The Africa 2014 Itinerary

Outdoor Photo Safaris had tours going all the time. Here's their current listing:
ODP Tour Calendar

The tours I choose were
Okavango Machaba Camp (June 16-20) [Botswana's Okavango Delta - Khwai River/Moremi Game Reserve]
Pangolin Ultimate Chobe (June 28-July 2) [Botswana's Chobe River/Chobe National Park]
Elephant Plains (EP) in Greater Kruger (July 5-9) [adjacent to South Africa's Kruger National Park]

ODP had suggestions for the open week (June 21-27). I took them up on one:
Wilderness Kalahari Plains Camp (June 20-23) [Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve]

And decided to cool my heels in Johannesburg June 23-28 in hopes of making a preliminary run through the photographs snapped up to that point.

The time between Chobe and EP allowed me to make a side trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. (Natural Wonder of the World, World Heritage Site, etc.)

Cobbling the whole thing together required the organizational capabilities of a spreadsheet. I employed Google's online apps to this end. Here's the sharable version. The tabs along the bottom allow access to its many pages. Yes, this is how I roll.
Africa 2014

In all, I would be spending a month on the continent for about the same amount of money required to fund two weeks through Thomson or Eyes on Africa. Which is not to say those options aren't worth the price, and this path required significant planning and "legwork" on my part. But I was very happy with the prospects afforded by this robust itinerary, while also realizing that I was only dipping a toe into the waters that are Africa.

Gearing up for Africa 2014

Since the trip, itself, was going to require significant monetary resources, I didn't want to buy too many things new for the trip. I've got a nice photo gear kit as it is.

But I did need/want a few things for this trip, all of which should have continued utility in the future.

Long Lens

This was to be a wildlife shoot. To whatever extent I have photo skills, I'm a landscape photographer. The most expensive lens in my kit is a Zeiss 15mm/2.8 wide angle lens. When I switched from Canon to Nikon, there was no equivalent for my Canon EF 100-400L lens in the Nikon line-up. I got the highly praised Nikon AF-S 70-200 VR, but that only got me halfway there. I got a TC-20Eiii teleconverter, but that always comes with compromises. Nikon has since come out with a new 80-400mm lens that people seem to love. If it had been available when I made the switch, I'm sure I would have opted for it rather than the 70-200. But that's water under the bridge.

One thing I know about wildlife photography is that you're always too far from the animals. If I hoped to get some keepers, I was gonna need a bigger lens. The trouble is that once you move past 200mm in the world of Nikon lenses, you move into serious weight, serious bulk, and very serious cash.

But Tamron was introducing a monster 150-600mm lens this spring. Sure, it's not a Nikon. And it only opens to f/6.3 (not f/4) at 600mm. But it's very sharp, isn't 10+pounds, isn't so huge it requires its own luggage, and doesn't carry a 5-figure price tag. The Nikon f/4 prime is $10,000; the Tamron f/5-6.3 zoom is $1100.

The problem was that the lens was new and demand outpaced supply. By a lot. It was getting great reviews, and it was $1100. The lens needed to be in my hands well before my June 13 flight, but it was rolling out slowly. Seemed like everyone wanted one and no one had them. The release date for the Nikon mount was never really clear. The released Canon mount wasn't showing up in stores. Tales of eBay scalpers began to emerge as the accepted release date came and went.

I solved the problem the same way I solved the Nikon D800E initial launch availability problem: Pardee's Camera—the local shop. And once again, they came through. While the preorder queues at photo mega-retailer, B&H, grew longer and longer, I was shooting my Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD long before Memorial Day. [Even after my mid-July return from Africa, the lens is not available from B&H.]

Hard Case Spinner (and packing cubes)

Johannesburg's OR Tambo airport is the busiest on the continent and has a bit of a reputation for baggage handler theft. For R60 ($6), you can have your luggage wrapped in cellophane before checking in for departure. There are a dozen or more wrapping stations in the airport.

YouTube videos show how easy it is to break into zippered luggage despite having the pulls locked together.

I decided to get a large hard case spinner with zipper pulls that could be locked into the case, itself.

Actually, my first attempt was a Zero Halliburton Polycarbonate Spinner that featured clasps rather than zippers. But the clasps seemed eager to pop, and the copy they sent me had some manufacturing defects. For the price they were asking, these were deal breakers. So I returned the case to Zero Halliburton.

I settled on the Briggs & Riley Torq. Blue, of course. It scratches like crazy, but I'm okay with that. It's big, sturdy, and rolls like a champ. The big bonus is that it opens like a normal suitcase, not the awkward 50-50 split that most hard case spinners employ. Gotta love their slick YouTube ad. And I was happy to buy local at Holloway's Travel Outfitters (packinglight.net). 

