First Game Drive

Orange tailed potter wasp in our camp.

Our guide Chulu entering our truck.

Lilac breasted Roller

The group enjoying the view with a spiked drink.

Chulu, Bruce, Koert and Matt.

Impalas

Monday, April 17^th.

For those of you who knew him, this should have been John Midgely’s 70^th birthday… but I guess since he has a photography degree from Ryerson, it’s only fitting that I should be starting out on a photography course adventure…

I woke up at midnight and couldn’t get back to sleep until 3. Listened to some hippos in the river and hyaena calls in the distance. I finally got back to sleep and didn’t wake up until 8. We had a light breakfast before our first meeting of the photo group where we were given our expectations and guidelines. After lunch we went for a 3.5 hr game drive through the neighbouring reserve. We saw some impala, elephants, and giraffe but nothing too close and mostly hidden in the bush and shrubs. We also saw a number of birds including hornbills and rollers. We stopped at a beautiful view point overlooking a river, where the guides gave all of us a shot of gin with our choice of mix and they took a group photo. Then we were off to continue our drive on the way back to camp. As we were about to leave we got a call on the walkie talkie that there was a lion sleeping on the road. We raced back for about 10 minutes, but the sun was going down and the light just got worse. We got there just in time to see his back end disappearing into the bush. The people on the other truck got some great photos. As with all nature photography it’s all about time and place… hopefully next time it will be our turn. We had a good chicken, rice and salad dinner after which the power went off as one of the country’s ‘power shedding’ times. Power goes off in predetermined times as there isn’t enough to go around for the country. Bruce, Matt and I went next door to the local bar where they have a generator and WIFI. We had a beer and then packed it in by 9. I updated the blog and then to bed.

Other than being in Africa and going on lots of game drives, the purpose of this trip for me is to take the photography course. As always there are various levels of experience among the participants. Although I have taken thousands of photos on a variety of cameras, I have always used the Auto settings, ie. point and shoot. For the Antarctica trip I bought an expensive DSLR Sony camera but still used Auto. I want to learn to utilize the variety of settings on my camera. I want to learn about shooting in RAW format and editing photos. I need to learn about the holy triangle of: shutter speed, ISO and aperture settings and how they relate. The first picture above is taken in point and shoot jpeg format. The rest are taken in RAW point and shoot. The RAW format gives a lot more latitude in editing, which we will learn more about as the month goes by. So, in theory my pictures should get better as the month goes on. Here's hoping. John would be proud!