<UPDATE>
All pictures can be found under here:
Tanzania 2007 | m8o | Fotki.com

I'll be posting what I think to be the 'pick of the litter' in this thread here. Still at least a week to maybe two to get through all the RAWs.
</UPDATE>

ok, this is just a TEASE! The worst kind as a matter of fact as it doesn't come with pics!!! But I can't upload 10 meg RAWs, let alone unprocessed from the camera here, over satellite from the Ngorongoro Crater rim! Taking from the animals I've seen, I'm marking my territory for later use!

Leave for the great plain tomorrow and only have minutes of satellite time left, so I won't be able to reply. Keep watching; will not dissapoint when you start seeing the RAWs converted to JPEG next week from both the Sigma 300mm f/2.8 (with the necessary 1.4x or 2x TCs) and the Pentax 12-24mm f/4 (1st time I've been happy with it) ... from Tangire (sic) Preserve, Gibbs Farm, Ngorongoro Crater Preserve, and Serengeti Preserve.

Oh, and I ran into someone who I thought was new member here, daveinaz! But I can't find him here. He must be on another forum. That was a kick still! I didn't think to ask his itinerary to know if we'd be travelling the same place again tho. Great meeting you Dave when if you read this here and become a member.

l8r all,
-steve

(I learned how to say "see you later" in Swahilli (sic) but it excapes me @ the moment! )

[Donald]

Ngorongoro is the most beautiful nature scene I've seen, and I have traveled a lot. It is intense, from the steep, precarious red road down (often with its own cloud layer) to almost every type of ecosystem present scattered throughout the crater floor.

Background: Ngorongoro is extinct volcano with crater floor about 20 km diameter, tall enough and crater floor sunk enough to create its own weather: most of Africa's species are present captive within and thrive due to lush vegetation and minimal predation, a natural immense zoo.

Highlights:

2 male lions in profile on a slight rise lying down waiting out a rain shower, one lion with a bleached blonde mane. He was a gorgeous king. Supposedly many Ngorongoro animal species are inbred resulting in such anomolies.

A blue-grey and white African kite perched on a small mound waiting out different rainstorm. So sleek, deadly talons, water dripping from its beak.

Sorry, above photos are slides and prints, no scanner.

Looking forward to your pictures m8o!

[m8o]

Hey there Donald. On my way back; stopping a day in Amsterdam.

Ngorongoro was indeed beautiful. But I found I had the best shooting experence in Tangire Park ... too bad I didn't know how to use my camera as well then! Ngorongoro was still better then the Serengeti, which was best for the lions I got on the Kopjis (... many pix to come) and beasties (wilda- that is... ).

I should have pics up within 2 but more likely 3 or more days from here. ... over 3500 images shot in RAW (thank you 120 Gig HyperDrive ... even if you didn't give me a scare of my life a day before leaving with a 'HDD Device Not Found' message ... a few bangs on the leg fixed that! ), so it'll take a bit of time to color and/or white balance, rotate, crop and jpg convert the 'keepers' ...

[m8o]

Ok, pictures are beginning to trickle out... From here on out it was shooting of animlas in rapid succession. With time for 'life' I figure I'll be doing about 1/4 to 1/2 day's shooting every night. Everything will be found under here in date order.

Tanzania 2007 | m8o | Fotki.com

Nothing very 'memorable' posted to my gallery yet; yes, there are some to come, but no Rhino sadly!

In one way starting backwards (because there were so few shots), the last day's shooting at KIA Airport Lodge was pretty 'ok' tho... have a look @ 070820 - Serengeti and Day Room @ Kilimanjaro album | m8o | Fotki.com
(hi-rez orignals can be had there; a lot of noise treatment via Lightroom, hardly touched color/brightness/contrast. )

Photos taken on a cloudy, misty, lightly drizzly day, handheld, wide open, with the Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens. Most of them at the link above are shot at high ISO (save some of the bird shots @ the beginning until I realized my error trying to use ISO100). First three subjects were near minimum focus limit (ya, close) so focus was razor thin; keep that in mind as only part of the bird is in the DOF zone (either body, or head, not both ). Tiny taste below... all at link above:







DOF was a lot deeper here, but shot was taken at about EV10 or EV11 with the bird at the edge of the tree canopy on the drizzly day.


edit: How did I miss seeing and sharing this pic in the past?! Luv it!

(I'd love to understand how I achieved that focus sharpness on that one with the bird behind leaves, but other times when the bird was alone in the middle of a field, I cannot?!

The third page of the link titled "070820 - Serengeti and Day Room @ Kilimanjaro album | m8o | Fotki.com" contains pics of two of the birds in a little bit of a 'shoving match' fighting over the one apple. The newcomer prevailed. He's also the one that didn't give up eating once he lost his balance and spun upside-down.

