Chobe Camera Boat

We are now exploring the Chobe National Park in Botswana. The is a great park for lions, elephants, and leopards. We have taken a boat down the Chobe river to take photos from the water and ridden through the park in safari jeeps. No lions yet, but we did see and photograph a leopard eating a Cape Buffalo which is a more unlikely sighting. I have many photos to offer, but again the bandwidth is an issue and I will save a post on elephants, giraffe, or the leopard pictures for later.

Botswana does not have the problems of Zimbabwe mostly due to the differences in the stability and focus of the two governments. The opportunities in the two areas are similar.

I wanted to offer this example of entrepreneurialism because I thought it was so unique. Some outfitter leads tours for photographers. What you get is the setup you can see in the image that follows. You sit in a boat with swivel chairs equipped with a monopod fitted with some type of gimbal. You are provided with a high end lens and a camera body if you would rather use their cameras than your own. We did not bring my Canon 7D and prime telephoto lens because of the weight requirement for baggage on some of the smaller planes we are to use. A long lens with a large aperture for more light would certainly be an advantage, but this type of thing probably only matters to the pros or those folks who are willing to pay to photograph birds.

I have several better pictures of this camera boat that make it easier to see the equipment, but I like this silhouetted view. What I thought was amusing in watching this group operate was the choreographed way the entire group would swivel and aim their cameras at an object as their guide would point out something to photograph.