Ngorongoro Crater

[SteveGriffin]

These are some more snaps from my recent Tanzanian Adventure. Ngorongoro crater this time which is the worlds 2nd largest caldera. (dead volcano crater). Amazing concentration of wildlife!






And to finish off - my first atempt at a pano (6 stitched images)

Ngorongoro Crater

[wendellt]

amazing place amazing pictures

the Hyena one has great composition and the lovely moment is the birds flying

[radar]

Steve,

some great pictures there, thanks for sharing. The one of the hyenas is great. I was in the Masai Mara in Sept and wasn't able to get a really good one of them.

The elephant front on is also great.

However, I find your other elephant and lion photos a bit "blueish", on this monitor anyway.

well done, I certainly want to go back to Africa, sooner rather than later. Will look at taking a better lens this time as well.

How did you find using the Sigma 50-500?

Cheers,

André

[DaveB]

Nice. I'm heading to the crater in May so I'm especially interested in images from there!

A few criticisms/comments if I may:

• The buffalo and hippo shots look like they might have benefitted from a polariser to cut the reflections.
• I think the white balance in the lion shot is a bit off: it looks very flat and blue/grey. Did you shoot JPEG or RAW?
  Shooting from sunlight into shade can be tricky.
• The hyena shot is very nice although if I was to pick on details I'd comment that the background ear in the groin area of the standing hyena is a bit distracting.
• The Tsessebe shot looks a bit oversharpened.

But they're still photos to be proud of!

I'm planning to try lots of panos there, both in visible light and IR...
What local tour company did you use?

[SteveGriffin]

Thanks for the comments folks. I had another look at the lion and elephant shots and the colour temperature on all of them was about 4600 which is too cool. I increased all of them to around 5000 and I agree they do look better.

Thank heavens for shooting RAW.

It was a fairly hazy day when we were there and I was shooting with auto white balance so perhaps the blueish haze upset the camera a bit.

The lion was a tough one in deep shade under a tree.

Resharpened the Tsessebe to give the coat a smoother look - I agree that it was a bit overdone.

Dave, I did have a CPL on the front for the whole day, maybe I need a lesson in how to use it
Short of cloning out that whole animal in the background there isn't a lot that can be done about the ear in the groin

Andre, I quite like the 50-500 although it is much better when you only go to 450 - tends to get a bit soft at the long end. I tried to use a monopod on the safari but if I was to go again I would probably just use a wheat bag or similar to steady it.
I am wanting to move it on if you want one as it isn't a lens that I think I will get much use out of long term and would rather put the money into something else like an AF-S 28-70.

Again thanks for the comments, I learn so much having others critic these things.

[big pix]

great shoots...... I like them all......

[Marvin]

Wow - I love pictures of Africa. I haven't got too much constructive to say except thanks for sharing!

[radar]

Hi Steve,

I tried to use a monopod on the safari but if I was to go again I would probably just use a wheat bag or similar to steady it.

That's what I used, I got a Kinesis bag, filled it with rice when I got there. It was great to use in various types of vehicules and easy to move it around, certainly would recommend using one.

See it at: http://www.kinesisgear.com/, BD still had some I could get. I now have it filled with plastic pellets used to stuff toys.

Was tempted by your lens, sanity prevailed

Cheers,

André

[Alex]

Amazing photos, Steve
Alex

[Dargan]

Great photos and constructive comments. I like that pano as well for a first attempt you should be proud of it.

[DaveB]

Steve, the trick with a polariser is to continually adjust it as your shooting angle changes. This gets trickier when you have a long hood on your lens!

Do you remember the name of the local tour operators you used (the ones with the Land Rovers)?


I'm planning to take a SafariSack (fill it with beans when I get there) for use in the vehicles, and a small Feisol CF tripod (1.2kg, 44cm folded, plus Acratech head and RRS panning clamp) for shots when out of the cars. I'm considering taking my monopod for the walk-around times, but haven't quite decided yet. Need to travel light...

[SteveGriffin]

We booked through an online agent called Authentic Tanzania and David really looked after us. The actualy safari outfitter as Wildersun Safari's. They were also very good. Google both company's websites.

Wildersun used a 4WD Hiac van which was very comfortable for the drive to and from Arusha. Be warned the track up and out of Ngorongoro is rough at best.

When you say adjust the CPL how you describe this process

[DaveB]

When you say adjust the CPL how you describe this process

Errr... rotating it till you like what does with the reflections. Of course the "reflections" can be as subtle as sheen on foliage...

The tradeoff of light loss and the hassle of constant adjustment means that many people decide to shoot telephotos without a polariser. But having one on and not rotating it, would not seem to be a recipe for success...