- Location
- Milwaukee, WI USA
- Name
- Luke
I hope I can take a similar vacation one day..... wow. Breathtaking shots. I just want to keep scrolling.
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Tarangire Nat'l Park, Tanzania
- Thread starter KillRamsey
- Start date
- Location
- The Netherlands
- Name
- Marlof
At Lake Manyara, did you see an elderly lion with a Cardinals baseball cap? My wife lost hers there quite a few years ago as the wind took it. The driver did want to go for it, but as two young lions appeared and took sudden interest in the cap, he gave up on the idea.
Great pictures by the way!
Great pictures by the way!
Luckypenguin
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Brisbane, Australia
- Name
- Nic
Amazing place and a great series of images. I've lost interest in visiting cities so if I get to do much more travelling then a trip like this is much higher up my list of places to see.
krugorg
All-Pro
- Location
- Minnesota USA
- Name
- Kyle Krug
Great images, Kyle, thanks for sharing. Looks like it was an awesome trip.
3k images had to be a a bit overwhelming! :eek-54:
3k images had to be a a bit overwhelming! :eek-54:
KillRamsey
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Hood River, OR
- Name
- Kyle
One last stop, which was Zanzibar, where we stayed on the beach for 3 days. I left town again last week and was gone for 5 days, so I juuuuust finished editing this last chunk.
TOMK3484 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
These acrobats at the resort were astoundingly good.
KBRX5189 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
A restaurant that looked nice on paper (and in person), but has relied on its stunning location to draw customers, allowing their service level to become appallingly bad, and its prices to creep up very high. We looked around, couldn't even get drinks ordered, and quietly left. Thanks for the pics.
TOMK3518 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
Much better restaurant on the beach with a cute puppy who fell asleep in my arms.
KBRX5201 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
".....sigh."
TOMK3535 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
Moonrise on the beach
TOMK3561 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
Riding back to the airport
KBRX5228 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
These acrobats at the resort were astoundingly good.
A restaurant that looked nice on paper (and in person), but has relied on its stunning location to draw customers, allowing their service level to become appallingly bad, and its prices to creep up very high. We looked around, couldn't even get drinks ordered, and quietly left. Thanks for the pics.
Much better restaurant on the beach with a cute puppy who fell asleep in my arms.
".....sigh."
Moonrise on the beach
Riding back to the airport
KillRamsey
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Hood River, OR
- Name
- Kyle
Final thoughts on the trip:
1. Two Bodies... was a very, very good decision. Especially given that I'm shooting mirrorless, so it all still fit in a small bag. Sync up the clocks on both bodies VERY tightly (within seconds of each other), make the file names something different, and you can sort all images later by time taken. Minimal lens changes out in the dust, and you can split them up with your spouse, so you can shoot at the same time. And of course, if the XT had had a failure... perish the thought.
2. The XC 50-230... was VERY smart. Thank you again, whoever nudged me that way. It requires a little more care on exposure than what I imagine its faster siblings would. A stop too bright, and it milks out quickly. Too dim, and it loses detail very quickly. At dusk, you'll pretty much put it away. But that's a liveable set of parameters for the normal safari drives, which happen in broad, glaring daylight. And with the EVF in the XT1 showing me accurate exposure preview, I RARELY messed it up. Meanwhile, I got those shots you see up there for under $200. I'd guess that about 5% of the shots I got with that lens left me disappointed, and 25% left me somewhere between "surprised" and "stunned" when I reviewed the files on a big screen. You just don't expect results that good from their "cheap" lens. It's smaller, lighter, and stabilized. It's a no-brainer.
3. The XE-2... was pretty great. The dumbdumbdumb rule that locks shooting and reviewing to the same EVF/LCD decision should be fixed yesterday. Beyond dumb. Makes no sense. Also I noticed that when EVF + Sensor was my choice, often on startup there was a 1+ second lag before it would light up the EVF. Switching back to the XT1, it was lightning quick on launch, and that's not even in Quick Startup mode. FlickBANG, it's live and ready. The E was just a little slower, so going back and forth made it stand out. Great second body, though. Perfect files, just like the T, so editing was a snap... all presets worked the same on both files. The AFL and AEL buttons on the thumb mound drove me crazy for a week til I could train myself not to press them by accident.
4. Instax Printer... would've been awesome.
5. Five safari camps is too many. 3 would be perfect, for a week or maybe 8 days total. 5 camps for 10 days felt too long. By the end, you have seen SO many elephants and giraffes and hooved animals that you don't even lift the camera anymore unless it's a big cat, or something CLOSE. And all that truck time, bouncing around, unable to walk... it was tough.
1. Two Bodies... was a very, very good decision. Especially given that I'm shooting mirrorless, so it all still fit in a small bag. Sync up the clocks on both bodies VERY tightly (within seconds of each other), make the file names something different, and you can sort all images later by time taken. Minimal lens changes out in the dust, and you can split them up with your spouse, so you can shoot at the same time. And of course, if the XT had had a failure... perish the thought.
2. The XC 50-230... was VERY smart. Thank you again, whoever nudged me that way. It requires a little more care on exposure than what I imagine its faster siblings would. A stop too bright, and it milks out quickly. Too dim, and it loses detail very quickly. At dusk, you'll pretty much put it away. But that's a liveable set of parameters for the normal safari drives, which happen in broad, glaring daylight. And with the EVF in the XT1 showing me accurate exposure preview, I RARELY messed it up. Meanwhile, I got those shots you see up there for under $200. I'd guess that about 5% of the shots I got with that lens left me disappointed, and 25% left me somewhere between "surprised" and "stunned" when I reviewed the files on a big screen. You just don't expect results that good from their "cheap" lens. It's smaller, lighter, and stabilized. It's a no-brainer.
