Video trip report - Masai Mara June 2014

[cheetah80]

So I have been back from a fantastic trip in the Mara for a while now but finding it hard to catch up on anything resembling reporting as I have been busy with so much stuff. Instead I will be sharing some random photos and video snippets - hopefully you will enjoy catching up with familiar or not so familiar characters. The videos are made by my partner, not me - but since he is not on Safaritalk I am the one doing the sharing

 

First installment: Fig the leopard. We saw her a few times while we were staying at Porini Lion in the OMC. We had seen her last year too so it was great to meet an "old friend". We just missed one of her successful hunts by a whisker, but saw her try and fail to catch an African Wild Cat. Sadly this was the only leopard we managed to see in 11 nights split between Naboisho, OMC & the reserve but they were relatively good sightings.

 

One photo to whet your appetite:

 

 

And a short video summarizing our time spent with her:

 

 

[graceland]

She is a beauty, @@cheetah80

[madaboutcheetah]

@@cheetah80 - that was awesome!!! Hope to see a video of Amani and cub when you can, please???

Thanks

Hari

[cheetah80]

Thank you! @@madaboutcheetah - we are working on the Amani & cub video. We have so much footage of them (almost an hour) it is really tough to whittle it down to a short & snappy couple of minutes. I'll post it here when it's ready

[Marks]

Great video, beautiful cat....I'd say these sightings were more than relatively good.

[PT123]

Absolutely beautiful, thank you for sharing @@cheetah80

[Zim Girl]

Love the still picture and wonderful video!

[JulieM]

Great shot, and love the video. I really must learn how to shoot video with my 5D3 before we go there ourselves! Any tips?

[twaffle]

Fantastic.

[TonyQ]

@@cheetah80

excellent video - realy well shot and edited = very enjoyable

[cheetah80]

Thanks everyone, so glad you enjoyed it!

[cheetah80]

Ok next installment: This video is especially for @@madaboutcheetah :-)

 

We spent a lot of time with Amani and her female cub who seem to be doing great! They were hanging around in the OMC and they treated us to a lot of playtime An interesting moment was when the cub, always so serious and grown-up, was stalking a dikdik (if I remember correctly). As soon as the cheetahs closed in the dikdik got spooked which in turn spooked a hare which in turn spooked the cub as it was completely unaware of it! So everyone was running in different directions.

 

Anyway, here is a video of this cheetah duo's sweetest moments:

 

[madaboutcheetah]

OMG - THanks so much @@cheetah80 - brilliant video!!! The cub has grown up quite a bit since I saw her end March/early April. Nice to see them again!

[Atravelynn]

Engaging first leopard shot. That music for the Fig video is not a typical safari melody, but it's perfect. I recall you wanted to see a cheetah cub that was not the size of mom and you did it. Such an active and captivating little guy! I'm glad the leopard missed the wild cat even though I don't really take sides.

 

Hope your partner sees all the positive comments his work generates.

[cheetah80]

@@Atravelynn I'll let you in on a little secret about the music - my partner does that himself too - he thought Fig deserved more "tough cookie" music And yes I do pass on all the lovely comments but perhaps some day he'll join Safaritalk too And yes totally stoked to have seen a smaller cheetah cub, it was my main wish - you have a fantastic memory!

 

I wish I could post more photos but I am currently in between computers - moving from a PC to Mac is a major undertaking as I have to back up and reformat all my hard drives. Hopefully I'll be up and running within this week!

[cheetah80]

@@JulieM About SLR video - I will not go into detail about settings etc, plenty of information online & on camera manuals about that. But some practical advice.

 

- Stabilization: this is probably your most important consideration. Jerky movement is a real problem when taking DSLR video even if you have IS lenses. Especially if they are long lenses. A beanbag is fine for videos without any panning. But if you want to pan & move then it is a challenge. The challenge is added when you consider that your horizons need to be straight all the time - as you can't easily crop like when you have a photo. I mean you can but you lose quality. So panning straight on a beanbag is a no-no: tried and tested and it's horrible. That leaves you with 3 choices. Gimbal head or panning plate for a large lens - great but will do nothing for those horizons, so you have to be acutely aware of them all the time. Or else there is a new ball head by an eastern european company (not sure whether I am allowed to mention it here) which can be set to shoot perfectly levelled all the time. We use that solution mounted on an apex beanbag.

