Photo of the Day - Cape Buffalo

Cape Buffalo Stare, Singita Sabi Sand, South Africa. June 2012

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/250 @ f/8, ISO 400. Hand held

Photo of the Day - Lilac Breasted Roller

Lilac Breasted Roller

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

I have been digging through some of my Lightroom catalog images of the past few weeks, looking for images that need to be reprocessed with the latest Lightroom 4 processing engine. Here is an image that I took back in June 2006, and it is likely my favorite image of a lilac breasted roller. The lilac breasted roller is most striking when its wings are spread out, and I am always on the hunt for one who is on a perch near eye level in the hope that it will fly off in a side or downward direction as to get the tops of the wings. With this image I used a flash to stop the action, but I did drag the shutter a little bit to show a sense of action and speed. I could have used a high speed sync on the flash, but I decided to keep the shutter a 1/200 sec to strike the balance between sharpness and blur.

Captain Alan G. Poindexter, 1961-2012

Today we mourn the loss of friend, former astronaut Alan ‘Dex’ Poindexter, as the result of a tragic jet ski accident off the coat in Florida. Dex was a very talented photographer, friend, husband and father. Our hearts go out to Lisa and their two sons during this very sad time. I am at a loss for words, so this is a very brief blog post today.

Leslie and I had the fortune of knowing Dex, and I wrote about our behind-the-scenes NASA visit back in late 2010 on this blog:

NASA - A Behind-The-Scenes Tour

Godspeed, my friend. We miss you.

Interview with Borrowlenses.com

I was recently interviewed by my friends over at Borrowlenses.com, and we chatted about my safari business, Gura Gear, camera equipment and the photography industry. Check it out if you have the time.

Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 20 (our last day!)

Today was the last day here in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa, and it was sad to do the last game drive of the trip. I am writing this entry from my seat on my flight back home on South African Airways, somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic ocean. My 17-hour flight can only be made up of so many bad movies with Nicholas Cage in them. UGH.

We had a sparse crew of takers for our last game drive, but those that went out were rewarded with good light and good sightings. What did we see? You guessed it: cheetah! Bird in hand, my friends. We were able to locate our friendly cheetah down by the break between Singita and Londolozi, and watched him pose on different trees for over an hour as he paraded around the open grass plains. The zebras nearby weren’t so thrilled, so that created yet another nice opportunity to have alert zebras in our frame.

Blurred Cheetah

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/5 @ f/14, ISO 100

Cheetah Peering Over A Log

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1000 @ f/3.5, ISO 1250

Cheetah In A Tree

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 800

Cheetah In A Tree

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1600 @ f/5, ISO 800

Curious Zebras

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1000 @ f/6.3, ISO 800

We were back at camp around 8:30, so we had enough time to pack up, eat breakfast, say goodbye to the amazing staff and shove off for the airstrip around 11am. I have led so many safaris in the past 10 years and know what it feels like to leave a place after a long safari, but this one was different in that I had a deep connection with Castleton and all who work there. Thank you to Claude, Marinda, Jane, Constance, Gloria, our guides Leon, Wade and Ricardo, and especially our trackers Johnson, Lawrence, Renneck and Emmanuel. You all are amazing people who make my business and enjoyable one. Thank you thank you thank you. Since Castleton is closing down at the end of this year, I will have to wait until 2014 when the new camp is built for me to return.

I am planning out my 2013 safari year, and if you have any interest for yet-to-be-announced safaris, I would love to hear from you. You can contact me at info@andybiggs.com.

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 19

You guessed it: up at 5:30, coffee at 6 and out shortly after that. Since the male cheetah has been seen almost every day since our arrival, we decided we needed some more opportunities to get him in the warm early morning light.

We spent the first 30 minutes doing nothing but looking for and analyzing tracks in the southern part of Singita. We didn’t see a single track of any of the three big cats: lion, leopard or cheetah. We stopped at a tower of giraffes (a gathering of giraffes that are walking are called a journey and a standing one is a tower) and within a few seconds we realized that they were fixated on something to the north of them. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the male cheetah was walking towards us at that moment. We had to reverse back a few hundred meters to get Lawrence back into the vehicle, as we wanted to make sure that the cheetah didn’t see him move from the tracking position to one of rows of seats. After getting Lawrence in the vehicle we drove forward again to catch up with the quickly walking cheetah.

Giraffe Sunrise

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/400 @ f/8, ISO 640

He visited many different termite mounds and downed trees, and we took the opportunity to shoot him in different types of light. It was probably one of the best and easiest photo opportunities I have had with any cheetah at any time.

