drano

I'd like to thank everyone on this forum again for all your help in planning our first safari. Sorry for the delay but I spent most of the last few months processing and cataloguing the photos from out trip.

I don't want to write a lengthy trip report. Instead I have arranged my photo gallery day by day and have given a brief day's account at the top of each gallery. I hope a picture will be worth a thousand words... but I warn you, there are a LOT of pictures!!!

I will however give my overall impressions:

We did a 12-13 day Kenya/Tanzania dry season safari last September. The parks covered were Samburu, Masai Mara, Amboseli, Tarangire and Ngorongoro. All were very special and different. I'm glad we chose this itinerary even though it involved some flying. The cost was nominal compared to the time saved from driving and the game viewing that we maximized.

Good Earth tours was a fine operator who gave us a lot of "bang for our buck" and sent private drivers ahead to meet us for our fly-in parks. There was a small itinerary mix-up when we got to Tanzania but it was resolved quickly. The real credit to them was the partner they chose for our Kenyan safari (which was the largest part of the trip) Safari Line.

SafariLine was an exemplary operation that treated us like family... maybe better
Catherine greeted us at the airport with Matthew (our future Mara guide). We really came to appreciate his kindness and the love he has for what he does. We had the pleasure of using three of their guides and they were all excellent. Catherine met us at every junction and even left us with a parting gift. A real class act without the expense and impersonal feel of some of the big guys.

We really loved Kenya as a whole. Tanzania was really nice too but we felt really comfortable in Kenya and the quality of the parks was unmatched. We were a bit worried as we had come across a lot of "bad press" regarding Kenya. When planning our safari there was a certain sense that Tanzania was a safer place to go. I now think this has a lot more to do with Tanzania "playing ball" politically with certain super-powers where Kenya has taken a more independant stand. There's a feeling around that it's a "bad place" and their products are inferior to TZ. I don't know but they seemed to have better infrastructure, a higer level of education, lower poverty and we just felt a lot safer there... but maybe a lot of that had to do with the quality of our tour agency, so take it with a grain of salt.

Overall we had a great time and wished we could do it every year.
We're leaving for Thailand in a few days and I wanted to make sure I wrapped this trip up before starting on a new one.

Thanks again to all you Fodorites and here's my link if you want more info and lots of pics!

http://adrianoalmeida.smugmug.com/

Cheers!
Drano

atravelynn

Interesting insights you have provided. Glad Safari Line worked so well. So far I've gone to Samburu with you. Beautiful baby zebras and other antelope shots. You saw Lesser Kudu! Can you elaborate on that sighting? Did you see Lesser Kudu only once? Beautiful eles in the water. Great luck with the cheetah in Samburu.

Patty

Great photos! Thanks for sharing. You got some nice eles in front of Kili shots. What a difference in the Samburu you saw in Sep vs what we saw in Dec.

Chris_GA_Atl

You have some really excellent photos there. I especially like the elephants at sunset, those are spectacular.

Could you comment on what lenses you were using? Exif data makes it look like there was a 70-200, maybe a 300mm prime with a 1.4xTC, and a 600mm prime.

Chris

drano

Thanks for the positive feedback.
I'll try to answer some of your questions.

The lesser kudu was a chance sighting just as we approached the base of one of the smaller hills in Samburu. A couple of vehicles had gone a little off-road and we followed them. Three kudu (one male) were walking gently through the low brush. They passed by us slowly and turned up the hill where we could not follow. Very lucky!

My kit was as follows. Canon 20D & 30D. Lenses included 10-22mm wide angle, 70-200 f/2.8 and a Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 (which I used with a 1.4 and occasionally with a 2x extender). The Sigma is really a super lens. To my knowledge it's the only 300mm f/2.8 with a zoom. It was very versatile, extremely well built and sharp. It gave me a range of 120mm up to 600mm at f/5.6 with extenders. It only lacks a stabilizer but is also half the cost of the Canon L prime. I saw guys from NG and BBC carrying those big guns in the Mara and my setup was nice and light...easier to fly with too. All I needed was a beanbag on site. Pound for pound the best choice for my safari. A good guide helps too of course

Leely

Great (!!!) photos and thanks for the report. I'm glad you had a good time, though sorry to hear you two got sick, and on such a long travel day, too.

I hope you enjoy Thailand.

cooncat2

Drano - I haven't had time to look through/read everything but oh my stars... you must be very happy with those photos. Nice job! Looks like a very successful trip.

Sharon

Chris_GA_Atl

Drano,
That is very interesting about the Sigma 120-300/2.8. I had never considered that lens before -- my next lens acquisition was going to be the Canon 70-200/2.8 IS for low-light telephoto, but the Sigma looks very attractive. It costs a whole lot more than the 70-200, and lacks IS, but also has more telephoto reach. Hmmmm ... I need another telephoto option in addition to my 100-400, especially for lower-light conditions. How would you rate the 120-300 in low light, and especially compared to the 70-200/2.8 IS?

thit_cho

Great photos, especially some of the birds (I've had a lot of luck with rollers, but less luck with the bee eaters, and you've got some great photos of several different species). While I saw rhino in the Crater, I was not nearly as close as you (I think I was at least 200 yards from the rhinos).

drano

Yes I was amazed at what we were able to capture in a couple of weeks. It was very productive.

We got lucky with that rhino. the day before he was about 200m away and I was struggling in the wind to get a good shot with a 2x extender on my 300mm... with a cable release (a not breathing). That's about 960mm with my crop factor!!! The next day he just walked right up. Awesome!

