Nice one, Alan. I would have loved to see the jackals in the frame too, that would make the story much more compelling - just my opinion, very nice shot otherwise. Rare to see a lion cub on a tree.
My own experience has been quite different. I always take both the 1.4x and the 2x on all my trips but rarely use the 2X. I did use the 1.4X a lot on my very first trip to Kenya in 2007 when the longest lens I had was the Canon 300 2.8. It was paired with the 40D body at the time and some of those photos are still so memorable for me. I think my total use of the TC since then has been for less than 0.1% of my images.
Now with the a1 bodies, I find it much easier to just crop into the frame. I think there is a comparison somewhere about TC vs crop and it seems like there is not that much of an advantage with the TC. But of course we are all different in our approach.
One other thing, these days I find myself liking more of an 'animal in habitat' kind of shot than just the animal portrait although there are occasions when the portrait is indeed very compelling - your 'faces' gallery for sure must be. It is great when we can do both and that is the great thing about photography.
It is also a fact that most of us who have been to Africa several time know well, that each visit is different in terms of what you see. That is why I guess we all keep going back.
