Africa » Traverse Earth

Not a Good Place for Lunch

Africa, Animals, Zambia, Zimbabwe 9 Responses »

Sep 212012

Today’s Photo: Lonely Lion

Our junior guide, who typically stayed at the back of the group paddled up ahead and caught up to our main guide. Then, they made for the shore. It was about lunchtime and I thought that was why we were stopping. Instead, we were told to stay in our canoes and just beach them slightly. Then, we saw her, camouflaged extremely well amongst the brush, a lone lion, just 30 meters away.

We sat and watched her for a while as she sat and watched us, very casually. She’s an old lion, we were told, and had likely had to leave her pack and attempt to fend for herself. She seemed tired and had a sadness in her eyes, that I think you can see here.

After pushing off and continuing down stream our guide praised his assistant for spotting her and confessed it was a good thing as he’d planned on stopping there for our lunch break!

The Technical Bits

Camera: Canon 5d Mk II
Lens: EF 70-300mm f/2.8L USM
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/50 at f/8

Taking the Photo: I zoomed in far as I could and made sure that I set the focus on the lioness’ eyes as she gazed back at us. I was shooting handheld as I was sitting in a canoe at the time. I shot three bracketed images but chose not to use them.

Processing: I decided not to use the bracketed images as there was too much movement in the scene, from the lion to all of the foliage around her. I tried creating an HDR image by adjusting the exposure levels in Adobe RAW, but realized that I preferred the single exposure to the output from Photomatix so just adjusted contrast in Photoshop and bumped up the detail in Topaz Adjust.

I had to make a substantial crop in order to zoom in further on the lion. As the 5d mk II uses a full frame sensor this was possible without the resulting photo being too small.

Software: Photoshop, Topaz Adjust

Gorilla Up Close

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, Travel 1 Response »

Sep 042012

If you follow me regularly you’ll know that I had pretty much all of my camera gear stolen in Italy. If not, you can get the details here. I’ve now got an insurance check in hand and am trying to figure out what to buy. It’s a bit weird starting from scratch. I was dead set on buying the new 5d mk iii, but now I’ve looked at it I can get a used 5d mk ii and 7d for less than the cost of a mk iii. So, I’ve decided it’s not worth it. The two cameras compliment each other well, and the improvements I was interested in from the mk iii are covered by the 7d. Plus, if I accidentally drop one off a waterfall I’ll have a backup camera with me. With that decided I have to figure out what to get as far as lenses. I will be getting L-series lenses and had hoped to get them used from BH Photovideo to stretch the insurance cash as far as possible. Unfortunately, there aren’t many used L-series lenses available at the moment.

So far, I’m confident I’ll be buying another 14mm prime lens and a 24mm-70mm lens, though it’s looking like I’ll have to buy the new version of the lens I had, at a premium as it’s just been released. My big dilemma is with the longer lens. I had a 70-300mm lens, but now I’m considering switching that for a faster 70-200mm lens. That would allow me to really freeze motion, but I’m reluctant to lose the reach. So I think I’ll be buying an extender as well, which will effectively extend my reach to 400mm. I just hope I don’t get too disappointed by the drop in performance and image quality the extender causes.

Today’s photo was taken using my old 70-300mm lens. It, combined with the big, full frame sensor in the 5d mk ii, allowed me to get a nice tight photo of this guy, and then crop in even closer for a portrait.

Baby Mountain Gorilla with Mother, Rwanda

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, Travel 2 Responses »

Aug 082012

This little guy passed by me clinging to his mother’s back and seemed particularly interested in my camera. When she stopped and sat down he was behind her, but he crawled round to this spot and continued to watch.

Silverback, Rwanda Mountain Gorillas

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, Travel 1 Response »

Aug 012012

This guy has featured in a few of my previous photos. Click the “mountain gorillas” category to see a few of his different emotions… including grumpy, really, really grumpy.

Young Mountain Gorilla Eating, Rwanda

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, Travel 1 Response »

Jul 282012

I’ve got a LOT of gorilla photos and I’m struggling to think of what more to say about them. If you want to know more about my experience with the gorillas in Rwanda click on the “Mountain Gorillas” in the categories to see all of my gorilla posts.

Zambeezi Sunset Cruise

Africa, Travel, Zambia 1 Response »

Jul 242012

Another shot of that spectacular, lingering sunset on the Upper Zambeezi. At this point the liquor had been flowing and the group was in good spirits. We can’t say the same for the morning. When we woke up the next day to take on the category 5 rapids below the falls we weren’t the happiest campers. It was still a great day, and most of us had recovered by lunch time. But here’s a pro tip, if you get the white water rafting + booze cruise combo at Jolly Boys, Livingstone, do the booze cruise after the rafting… not the night before!