I picked up a pair of packing cubes at REI and found them to be very handy in keeping the luggage packing reasonably organized.

Binoculars 

Seemed like a good thing to have for a wildlife safari. But good ones can set you back an arm and a leg. After considering the Nikon Monarch 5 series, I went with the Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 10x42, and saved about $50 by getting the camouflage paint job (RealTree AP) instead of straight black.

I rented a flash unit from Lens Rentals to potentially help in low light situations. But I lacked the off-shoe accessories needed to prevent "green-eye" (the big cat version of red-eye).

I considered renting a backup DSLR body, but settled on bringing my Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ200 as a backup, instead. It's a very capable little camera with an equivalent 25-600mm f/2.8 lens. If called upon to work on safari, it had my confidence.

With that, I was geared up and ready to go. I would use my awesome Pelican roller with detachable courier bag as carry-on: camera gear pre-packed in my Lowepro AW350 backpack inside the main compartment of the Pelican. The laptop, DVDs, iPad, and 3-1-1 bag would ride in the courier bag. The Briggs & Riley Torq would hold an empty duffle and all clothes, some photo gear, the tripod, and DOP kit.

Once in Joburg, I'd reconfigure. The Lowepro pack with gear would also hold the laptop and be my carry on. The duffel would be packed and act as my checked luggage. The Pelican would pack inside the Torq, and they'd be left at the airport hotel's bell hop storage. 

San Francisco Zoo 2014

With a month-long African safari looming, I felt like I needed to shoot some animals. My wildlife photography skills are highly unpolished, so I signed on with Aperture Academy's San Francisco Zoo session.

After a brief intro, we headed into the zoo and wandered from exhibit to exhibit. At one point, I got separated from the group. I sent a text to the group leader, but his phone's battery had gone flat. We eventually reconnected. But it was post group photo, so I had to be 'shopped in afterward. It brought back a distant memory from being in the studio audience on Bozo the Clown. But I regress.

Timing was such that the Hewitt's were in San Francisco, so we had a nice get-together afterward.

2014 05 San Francisco Zoo

Deciding on Africa for 2014

The Iceland trip of 2011 was getting more and more distant in the temporal rearview mirror. Where to go next?

From time to time, I search "photographer tour" or some such term to see what comes up. Or I'll scan through the workshop links at Outdoor Photographer dot com.

Somehow I came across a description of Joseph Van Os' Spitsbergen Pack Ice Voyage. I liked what saw and decided I should give it a go for 2014. But by the time I was ready to pony up with a nontrivial deposit, the tour was sold out.

I put in an inquiry regarding Natural Habitat's Ultimate Alaska Wildlife tour. But it, too was sold out.

These are not inexpensive undertakings, and the the economy is supposed to be down. So I was perplexed by all the sold outedness.

I decided to shift my gaze toward Africa. First I poked around Thomson Safaris in Tanzania. They came highly recommended by Luminous Landscape's Michael Reichmann. They had a promising photo tour led by Randy Hanna lined up for early in the summer. Really early; technically, late spring.

I also came across a Grant Atkinson-led photo tour being offered by Eyes on Africa that seemed intriguing.

I asked the Nature and Wildlife Photography Forum at Digital Photography Review for assistance in helping me decide the two. Commenters had suggestions, including one to check out Pretoria, South African-based Outdoor Photography Safaris. I did, and I liked what I saw.

They have photo tours going to interesting destinations in southern Africa seemingly all the time. For someone with generous but inflexible vacation time like me, that's huge!

I looked at ODP's calendar and signed on to the available African tours from June 16 through July 9. I worked with ODP's Loran Van den Heever to arrange things. I needed to secure flights to and from Johannesburg, South Africa. And flights to/from Maun and Kasane, Botswana. Side trips were arranged at Kalahari Plains Camp and Victoria Falls. Lodging had to be arranged at various interstitial points.

There were many moving parts to lock down, and a multipage spreadsheet was constructed and relied upon. But in the end, I spent nearly a month in Africa, touring several great locations with serious photographers for little more than it would have cost to spend less than two weeks in Tanzania or Sabi Sand/Tuli. A greater burden of logistics fell upon me, and this was the most complex travel undertaking I ever attempted, but I felt I was up to it and eager to give it a go.

Watson Lake, Arizona 2014

I joined in on an Arizona Highways weekend photo workshop in January. The destination was Watson Lake, a reservoir near Prescott, Arizona. We did some afternoon shooting, followed the next morning with sunrise shots. We engaged in an afternoon group photo critique before heading home.

It was a fun little unknown shooting location with charms all its own.

I was able to spend a few moments with noted Physics Go Girl, Morgan in Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport before flying back to Sacramento.

The fact that this workshop happened during the school year combined with my inability to walk and chew gum at the same time resulted in a bit of humor.