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Last edited by m8o; 09-06-2007 at 06:35 PM.

[m8o]

Ok, from here on out it's animal picture overload. The volumes of pictures I have to sift through to find 'keepers' and convert is enormous. But the reward is of course what we strive for, memorable well composed [or at least exposed ] , pictures!

Once we made our way from the place in Arusha to Tarangire National Park, ate, got settled in our lodge (was supposed to be a tent but we got an upgrade ), our guides took us out at 4pm for some wildlife viewing.

I decided I'd start with using the 1.4x Sigma TC with the 300mm f/2.8. What I didn't realize was I had kept the Polarizing drop-in filter in-place; I had thought I replaced it with the clear UV filter. After having a terrible outing here at work around the pond one day with the 2x TC and filter together, I realized the loss in light is too much to use both TC and pol filter at the same time. More unfortunate is I didn't realize it was in, and didn't make use of it and turn it to bring the best out of it for every lighting angle and condition. ...mark that up to lesson learned... By the end of the trip I can honestly say I had some idea of what I was doing. With these pictures? ... not so much! Just to say, the results of the days after this and next one or two only get better from here.

There's some pix worthy of sharing still...
All here: 070811(b) - Tarangire National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com

We saw Ostrich here and there:


Many Zebras:


Africa's version of "ham" (lol):


Numerous Birdiez (as time went on, I actually learned how to shoot these with the bright sky behind):


Elephants ... a -lot- of Elephants ... Dang things are too big to fit in frame even with only the 1.4x TC (in two days I went to the 2x) and they got close enough to almost touch even at times. If I wasn't convinced before I was now, I'm angry only Canon Nikon and Sigma get the 120-300mm f/2.8 Zoom from Sigma. Later, I finally got my guides/drivers to understand closer to the animals was not good for me! Wifie and In-laws shouldn't suffer however, so, that was the dilemma. (I came to learn I needed a photographer's Safari, which Thomson Safaris does do)

Result being, mostly a survey of Elephant body parts... (yes, there were some from afar)





...continued in next post...

[m8o]

Continuing excerpts from here:
070811(b) - Tarangire National Park album | m8o | Fotki.com

Ok, enough of the Elephants ... well, just two more:




Africa's version of Venison:



Dang those trees the birds sit on, and Elephants and Giraffes (among others) eat are nasty:



A duck survives in Africa?!


Days later, I flew in a balloon ... but for now, "eet eez Baboon!"



Finally a glimpse of what became all our favorites, the giraffe:


Later in the Segengeti, I got shots of Giraffes fighting. That's in a few days.

Our first glimpse of Lions from afar... I couldn't really make them out through the view finder. I shot almost blindly. Amazed I get 'anything'!


So many more incredible lion shots to come days later...

Finally, to close out the day, I finally saw the Milky Way with my naked eye. It's was more visible there then anywhere else I've ever been in my 44 years... Taken with the Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens:

If you look @ the original in my Fotki gallery, you can see the motion blur of the 1/8 degree the world turns in that 30 second exposure time.

[Mechan1k]

Nice shots ... I still can't believe you haven't seen the Milky Way wuith your naked eye before.
I guess I am just used to seeing it every clear night at home.

[m8o]

Maybe if I looked during the black-out...


Otherwise what we call the Tri-State area (New Jersey, part of New York with NYC, Westchester and Long Island, plus Connecticut) are -blazing- at night. edit: plus, given the prevailing winds of the USA, we get the 'muck' of pollution and dust from the entire country blowing over us clouding the air.

Also, I didn't see the Milky Way as clearly anywhere else in Tanzania as I did in Tarangire Park; neither up in Ngorongoro Crater rim or the Serengeti.

[Mechan1k]

Damn ... that's a hell of a lot of light at night time.

I must admit though ... your series of shots are amazing ... not something to get to see everyday (or in a lifetime for most people). I must really thank you for share your images from your trip.

[lapeen]

I loved looking at all those photos! Thank you for sharing!!

[m8o]

9 more days to come of shooting (which may take me about 20 days or more to work through!) ... and trust me. It gets much better every day until the last day, which is just a tad of a step down. Thanx for looking & the comments.

[Eastern Shore Charlie]

M80...Looks like you are having a blast..photo ops galore even at night...enjoyed the pictures...look forwared to more pictures of beautiful Africa....

[Mile High]

Nice pictures m8o. I especially like the bird pics. Looks like you've been to some interesting places.

[roentarre]

Very impressive shots. I have never been to tanzania and I wished I could one day head to the place. A lot of immunisations to have though..

[mingdie]

Wonderful photos. Must be a great trip. The photos of the deer really stands out for me. Keep them coming.

Cheers

Eddie