Well, not as close as those, but while on the Discovery bus I was a little slow at getting this: <img src="http://www.themeparkphotos.us/assets/images/db_images/db_IMG_5637-iC1.jpg" /> The hippo had just shooed the vulture off it's back. You can see the vulture in flight.
I like the colour rendition and timing of the first photo. rlongenbach, how did you get a pic of me sunbathing at the AK?
Thank you HW. rlongenbach - I've not been lucky enough to both catch one out of the water on the safari ride AND snap off a non-blurry photo at the same time. The safari truck is usually booking along on the bumpy trail, and by the time I'm getting focus, some brush gets in the way, or the truck rocks back just as I'm pressing the shutter. I haven't tried the Discovery van...might have to splurge for that next time for some longer photo opportunities! Kelly - the color is mostly out of the camera - except for a tweak to the levels and saturation in post to correct for the dirty glass you have to shoot through! Oh, and you don't know if that's you...lots of us look like hippos when we sunbathe! Could be me too!
not to get off topic but I see you live in Boca. I have 2 brothers that live there and work at a local golf course
Well, the van/bus moves quickly through there too. It only stops in certain areas where there is a pull off since it uses the regular trail. The biggest advantage is that the little sign with the big person and the little person at the edge of a ride vehicle leaning out....isn't there. Once you are on stage and before the "story" of the safari ride, you are free to move about the cabin. To both sides. IS helps too.
What course? I live in the heart of golf course country - there are 7 courses within 2 miles of me - and Boca has dozens of golf courses. It's definately our forte down here! Excellent - good to hear. I think I will take the ride next time I'm up there. I've got IS - but it won't handle the kind of bumpiness you get when the truck is moving faster, or when you are slinging back and forth in your seat trying not to face-plant yourself. But if the truck occasionally pulls over, that would be nice.
I would always comment to my wife that these were really anamitronic because we never have seen them move! I guess I'm wrong :
I've been pretty lucky with them - though certainly I go up there enough to increase my odds! A few years ago, I caught another opening his mouth. But unfortunately, he was facing the wrong direction: On this one, I caught him coming into the pool, but was unfortunately only armed with my little ultra-compact 4MP camera with no big zoom and no manual controls: Caught them sleeping out of water once...actually, the close one had it's eyes open, but the far one looked like he had a hard night out: I had another lucky session 4 or 5 years ago...but unfortunately I only had an old 1MP camera back then. But the hippos provided some good action:
Great shot! That's the closeup I want to get with a better camera...they just haven't come to the window for me since that one time in 2003!
I took mine with the "equivalent" of an approx. 100-300 zoom lens (most are 75-300), and multiply that by 1.6 due to the crop factor of the dSLR. I'm betting the ones in the pool are about the same, and it's probably just a basic (maybe wide angle) zoom for the last one.
Mine of the hippos opening their mouths were shot at 432mm (at 35mm equivalent), with an F2.8 - 3.7 lens.
welcome to the forums, joshiemonkey - glad to see you here. to answer your question, i would recommend canon's 28-135 IS/USM... costs about 400 or so USD and has a great range and image stabilization as well. i dont know exactly what camera model you have or what lenses you already have, but i had owned that lens before and never hesitiate to recommend it as a great all around starter lens for the money. can't go wrong with it.
