"I may not know what art is, but I know what I like!"

Last summer I took a trip to Tanzania and did quite a bit of animal photography. While I have it up on my web site, I thought some of you might like to take a look.

Tanzania 2006: Click Here
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Jeff

Oh, my god.



How many photos did you have to take to get those? Your web site says that that's your first attempt at animal photography! Holy shit.

May I ask what equipment you were using?

I was in Kenya and Tanzania 31 years ago. It was beautiful. I'd love to go back, but I've been afraid of the political situation ever since the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were blown up, and I've thought that it would never again in my lifetime be a practical trip. I still remember it as one of the most beautiful places on earth -- dry, sunny, and where giraffes run across the road like squirrels do in the Northeast US. And now that I have decent digital photograpy equipment and some experience using it on things like penguins in their native environment....

Now I'll be hearing the theme music from "Out of Africa" and seeing acacia trees in the sunset for the rest of the night....

Judith

Judith:

Before going to Tanzania my wife and I spent two additional weeks in Germany and Switzerland. During the 4 week trip I shot around 6,000 pictures. I then culled these down to 2,000 upon our return and from that I selected the ones you see here. So that probably means roughly 3,000/1,000 shots in Tanzania. I'm still trying to find time to finish going through the rest of the Europe shots! When you shoot digital to don't have to be as careful as you once were with film! I used 2 Konica-Minolta 7D bodies. My primary lens for the animal shots was a Sigma 50-500mm telephoto on a Manfrotto tripod with a pistol-grip head. I also used a Minolta 24-85mm, a Minolta 70-210mm and a Minolta 100mm macro. I stored my photos on an Epson P-4000 portable digital wallet.

Kenya and Tanzania are now very stable countries and you can visit there without any fears. the people are generally friendly, and since tourism amounts for over 60% of the entire Tanzania GNP, they would be pretty stupid to start pissing off the customers! :-) If anyone is thinking of going, I recommend giving Zanzibar a pass and spend more time in the mainland parks. I highly recommend the experience.

Jeff,

Those photographs are simply stunning. I couldn't get through them all, but I will be returning over and over.

In addition to the animals, you were absolutely charming as the Mighty Warrior.

As an aside, I was completely intrigued about how a culture like Maasai could have no written or oral history. I looked them up here and here.

They may not have an oral history, but someone on the official site (the second link) sure is touchy about spelling. I found the following quote from there kinda cute:


It seems like they do have some kind of basic mythology, ceremonies and rituals, but I saw nothing like history on the sites. I am impressed.

Michael

Jeff; May I join in the praise. What wonderful pictures. What gorgeous creatures! As an aside I hope Africa can recover from some its problems. The Africans like the rest of us deserve a much better government. Thanks for the pictures.

Michael:

I never did any research of my own, but just reported what I was told on site. Thanks for looking this up. I'll look into it further myself. As for the spelling of the name, this is the first time I have seen Maasai having three 'a's in any printed material I've read. I see that Wikipedia has an entry for the Maasai people, but interestingly enough, the Masai Mara reserve entry has a heading with only two 'a' although the article then starts out explaining that it can be spelled with either two or three 'a'. Also, the entry for the Masai Giraffe only uses two 'a's. It all seems a bit inconsistent to me. I guess I'm not the only one who is confused!

Thanks to Judith, Michael and Chris for the kind words on the pictures.

Regards,
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Jeff

Jeff,

I have no doubt the world will go on spelling it both ways. I think the only value of this information is that if you ever go back over there or have any dealings with someone from there, keep in mind that there are some Maasais (or Masais) for whom this extra "A" is a fighting issue. So be prepared to change your spelling at the drop of a hat if you don't want a spear through your back...

A is A, dammit!



(Like I said, I found this kinda cute.)

Michael

I know; I love digital. I've got Canon equipment. I can't imagine using a tripod for animals, since they move so much, but maybe, if they stand real still, and I hold up a piece of meat for the nice lion....

I'd imagine the tripod would be quite useful for the sunsets.