Chris,
I considered many lenses for this purpose. I already had the 70-200 f/2.8 which I think is Canon's best lens (a little heavy but sooo worth it and still easy to hand-hold). Many people like the 100-400 but it does suck a lot of dust...especially on safari and it's a bit slower. You can't beat an f/2.8 lens for low light performance so I would say the Canon and Sigma have equal capabilities in that regard. You will probably get more use out of the 70-200 in the long run unless you shoot a lot of wildlife or sports, in which case the 120-300 is great... but you will need a monopod. It also does very well with extenders giving you a lot of reach. I'm not exactly sure which lenses you're trying to decide between, but I would think about trading in the 100-400 if you're considering the Sigma. It's a lot of lens for the money and you don't need so much overlap in focal lengths.

Joe MacDonald literally wrote the book on Safari Photography. Check out his endorsement of this lens: http://www.hoothollow.com/Tip-December%202003.html

Here are a couple of other professional reviews:

http://www.shutterbug.com/equipmentr.../0204sb_sigma/

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/s...=37&page=1

If you're intersted try sigma4less.com
It's only $450 more than Canon's 70-200mm f/2.8!

Sorry for all the "shop-talk" but I hope this helps.

atravelynn

What a day for cheetah with sightings in both Samburu and then in the Maasai Mara. Your lion family pictures are wonderful. Great photos of the masses of wildebeest in crossing the river. Outstanding lappet faced vulture, not often a photographic subject. The agama lizard in all its poses is a colorful spectacle. And speaking of color, lovely light on the roller. Your last morning in the Mara was highly productive with the lion on the buffalo kill and the baby cheetahs. I really liked them in the tree. A good first week on safari.

Chris_GA_Atl

Your lens comments are very helpful. We generally shoot mostly wildlife and travel-related pictures, so what we need are telephotos and then wide-angles for people and scenery shots. The one thing that would really make me hesitate on replacing our 100-400 with the Sigma 120-300 is hand-held use. My wife and I can shoot all day hand-holding the 100-400, and I am confident we could not do that with the 120-300, which weighs about 3 times what the 100-400 does. Plus, we really like the 100-400 a lot -- ours is very sharp, even wide open, and the zoom range is very good for our uses.

So that leaves us with the question of whether we can accept a shorter focal-length lens (70-200) and keep an all-handheld portfolio of lenses, or do we want to take the step of a lens that will always require some sort of support (which would be true of the 120-300, as well as the 300/2.8 prime, or the 400/2.8, or a 500/4 for that matter). Fortunately, we don't have to make that decision yet because we just got back from a trip and won't be going anywhere for at least 6 months. When we choose our next destination, we will probably let the particular demands of that trip drive the next lens selection, and my wife wants a general-purpose lens with a longer reach than our 17-85, so we will probably get the 24-105L in addition to any telephoto we might get.

It is, however, always a fun subject to talk about!

Chris

Chris_GA_Atl

One thing I forgot to add. I have heard a lot of people express the opinion that the 100-400 sucks dust into itself or into the camera because of the push-pull zoom. We have shot probably 3,000 pictures with our 100-400, including in some very dusty environments (like Ethiopia). I have not seen any evidence that this "dust-sucking" phenomenon is true. In fact, the only thing that seems to put dust on our sensor is changing lenses. That will definitely do it, but I am very skeptical about that particular criticism of the 100-400.

I don't get all that worked up about dust anyway, since we have an Arctic Butterfly and that makes dust removal so easy.

Chris

MyDogKyle

Wow, what incredible pictures! You did a great job of really capturing the animals' individual characters (not to mention some gorgeous sunsets). We'll be going on a similar itinerary this September, so it was especially fun for me to look through your photos. Thanks so much for posting!

girlpolo33

Drano, I loved your pictures...thanks for sharing. Your final picture from the Crater was mesmerizing...the small figure cloaked in red, dwarfed by a landscape that looks like an exquisite painting. Absolutely beautiful.

rsnyder

drano, thanks a bunch for sharing high quality photos!! What a nice after-dinner treat. And, we really appreciated seeing the Tarangire River Camp as we should be staying there one nite in Jume. Do you recall if night drives were possible there?

atravelynn

The light really cooperated in Amboseli. An elephant herd in front of the mountain. There's your postcard. Some very pretty impala interaction. Despite their commonness, I am still fond of impalas. The elephants looked like they were having fun in the mud. I'll go into the crater tomorrow.

cary999

Hi Drano,
Lot of good photos, thanks for sharing.
I really like your smugmug page(s). Did you subscribe to the smugmug "Standard Account" to do this? Or are you using one of smugmugs more $$$ accounts?
I'm trying their trial account and have started playing with it. So far, not too difficult but not real easy either. I have been using the KodakGallery but I don't like that the photos must be on a white background. This is ok for prints but not for monitor display.
regards - tom

drano

rsnyder: I don't know about night drives but TRC did offer Masai guided walks. Unfortunately we were too ill with the flu to do any of that. It's still a good drive to the camp from the park so we packed a lunch each day and did a couple of longer game drives. You'll love it there I'm sure.

chris: Well, you've got to build the kit that works for you for sure. As awesome as it is the Sigma is still a heavy lens (but managable). If it had IS I would still be able to handhold (without extenders). But I would recommend the 70-200/2.8 to anybody for any use. I actually just picked up the 24-105 for my trip to Thailand. We leave tonight...I'll let you know how it does.

Tom: I got sumgmugs pro account... I think it was $149 for the year. You can certainly go for less but the cost was negligible considering no limits on uploads and bandwith usage. It even allows me to sell prints if I decide to start doing so. I love the versatility and the abilty to customize (although I haven't done much of that yet).

Thanks everyone for all your feedback. I hope I'm able to do as well on my next trip.

atravelynn

The crater is a surprisingly good place for hippo pictures and you got them. Some great zebra combinations. You had outstanding luck with rhino in the crater. The lion drinking is lovely.

You had a very fortunate trip with the widlife viewing and you captured it well in your pictures.