South Luangwa, Mwamba and Kaingo, Sept- Oct 2018

[Geoff]

2 hours ago, John M. said:

   I was going to suggest it was the most lions I'd seen on a carcass, more than on the elephant at Selinda in 2002. 

   But with the elephant, the pride was more spread out. Yours are remarkable 'crowd' images 🙂

 

Amazingly the feeding was quite orderly. The growling and snarling only began when much of the meal was already consumed.

The lions stayed for the rest of the day in that location. On the afternoon drive they were all out on the sand and many of them looked comatose. 

 

[Geoff]

A few leopards...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Geoff]

A hodgepodge of random images.

Elephant tusk study

 

 

 

Red-billed Hornbill

 

 

Frog on Mwamba bathroom basin

 

[Geoff]

Another wonderful safari. I'm looking forward to more when I return in October. Thanks for your interest.

 

 

Anyone for a Sundowner?

 

[Alex The Lion]

@GeoffGreat set of images and TR.

[ricmiles]

@GeoffThanks for sharing these photos, really enjoyed scrolling through. 

[John M.]

@Geoff   I don't believe you and I are the only ones to photograph and post a "frog" on ST, but ours are the only two I've seen.

  I think yours is the eastern olive toad, similar to my guttural toad.

  Thanks for the great variety (the spice of life) in your images. Great trip in October!!!

Edited August 29 by John M.
Tag

[Geoff]

@John M.I'll take your word for it on the Olive Toad.  I'm no expert on Zambian amphibians. 

Edited August 30 by Geoff
added text

[John M.]

1 hour ago, Geoff said:

@John M.I'll take your word for it on the Olive Toad.  I'm no expert on Zambian amphibians. 

   It vocalises "google google google"🙂

   No, I'm not an expert either, but I was curious and the Selinda staff told me mine was a guttural toad. So I did some research when I got home, confirmed it, and also found the Olive toad is widespread in Africa.

[Alex The Lion]

7 hours ago, Geoff said:

@John M.I'll take your word for it on the Olive Toad.  I'm no expert on Zambian amphibians. 

 

Google lens! A life saver.

 

They need to develop a "Google Mic" to accompany it.

Edited August 30 by Alex The Lion

[Geoff]

3 hours ago, Alex The Lion said:

 

Google lens! A life saver.

 

They need to develop a "Google Mic" to accompany it.

 

@Alex The LionI used Google lens on my image and its best guess was a species of frog found in China, Taiwan & Japan.

 

I've also tried Google lens on fauna & flora in Australia that I did know what the species was and Google lens was way off the mark.

[Atravelynn]

Day, night, hide, vehicle, all produced tremendous success.  Thanks for the specifics on the hides, such as best sun or challenging sun.  The pile of lions with the wildebeest head at the center is a stunner.

[Peter Connan]

Some really fantastic images in this little report.

I think my favorite is the first one.

 

May I ask what lens you are/were using? You seem to have a great combination of reach and close focus distance. 

[Geoff]

@Peter ConnanHi Peter, I was using Canon 100-400mm V2. I like that its minimum focusing distance is a fraction less than a metre.

The 100-400mm was attached to a 7D ii. A fairly old camera now but I still use this combination as a walk around setup at home. It's great for snakes, frogs, insects etc. 

 

I was also using a 300mm + 2.0 TC attached to a 1DX ii, mainly in the hippo hide & for birds around the camps.

 

I now have a dilemma of which cameras & lenses to take to South Luangwa this October as I now own a Sony a9 & Sony 200-600mm zoom lens.

[Peter Connan]

Thanks @Geoff. That is a very good close focusing distance for a 400mm lens.

Can't help with the dilemma.

[Alex The Lion]

On 9/11/2024 at 12:07 PM, Geoff said:

@Peter ConnanHi Peter, I was using Canon 100-400mm V2. I like that its minimum focusing distance is a fraction less than a metre.

The 100-400mm was attached to a 7D ii. A fairly old camera now but I still use this combination as a walk around setup at home. It's great for snakes, frogs, insects etc. 

 

I was also using a 300mm + 2.0 TC attached to a 1DX ii, mainly in the hippo hide & for birds around the camps.

 

I now have a dilemma of which cameras & lenses to take to South Luangwa this October as I now own a Sony a9 & Sony 200-600mm zoom lens.

 

I used the 200- 600 for one trip then reverted to a 400 f2.8 plus TC. I kept the TC on most times, though would have it off first and last thing. It didn't quite give the BOKEH I was looking for.

 

I then had a 100 - 400 on a second body.

 

I'm brand agnostic, and am currently without any kit. I went to Sony as I could get used mirrorless kit that had a good track record.

 

The game changer will be the Canon 200-500 F4, and the rumoured zoom TC, which will allow you to switch between normal focal length, 1.5x and 2x without having to swap anything.

Edited Friday at 09:38 AM by Alex The Lion

[Atravelynn]

Excellent leopard activity.  Lots of hodge podge highlights.  What a closeup of the trunk.