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...