I'm actually more worried about Al Quaeda than the people themselves. I remember the people as being delightful, and I'd imagine that they haven't changed much, but if Al Quaeda is active, and they have the chance to off some American tourists....

Did you go with an official group, or hire a guide from an outfitter? If so, from where?

Judith

I haven't heard about any sort of organized violence in the region for years. I think the western visitors are so spread out that it doesn't makes sense to go looking for a target in that area when there are so many more populated regions. You talked about being there 30+ years ago. That was during their revolutions for independence, so I'm sure it was considerably more dangerous then.

The four of us organized the trip ourselves through the African Adventure Company out of Fort Lauderdale, FL (1-800-882-9453). They have many planned itineraries, but you can take one and customize it to your liking. They make all the arrangements with the African companies including transportation between areas, accommodations, food, guides, park fees, etc. If you ever get serious about making the trip, I can give you more specific information on our experience and those of others we know who have gone. I would suggest planning your own trip so that you can be sure not to get stuck in overcrowded vehicles which would make it difficult to shoot. There are advantages to going at different times, but July was a perfect time for us. It is the dry season so the grass is low, allowing you to more easily see the animals. And there were almost no bug! Also, you cannot go to the Selous during the rainy season and I would highly recommend making this a part of any trip.

By the way, when shooting from the trucks within the parks, you typically rest your cameras on beanbags along the edge of the roof. I did this sometimes while another technique was to use my tripod as a monopod with the legs folded together. I would brace the bottom of the tripod with my feet and rest the upper portion against the roof of the vehicle. With the joystick pistol grip you can swing the camera around to any position and release the grip which immediately locks the camera in place. This is the best piece of gear I have acquired in the past five years and I wonder how I ever lived with the old style tripod heads. Take a look at the Manfrotto web site for the 222 Joystick Head. Better yet, try it out at your photo store and I'll bet you leave with it!

Regards,
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Jeff

Hmmm. I think it was all over by 1976. The driver of the VW bus I was riding around in, George, was an ex-Mau Mau. I think that stuff happened in the '50s. But as best I recall, Kenyatta was still president of Kenya.

I'm not so much worried about organized violence as terrorist attacks -- same thing that's keeping me out of places like Israel, Spain, etc.

Oh, you can count on my bugging you for more info if I get serious about going! I was there in March of '76. It was just about the end of one of the dry seasons; I remember that it rained at night the last four nights of the trip, but not during the day.

Gotta check that out -- thanks! I don't usually like to be hindered by a tripod because I like to move around a lot when I'm taking pictures, and people and animals don't sit still for you to get good shots, but still, it looks like a very useful piece of equipment. (Digitally assisted telephoto lenses allow one without steady hands to get clear images -- love it!) Some of those photos were absolutely stunning. What a difference from the little instamatic I took to Africa when I was a kid!

Judith

~ Someday, THAT's what my back yard's gonna look like!

~ Super pix, Jeff.

~ Never visited the place, but, had I ever done so, I'd've hid in the bushes to keep from having to leave. Probably have to learn to live off grubs and berries, and avoid 'protected' carnivores, but, what the hell.

LLAP
J:D

Jeffrey, these are remarkably beautiful photographs. Thanks so much for posting them.

Were you as close to some of the animals as you appear to be? Or is that appearance one of the wonders of photography?

I especially like how often you capture the wonderfully regal nature of so many of the animals. (You're giving my pussy cat an inferiority complex.)

Barbara

John and Barbara:

Thanks for you comments.

As far as proximity to the animals goes, yes, we were right there in most cases! I did have a 500mm lens, so the leopard in the tree was farther away than he appears in the pictures, but most of the lions were just off the road, often only 10-40 feet away and occasionally
closer like the ones that came right up and dosed under our truck.

I you want to see a close encounter, take a look at the safari page for Bill and Carolyn Hilton. They had a cheetah jump up on the hood of their truck so he could get a better view of the surrounding area. In the middle picture on that page you can see the cat only about a foot from where Bill was shooting. He decided to scoot to the rear of the truck and shot the picture with another camera. By the way, the Hiltons were on a different safari from us. We just corresponded by email.

Regards,
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Jeff