More Tourists…

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, Travel 6 Responses »

Jul 172012

My Shot on My Modern Met

A friend sent me a note today to let me know that one of my pictures has been featured in an article on My Modern Met about the Niagara Falls’ Stunning Festival of Rainbow Lights by Katie Hosmer. I love it when my photos appear on people’s websites. I normally spot them when people start linking into Traverse Earth or Flickr from the article. I think I like it even more when I hear it from people that have recognized one of my shots! So, if you spot anymore of my photos about the web, let me know! There’s no prize, but I’ll definitely say thanks.

Also, I’ve had a number of people point out that my photos can be copied from this website, or on Flickr, or on Smugmug. That’s okay with me. My images are all available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.. That sounds complicated but all it means is if you’d like to use one of my images for a non-commercial purpose that’s fine. Just link back to me. I prefer a link back to my homepage, www.traverseearth.com, but a lot of my images that end up being used out on the web are found on Flickr and typically link back to there. So, want to illustrate a point on your blog? Go right ahead. Want to use a photo for your cover photo on Facebook? Fine by me. Just remember to point a link back to where you found it! If you’d like to know more on Creative Commons, feel free to go ahead and click the link above and explore that site.

Today’s Photo: More Tourists

When visiting the mountain gorillas in Rwanda one conclusion is really easy to draw. Silverback gorillas are truly formidable. All the other gorillas seem intrigued by your presence. They pause to watch you as they go about their daily routines. The silverbacks, on the other hand, just seem grouchy. They don’t pay you much mind but maintain this look like they could snap at any moment. I got the pleasure of watching one charge through the bush and slap another gorilla out of the way. I thought it was incredible. Cameron and Chris had a different viewpoint; they were the focus of this gorillas mock charge. Chris happened to film a video of this on his iPhone as it careened through the bushes at him at great pace. Somehow that video disappeared before I got a chance to see it. I’ve got a theory that it’s because you could hear a whimper of fear or two in the background. Chris did admit that when he played the video back it was clear that his hands were shaking during the ordeal.

This photo was taken later, at a much calmer moment. I’m not sure if this was the same gorilla or not. He doesn’t look particularly happy with our presence there. Maybe someone had just accidentally stood on a particularly tasty plant.

Originally, when I was working up these gorilla shots, I was combining three exposures and using the ghosting tool in Photomatix to deal with the subjects movement. I was happy with the results at the time, but looking back I’m not so thrilled. Now I am using one RAW exposure. In Photoshop’s Camera RAW I adjust this exposure to simulate varying exposure levels and produce three images ranging from -2 stops through to +2 stops. This is resulting in much crisper images with far less artifacts. It also takes a lot less time.

Something Interesting: A link for traveler’s wanting to fly for almost free

I don’t know exactly how much truth there is in this, but I think I’ll give it a go. Nora Dunn has written an article, “The Travel Hacking Cartel: Fly Around the World For Almost Free” outlining how she travels the world for almost free. I’m particularly interested in Chris Guillebeau’s “Travel Hacking Cartel“. I read one of his books on his somewhat alternative life path making money while on the move. His goal is to visit every country in the world by the time he turns 35 in April 2013. His blog is definitely worth a look: chrisguillebeau.com

Boulders Bay Front Property

Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, Travel 3 Responses »

Jul 122012

Three out of five of our group, dissatisfied with seeing penguins hanging about in bushes, paid the cover charge to actually go down onto Boulders Bay in search of penguins on the rocks. That, at least in our minds, was where penguins should be. As soon as we came through the gate we spied a penguin lounging in the middle of a small path forking off the main one. We walked down for a closer look, the penguin didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence. We thought this penguin may be a sign of more at the end of the path. It wasn’t. There were no penguins at the end of the path, but there was this incredible view.

If you want to see more of Boulders Bay and the penguins we did find, click on this image to go through to my South Africa gallery.

Chomp, Chomp, Chomp, Chomp

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, Travel 9 Responses »

Jul 092012

Okay, I’m really bad at naming photos. I used to agonize over what to call them. I’ve decided to just go with the first thing that comes to mind when I look at them. Unfortunately, on my first application of this rule the only thing I could think was, “Chomp, Chomp, Chomp, Chomp”. Not a great start. This new photo naming method may just confirm that I have the mind of a child. I’ve also come to the conclusion that I’ve got a LOT of gorilla shots and am starting to run out of things to say about them. So, if you want to know more about my take on these incredible animals, and see more photos, click on the “Mountain Gorillas” category.

How do you guys go about naming your photos?

Thirsty Elephants

Africa, Animals, Zambia 4 Responses »

Jul 072012

We’d turned the canoe sideways and were drifting down the Zambezi as I photographed a huge group of elephants taking a refreshing dip. I had my big lens on… 70-300mm. I started out fully zoomed in and was gradually zooming out as we got closer. Suddenly, I couldn’t zoom out any further. I dropped the camera from my eye. We were VERY close to these elephants. Then I heard Chris’s voice from the back of the canoe, “Keep taking photos J. I got this.”

I kept taking photos.

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