3. The XE-2... was pretty great. The dumbdumbdumb rule that locks shooting and reviewing to the same EVF/LCD decision should be fixed yesterday. Beyond dumb. Makes no sense. Also I noticed that when EVF + Sensor was my choice, often on startup there was a 1+ second lag before it would light up the EVF. Switching back to the XT1, it was lightning quick on launch, and that's not even in Quick Startup mode. FlickBANG, it's live and ready. The E was just a little slower, so going back and forth made it stand out. Great second body, though. Perfect files, just like the T, so editing was a snap... all presets worked the same on both files. The AFL and AEL buttons on the thumb mound drove me crazy for a week til I could train myself not to press them by accident.
4. Instax Printer... would've been awesome.
5. Five safari camps is too many. 3 would be perfect, for a week or maybe 8 days total. 5 camps for 10 days felt too long. By the end, you have seen SO many elephants and giraffes and hooved animals that you don't even lift the camera anymore unless it's a big cat, or something CLOSE. And all that truck time, bouncing around, unable to walk... it was tough.
KillRamsey
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Hood River, OR
- Name
- Kyle
chuckling... No I don't think we even saw ANY lions there. Certainly no animals in ball caps. Something probably ate it.
Ngorongoro and Serengeti got you some really fantastic shots, Kyle! Hard to pick favourites, but the man on a bike, lion climbing a tree, clouds on Ngorongoro rim, and zebra / wildebeast herd are the ones that caught my eye the most.
[edit]
hadn't seen that final set. All good pics, love the last 3. Sigh is really, really good, so recognizable! Although swimming in the rain is kinda awesome too, unless there's thunder...
[edit]
hadn't seen that final set. All good pics, love the last 3. Sigh is really, really good, so recognizable! Although swimming in the rain is kinda awesome too, unless there's thunder...
Last edited:
- Location
- The Netherlands
- Name
- Marlof
Great shots again Kyle. And I've read your closing comment on the gear closely. Good to see that your decisions worked out well for you.
KillRamsey
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Hood River, OR
- Name
- Kyle
I should say that my normal setup for shooting the long shots was...
- XT1, not the XE2, because it focused faster, has a larger EVF, and has more to grip onto.
- I normally shot "mostly-manual." ISO 200, and a shutter speed around 1/1000 that would get me an aperture near max. In the event that I needed more light, I'd drop to 1/500. Rarely if ever did I dictate an aperture on that XC lens, it was just so foreign to use a thumb dial.
- Focus was manual, using the AFL button press trick. I'd set up braced on something (several of the trucks even had bean bags for me), get the focus and metering right on, and then camp out waiting for the best composition or facial activity, with focus locked the whole time, only fine tuning focus manually if necessary because the subject moved.
- I think the camera's meter felt I was under-exposing by around 1/3 a stop most of the time in bright light, sometimes more. I just did what looked right to me in the EVF and ignored it.
- XT1, not the XE2, because it focused faster, has a larger EVF, and has more to grip onto.
- I normally shot "mostly-manual." ISO 200, and a shutter speed around 1/1000 that would get me an aperture near max. In the event that I needed more light, I'd drop to 1/500. Rarely if ever did I dictate an aperture on that XC lens, it was just so foreign to use a thumb dial.
- Focus was manual, using the AFL button press trick. I'd set up braced on something (several of the trucks even had bean bags for me), get the focus and metering right on, and then camp out waiting for the best composition or facial activity, with focus locked the whole time, only fine tuning focus manually if necessary because the subject moved.
- I think the camera's meter felt I was under-exposing by around 1/3 a stop most of the time in bright light, sometimes more. I just did what looked right to me in the EVF and ignored it.
KillRamsey
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Hood River, OR
- Name
- Kyle
And the one that got away... still kicking myself. We were driving back to the airport, and I had the 35 f1.4 on with a fast shutter speed. This couple was scootering ahead of us, and I snapped this.
KBRX5238 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
Seconds later as I lowered the camera and turned it off, she turned around and smiled right at me. Her face was incredibly beautiful, the light was perfect, and the eye contact would've been stunning. And there I was with the damned camera on my lap. I missed it. I wanted to cry. I still do. It would've been so good.
Seconds later as I lowered the camera and turned it off, she turned around and smiled right at me. Her face was incredibly beautiful, the light was perfect, and the eye contact would've been stunning. And there I was with the damned camera on my lap. I missed it. I wanted to cry. I still do. It would've been so good.
RT Panther
All-Pro
No need to ask whether or not you enjoyed your vacation - its apparent in your images...
I'm back. Africa was pretty incredible. I had allllllmost 3,000 images to sort through, and I've only edited a little over half. But here's a beginning... the first park we visited, Tarangire.
KBRX3035 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
He walked right past the truck. I could barely breathe.
TOMK2522 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
I spared you the one where he's picking his nose with his tongue.
KBRX3194 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
KBRX3264 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
KBRX3303 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
TOMK2634 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
Kit zoom on the borrowed XE2
TOMK2739 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
When the light stops being VERY bright, the cheap XC 50-230 zoom quickly gets "painterly" with the details. But sometimes painterly is nice.
KBRX3567 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
KBRX3977 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
I'll start other threads for other places, I guess.
stratokaster
Top Veteran
- Location
- Dublin, Ireland
- Name
- Pavel
Amazing scenery and amazing photography. It seems you guys enjoyed the trip very much!
- Location
- Milwaukee, WI USA
- Name
- Luke
If I had a dollar for every great shot I missed, I could retire.