Cheeah On A Tree

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1600 @ f/4, ISO 2000

Cheetah On A Tree

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/640 @ f/4, ISO 2000

In the afternoon we decided to do some more walking amongst wildlife, and we decided to walk to a dazzle (yes, that is the technical term) of zebras. As we did yesterday, we paid attention to escape routes, wind direction and how the animals were dealing with our presence. On our way back to camp we tracked and located a leopard along one of the drainage areas near our camp. Initially we weren’t sure if we had seen this male before, but after he got up and walked we realized we were watching Kashane, the male that I have written about in my past entries.

We followed him for quite a while, until the sun faded away and we could no longer keep up with the fast-walking leopard. We broke off and headed towards camp, only to find a pride of lionesses a few hundred meters from the back veranda of camp. Nothing like watching lions from the deck.

Zebra

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/320 @ f/11, ISO 400

Kashane Male Leopard

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 18

You guessed it: up at 5:30, coffee at 6 and out shortly after that. Since the male cheetah has been seen almost every day since our arrival, we decided we needed some more opportunities to get him in the warm early morning light.

We spent the first 30 minutes doing nothing but looking for and analyzing tracks in the southern part of Singita. We didn’t see a single track of any of the three big cats: lion, leopard or cheetah. We stopped at a tower of giraffes (a gathering of giraffes that are walking are called a journey and a standing one is a tower) and within a few seconds we realized that they were fixated on something to the north of them. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the male cheetah was walking towards us at that moment. We had to reverse back a few hundred meters to get Lawrence back into the vehicle, as we wanted to make sure that the cheetah didn’t see him move from the tracking position to one of rows of seats. After getting Lawrence in the vehicle we drove forward again to catch up with the quickly walking cheetah.

Claude always has a smile on

Nikon D800, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/30 @ f/2.8, ISO 1600

Photographing Wildlife on Foot

He visited many different termite mounds and downed trees, and we took the opportunity to shoot him in different types of light. It was probably one of the best and easiest photo opportunities I have had with any cheetah at any time.

Breakfast In The Bush

In the afternoon we decided to do some more walking amongst wildlife, and we decided to walk to a dazzle (yes, that is the technical term) of zebras. As we did yesterday, we paid attention to escape routes, wind direction and how the animals were dealing with our presence. On our way back to camp we tracked and located a leopard along one of the drainage areas near our camp. Initially we weren’t sure if we had seen this male before, but after he got up and walked we realized we were watching Kashane, the male that I have written about in my past entries.

We followed him for quite a while, until the sun faded away and we could no longer keep up with the fast-walking leopard. We broke off and headed towards camp, only to find a pride of lionesses a few hundred meters from the back veranda of camp. Nothing like watching lions from the deck.

Mother Elephant and A Nursery Of Three

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/800 @ f/8, ISO 800

Baby Elephant Charge

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1250 @ f/5.6, ISO 800

Held Back

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 800

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 17

The temperature was much warmer today than in the past few weeks, and it was nice to have cool-ish morning to start off with (as opposed to near freezing temps). Oh, and we had clouds today! We all decided that we would put some time in to see if we could locate cheetah, as there had been a lone male cheetah spotted in the southern part of the property yesterday morning. We stopped and listened to any alarm calls from birds or mammals every few minutes, and within an hour we heard an impala’s snorts just to the east of our position. We didn’t know the specific area, so we drove all roads near where we heard the sound so we could either find the alarm caller or at least locate tracks.

Cheetah On A Termite Mound

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1250 @ f/8, ISO 800

There are many different ways of locating predators, and one of the methods is to listen to vocalization from specific animals. Good examples are impala, kudu, francolin, guinea fowl, vervet monkeys and baboons. My least favorite is from francolin, because often they are false positive alarms and can lead to dead ends.

We eventually found a cheetah on the top of a termite mound, just as the morning sunlight was breaking through the dense clouds. We photographed him on many different mounds and downed trees over the next hour and came away with some great shots. Cheetah? Check. Good light? Check. Good visibility? Check.

On the way back to camp we stopped for a journey of giraffe, and just sat there and enjoyed a long stop to watch them feed on the trees. Giraffe and elephant are my two most favorite mammals to watch and to photograph, so I was glad to spend some good time with a relaxed congregation of them this morning.

Gear

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1400 @ f/4, ISO 1600

Friends (Lawrence and Renneck, our amazing trackers)

Nikon D800, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/640 @ f/4, ISO 320

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.