shooting. Painfully slow going. Luckily the Thai Iced Coffee I had with dinner kept me up until 5am w/o a problem.

Jumping ahead (I'll come back to the middle of the day's shots later) ... So towards the end I come to some Dik-Diks. They're not shy. Probably the sharpest of the whole trip.

(great life in the eyes) ...and some crops:




So I notice detail in thre reflection of the eye.


Here's a 500x500 crop up-sampled to 800x800 plus some unsharpen mask (too much?) to give you a good look but not subjecting you to pixel peeping.


So from the right that's a Tree of Life w/o leaves (it's winter there), Sun (flaring increase from sharpening but yes, lens has some CAs), Land Rover, Acacia tree .... umm, what was that 2nd to last? Yes, that's us in the Land Rover. I'm impressed. We weren't too close to them (about 50 ft?), and reflections from a convex surface are greatly reduced in size. So that detail is not something I was expecting especially when you look back @ the full frame shot at the start of this post!

I had been struggling to achieve good focus for most of the trip, and had been wondering if my K10D + Sigma 300mm + 1.4x or 2x TC is capable of the razon sharp detailed photos I see from others of these brands and others. My mind is now at ease... ...my frustrations of why there are times where I can't achieve sharpness in any shot until I relocate is a subject to another thread however...

[m8o]

So I'll pick back up with the late morning, after the Zebras...
070812 - [*Best of*] Tarangire National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com

We came up to these little guys soon after; my first time seeing them. Had trouble focusing on them for some reason after the 1st one; deleted them all. Is it the black and white spots that messes the camera AF up?

They are everywhere however so I ended up some nice ones later:


Magnificent, I think is the word... (better later)


One male can easily have a dozen females or more in his 'harem'...


The second watering hole we came to had a really happening scene...





Where did everyone go?!


There was some great avian action around us while we were watching the watering hole action...




...continued...

[m8o]

And a heard of Zebras came in for a drink ... (don't they photograph the best?!)




and then quickly moved on... No dilly-dalling, if you want to stay alive!


These buggers love the water


Finally left the watering hole...

Here's another instance of aggravation. The beauty was just sitting there posing for me and I shot a whole bunch of shots. Only this one is relatively sharp! Why does that happen?!


Finally, I give you Giraffe parts! With just a prime + TC, you have to be over 100 yards away to fit the whole think in the frame...





Like this ... (though that's more like a 1/2 mile or more )


That was shot from the look-out at the Tarangire Lodge just before lunch. This fella was very acclimated to people and hanging out feeding on the flowers as passers by came to and fro...


...continued...

[m8o]

After lunch, back out for some more of the same... (love the polarizer signature)


It's called FLESH PILE!


Say, wasn't there one more of them a second ago?

...Absorbed by the pile of flesh I guess.

Ohh, the light... the colors... I think I learned if I shoot in a bright mid-day sun, use the polarizer! If I would have only realized it was in, I would have been turning it instead of just getting its advantage when the sun's angle was at a particular point, by luck. However, after this day I move to using the 2x TC. So I took out the polarizer, as there just too much light loss with both. These pix are dang purty though aren't they?



(dusty)



This time, elephant parts:


And that little guy will be the size of big momma one day...



And finally, the original that "baboon to lioness:: I see you" crop I posted much earlier came from, with a different subtler treatment closer to the way it was shot.


edit: I just realized. It's been the same day since post #18 in this thread to here! Like I said in that post ... 8/12 was a really good day!

Still haven't touched the 2500 or so RAWs I still have to go. Needed a rest. Will start again tomorrow. Trip to Ngorongoro and the shots from the crater should start trickling out this weekend.

Enjoy,
-steve

[tcom]

Seems you had a great trip in Tanzania. Great photos steve and thank you for sharing.

[m8o]

Well, it's been a while. This is getting painfully slow. At this rate it will be Christmas before I'm done... Nothing to smile about. But happily, here's another installment from the trip. Here are some excerpts of the best of the 1st 1/2 day at Ngorongoro Crater... All are here:
070814 - [*Best of*] Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com
070814 - [Avian] Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com
070814 - [Beasties -n- Zebras] Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com
070814 - [Cats -n- Dogs] Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com
070814 - [Other] Gibbs Farm to Ngorongoro Crater album | m8o | Fotki.com

Hope you enjoy these excerpts... you can visit the links above for more (though not many more ... many more from the crater from the 15th tho to come next weekend or week).

