ODP Safaris

Blog Entry done by Greg du Toit

The morning started lying awake early, listening to the lonely whoop of a hyena, and in eager expectation of a wonderful day’s photography. The drive began with our expert tracker, going by the name of Prince, locking onto the tracks of a large leopard. We followed the tracks east with the cold winter chill tingling against our ears.

The second Outdoor Photo photographic safari of 2009 took place recently in the famed Sabi Sand Game Reserve. This unique ecosystem is heralded as being the best place in Africa to photograph leopard! So it was with much excitement, that Wim and I left the early morning smog and clutter of city life behind and growing increasingly smaller in our rearview mirror. The conversation on the way down was squarely centered on photography as both Wim and I photograph wildlife for a living. What made this trip so interesting was that Wim would be shooting with the Nikon D3x to test its RAW capabilities (both literal and figural), while I had rented the Nikon 200-400 F4 from ODP to test its versatility and sharpness. We bantered on incessantly about photography, pausing only momentarily before the Strydom Tunnel, briefly glancing up for any Taita Falcons, before continuing down the escarpment and into the nirvana bliss of the lowveld.