He's baaaack ... The Tale of the Last Safari for 2015

Soon after the buffalo, we are shooting kudu. We also got a nice start on the birds when I spotted a nearby squacco heron. No one seems to go from America to Africa to see birds, yet the birding is amazing. Many South Africans go on safari just for the birds. The Squacco basically looks like the brother to North America's green heron.

.... then crocs. Funny, there are two types of folks 1) those that seem to want to shoot crocs all day and 2) those that don't care if we ever see one. This group seemed to have an even mix of both types. This crocodile wasn't but about 2 meters long, but had a nice, evil look in it's eyes. I'm from the southern U.S. where we have alligators, but 'gators seem pretty passive in their looks. I'm not sure if it's because crocs have more exposed teeth, bright green and yellow colors, more colorful eyes, narrower head, or what, but they just plain out look meaner. I do love photographing them also.

By the way, I posted a photo a few posts back of our photo boat. I love the in-line seats with Wemberly style mounts, but I also like that the flat bottom boat makes it easy to get into shallow water and the gunnels of the boat make a nice support for low angle shots like this one.

I could see a few ellies in the distance, but chose to have Shuur (pronounced Shah), our boat captain take us over to a hippo I spotted as it was out of the water.

We spend some time shooting here. As I mentioned, we had several beginner photographers in the group. We provide all of the guests with a camera and a Sigma 150-300 lens to use when at Chobe, but this setting seemed to be an excellent place for me to coach the beginners on zooming and using the camera. In addition, I wanted to use this scene to remind everyone to not only shoot the tight animal shots, but to think of composition and ‘sense of place’ as they shot.

This turned out much better than I expect, for as we were shooting, a bull elephant approached. I was able to use his approach to also remind folks to vary what they shot. Shoot with elephant to right, with elephant to left of composition, shoot a verticle/portrait, shoot a full frame tight shot, etc. etc. I love when the model works for us.

These are fan-freakin'-tastic!!! More please!

We moved a little further up river and came upon one of my favorite subjects: baboons. We each shot a few gigs of images of these as there were quite a few babies playing, which is always a treat to shoot.

Moving onward, we came upon a young ellie swimming in the river. These crossings are quite common in Chobe and always allow interesting shots as the head is often quite high. This youngish elephant (I'd guess between 15 and 25 years of age) raised it's trunk to sniff our scent. I always love when they do that. Overall, the elephant was quite relaxed and we got quite close before moving to the next site.

Up ahead, I spotted a local photographing something along the bank. Usually when you see this style boat near the bank, it's a pretty good subject, so we eased up to where they were photographing and viewing. It turned out to be several kudu bucks drinking at waters edge as well as a few more baboons. I think the male greater kudu is one of the most beautiful of the antelope family (along with sable and nyala). I don't normally photograph others viewing wildlife, but wanted to share this image to let folks see how close we get while in the water. As you can see, the kudu do not see the boat as a threat and we didn't interrupt their drinking. I could have photographed this for a long time; however Shuur got a cell phone call and gave me the high sign indicating their might be something we'd like to see and needed to move quickly to be there in time. Sunset was coming on now, and ISO settings were creeping up, so I told Shuur make haste and we headed to our last great sighting of this first night in Chobe National Park.

Thank you. - Once again you are thrilling us with your narrative and images !!!

Please (if you have the time) give us an insight on how you process your images. I assume you shoot RAW, what is your workflow from there ??

davethejnz wrote in post #17716426
Please (if you have the time) give us an insight on how you process your images. I assume you shoot RAW, what is your workflow from there ??

Dave, I am pretty straight forward with edits. When you have a few hundred to do, you can't get crazy. I shoot Raw. I set temperature in LR and do minor shadows, highlights adjustment in LR as well as basic exposure. I then import to Photoshop. I always first adjust levels and curves. From there I may do some selective noise reduction. Many of the images use Nik plug-ins. In particular I use Color Efex. The modules I may use, depending on the shot are tonal contrast, detail extractor and glamour glow. Allof these are on layers I mask to some degree. Then I sharpen using a free action called "Freaky Amazing Details" on parts of the image. Of course I downsize for the web upload versions.

This is positively a stunning thread.

As we headed up river, it was getting dark fast. Meanwhile we were zooming past some pretty darn good shot options. I turned to Shuur and pressed "What the hell are we rushing to see?" All I got in reply was a big toothy smile and no words. It must be good to keep the sighting from the group leader. Okay, I'll sit back and wait. I only hoped it would be good as the others seemed eager to see things.

Whoa, we finally got to the sighting with 15 minutes of light. I immediately start clicking and giving commands. Pull in here ... quick, back up, let's move ahead .... okay stop here .... he's moving again, we want the head on view, etc. etc. etc.

I just checked my LR and I literally took 646 images in that last few minutes of light! Here are a few.

Yep, a leopard. It's a female and she's walking on a sandy point hundreds of yards from the forest line. It is really, really rare to see a leopard in such an open setting. I quickly tell my fellow travelers they are seeing something special. I surely didn't promise a leopard at Chobe and here, they've had quality views of 3 of the big 5 on this very first afternoon in the bush!

BTW, this shot with the elephant in the background may be one of my favorite shots of a leopard I've ever taken ... and I've seen a lot of leopards. I don't know why I like the shot so much, but I really do.

A little weirdness here. As I'm shooting away, I look over at the guests and 2 are facing away from the leopard photographing a hippo that is mostly submerged and 90 meters away. I note to them that we will see more hippos but this leopard sighting is pretty special. Reluctantly they turn and photograph the leopard that's only 30 meters away. They just didn't know how rare the afternoon had become.

Now, I'm the guilty party for shooting something else. As the leopard walks west, I note a fish eagle in the grasses ahead. It takes flight to one of the few dead trees at waters edge. With the bird in near silhouette, I spin in my chair and shoot a few shots of the eagle as it clearly has a fish in it's talons and this is also a pretty sweet shot of it landing.

Note on these shots how far away the brush line is from the riverbank. We have a leopard in the wide open spaces and we are nearly out of daylight. Dang. Pump up the ISO and keep shooting.

So back to the leopard, who clearly seems to be hunting.