[NS_Sailor]

View from 10th Tee Burdenell Golf Course on Prince Edward Island on a calm morning

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[Hattifnatt]

Playing with a friend and some puddle reflections.

[jquill]

Narcissistic Canadian Goose.

That first narcissistic moment

[jmschrei]

Quickly disappearing spring melt "lake" with reflections

[Hattifnatt]

A ship in Stavanger Harbor.

[StephenHampshire]

The charitable hospital of St Cross. Using the articulated screen of the KI enabled me to hold the camera at arms length a few cm's above the water surface

[jquill]

Elevated walking path after some heavy rain.

Reflections

[noelcmn]

Very nice jquill.

From today at Zoo Lake

[aslyfox]

African Spoonbill in the Selous Game Reserve

[jmschrei]

Kochi, India

[ivanvernon]

African Spoonbill in the Selous Game Reserve

Nice photos . . . looking forward to an assessment of your photographic equipment and other aspects of your preparation for the great adventure. Did you use all the lenses in your bag? Are there some that you could have just as well left at home? Are there some you wish you had brought but did not? How crowded was your Land Rover? Did you have plenty of elbow room? Did the driver become a photographic asset, stopping at all the right places? Curious minds want to know . . . asking for a friend. :>)

[aslyfox]

Nice photos . . . looking forward to an assessment of your photographic equipment and other aspects of your preparation for the great adventure. Did you use all the lenses in your bag? Are there some that you could have just as well left at home? Are there some you wish you had brought but did not? How crowded was your Land Rover? Did you have plenty of elbow room? Did the driver become a photographic asset, stopping at all the right places? Curious minds want to know . . . asking for a friend. :>)

thank you

boy that is a lot of questions:

here goes: Judy had a Nikon coolpix p610 and her phone, I took 2 cameras: K 3 II and K 3 [ with a telephoto on one and a wide angle on the other for the most part. ]

and these lenses

Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 DC HSM ( extreme wide angle, landscape, night sky )
HD Pentax-DA 16 - 85mm F3.5-5.6 ( wide angle, very short tele WR )
HD Pentax-DA 20-40mm F2.8-4 Limited DC WR ( good lens rental try out )
SMC Pentax-DA 40mm F2.8 Limited ( " lens cap " and very good lens as well)
SMC Pentax-DA 50mm F1.8 ( low light, portrait )
SMC Pentax-D FA 100mm F2.8 Macro ( macro, short telephoto )
HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 ED PLM WR RE ( light weight, telephoto )
HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm F4.5 - 5.6 ED DC AW ( telephoto )
HD Pentax -DA AF rear converter 1.4 AW, ( added magnification but loss of F Stop )

used almost all, don't remember right now if the 100mm got used, the 1.4 did not get used much, the 150-450 fell apart on me early in the Serengeti. the Sigma did not get used much, not because of the lens but the air was hazy from what we were told was smoke from India and Asia which prevented us from seeing as much of the far walls of the Ngorongoro Crater as I expected. 40mm not used much,

the main lenses used was the 150-450 before it broke, then 55-300 and both the 16-85 and the rented 20-40mm

the vehicle used in the Crater and the Serengeti was an expanded Toyota Land Cruiser with a pop up top with just Judy and I and a guide of 30 years experienced who we had used in 2016. In the Crater, we were the first or second vehicle through the gate at 6 AM, packing our breakfast and not getting back to the lodge until 1:30 or later. In the Serengeti, we left early, packing food and went far afield with the purpose of trying to find targeted animals. we got back in the late afternoon 5 PM or later. Rhino, Cheetahs and a portion of the mass migration

the vehicle used in the Selous Game Reserve was a modified land rover, open sides, the first day, just ourselves and an experienced Maissai guide. We left early, packing food and went far afield with the purpose of trying to find targeted animals. we got back in the late afternoon 5 PM or later. that was the day we found the painted dogs. The next day, there were 5 of us in the vehicle, and the next day 4. As a group, we pretty much let the others set the pace.

All guides were experienced and we consulted with them. for the most part, when it was just Judy and I, we would bypass a lot of opportunities to reach our targets and then catch up after we found the targets. the guides did a good job of putting us in the right areas and terrain and after that, we got lucky

the guides were also good to put us at the best angles and lighting if possible

some times you just took what you could get though

we went to the Ngorongoro Crater first, the Central Serengeti and the Selous Game Reserve last.

that is it for now

any follow up let me know

I hoped this helped.

