One of the great treasures from our adventure in Africa were the relationships created. We had three special Maasai as our guides, drivers and interrupters on the Mara. Each was as unique as the critters they shared with us. Each had a passion for their world and desire to share it that was simply infectious. And all three were so much fun! I tried, and failed miserably to learn some Swahili. The “boys” were my teachers so at o’dark thirty each morning as I loaded my gear in a Landi, I would get my word for the day. Half way through our stay, talking with our Maasai who walked us down the path, I asked him for the word for his “spear.” I thought he said, my cookie, as in, it’s my cookie with cookie being the name. Well I knew I could remember that one. So the next morning, I thought I’d surprise my teachers with the new word I learned. I said “where’s your cookie?” and all I got was a funny look. When I explained it all to them, they burst out in laughter. The word was Macookie.
Their knowledge of the critters, terrain, trails, habitat and biology was stunning! The top photo is of Boston, just the nicest guy who knew everybody it seemed. Next is Dominic whose first son was born while we were there. He was simply a delight and eagerly shared all he knew which was more than my little mind could began to contain. And then there was the quiet Duncan, a master birder (not pictured). These three made our time just so amazing! Their skill in getting us in the right place at the right time was just spooky! And they were so patient with us pain in the ass photographers wanted them to move here or there, a couple inches of across the landscape. They are all very special to us!
One morning, Dominic arranged for us to travel to the top of the mesa and do a foot safari. It was a gorgeous morning and a great adventure. Me being me, I brought along the D4s / 800mm on the Zenilli and the Df / 24-120VR on my shoulder. You just never know so I went prepared. As it turned out, I got some new bird species on film so I’m glad I carried the rig. Dominic had two other Maasai join us, this is Dickson you see here checking out the view through the 800mm / TC-25. All have Nikon bins so when he saw the big Nikon and my picking off birds, he was naturally curious. His expression when he first looked through was priceless! He kept looking through it and once I showed the controls of the Zenilli, he was off to the races looking at the birds. He truly enjoyed the experience as much as I. He really enjoyed it!
He enjoyed it so much, he then wanted to carry it. I don’t think he wanted to carry it for me to be nice, I think he really liked the whole idea. He carried it for quite a while, wearing the biggest smile. Our other Maasai Julius ended up wanting to carry it as well after he saw Dickson do so. Later, I was informed they considered it an honor that I trusted them with it. I never thought of it as a trust thing cause hell, it was them standing between me and the lions. Carrying a lens seemed trivial after that. But our time with these magnificent and really funny Maasai was one of the greatest treasures Sharon and I came back with from the Mara. And that’s what life should be all about, around the globe!
You simply gotta have power to run our babies! There was a time when with the first DSLRs of fifteen years ago you had to switch out the battery every time you switch CF Cards (and those were 64MB cards!). Those days are long gone, thank goodness!!! But there are times when our ability to charge our batteries can be the challenge. On my recent trip to Africa, I just didn’t know what power we’d have for charging batteries so I took extra batteries. I’ve had a lot of you have asked about off brand batteries. As you might have figured, I’m a “stick with the brand” kinda guy so have always stuck with the Nikon EN-EL18A to power my D4s. Well I had a sample of the Watson D4 battery come in and figured this was the perfect time to do a true field test and as it turned out, a stress test field test!
The EN-EL18a is a 10.8V, 2500mAh battery that has served me brilliantly! The Watson is a 10.8V, 2600mAh which by specs is a tad better. Now in Africa, our “power” was from an inverter connected to a battery being charged at times by the sun. Talk about a stress test! This is not the best of charging scenarios cause you just never know if it’s the right amount of juice consistently being feed to the system. Now shooting just stills really doesn’t stress a battery. Shooting video is when you can see the battery drain it seems by the minute (figure of speech). Well, I shot basically the entire time on the Watson and it an absolutely beautiful job! It’s not what I was expecting so I was pleasantly surprised. I still use the Nikon but this is a viable option.
You might be wondering about the end cap in the photo. Yep, I use them and for all the right reasons. You just never know where you’ll dump the battery and what it might come in contact with. So for that very simple reason, I always have the came on my spare. Hope this trivia helps.
I’m totally amazed and stunned by the Ronin-M 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer! This is the most sophisticated, simplistic, graceful, beautiful machined tool I’ve ever used! You’re probably asking yourself, “what the hell is it?” You could think of it as a steadycam and that would be a simplistic way of thinking of it. What you’re seeing in the animated GIF above is the Ronin in its stand and then in the hand (D750 / 18-35AFS not included). The Ronin provides amazing hand held control over all your movements. Just take a look …
You might be looking at this and thinking it’s over your head. Nothing could be further from the truth. Set up, calibration and application is really bloody simple. That’s how I first fell in love with it. It’s use, it pretty simple too but to be honest, thinking in those dimensions and being a visual storyteller was a challenge for me personally. But that has nothing to do with operation this beautiful machine. Now I had planned a simple yet eloquent video shot with the Ronin to demonstrate its ability. First attempt was foiled by wildfire smoke, next by drought (creek was pretty dry) and then weather. Thanks goodness DJI (ya, the same folks who make the drones) created this great video with the Ronin.
Its applications are limited only by your storytelling and imagination. You’ve probably never heard of such a thing, never even thought about the problems it might solve. But you owe it to yourself to check it out at the very least!
Winter is giving way to spring, the grasslands of the midwest have an erie and haunting sound floating over them as the sun rises. You can see in the faint light little bundles floating over the landscape, every so often colliding and bursting into the sky and then landing again. A right of spring that’s as old as the grasslands celebrating the longer hours in the day. A dance so celebrating new life it was imitated by Native Americans. K&M Adventures is heading to Nebraska next April 4-7 2016 to photograph Prairie Chicken and Sharp-tailed Grouse on their leks.
This very unique Adventure is all about birds. Besides the Prairie Chicken and Sharp-tailed Grouse, we work the Sandhill Cranes on the Platt and many other bird species of Nebraska. We might even stop for some amazing landscape scenes you’ll find nowhere else. The Adventure is limited to JUST 6 shooters (sorry, no spouses) for this four day adventure. The price is $2695 which includes lodging, breakfast and dinner, transportation during the entire time once in NE, access to the leks and blinds as well as guide and photographic instruction. This will be an incredible shoot, can’t wait! To reserve your spot, give Sharon a call 661.204.1506 today!
Like the Big Filter blur look but hate the process? Want to blur water anytime, any place even if you only have just your camera body? Wanna a cool technique that you don’t have to buy a thing to do? Well this is no for you …. just kidding! This very simple technique if killer and can be used so simply, check out Creating A Long Exposure Look Without The Wait (or ND Filter). You’ll love it!