One, I forgot to bring my tripod. I have a really nice tripod with a really nice ballhead. And they held down floor and shelf back home while I was in Prescott.

Two, I brought a set of tests to grade. And left them in the room when I checked out. This resulted in me trying to track them down with the cleaning staff. I wished I knew more Spanish. They were picking through trash, not knowing what they were looking for, so I ripped a sheet of paper in half and drew the layout of the answer documents. The tests were found, and the soiling they endured mixed in with the trash left them salvageable. I might have aged a year or two in the process. There are times when my stupidity even surprises me.

2014 01 Watson Lake Gold

The Big AAPT Summer Loop 2013

Summer Travels: Leg 1 - Sacramento to Portland

This summer’s American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Summer Meeting was in Portland, OR this year. I took this as an invitation to create a summertime roadtrip with travel to the meeting as my first leg. Not as impressive as 2008’s roadtrip to Edmonton, AB, but we do what we can. This one had stops in Yreka, Bandon, and Astoria. Yreka so I could shoot some Northern California waterfalls and make attempts at a Mount Shasta shot worth keeping. Bandon so I could shoot sea stacks on Oregon’s lovely Pacific coast. Astoria as a transition from the coast to the Columbia Gorge. I also zipped a nearby zip-line circuit. There was physics!

Summer Travels: Leg 2 - Portland to Glacier National Park

With the close of the AAPT meeting, I was off to points east via the Columbia Gorge. I missed meeting up with Riverside alum, Pam (Krai) Pyrc in Spokane, but enjoyed lunch at Frank’s Diner. Spent a night at an awful hotel in Kennewick before heading off to Kalispell. My MacBook Pro decided it wanted to go on vacation and refused to start up. Apparently, one of the memory modules went bad. I had a second MBP with, and my iPad. And a local hardware store had the mini-screwdriver needed to get at the MBP’s innards. No data was lost, but I had to hobble along with 4GB (instead of the full 8) of RAM for the duration of the trip. I know: First World Problems! Glacier was the awesome spectacle that it always is, but there was very little sky drama that photographers hope for. I hiked out to Iceberg Lake to remind myself how non-trivial a 10+mile mountain hike can be (sometimes I forget). Spritely Zoe Zulakis would laugh at my geezerness. A subsequent walk along The Garden Wall put me up close and personal with a mountain goat.

Summer Travels: Leg 3 - Glacier to Yellowstone

It’s a good long drive from Glacier to Yellowstone. YNP’s North Entrance puts you near Mammoth Hot Springs, Rustic Falls, and various other treasures. I moved on to accommodations in West Yellowstone (late planning kept me out of in-park lodging). I crisscrossed the park in my days there and eventually met up with fellow skeptical teacher (and TAM veteran), Barbara Drescher and her family. They were in the park seeking out wildlife sightings and had done quite well. They tipped me off to the hike up (and I mean three miles of steep grade, lung-busting up) to the Mount Washburn fire lookout. I walked it near sunset and frolicked among the herd of bighorn sheep that grazed to mountain slopes. They were adolescents, so no big racks to shoot, but they weren’t exactly camera shy. I had never seen YNP so completely overrun with visitors. And these were well-fed, American visitors driving big Fords and Dodges, speaking with southern drawls. The economy is officially back!

Summer Travels: Leg 4 - Yellowstone to Grand Tetons

The Tetons were not so overrun as Yellowstone was. There was a bit of unhelpful haze that obscured some of the contrast in the views of the Tetons. But I found a nice new view to photograph, one that required a four wheels of my 4WD Nismo. And I tried my hand shooting a different dilapidated Mormon Row barn. Oxbow Bend wasn’t in full cooperation mode, and Schwabacher Landing was off limits due to the sequester. That would sting less if I had ever been down there for a shot. Restaurant find: Bubba’s BBQ—it’s a real-deal kind of place with a free-standing smokehouse, and they run out of meat if you show up too late on a busy night.

Yosemite Spring Getaway 2013

Once state tests and AP exams were done, I flew the coop for a four-day Yo-Mo-Bo weekend. (That’s Yosemite National Park, Mono Lake, and Bodie Ghost Town.) 

This was a chance to get in some more practice with the Nikon D800E, a new wifi memory card, and a new bluetooth “cable” release. When the technology is working, you can use your iPhone as a shutter release that also tags images with GPS info. Then that image can be sent to your iPhone’s camera roll for immediate sharing. 

A technical snafu (or oversight on my part) resulted in some school drama on the Monday of my long weekend. No sub showed up and I my iPhone had no wave. The school secretary worried I was face down in a pool of blood and sent teachers to my home looking for signs of life or the stench of death. They found neither. A chance Facebook connection and late breakfast at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls (with wifi) ended the drama.

2013 05 Yosemite Springtime