February 18, 2013
Caracal and Cheetah in Tanzania

My recent 15-day photo safari in Tanzania was a resounding success! We had much better than average opportunities with Black Rhinocerous, Caracal, Cheetah, and Leopard. Yes, Caracal. It's unusual to even see a Caracal on safari, but we saw four and photographed two! Here are three images that I had the most fun making.

I was thrilled to spend more than an hour with this female Caracal in the central Serengeti as she was hunting in nice early light. While the early portrait images were great, it kept getting better after she caught a Nile Grass Rat (above). Shortly after this image, she sat down and started calling her kitten, which is how I know it's a female. Unfortunately they met up in tall thick grass and the images with the kitten aren't that exciting to look at but they sure were exciting to take. Before my last safari, I had never seen a Caracal in the wild, and now I was seeing and photographing a Caracal kitten!

We spent about two hours with a Cheetah mother with four large cubs one morning in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which is adjacent to the southern border of Serengeti National Park. She was a good mother to still have four cubs because most only successfully raise two or three. Initially we got nice portrait images as they were grooming and leisurely looking for prey. When they switched to hunting mode, we backed off and set up for the chase and hopefully the kill. The mother took down a baby Thomson's Gazelle but just held it until the cubs arrived. Then she let the gazelle go and the cubs practiced hunting as shown in the image above. The cubs still have a lot to learn because as soon as the gazelle was knocked to the ground and wasn't moving, they lost interest. But as soon as it got back up and started running, they were after it again.

We spent another two hours with the same Cheetah family the next afternoon. There was no prey anywhere to be seen when we arrived, but the mother eventually spotted a male Thomson's Gazelle lying down near some Wildebeest and Zebra. She waited for the Wildebeest and Zebra to move away so that she could stalk closer to the gazelle without the Wildebeest and Zebra alerting the gazelle to the impending doom. After the mother started the chase, the gazelle tried to use evasive maneuvers to escape instead of running straight away, and by turning back kept the chase close to us and even realigned themselves perfectly for the takedown shown above.

Camera Setup

Because I wasn't happy with the images I had taken in Yellowstone with the Canon EOS 7D, I changed my shooting strategy for Africa. I had planned to use the Canon EOS 1D X with a dedicated 1.4x III on the Canon EF 500mm f4 L IS USM and the Canon EOS 1D Mk IV with a dedicated 2x III on the Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM. Then I would use the Canon EOS 7D with a dedicated 1.4x III to swap with the 1D X and its 1.4x III when I needed extra reach. Keeping an extender attached to the body is a great way to keep dust off the sensor when changing lenses, especially in a dusty environment like East Africa. Instead, I kept my second 1.4x III attached to the 1D Mk IV and just swapped the 1D Mk IV with its 1.4x and the 1D X with its 1.4x when I needed some extra reach which was only a handful of times. I swapped the unprotected 7D (no attached 1.4x) with the unprotected 1D X when I needed a lot of extra reach which I only did once.

Canon LC-E4N Charger

The new Canon LP-E4N Battery for the Canon EOS 1D X requires the new Canon LC-E4N Battery Charger, and my charger flaked out midway through the safari. It didn't recognise the battery when I plugged it into Bay A and it buzzed and started to smell like melting plastic when I plugged a battery into Bay B. Fortunately, one of my clients had the older Canon LC-E4 Battery Charger which I could use to charge the two Canon LP-E4 batteries that I had along and can use on both 1-series bodies. I was also really glad that I hadn't replaced my old spare LP-E4 with a new LP-E4N. She has lent me the charger so I can continue to use it here in South Africa and I've ordered a new Canon LC-E4N Battery Charger and had it shipped it to her to use when she gets back. We'll swap chargers when I return to the States. Thank you so much Mariann!

Lesson learned is that battery chargers can fail and a backup is required. That's the only critical piece of gear for which I don't have a backup on this trip, and I will correct that on future trips.