First, interesting sight on our way there, at the gate to the Ngorongoro Crater park gate ... didn't you think these guys were wild animals? (in the background, not foreground... no, I don't' know who that is in the foreground. Odds were he was another American tho. Lot of us out there!)

This is shot with the Tamron 28-75 @ 75mm. It is a crop (and I see now is over sharpened), but you can still see how I could have just walked up to this guy/gal and picked off some tics.


An (un-stitched) panorama of the Crater ... from this perspective you can see how dusty it is down there. Finally a sharp pic from the DA 12-24mm (not the foreground). Yep, gotta stop this lens down a lot.



Once in the crater, I began using the 300mm f/2.8 w/2x TC. I tried the 1.7x AF TC, but didn't have good result with AF. So switched it out.

As opposed to in Tarangire, these herds were much larger, and much farther away. I could tell the choice to use the 2x TC was a good one.
(do these look more like paintings rather then photographs to anyone else?! it's because of the noise, dust, and heat distortion ... and I love it!)

(that's not sky off in the distance in the background , but rather the crater wall. and it's steep in most of the places around the circumference.)



Our first glimpse of Hyenas finally... There were many more to come tomorrow and other days. They weren't much for posing tho; the one stand-out of the bunch:


Finally our first glimpse of some male lions too. They like the Hyenas, weren't much up for posing for us this afternoon however...

[m8o]

We were going back and forth between the herds and sleeping lions all day while criss-crossing back and forth across the crater. When stopped, in one direction were the predators, just spin around 180 degrees, we find the prey.


(another un-stitched panorama)


(ok, more of the same. But honestly, I just can't get over those colors and the detail and sharpness even tho they were so far away! I love my monster lens!)

Speaking of that... An accidental snap of my weapon of choice, taken while I had the DA 12-24mm on the camera for some panoramas while on a large hill in the center of the crater (see the 'Other' link in the previous post if you want to see some of them). Partially blocked by the roof's leg, and the 2x TC isn't even in the frame. Not to take anything away from the Bigma, but the 300mm f/2.8 +2x TC makes her a Biggerma... )


Isn't it interesting how in the wild, the cats rule in stature and the food chain, but when domesticated, it's the dog? This is about as big as the latter gets out in the wild ... a Jackle I had just missed this guy/gal munching-on and swallowing a mouse. As I think mentioned already, due to technical difficulties of my aperture ring's screws getting shaken loose from the hard ride, resulting in the camera not seeing the lens at the most in-opportune times! (fixed that only two days later)

(I should have straightened this some more ... I can blame it on an off camber road. ya, that's the ticket! )


Everyone found it all very interesting...


(I'm not sure what was actually in focus on the last one ... back to my AF woes of the K10D and 300mm f/2.8 lens ... sometimes I can AF in on something hiding deep behind layers of leave and branches in super low light -- case in point, see the 4th picture in the 4th post of this thread -- while other times I can't focus on the simplest of things unobstructed right in front of me! ... WHY IS THIS?! )

[m8o]

On to some water fowel...






...and others enjoying the croc free waters...


On our way out of the park, we came along one of the large areas where rangers did some controlled burning of the grass & brush. Yet another Lion uninterested in posing for us, enjoying the extra heat from the black charcoaled land...


A couple of shots from back at the lodge at the crater's rim, still with 300mm f/2.8 and 2x TC. That's a way's down there!

Black specs are the Wilda-beasts and other animals...


The evening brought an even better execution of my fun w/the 50mm f/1.4 ... the clouds soon rolled in over the crater rim and spoiled the fun that night.


Some spectacular mornings to be had tho... (my wife was getting up to work-out by jumping rope, so that allowed me to catch what otherwise I would have slept through!)






....Still a few thousand pictures to go through and convert from RAW to JPEG, so check back whenever you see this thread in the "New Posts" list...