Dear artsupreme, i cant quote to reply you but your insights on the shooting down part is new which only come from experience.
Thank you so much for your insights!!!
I am going serengeti national park gamedrive. I followed the four season serengeti instagram and the cars were really near the animals including lion prides.
Based on Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in March, I found the 100-400mm GM benefitted from a TC, As no TCs work off Sony, 50-400mm could be on a second camera, but you would need about 600mm, on another lens.
I planned to take Sony 100-400mm, Tamron 28-200mm and for Kilimanjaro tamron 27-280mm. And 1.4X and 2.0X TCs
This may be significantly off topic and I am not sure about anybody here, but I sure got a kick out of seeing this photograph on Reddit. I am waiting for my R1S to be delivered - sometime 4th qtr this year I am told. I did a test drive last week and thought it would make a great safari vehicle given its clearance from the ground and other features. Just found out It is already in the pipeline as a test vehicle in the Mara.
I did use an EV at Kicheche North last year but it was a very poor implementation, barely able to do a single afternoon drive and had to be restarted all the time - I think it was some sort of a hybrid.
Rivian R1T modified for safari -Courtesy Reddit forums
Kilimanjaro should be wet in May, This is not to say Serengeti will be.
Big issue is Dust, I took two lenses out each day each on a camera, for Serengeti my 100-400 Sony GM went out with an extender and I only took lens caps on and off.
If you are confident to use a Raincover, on the camera/lens in the vehicle, feel free to use it. I would find I missed shots.
Slalom wrote:
Kilimanjaro should be wet in May, This is not to say Serengeti will be.
Big issue is Dust, I took two lenses out each day each on a camera, for Serengeti my 100-400 Sony GM went out with an extender and I only took lens caps on and off.
If you are confident to use a Raincover, on the camera/lens in the vehicle, feel free to use it. I would find I missed shots.
Thanks, yes I will not be changing lens once I have put them on much. I might get a cover in case, there is many reasonably priced ones available. Plus possibility of rain!
rafster wrote:
Thanks, yes I will not be changing lens once I have put them on much. I might get a cover in case, there is many reasonably priced ones available. Plus possibility of rain!
My technique was to put a bean bag on the floor between feet and set the RF 400 lens hood on it and rest the camera between my legs on the seat at a 45 degree angle. This allowed it to be easily accessible the whole time. I just put a towel or pillow case over it in really dusty areas, but I grew up riding motorcycles in the dirt and I'm used to the dust so I didn't think it was nearly as bad as others make it out to be. I went in the dry season to really dusty places with moon dust and it wasn't a huge deal for me. I had my other bodies sitting on the floor or adjacent seat and covered them with the blankets they will provide you. So all my bodies were ready to be picked up and aimed at whatever we rolled up on.
I would suggest hanging over the back side of your couch and hanging your body and RF 400 with the lens foot in the upper position (from left hand). Then get comfortable using your right hand to focus/shoot with the LCD pointed up at you. So you are shooting from above the camera looking down on the hot shoe. I was doing this for hours on the game drives. It gets tiring, but it's the angle you want most often.
Finalizing the details for my safari in June of next year! We're doing four days in the Olare Conservancy, four in the Chyulu Hills area, and still hoping to squeeze in three in Lewa. Pretty excited to say the least! Going to be a long wait but totally worth it. Thanks for all the tips I've learned in this thread.
Cduff406 wrote:
Finalizing the details for my safari in June of next year! We're doing four days in the Olare Conservancy, four in the Chyulu Hills area, and still hoping to squeeze in three in Lewa. Pretty excited to say the least! Going to be a long wait but totally worth it. Thanks for all the tips I've learned in this thread.
Very good choice, it will be here before you know it. You are picking some great locations for a nice variety of terrain.
Cduff406 wrote:
Finalizing the details for my safari in June of next year! We're doing four days in the Olare Conservancy, four in the Chyulu Hills area, and still hoping to squeeze in three in Lewa. Pretty excited to say the least! Going to be a long wait but totally worth it. Thanks for all the tips I've learned in this thread.
Are places really so busy that you have to book more than a year in advance? If so I need to get my act together and start planning.
vbnut wrote:
Are places really so busy that you have to book more than a year in advance? If so I need to get my act together and start planning.
Not for June, providing you are 1-2 people and have some flexibility on dates and/or the order you do camps in. A group (especially a photo group where there are a number of single occupancies) can fill a camp for some days but generally everywhere will have space in June. If you have flexibility my advice would be to wait until after the rates for June 2024 come out, as these might come with specials, etc. That is usually in the last quarter of the year, but can be sooner.
Shoot me if I am wrong, but I’ve looked at June many times over the years and there are always vacancies, although not for every day.
You can check with Expert Africa if you sign up - they don’t hit you with a lot of emails and respect the unsubscribe button. Go to the pages for the camps you are interested in and click on availability for the dates you think you might be there for June 2023. I think you’ll see there is still some availability even now.
(This doesn’t apply if you are going on an organized group photo tour - that I don’t know about).
hi all, last February I hosted two weeks of photography in the Mara along with another photographer. It was hard work for us keeping the guests entertained and helping / teaching them but we had a brilliant time, and plenty of opportunity to photograph for ourselves too. Here's just a snippet of some of the stuff I got (shot about 23k images). Third images is Nairobi NP.
artsupreme wrote:
My technique was to put a bean bag on the floor between feet and set the RF 400 lens hood on it and rest the camera between my legs on the seat at a 45 degree angle. This allowed it to be easily accessible the whole time. I just put a towel or pillow case over it in really dusty areas, but I grew up riding motorcycles in the dirt and I'm used to the dust so I didn't think it was nearly as bad as others make it out to be. I went in the dry season to really dusty places with moon dust and it wasn't a huge deal for me. I had my other bodies sitting on the floor or adjacent seat and covered them with the blankets they will provide you. So all my bodies were ready to be picked up and aimed at whatever we rolled up on.
I would suggest hanging over the back side of your couch and hanging your body and RF 400 with the lens foot in the upper position (from left hand). Then get comfortable using your right hand to focus/shoot with the LCD pointed up at you. So you are shooting from above the camera looking down on the hot shoe. I was doing this for hours on the game drives. It gets tiring, but it's the angle you want most often....Show more →
Thank you, makes sense. I also bought a Zemlin hood (slightly shorter) and his front lens cover as well. Looking forward to it as it is first safari! I am sure will get the bug after this one…
vbnut wrote:
Are places really so busy that you have to book more than a year in advance? If so I need to get my act together and start planning.
We booked ours with Lion King Adventures 2 months prior to going next month.
Really recommend them, we are getting a top class holiday, private safari etc booking business class flights on our own for less than going through UK travel agencies who would have booked us on economy flights, lesser accommodation and group safari!
