Tanzania

[elsa hoffmann]

I visit 3 National Parks in Tanzania in 2010.
Opting to go for inexpensive (yes I am cheap) I went with a local outfit.
I had:
1 -  4x4 vehicle
1 - driver/guide
1 - cook
And we travelled together for 3 days solid.

I wont tell you about the food - except to say I think I had 3 oranges in 3 days but then I was seriously full from spending a week in a 5* hotel in Dar es Salaam just before this trip. In the tented camp  - showers were *&^*  - well... lets just say I stayed more clean by not showering.

Three Very different locations. And since I was by myself with the 2 guys - shooting from the Jeep was a pleasure

But this is Africa. True Africa. You dont want to see the airports either. I am surprised any pilot could find the runway - never-mind his passengers.

Parks I visited -

Ngoro Ngoro - absolutely amazing - everything from a swamp, savanna, forest and anything in-between in this Caldera
Tanrangire National Park and Manyara National Park. All three were really good.

I used a 70-200 with 2 x TC. its about all I owned at that time and I must have used the D3x. Now I look back and once again think the images suck

[Bjørn Rørslett]

That zebra is so *cute*.  (I'm a big fan of zebras, by the way).

Please, tell us more.

[afx]

I like your definition of "suck"...
Most people that go on Safari would be happy to have your shots.

Yes, more from that trip please!

cheers
afx

[knb]

I wonder about the definition of "suck" too. I find the pictures 1 and 6 especially pleasing.
I doubt that I will ever take pictures that "suck" like these...

[Asle F]

#1 is something special. The low contrast, the dust that whispering the details. I can almost feel the fine sand between my teeth. Yes, that picture has some magic, at least for me.

And as a long time Linux-user, gnu is a special animal for me

[Gary]

#1 is such a telling story. Most pictures are worth a thousand words, but #1 is a book.

[elsa hoffmann]

Re #1 - remember I photographed it the way I wanted it to look (thanks Bjørn)

but that is also my favourite of the whole safari.

I didnt manage to include the Great Migration - or Kilimanjaro - not near enough to where I was and would have cost a lot extra time and money

1. familiy photo

2. definitely a female zebra

3. Bird of prey looming nearby where we had lunch. They are known to rip your lunch from your hand - with your hand.

4. couldnt get closer - had no longer lens.

[afx]

3. Bird of prey looming nearby where we had lunch. They are known to rid your lunch from your hand - with your hand.

Ouch, never experienced that so far, only Vervet Monkeys chasing across a restaurant terrace and grabbing all sugar bags...

Love the elephants!

cheers
afx

[Akira]

All images are very artisitc, way more than fine snapshots.  I like your aesthetic.

[elsa hoffmann]

Thank you guys - especially for the opportunity to share it with you all.

[Mikes]

Thanks for sharing these interesting images, Elsa. We are seriously thinking about spending a week or two in southern Africa next year, and Ngoro Ngoro looks like a pretty good candidate for a few days. Long way from Tokyo, though.

We haven't taken a holiday in Africa before. I did spend a few weeks in Johannesburg about 10 years ago doing some consulting work for ESKOM - that's the closest I have ever been to African wildlife.

I don't have much interest in the DRC or Rawanda - thanks for your commentary!

Mike.

[elsa hoffmann]

Mikes, Ngoro Ngoro is really great, and doing the great migration of Buffalo is also a bucket list thing for many people - and then Kenya's wildlife is legendary. I can always point you in some directions where you are ready. I am not sure if you can sleep inside the NgoroNgoro caldera - or if you have to sleep outside. There is something about that. You need to google. But talk to me if I can help you decide

Regarding Eskom - it must be YOU that are responsible for all our Eskom troubles !!          - we have load shedding here just about every night these days. Eskom is bankrupt and can not supply sufficient power. And it will be a while before there is another power station up and running. And the have just asked for a 25% increase price increase . Talk about living in Africa.

The images in this post is all Ngoro Ngoro, as well as the pelicans posted earlier - so you can see all this in one hole

[Mikes]

Mikes, Ngoro Ngoro is really great, and doing the great migration of Buffalo is also a bucket list thing for many people - and then Kenya's wildlife is legendary. I can always point you in some directions where you are ready. I am not sure if you can sleep inside the NgoroNgoro caldera - or if you have to sleep outside. There is something about that. You need to google. But talk to me if I can help you decide

Regarding Eskom - it must be YOU that are responsible for all our Eskom troubles !!          - we have load shedding here just about every night these days. Eskom is bankrupt and can not supply sufficient power. And it will be a while before there is another power station up and running. And the have just asked for a 25% increase price increase . Talk about living in Africa.

The images in this post is all Ngoro Ngoro, as well as the pelicans posted earlier - so you can see all this in one hole

Thanks, Elsa, for the helpful information and the additional images. It looks very tempting. We have not decided on dates yet, but it will probably be between April and June. I will take up your offer of more information as soon as we have settled on dates.

"Regarding Eskom - it must be YOU that are responsible for all our Eskom troubles !!"  Nah, not me. It used to be a pretty good outfit, in fact, one of the best power utilities in the world. Disappointing to hear that it has slipped so much. I must admit, though, that there were some ominous signs at the time of my involvement, with a newly introduced program called "localisation" or something like that.

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Quite surprised by reading "the images suck" and then scroll down and see the first image and go "wow, I want my images to suck too!"
I really like the way it tells a story of a tough place to survive in. I have also never seen a zebra like that before.

[elsa hoffmann]

Mikes - you hit the nail on the head. And Eskom (or we call it Eksdom - which means I am dumb) is seriously in sh*t. And its not getting better. but life goes on and we learn to make a plan. Generators, inverters, solar power which is already not a bad idea

Jørgen - I swear I think my image quality is just not up there. The contents may be good. But oy vey - I can do better!