[ivanvernon]

thank you

boy that is a lot of questions:

here goes: Judy had a Nikon coolpix p610 and her phone, I took 2 cameras: K 3 II and K 3 [ with a telephoto on one and a wide angle on the other for the most part. ]

and these lenses

Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 DC HSM ( extreme wide angle, landscape, night sky )
HD Pentax-DA 16 - 85mm F3.5-5.6 ( wide angle, very short tele WR )
HD Pentax-DA 20-40mm F2.8-4 Limited DC WR ( good lens rental try out )
SMC Pentax-DA 40mm F2.8 Limited ( " lens cap " and very good lens as well)
SMC Pentax-DA 50mm F1.8 ( low light, portrait )
SMC Pentax-D FA 100mm F2.8 Macro ( macro, short telephoto )
HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 ED PLM WR RE ( light weight, telephoto )
HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm F4.5 - 5.6 ED DC AW ( telephoto )
HD Pentax -DA AF rear converter 1.4 AW, ( added magnification but loss of F Stop )

used almost all, don't remember right now if the 100mm got used, the 1.4 did not get used much, the 150-450 fell apart on me early in the Serengeti. the Sigma did not get used much, not because of the lens but the air was hazy from what we were told was smoke from India and Asia which prevented us from seeing as much of the far walls of the Ngorongoro Crater as I expected. 40mm not used much,

the main lenses used was the 150-450 before it broke, then 55-300 and both the 16-85 and the rented 20-40mm

the vehicle used in the Crater and the Serengeti was an expanded Toyota Land Cruiser with a pop up top with just Judy and I and a guide of 30 years experienced who we had used in 2016. In the Crater, we were the first or second vehicle through the gate at 6 AM, packing our breakfast and not getting back to the lodge until 1:30 or later. In the Serengeti, we left early, packing food and went far afield with the purpose of trying to find targeted animals. we got back in the late afternoon 5 PM or later. Rhino, Cheetahs and a portion of the mass migration

the vehicle used in the Selous Game Reserve was a modified land rover, open sides, the first day, just ourselves and an experienced Maissai guide. We left early, packing food and went far afield with the purpose of trying to find targeted animals. we got back in the late afternoon 5 PM or later. that was the day we found the painted dogs. The next day, there were 5 of us in the vehicle, and the next day 4. As a group, we pretty much let the others set the pace.

All guides were experienced and we consulted with them. for the most part, when it was just Judy and I, we would bypass a lot of opportunities to reach our targets and then catch up after we found the targets. the guides did a good job of putting us in the right areas and terrain and after that, we got lucky

the guides were also good to put us at the best angles and lighting if possible

some times you just took what you could get though

we went to the Ngorongoro Crater first, the Central Serengeti and the Selous Game Reserve last.

that is it for now

any follow up let me know

I hoped this helped.

That is really great . . . reminds me of my similar trips back in the 1980s. Especially good that you and wife were sole occupants of the Land Rovers as I have seen vehicles from folks on tours where the Land Rovers were so packed that photography would have been near impossible. A good driver is very important, and I always had cooperative drivers partly because I paid extra to book them into the same hotels we stayed in instead of sending them off to local villages to fend for themselves, some having never enjoyed the luxury of modern sleeping accommodations! I am especially glad the lenses worked for you, except the broken one I mean. I was concerned that you might be taking so much equipment that much would be redundant and a burden. I am looking forward to seeing more of your safari images. Wondering if the pink flamingoes were present for the crater portion of the trip--the (temporary?) crater lake was covered with them on my trip, and when they spooked from our presence they created an immense pink cloud that rose, circled, then slowly returned to the lake--unforgetable.

[Benz3ne]

A little dark, but one of the first photos I took since reigniting the photography flame.

[aslyfox]

. . . Wondering if the pink flamingoes were present for the crater portion of the trip--the (temporary?) crater lake was covered with them on my trip, and when they spooked from our presence they created an immense pink cloud that rose, circled, then slowly returned to the lake--unforgetable.

unfortunately, in addition to the haze in the crater, it was extremely dry and the lake you refer to was almost completely dried up - 85 % or more

we saw no flamingos at all or any sign of life on it very saline even when full no animals were drawn to it.

however since we weren't targeting birds it wasn't a disappointment

[ the birds we did run across were fantastic tho ]

I did take a lot of lenses but several were hauled for specific anticipated circumstances [ some of which did not appear ] and if I hadn't hauled the PLM, I would have missed the 150 - 450 even more
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you know you have a good guide when the other guides tell you so. John has been doing it for 30 plus years and we asked for him by name, based on the fact he had guided others we had known. We had him in 2016 and we again asked for him for this trip.

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the photos are being posted here and there on the forums but you can also check the albums being created on flickr.com

this one will eventually have them in chronological order -

photos from 2019 Tanzania Safari | Flickr

and there will be smaller albums as well

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crocodile entering the Rufiji River in the Selous Game Reserve )