Serengeti safari

This collection of photos were taken in the Serengeti Plains on our second Tanzanian safari in March 2011. Most of the following photos have not appeared in my earlier blogs of the animals and birds of the Serengeti.

 

The photo gear I used almost exclusively on safari was a Canon 450D with the excellent

EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 L IS USM lens.

Obviously a male baboon with modesty cover!

Female bushbuck

Waterbuck

Female waterbuck

Curious giraffe

Grants Gazelle

Grey heron

Impala

The only leopard we saw in the Serengeti

Lilac breasted roller

One of several prides of lion we saw

Agama lizard sunning itself on the granite kopje at the Naabi Hill Gate

Magpie shrike

Maribou stork

Ostrich with topi in the background

This small herd of elephants had been taking a bath in red mud.

Superb starling

Thompsons gazelle

Hyrax

There are two species of hyrax, tree hyrax and rock hyrax. I am not sure about which one this is as there are rocks in the background.





Topi

 

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Topi do not occur in the southern part of Tanzania and were a new species we saw this time. Impala, gazelles, dik dik and eland are in the same family as the topi. There are 14 animals in this animal family; southern Africa having a different set which include the gemsbok and springbok.

You can see my earlier blogs of the animals and birds of the Serengeti which have a more detailed description and other photos at the links here.
 

John's Top 10 Photos, Series 3

After taking thousands of photos recently I have found a few that I consider to be worthy to include in another selection of my top photos. Following on from my first selection and a follow up selection I have decided that this selection will be Series 3.

Most of these photos were shot using a Canon 450D and either an EF-S 17-85mm or 15-85 mm lenses. The 17-85 was fast deteriorating in that images I took in Europe appear rather soft to my critical eye. It was replaced it with the much improved 15-85mm lens in Hong Kong with very pleasing results. However images I've chosen here taken through the earlier lens are still quite good as I hope you can see. Another good lens I used was the EF-S 10-22mm Canon.

This selection covers the period since my contract finished in the Middle East and includes photos taken in Europe (Summer 2011) and South East Asia since we arrived in August 2011.

The kite flyer, Xuawumen Lake Park,
Nanjing, China,6 October 2012.

[Shot details: EF-S 15-85mm lens at 67mm. f/8, 1/160s and +0.3 f stop. The extra light helped to lighten his face.]

Kite flying is a serious past time in China and the sheer look of enjoyment and concentration here makes this one of my better efforts. The line can be clearly seen and the blurred spool shows that he was letting the kite fly higher.



The Great Wall
9 August 2012

What makes this shot special to me is that the sky is blue, visibility is many kilometers and not a person in sight! Very rare to get all these three factors together in China.



Lama Temple, Beijing
12 August 2012

[Shot details: 19mm at /6.3, +0.3 stop, 1/80s, ISO-200. I used the extra exposure to bring out the colours here.]

The bright colourful building in the temple grounds makes for a vibrant photo. No one in the foreground too which I like but a small feature like a carved animal would have been nice but not possible.



Pudong, Shanghai China
2 October 2012.

[Shot details: 15mm, f/9, 4s ISO-200]

The 4 second exposure here gives good reflections off the Huangpu River. The foreground is one of the ferry terminals for traffic on the river. The moon makes an appearance in the top right corner.



Hoi An, Vietnam,
19 January 2012

I like one because these waterfront buildings came alive in the golden glow of the late afternoon sun. The fact that the tide was in also helped.



River Arno from Ponte Vecchio
Florence, Italy 23 July 2011

This sight was completely unexpected early one morning. Dead calm conditions overnight lead to perfect reflections off the river and the light was good too. The colour of the buildings really stand out here. Another of my favorite shots.



Amalfi Coast from Rovello, Italy
28 July 2011

Thousands of photos are taken from around this area. I worked hard to find a spot where I could partially mask the burnt out sky from the cloud which was down below the mountain tops in the background.



The Matterhorn
Zermatt, Switzerland 11 August 2011

This early morning shot taken in the crisp mountain air shows the mountain in a brilliant blue sky. Nothing extra done on the computer here to enhance the colours either. Within hours the sky is criss-crossed with vapour trails from high flying jets. This is the best it got for the four days we stayed in Zermatt.

Yvoire, France
13 August 2011

This delightful village is a hot tourist destination, mainly for day trippers like ourselves who arrived on the steamer from Geneva. A brilliantly fine day with good light and not a person in sight in this photo - patience needed to get it like this though.

Ta Som, Siem Reap
Cambodia,31 January 2012.

This overgrown gate caught my eye as it shows the enormous problems in conserving these World Heritage sites in Cambodia. Shot taken with my ultra wide angle 10-22mm lens as the 17-85mm lens finally gave up in Phnom Penh.

I would appreciate your comments and constructive criticism below.

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Shanghai by night

A week's holiday saw me back in Shanghai, this time with my tripod. Most of these photos were taken at around f/9, 4s and ISO-200. The lens I used was an EF-S 15-85mm on my Canon 450D. The results are quite good with the details of the stonework on the buildings in good sharp focus.

This selection of photos shows what a difference the tripod made over my previous photos in the Bund at Night.

More about our Shanghai trip in my main blog.

Former Bank of Taiwan and the North China Daily Buildings

One of the colonial era buildings on The Bund

Chartered Bank Building and the former Palace Hotel

ICBC Bank

Nanjing Road - up to a million people could have been here when I took this photo from Xizang Rd.

Bright advertising, corner Xizang Rd and Nanjing Rd West.

Peace Hotel and Bank of China on The Bund
at the corner with Nanjing Rd East.

The Pearl Tower

The next four photos are taken from different angles looking across the Huangpu River to Pudong.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank

The cupola on top of the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank

The signal tower

The signal arms used for communications to ships on the river.

The Waldorf Astoria Hotel

The following photos were taken along Xizang Rd, along from the Marvel Hotel we stay at.

Taken from the pedestrain bridge.

I read recently that Shanghai has around 300km of elevated expressways. This is the Yan'an Dong Lu interchange with Xizang Rd. Shanghai has a great metro system with 11 lines in operation.

Xizang Nan Lu. The Marvel Hotel is the brick building on the left.

The Raddison Blue Hotel with is circular feature on top dominates the skyline
at the beginning of Nanjing Xi Lu (Nanjing Rd West.)

The Shanghai Museum is the yellow building in the centre.

Xizang Rd near Nanjing Rd.