Photography by Randy Hanna » Safari

Tanzania Photo Safari

Randy Hanna — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:38:15 +0000

Aug 2012 brings another safari to Tanzania. This safari will feature the all of the highlights of Tanzania. From the elephant rich Tarangire National Park to Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the famous Serengeti National Park. This safari gets it all including the northern area along the Mara River. If you are interested, check out all of the details here.

More Wild Dog Encounters

Randy Hanna — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:34:30 +0000

On one of our last days with the dogs, we found them lounging around in a small open area surrounded by low brush and trees. I really wanted to walk away with a low angle shot of the dogs; sort of an image taken from a dog’s view. Steve Carey, our guide (AKA Wild Dog Man), mentioned that he thought I could get closer to the dogs by exiting the vehicle and maintaining a very low profile as I worked my way into the bush and to the edge of the clearing. When I asked Steve just how close he thought I could get, he simply answered ‘you will know’ – a man of few words, that Steve. We repositioned the truck to cover my dismount and down I went into the brush. Ouch, Ouch I thought as I crawled on my knees to a position just forward of the outermost tree, then it was down into a low crawl position. Between the pain of the sheeps’ head burs and the acacia thorns, I was in a great deal of pain with my every move and thought about just giving it up. As I made my way to the edge of the grass, I found myself concentrating on the dogs and their interaction with his 6.2 foot guy laying in front of them holding a really large camera and lens. The pain that was previously killing me, was no longer in my attention span. On several occasions the inquisitive young dogs would approach me to the point that they were outside of the minimum focus of the zoom that I was using. Below is one of the up close and personal shots of one of the dogs taken while in this position. I used a shallow f-stop in conjunction with minimum focus range in an attempt to blur theforeground grass that I was shooting through. Steve Kruger is in the background (in the truck) shooting me shooting the dogs. BTW, I was crawling on my stomach With a D3s -200-400 and a D3x – 70-200. What a load to crawl around with and maintain a low to the ground profile and not spook the dogs. It was another great day in the bush with the dogs.

Nikon D3s, 200-400 f/2.8 VR @ 310mm, ISO 720, f/8.0 at 1/400 sec (8:38 am)

This image was taken here.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Wild Dogs of Sossian – First Encounter

Randy Hanna — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:57:41 +0000

I recently led a photo safari to the Lewa and Sossian areas, both in Kenya. Located in the the middle of literally nowhere with the nearest village some 2.5 hours drive from our camp, the Laikipia Conservation Area is the place to see and photograph wild dogs in Eastern Africa. Until some 4 or 5 years ago, the dogs were thought to be extinct in this region. Now a number of packs are making a wonderful come back in this conservation area. Under the back county guidance and expert tracking skills of Steve Carey, these dogs can be located and photographed (with some luck). Once located, the photography can range from easy to very challenging, all depending upon light and brush conditions. The dogs run or are active very early in the morning and again late afternoon, often after sundown. Every image has a story, so here is the story associated with the image below.

We had been tracking the dogs for two days, with little photographic opportunities. While we spotted them midday on day two, they had moved to a river bed far below our access road later in the afternoon, offering little chance of good a good photograph. We positioned ourselves along a road above the river bank so we could maintain visual contact. Our thought was that they would cross the road, either behind us or in front of us, as they began to move for the evening hunt. With any luck, we could reposition the truck to take advantage of their movement, all before the last light. With the sun now below the ridge line and only atmospheric reflected light, I knew any photos taken at this point would require a very high ISO if I had any hope of a capture. I let out a deep sigh after taking a meter reading off of some nearby grass. Ouch – an ISO of 12,800 might work if my shutter speed was low. Shooting with my Nikon 200-400 f/2.8 VR, I knew I would be facing a potential vibration or focus issues due to lens movement. A few minutes went by and suddenly the dogs sprang into action, heading up the hill. Within a minute, it begin to look like they would cross directly behind us. We decided to not move the truck, in hopes that the dogs might come to us. Shooting to the rear of the truck, a tripod would not work and would take more time to set up than I had. Here they come, and man were they moving fast. I now have only a few seconds to make an exposure decision and move into a shooting position. I fell over the spare tire and wedged myself between the spare and the side roll cage support for a shooting platform. As forcefully as I could, I crammed by arm and elbow into my chest and supported my 200-400 the best I could. As the last of the light left the road, two young dogs appeared on the road and walked directly toward us, as if they owned the truck. I was able to take two shots before the dogs spun around and disappeared into the grass and on up the hill. With the low light conditions that I was shooting in, I knew in my heart that the shots were going to be worthless and full of blur. When I looked at the images after I returned from the trip, I was very pleasantly surprised: tack sharp – and our first photo experience with the dogs. The remainder of the trip was filled with more imagery of the dogs and a truly unique experience. Thank you Steve Carey and my travel partner, Steve Kruger.

Nikon D3s, 200-400 VR f/2.8 @ 400mm, f/5.6@ 1/30 sec, ISO 12,800

This image was taken here.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Safari Time Again

Randy Hanna — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 07:43:12 +0000

Sitting in Zurich awaiting our flight to Kenya for another wonderful safari. This safari will focus on two locations, Lewa and Sosian.

Lewa is Lewa Wilderness Trails Lodge is located on a 60, 000 acres Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to the north on the foothill of the snow capped Mount Kenya which is Africa’s second largest Mountain.

