Well here's a sampler from December's safari riding. As with the walking tours.. not great weather, limited total quality.. but let's see what I can manage. Of note in the collection is the baby giraffe, which was always pointed out by the tour guide whenever it showed up.. the cheetah.. not that it's a great shot, I need at least twice the focal length to really get a decent shot, but this is probably my best yet, and also I saw the most Cheetah activity ever, showing that they have multiple cheetahs back there (likely all females due to the gender dynamics). Also my best shot yet of the male lion, I've never seen him showing himself as much as this before.. normally he's always lying down, showing little more than a small amount of ruffled fur. And then there's the special tour vehicle. I can only guess that this is the special tour that you can go on if you stay at the Concierge level of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I've never seen the vehicle before.. and all I have to say is, nice themed decorating! I figured the tour would be a bunch of people in a van or some sort of large jeep or something, and that somehow the whole thing would be hidden from the regular ride. Instead I find that they have a special vehicle apparently used just for that one limited availability tour.. I'm impressed. They have another vehicle used for giving tours of the grounds that the Animal Kingdom Lodge have, I've never found out how you go on that tour.. And as for the flamingos.. I'm sorry, but I think those things are ugly whenever I actually get a good look at them. The beak is a masterpiece of design for a very specific function (filter feeding), but as a result.. I just think it looks upside down, and it really gives their heads weird proportions.
I had to add the rest of the pictures in another post, I hadn't realized the limit was 4. Also I had to uber compress the tour van picture to get it under what seems to be a new 100kb file size limit. Photoshop just wasn't behaving for me.. It said I was getting the file just under 100k, but whenever I saved it it ended up at 105k. I had to take it WAY down to get it below 100, and then it dropped farther below it.
how do you go on that tour? When I went there in November '05, I asked 6 CM about that tour (at the resort, at the information in AK, the regular-tour tour-guide, etc) none of them knew the answer.
I forgot to tell my favorite story from the safari ride this winter when I posted this. Once when I was riding it I picked up a new nickname. The driver started talking to me, first commenting that some particular animal was so close that I didn't need my telephoto lens (70-200 F4L). People have a tendency of assuming that that lens has a greater magnification factor than it really does, because of its size.. and because they're used to point and shoot cameras with tiny lenses that sometimes can still provide equal magnification levels.. anyway, after the first comment I continued working the animals, when I heard "hey Mister Telephoto, over there". I had become "Mister Telephoto" and he was watching out for good photo ops while I was preoccupied with pointing my camera in only one direction. It was so cool. In truth I can't say that I got many excellent shots from that run.. as my running gripe goes, it was cloudy, not too bright.. I had to crank up the ISO, and even then I was still getting blurry shots by pushing the shutter speed a bit too much.. but, well.. I think that had to be my "Disney Moment" of the trip. The personal Disney cast member treatment that just makes me smile. Not only was he doing the usual pointing out of the animals, but he saw that I wasn't following along and took me to task. I have to admit.. I love the attention of hauling around a high profile camera and lens. I'd use Mister Telephoto as an official nickname from now on.. except there are too many people with large caliber lenses that blow mine away in terms of reach or.. bigness.. I won't mention Gary by name.. or JoeDisney.. but you people know who you are.
the only cure for lens envy is to have the operation (where b&h surgically remove the contents of your wallet) and get a bigger one for yourself i did the safari a couple years ago with the 100-400, which when zoomed out is huge looking(push-pull), everybody was thinking i was a pro? but unfortunately i had the crazed driver who i swear did not pause so much as 1 second, so nothing really good came of the ride i think it's the white lens, i really wish canon had these available as black, i know the white is so everybody at pro sports sees all the huge sea of white and knows it's canon, but that white is why i hesitate to take the 70-200 to europe, even though it's probably my sharpest and best color lens gary
the white is not only for marketing purposes. I've tried a Sigma 100-400(?) on one body with the 400L on another body. After a couple hours sitting under the summer sun, I'd choose the white coloured lens just because the black lens is now hot to the touch. On the positive side, using white lens have its positive side too. In Japan, I'm always automatically ushered to the photographers area (usually closer to the subject, better viewing angle etc) just by sporting the white lens. When taking a picture in a sea of people... the sea parted. ;D
