Anyone interested in Africa in June'08?

[DaveB]

Hi all, I've been away for a few months, but should be back for a while now!

Last year my wife and I spent a couple of weeks in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) shooting wildlife, and had a great (and productive) time! The trip was organised by a photographer friend who used to live and work in Africa as a tour guide, and was very cheap for an African trip (he wasn't doing it to make money). We had just over a dozen photographers in the group.
There's now a chance that we might be able to get to go to Southern Africa (specifically Namibia and part of Zambia) in June next year. It's just at the early planning stage, so we don't know how much it might cost, or exactly where it will go (well, we know we're probably looking at the Namib Desert [for the sand dunes], Etosha National Park [for the wildlife], visiting the Himba, Victoria Falls, and possibly more also). June seems the optimum time (given the seasons, and also things like the Namibian school holidays).

If any of you MIGHT be interested in coming and would like to be kept informed, get in touch with me.

[Oz_Beachside]

hmm, this could be a great learning curve for me, put me down as a maybe (now, I'll get spending to get the mileage points...)

[Oz_Beachside]

oh no, might need to pack somehting longer than 200mm??? ahh, the points,

[DaveB]

While a 70-200 would make an excellent landscape lens for some areas in Namibia (having a wider lens as well would be sensible) I would regard 200mm as the absolute minimum for most African wildlife work (even with a 1.5x crop-factor). While I have seen some wonderful stuff taken with short lenses, those photographers invested a lot more than 2 weeks in getting the shots!.

In Tanzania in 2006 I mainly used a 100-400mm lens on a 30D, with a 17-40mm on a 350D getting a lot of use also. I did have a 1.4x TC with me, but only used it a couple of times. Some of the people in our group only had "consumer" 75-300mm lenses, but they still got good stuff. Jane shot with her LX-1's built-in zoom and was happy with her results (although she wasn't taking the same shots as me ).

[big pix]

I am interested .......... but subjest to cost, level of hotels, and are there good guides.......

[beetleboy]

If you know where to stay big pix, the accommodation in Africa is brilliant. I just got back from my 5th trip last week and if I wasn't getting married in South Africa late next year I'd definitely be keen.

Make sure you have a few Windhoek Lagers while in Namibia and say hi to George Gregan's relatives!!

[DaveB]

subjest to cost, level of hotels, and are there good guides.......

• It's always subject to cost! For me I think it's going to depend on whether I can get a flush of cash from some short-term contracts...
  
• On our last trip the accommodation was great! The camp beds in the tents on the Serengeti for a couple of nights were the least comfortable: everywhere else was very well-appointed.
  
• I'm sure we'll have good local guides in each location: my friend knows how to find them.
  Also I have some photographer friends who live in Windhoek: I'll be picking their brains as well...