Its topography is characteristic of mountains, rocky outcrops, acacia woods, plains and a river valley all in the immediate vicinity. Lewa Conservancy is rich in wildlife and is haven for Black Rhinos, Sitatunga – a spectacular aquatic antelope as well as the Grevy’s Zebra. Our focus at Lewa will be photographing the Rhinos.

Sosian Ranch is set amid stunning scenery and overlooks snowcapped Mount Kenya. The old ranch house sits within the 24,000 acre working ranch on the Laikipia plateau. The variety of habitat here, open plains to the north and dense scrublands to the south, supports plenty of game. However, our focus on this trip is to photograph the wild dogs. Once thought to be extinct in this area of Africa, the wild dogs have made a great come-back in this area. Armed with tracking equipment, I am very hopeful that we will have little trouble in photographing these wonderful dogs.

While I am unsure about internet connectivity, I will try to post from the bush as much as I can. For now, it’s off to Nairobi and the Fairview. We will overnight at the Fairview, my all time favorite place to stay, where will be reconfigure our bags for the early morning push into bush.

Cheers and happy photo’ing.

45 Days and Counting until Safari time.

Randy Hanna — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:31:32 +0000

It has been a cold snowy past week (actually last week) in the Seattle area. On the heals of this, the 48 hour flu ht me right between the eyes, just as I was planning to travel to San Diego to do some nature photography.

On my mind these days is my next safari in March. I’m leading a private safari focusing on Wild Dogs and Rhinos in Kenya. Operating exclusively in private conversation areas, off-roading and foot tracking will be the order of the day as we strive for outstanding up close and personal photography of these wonderful subjects. We will also be spending time with a local Samburu Village for some wonderful travel shots. Below is a shot from my recent trip to the Mara Plains area. Place this in Google Earth to see where the image was taken at:

1 24.12921S, 35 8.3947E , elev 5182ft.

Drinking in the Mara

Nikon D3s, 200-400 VR @ 200mm, ISO 320, f/8 at 1/320 sec

Cheers and happy photoing.

Not An Animal In Sight

Randy Hanna — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:51:47 +0000

A setting sun and the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro in the background with wonderful cloud formations and not an animal in sight; what’s a guy to do? Looking around the parched river bed, I located the skull of a Wildebeest and decided it was going to be the best that I could do. I placed the skull in an angle that would throw nice shadow off to the left with the setting sun over my shoulder. After the shots were taken, everyone decided to name our find Fred. Fred found his way onto the front of our jeep, going everywhere we went for the rest of the trip. Clearly we were in good hands with Fred on guard.

Our Man "Fred"

Nikon D3s, 24-70mm @ 50mm, ISO 400, f/8 at 1/80 sec, spot metering mode, EV-2/3rds.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Happy Holidays – Smithsonian Travel to Tanzania

Randy Hanna — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:48:19 +0000

Happy Holidays to All

I’m going to be taking a couple of weeks off, so no (or limited) posting for the next two weeks unless I sneak a photo or two in.

Meanwhile, some exciting news: I will be leading a photo safari for the Smithsonian into Tanzania next December. This will be an exciting adventure and will put me in the bush for Christmas for the first time. You can read about December Smithsonian Photo Safari here.

Last Safari Update – Funny Observations

Randy Hanna — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:43:03 +0000

On each safari, I always learn from things that did not go as planned. All of the items below have funny stories, for the most part, to go with each entry. Just let your mind wonder and I am sure you can conjure up images to go along with tag lines. If you are on a future safari with me, be sure to ask about any of these.

When your taxi driver does not speak English, Swahili, or Arabic and you do not speak Hindi, there is a very good chance that you will not arrive at your desired destination without of lots of effort (rush). No, I’m NOT going to learn Hindi (Dubai).
Dropping your Nikon 14-24mm lens on asphalt in the middle of the night….yes, the open bag hot air syndrome again…Ouch. Bounce went the Nikon and off to Melville for repairs upon my return (Dubai).
Letting the driver put your camera gear in the back of the bus (should always go on your lap). The transfer drivers always want to be most helpful however, lots of bags moving around in the dark of night made for unnecessary risks (Kenya).
Hyperdrive transfer with the new Delkin 16GB COMBAT Drive (could not read the CF card) – needs a firmware fix. Lexar cardreader could read the card.
One day delay from United caused us to miss several planned photographic opportunities in Dubai. Better to have a 6 hour overlay and make the connection than to have a two hour overlay and miss an entire day and night of travel.
Moving camera equipment from hotel room to conditions of high humidity and high heat, serious fogging. Need to allow plenty of time for temp changes between shoots (Dubai).
Do not surrender your camera bag to hotel staff (Dubai, Kenya) ; they don’t understand your investment. God gave us shoulders to carry our camera gear.

That’s the very last trip update for this past trip, yes is has taken some time to get to here. What a great adventure and most importantly, a fun time was had by all with plenty of stories to go around.

Cheers and happy photo’ing.

Photo of the Week

Randy Hanna — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:26:43 +0000

A very early morning on the Mara Plains with sun kissed grasses and balloons in the air.

Nikon D3S, 24-70mm @ 65mm, f/6.3, ISO 800 at 1/200 sec, 6 images stitched together.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Happy Thanksgiving To All

Randy Hanna — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:31:57 +0000