Animal Kingdom: Kilimanjaro Safaris

A rare (for me at least) sighting of a sable antelope.


Sable is All the Rage

 

Spring forward? No, I think I'll just take another nap.


Who Needs to Save Daylight?

 

This is the first (and so far only) decent shot I have of a mandrill.


Who Are You Calling A Baboon?

 

Those warthog kids are at it again.


Take That Back!

 

Remember Maynard G. Krebs, best friend of Dobie Gillis? This giraffe's chin whiskers are no match for Maynard's.


No Threat to Maynard

 

Late afternoon stretch, after a long hard day of lying around not moving:

 

Has anyone else been nutty enough (like me) to try shooting night safaris? I personally find it fun - just because how often do you get the chance to try to shoot animals at night from a moving truck?! Of course, you need a fast lens and high ISO - or if you only happened to have your slower lens with you (like me), really really high ISO:

ISO 25,600, wildebeest feeding:


Speaking of black rhinos standing...at night they seem to be standing most of the time, but it might take ISO 32,000 to get a shot:


Hippo out of the water - but not cooperating with me as I drove by - standing behind a tree eating. ISO 20,000, and at least you get to see the pinkish purple colors out of the water:

 

Just wish there was another wild and crazy guy - particularly one with a full-frame camera and F2.8 zoom, to see what THAT beast could pull off on a night safari!

 

I took some shots with my fast 50 during Pixelmania. It was dark - 7:40 pm in late October dark. But a couple of them might be usable. Give me a few weeks...

 

I think I may try that in December when I'm there - use a fast shorter prime instead of the zoom. I only had my 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 zoom with me when I shot the safari, so the reach was perfect but it was a bit slow. I did set the Auto ISO to 100-51,200 and set min. shutter speed to 1/500 so it would at least TRY to maintain that shutter speed...though it was so dark that it had to drop down below the min shutter setting because even at 51,200 it couldn't get enough light. That's where the F4.5 was hurting me - so if I use an F1.4 or F1.8 lens, even if I don't get the reach, it should help with the shutter speeds at least. I believe we were moving very slowly with the wildebeest - not stopped, but slow and smooth enough to let me focus on them and not get bumped around too much.

 

As promised, here's a photo from a night safari that really was a night. Not a lot of processing, just a little cooling of the white balance.


Savanna Nightlife

 

The moon was out on my night-time safari ride.


Hippo Moon

 

Nice Dennis! Love seeing those nighttime shots. There's just something interesting about wildlife shots in those conditions, since 99% of wildlife shots are always in daylight - just being different makes them interesting for me.

 

Mandrill really cooperated for me this time - actually climbing up into a tree and watching the truck pass while chewing on a reed: