No safari in sight :(!
With no safari planned and looking for a way to fill the travel-free void, I have browsed through my old folders on Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater from the beginnings of my digital photography. I started rather late with digital, when I bought the light Panasonic DMC-FZ 20 in 2005. For the previous 30 years, I had been using my reliable mechanical Nikkormat FT3 .
To photograph animals in the wild had been on my wish list for a very long time. So when my youngest son turned ten and was considered old and tall enough for a safari, we planned our first trip to Africa. Photographically, I had the option to invest in my old system and stock up on a long lens or use that opportunity to get into digital and buy a new system. Comparing all the long lens alternatives, I found the Panasonic the best choice: lightweight with a strong telezoom, reasonable resolution with a very good lens, and manual options. With three young children I still had to carry lots of their stuff, so I needed a lightweight camera with little additional gear.
These pictures were all taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ 20 in April 2005 in the Ngorongoro Crater (Ngorongoro Conservation Area), Tanzania.
View of the crater from Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. Early in the morning it is often filled with mist that lifts during the day.
A couple of years later, I switched back to Nikon and a DSLR and invested in good lenses. I had missed the large clear viewfinder of the full frame system, so when Nikon produced the D700 as the first full-frame smallish DSLR in 2009, I switched back to Nikon and have never regretted it. I am quite short anyway - so if I am a little shorter after a vacation with 6 to 10 kg on my back, it does not make much of a difference :). For large prints or sharp images on the screen, and yet easy handling, the large sensor DSLRs are still unsurpassed.
However, the Panasonic LumixFZ20 and its later models in the FZ series of "bridge" cameras up to the current Lumix FZ200 and FZ1000 are still very good all-purpose lightweight super-telezoom cameras.
With no safari planned and looking for a way to fill the travel-free void, I have browsed through my old folders on Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater from the beginnings of my digital photography. I started rather late with digital, when I bought the light Panasonic DMC-FZ 20 in 2005. For the previous 30 years, I had been using my reliable mechanical Nikkormat FT3 .
To photograph animals in the wild had been on my wish list for a very long time. So when my youngest son turned ten and was considered old and tall enough for a safari, we planned our first trip to Africa. Photographically, I had the option to invest in my old system and stock up on a long lens or use that opportunity to get into digital and buy a new system. Comparing all the long lens alternatives, I found the Panasonic the best choice: lightweight with a strong telezoom, reasonable resolution with a very good lens, and manual options. With three young children I still had to carry lots of their stuff, so I needed a lightweight camera with little additional gear.
These pictures were all taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ 20 in April 2005 in the Ngorongoro Crater (Ngorongoro Conservation Area), Tanzania.
View of the crater from Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. Early in the morning it is often filled with mist that lifts during the day.
a view of the lake in the crater
This lion, the head of a pride, with his distinguished hair-do, featured in a TV documentary about the crater a few weeks after our return home. What a surprise, when I saw him again during dinner in our kitchen !
crater walls in the distance
Hyena
Red-headed rock agama (Agama agama)
It's like a zoo down in the crater valley...
One drawback for photographers in this paradise - and in most National Parks like Kruger and Serengeti - is that cars are not allowed off-road, so that you often may only be able to see the animals from the distance. When choosing a destination to go on a photo safari, it is good to keep this in mind. Many private reserves in East and South Africa allow off-road driving by their own vehicles and trained drivers and trackers with strict rules as to how many vehicles are allowed close to an animal.
Many animals, though, use the roads for travelling, too. The sandy tracks are much more comfortable to walk for short legged beasts and they are less prone to insect bites from the long grass.
One also has to keep in mind, that some of the private reserves in Tanzania have switched from the "real" hunting to photosafari destinations only recently. Animals have a very long memory and are much more elusive in those areas where they have been shot at in recent years.
the first sighting of a serval in day light
Marabu storks are carrion eaters
The animals share the land with the Maasai and their livestock.
a Maasai village on the outer slope of the crater
in school
A couple of years later, I switched back to Nikon and a DSLR and invested in good lenses. I had missed the large clear viewfinder of the full frame system, so when Nikon produced the D700 as the first full-frame smallish DSLR in 2009, I switched back to Nikon and have never regretted it. I am quite short anyway - so if I am a little shorter after a vacation with 6 to 10 kg on my back, it does not make much of a difference :). For large prints or sharp images on the screen, and yet easy handling, the large sensor DSLRs are still unsurpassed.
However, the Panasonic LumixFZ20 and its later models in the FZ series of "bridge" cameras up to the current Lumix FZ200 and FZ1000 are still very good all-purpose lightweight super-telezoom cameras.
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