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Tanzania 2013 - A Photographic Trip Report


BonitaApplebum

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Jambo BonitaApplebum. I must apologise for any offence i may have caused. A few days ago i received news of a cheetah with 3 cubs totally surrounded by cars. She could not see the approach of a lioness.Too late she realised what was happening. The cubs scattered and 1 was killed. It is not known if the other cubs survived. It is difficult enough to raise cubs in an area where there are so many lions and hyaenas without inflicting further problems for the sake of a snap. I have been a regular visitor to Ndutu for over 30 years and this is not the first instance. However i can see from your excellent photographs that long telephotos were used and that you tried to avoid other vehicles. Again, my sincere apologies. I was trying to make an ethical point. PS we may both see some old friends on recent Tanzania posting.

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Game Warden

Simba, I'm not quite sure what you are getting at, but would you start a new topic for your discussion in the photography subforum and let this trip report continue. Thanks. Matt

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PCNW,

 

I went all out, gear wise, for this trip. I brought two Canon 5D Mk3s. For lenses, the new 500mm F/4 MkII was attached to one camera while the 70-200 F/2.8 MkII was usually attached to the other. I also had the 100-400L but the 70-200 is so much superior optically that I found myself working around its reach deficiency instead of grabbing the 100-400L. In the end, I could have left the 100-400L at home. For the landscapes I used the 16-35L on a Gitzo 3532LS tripod with a Arca Swiss Z1 head..

 

The night photos require a very steady tripod, a camera with good noise handling abilities, and a fast aperture, wide angle lens. You'll need an ISO of about 6400, the lens wide open at F/2.8, and a 30 second exposure to capture all the stars in their glory. If you find yourself somewhere very dark, give it a try!

 

Hope this is informative. Any more questions, feel free to ask!

 

Nice set! I had a 7D + 100-400mm which is a very good set. It was stolen and I bought a 5D MKII with 100-400mm, but the pixels of the 5D MKII are better than what the 100-400 can deliver, so I emptied my bank account for a 70-200mm f2.8!

 

About night images. If you do startrails high ISO is not necessary as the noise filters out when stacking the images. If you take single shot a rule of thumb for the shutter speed to get sharp stars 600/focal length (including cropping factor).

 

Thus a 7D with 17-40mm lens at 20mm has a maximum shutterspeed of 600/(20 *1.4 for the cropping factor) = 21 sec

On a 5D MKII at 20mm it's 600/20 = 30 sec.

 

In this way you can maximize your shutterspeed, and thus reduce your ISO without movement blurring.

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  • 2 weeks later...
madaboutcheetah

I'm glad we were intent on looking for cheetah at Ndutu. Would not have liked the scene from the description - hope short tail and her cubs are okay ........ Even cheetah, they seemed to hunt exactly minutes after most vehicles would return to their respective lodge/camps? Or so, that was our observation atleast at the popular sightings, mum with 4 cubs, the car jumping 3 cubs etc etc., where we would get to them after all the other cars leave.......

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BonitaApplebum

Well if this thread hasn't turned into guilt by association...

 

I think I'll just stick to other avenues from now on. All the best.

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Game Warden

Okay, I've deleted a number of comments from this thread, including mine own: at one stage this topic did wander off topic, and I asked for photography discussion to be continued in a separate thread in the photography subforum. Then a point was raised by @@Simba which was then belaboured, (having nothing to do with the trip report poster's behaviour), despite me asking him to start a new topic: in a post made by @@russell he was right to suggest this topic be cleaned up, so I hope you understand if any of your own posts have been removed.

 

Let's continue with @@BonitaApplebum 's trip report please, and leave the off topic commentary for another thread.

 

Thanks, Matt

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.... With respect leopard in timber store is 10km from small marsh where short tail had cubs. A female leopard lives near lodge and well photographed by Swahealy nov. 2012. Fact. Please remove ALL my contributions. Selective removal may give the wrong impression. I will remove myself from this site and bury my head in the sand. Cheers.

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Game Warden

I would suggest Simba that you check your messages from me today where I have tried to discuss with you this issue. Either you have ignored them, or just failed to see them.

 

Matt

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madaboutcheetah

I personally would wish for Simba and BonitaApplebum to stay on this forum and continue with their contributions which are very useful to readers here. GW, perhaps open a new topic/thread?

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Despite the static, I really enjoyed reading the TR and the photographic and ethical discussions. And I keep going back to look at the beautiful pictures.

Edited by sugarpond
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  • 4 weeks later...

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