Holiday Wishes
December 24th, 2010
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a New Year of peace and happiness!
Best Regards,
Bill Cowger
Safari FAQ #3
December 7th, 2010
When is the best time of year to go on a photo safari?
The Serengeti migration in Tanzania is not seasonal, it happens 12 months of the year. All trips are oriented to getting you right in the middle of the amazing migration, and the temperature is basically the same year round (highs 78-82). On all trips we regularly see 2-3 prides of lions daily; a couple cheetahs each day; a couple leopards on each trip; hundreds of elephants, giraffe and hippos; a couple rhinos; tens of thousands of antelope, wildebeest and zebras; and many of the 500 species of birds including 9 regularly seen species of raptors.
More detail on the slight differences can be found here: http://www.thephotosafari.com/tripsdiff.htm
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Safari FAQ #2
December 3rd, 2010Why go on photo safari to Tanzania?
The wildlife in Tanzania is truly remarkable in quantity and variety and not at all seasonal. Intimate wildlife interactions provide boundless opportunities for incredible photography. Although a poor nation, Tanzania is safe, stable and has done a better job of protecting it’s wildlife habitats than any other African nation. More than 25% of the total country has been set aside for wildlife reserve or National Park. On top of that, the Tanzanian people are extremely friendly and welcoming in addition to being highly intelligent. Tanzanians often refer to their country as the Switzerland of Africa since they have never had internal tribal nor colonial warfare.
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Safar FAQ #1
November 30th, 2010Why go on a Photo Safari?
Many of us grow up with visions of experiencing our very on ‘wildlife special’ in person. Whether it’s National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery, Travel Channel, or all of the above, we have been introduced to wilds of Africa on television and the movies. The amazing thing is that you can still safely experience intimate wildlife encounters beyond your imagination. Our trips are designed and oriented for intimate wildlife photography, and as a result provide an amazing opportunity for serious observers as well. Truly the trip of a lifetime.
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Thanksgiving wishes
November 24th, 2010Last 6 days – ‘An African Adventure’ – African Wildlife Exhibit at the Southfield Public Library
September 27th, 2010
Throughout our photo safari, we regularly see 3-4 prides of lions every day. However, we seldom see a pride of 21 (11 of which were cubs) sitting on top of a series of rocks less than 10 feet high and 30 feet from the car. As we watched their interactions we took hundreds of photographs. This shot of the cub eyeing lunch is my favorite. The cub and mom are part of the marsh pride that we see regularly near the Simba Kopjes in the south center of the Serengeti National Park… the same pride (3 years later) with 3 females in a tree where the year before we had enjoyed our lunch. After a while, I get to feel like I almost know these cats after seeing them year after year.
2011 African Safaris and workshops now available
Last 7 days – ‘An African Adventure’ – African Wildlife Exhibit at the Southfield Public Library
September 24th, 2010If you have not had a chance yet, stop by the Southfield Public Library to catch this 46 print show of amazing African wildlife photography exhibit.
I ran out of time to do a photo per day so here are a few cheetahs…
We typically see a couple cheetahs each day while on photo safari in the Serengeti. Cheetahs primarily stick to the grassy plains for protection as well as efficiency of hunting. You would not want a lot of trees and shrubs to avoid when chasing your prey at more than 50MPH. Many times they seem to pose for us. We often see cheetahs on hills, termite mounds, and low kopjes (rocks) in the middle of the Kansas like plains that make up major portions of the Serengeti ecosystem. By the way… the translation of the word serengeti means ‘endless plain’.
Cheetahs are territorial and do not follow the mega herd migration, but they do track movements of the smaller gazelles and many have to seasonally move their territories as the dry season progresses. Mothers cheetahs are always single parents, and because mom has to leave the little ones behind while she hunts, only 1 out of 20 cheetahs live to adulthood. So it is truly a remarkable mother (efficient hunter and protector) that raised 4 cubs to adulthood as you see in the one shot where she is teaching her 4 sons to hunt (yes we got close enough to verify that all 4 were males). Unlike other places in Africa, we seldom see an unhealthy cheetah.
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2011 African Safaris and workshops now available
Photo 5 of ‘An African Adventure’ wildlife exhibit at the Southfield Public Library
September 19th, 2010
‘Built For Speed’ – Cheetah on the run. Capturing a cheetah that is approaching full speed of 55mph + shows how they coil their bodies for maximum power and speed when on the run. Out of 19 safaris, this is the only time I had the opportunity to shoot at cheetah at speed, and I was successful only because I was ready.
While moving in the safari vehicle, I try to remember to pre-set my camera to shutter priority fast enough that I can pick up the camera and shoot and get an in focus shot no matter if it is an animal on the move or a bird on wing. We were moving when this cheetah started running, and I would never have had time to change settings once we stopped. If I was at aperture priority to get maximum depth of field using a bean bag (which is what I was doing on previous shots), I would have ended up with nothing but a blur. As it is, I had my 400mm IS lens set at 1/320th of a second so that some sense of motion is captured in the shot. Some critics might think it looks soft, but my preference is to show some movement in an action shot.
2011 African Safaris and workshops now available
Photo 4 of ‘An African Adventure’ wildlife exhibit at the Southfield Public Library
September 16th, 2010'Cheetahs DO climb trees' – Cheetahs have dog like paws, and as a result have no 'cat' climbing ability. With that knowledge, I certainly never expected to see a cheetah in a tree, so you can imagine my surprise when this cheetah sorta ran up the angled trunk of this tree to get a better view of potential prey over the nearby grasslands. By the time he got to this point, he was probably 8 feet off the ground. One of his brothers (actually there were 3 brothers living together that we followed for a couple years) climbed up a neighboring branch of the same tree as well and it was obvious that they had done this before. When they decided to return to the ground it was a combination of a run down the trunk caused by gravity, and then a jump. The next day we saw him jump up into another tree several miles from this one. In more than 30 safaris throughout Africa, this is the only time I have witnessed a cheetah in a tree and it happened 2 days in a row. Witnessing the unexpected is such a thrill and there are several such experiences on every photo safari.
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"Join me in Africa… 2011 trips now available"
Photo 3 of ‘An African Adventure’ exhibit of African Photo Safari photographs at the Southfield Public Library
September 15th, 2010‘Stripes Drinking’ – The 4 zebras drinking here are merely a tiny snapshot of the Serengeti’s Mega Migration that includes 100’s of thousands of zebras as well as wildebeests. Normally they migrate together, but sometimes they are on their own. This herd of 3000+ zebras that stretched for more than 3 kilometers on their way to a pool in the marsh near the Simba Kopjes provided a truly spine tingling and moving experience.
248-828-0666
2011 African Safaris and workshops now available
