Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/02/27

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Subject: [Leica] How to photograph a safari
From: henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:42:39 -0800
References: <mailman.2614.1330214273.33714.lug@leica-users.org> <01442184-CBBC-4F1C-BB15-76E13BE23992@netvigator.com> <D31D3E084CC840A1A4F419EB1326DC33@billHP> <CABmfTOXNFc7tQx-kOvG7_ZGxsP5Ha8iUpTXmwvi=OaOeh5VBbg@mail.gmail.com>

i've now been twice in Africa in wild animal country. Once in South Africa 
and last September in Kenya. The Kenyan trip was all in vehicles; that was 
just the way it was. In South Africa we were for a while in Kruger Park, and 
the general rule was: stay in your car (a rental Nissan; not a 
convertible!). There were certain areas we could get out, and there were 
various places where there were blinds that we could walk to. The 'stay in 
your car' rule was far from absolute. 

We also stayed for a while at a private reserve on the western edge of 
Kruger, and there we went on walking tours quite often. Two guys with big 
guns came along, but both said that they had never used them. I didn't feel 
much less safe walking than I did in the vehicles, but the experience coming 
upon animals on foot was quite different and very worthwhile.

Henning



On 2012-02-26, at 3:45 PM, Marty Deveney wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 5:51 AM, Bill Pearce <billcpearce at cox.net> 
> wrote:
>> If you are in the bush in Africa, as I was, you always stay in the 
>> jeep/land
>> rover as that is the only way to come home alive. My safari was a personal
>> one (no one but me, the guide and my now ex wife) and there was no 
>> question
>> of an out of jeep experience. I have read of safaris that allow trail
>> walking, but am quite skeptical that they are able to provide for your
>> safety.
> 
> I disagree really strongly.  It's not that unsafe to be on your feet
> in the bush in Africa.  I spent several weeks doing walking safaris in
> South Africa, the Okavango, various places in Botswana and Zimbabwe in
> 1999 and only ever felt nervous because of Homo sapiens, never because
> of another species of animal, even when I had to swap from a 75mm lens
> to a 35 and back up quite a lot to fit the whole animal into this
> shot:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/freakscene/Africa+2009/Botswana/img920a.jpg.html
> or when I was less than a metre from this cheetah:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/freakscene/75+Summilux/cheetah.jpg.html
> 
> The whole set is here: 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/freakscene/Africa+2009/
> 
> Especially in well trafficked parks, you can get lots of 'great' shots
> with almost no effort - the driver drives right up to the lion
> drinking/hunting/eating its kill, you pull out your 200-400 and go
> click click click . . . seriously, hardly any effort at all.  The
> hardest thing about it is getting up early enough to get early light
> or convincing the driver to stay out long enough to be there at dusk.
> You see more and more interesting things on foot, including smaller
> animals, amphibians, reptiles and many insects.  You don't see things
> from an artificially elevated perspective, and you get a better feel
> for the terrain and what the animals that live there experience.
> 
> I am 100% certain that going on a safari on foot is vastly less
> dangerous than spending a comparable amount of time walking in
> Johannesburg.
> 
> Marty
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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> 


Henning Wulff
henningw at archiphoto.com






In reply to: Message from cummer at netvigator.com (H&ECummer) ([Leica] How to photograph a safari)
Message from billcpearce at cox.net (Bill Pearce) ([Leica] How to photograph a safari)
Message from benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney) ([Leica] How to photograph a safari)