 

- Focusing: The Canon 5D Mark III is not the most ideal camera for video. something with a touchscreen focus like the 70D would be better suited. It's still doable of course but changing focus points quickly might be tricky with the 5D- so get lots of practice beforehand. Of course AI Servo focus will be a must to follow the action & you need an area larger than 1 point focus.

 

- Remember video is not shot in RAW so things such as exposure and white balance are super important to get right in camera. You can of course do post processing but there will be loss of quality if any of these is very off - pretty much like when editing a JPEG.

 

Honestly SLR video is a bit cumbersome, so the best advise is to practice - a lot! But having said that the quality is mind blowing - so much better than those small HD video cameras. So it is totally worth all the cumbersome bits.

 

Hope this helped somewhat!

[Marks]

What active, photogenic cheetahs! I like the expression at :54.

[JulieM]

Thanks for the tips @@cheetah80 - have to start practising! Cheers.

[Atravelynn]

@@Atravelynn I'll And yes totally stoked to have seen a smaller cheetah cub, it was my main wish - you have a fantastic memory!

 

I wish I could post more photos but I am currently in between computers - moving from a PC to Mac is a major undertaking as I have to back up and reformat all my hard drives. Hopefully I'll be up and running within this week!

I have a good memory when it comes to cheetahs. You are way ahead of me in posting from your trip and I have no excuse of a computer conversion.

[Sverker]

Videos are so great!

 

But I mute it - the music doesn´t fit the videos ...

 

… and you can download software so that your Mac can read and write your PC-formatted hard drives and USB-sticks. I use it all the time.

 

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g

[cheetah80]

@@Sverker yes I know about such software, I will still use something similar for some other hard drives that I will not reformat. But thought it was best to reformat the non-portable ones that will mostly be used only for the Mac. I believe such software might have an impact on speed so I prefer having the new laptop read the hardisks natively.

[cheetah80]

Time to work on my visual trip report a little ...

 

Highlights from the Porini Lion Camp

As expected, game viewing in the OMC was superb. We stayed at Porini Lion - we found no reason to stay anywhere else considering we enjoyed it so much last year. We find the guiding and location to be excellent, and the price very reasonable compared to the other camps in the area. One of the main mara crossing points as well as the Marsh Pride are easily accessible from camp - a bonus for some. Tents are large and comfortable. Food is varied and tasty and served on a communal table - I don't really dig this as I find it hard to concentrate on anything but my food when eating. It's a bit of a stretch to expect intelligent conversation too The guides know the area very well, and also the habits of the animals. We were the first at many sightings. They work really hard so that guests see as much as possible and they tend to have a knack for positioning the vehicles for the best possible photographic angles.

Anyway, enough of the blabber and let's get to some photos!

We were greeted by mating lions on the way to camp. They were very close and from the noises I heard one night I suspect they were mating in camp at some point!

 

 

Spotted Hyena on a vantage point. Sadly I missed the shot where we saw them mating while swimming in a stream! I was too surprised - and the noise they were making was unbelievable. Totally contrasts with these serene frame of when we caught up with them later on.

I literally was face to face with Fig the leopard. After I took this shot I was like oh, I can only see the whiskers in my viewfinder (she was slinking towards me quite fast). I raised my eye off the camera and bam! There she was merely a meter away from my face - and I was shooting at the lowest possible point in the car. I was mezmerized as she looked at me straight in the eye and proceeded to continue her journey underneath our car. I have never been that close to a leopard before. Especially in an open vehicle. Awesome sighting factor - though the roof!

Amani and her cub provided us with many hours of entertainment. Most of the time they were sleeping but every now and then they would perform for us

I found it quite funny that the cub looks very serious most of the time. Since I always try to capture my subject's characters I came up with these couple of photos to illustrate the point.

I heard that one before mom ...

 

[madaboutcheetah]

Simply brilliant, Alison!!!

[michael-ibk]

+1.

 

The "Heard it all before"-one is priceless.

[Sverker]

The challenge is added when you consider that your horizons need to be straight all the time - as you can't easily crop like when you have a photo. I mean you can but you lose quality. So panning straight on a beanbag is a no-no: tried and tested and it's horrible. That leaves you with 3 choices. Gimbal head or panning plate for a large lens - great but will do nothing for those horizons, so you have to be acutely aware of them all the time.

To get the horizon straight you need a proper video head. I have Sachtler sticks (legs) and a Sachtler video head. Each time I put up the tripod I adjust the head horizontally according to the built-in level.

 

After that I can move the camera in any direction with horizons always being straight.