Caption: Wildebeest gather in their thousands on the grass plains of Grumeti Reserves, bordering the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

Camera: Canon EOS 1D Mk II; Lens: Canon EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; Focal Length: 130mm; Shutter speed: 1/640; Aperture: f/7.1; ISO: 400; Date: 29/06/2010, 5.01pm

Additional Info: The main objective of our recent road trip from South Africa to Tanzania was to see the great wildebeest migration and we were not disappointed!

For three days we lucky enough to be in Grumeti Reserves, the 340,000 acre (140,000 Ha) safari destination located on the western boundary of Serengeti National Park.

Grumeti is a privately owned concession and since its establishment in 2003, strict conservation management and control of bush fires has revitalized the area. The abundant grasslands that now cover the plains act as a magnet to the wildlife, including the wildebeest masses as they trek towards the Mara in Kenya.

As has been noted numerous times in the past, it’s almost impossible to capture the magnitude of the migration in a photograph — at least from ground level — particularly in a digital image 600 pixels wide!

On the open plains, the animals are seldom bunched together; instead they’re spread over vast areas, their distinctive shapes gradually diminishing into small specks in the distance — thousands upon thousands of dark dots, as far as the eye can see.

While the above picture can’t attempt to convey this magnitude, fortunately the late-afternoon light was dramatic, the slanting rays adding a golden glow to the winter grass, accentuated by the dark, stormy sky in the background.

On Monday 14 June I leave with four companions to travel by road from South Africa to Tanzania in East Africa.

The main objective of the trip is to see the great wildebeest migration in the Serengeti area of Tanzania, and also to experience the vast open plains with their abundance of wildlife that are such a renowned feature of East Africa.

To reach our destination, we will travel through Botswana and Zambia, staying overnight at campsites along the way. Our party is not in the luxury lodge league, so we’ll be roughing it most the time, keeping to a tight budget, particularly as entry to national parks in Tanzania is expensive, payable only in US dollars.

In addition to Serengeti National Park, we plan to visit Ruaha National Park and possibly also Tangarire and Lake Manyara Parks in Tanzania, plus South Luanga in Zambia, depending on the time available.

The trip will take from four to five weeks, during which time we’ll have no or limted internet access, so it’s unlikely I’ll be able to add any posts to the blog before I get back.

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Caption: Immature Carmine Bee-Eater (Merops numicoides) perched on a branch with its feathers fluffed against the cold.

Camera: Canon EOS 1D Mk II; Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 USM; Focal Length: 400mm; Shutter speed: 1/800; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 800.

Additional Info: It was a cool, damp day and this youngster, with its feathers fluffed out, looks like it’s wrapped in a rather ill-fitting, shaggy coat of muted colors. This fluffing of the feathers evidently increases the air cushion between skin and feathers, trapping body heat and so helping to retain warmth.

Below is a photo of an adult carmine bee-eater, also fluffing its feathers against the cold, taken a few minutes before against an overcast sky.

For this shot I over-exposed by one stop (+1 aperture compensation) as the meter was being fooled by the light background, under-exposing the subject.

Caption: Whitefronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) looks upwards while perched on a thorn tree branch, Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia

Camera: Canon EOS 1D Mk II; Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 USM; Focal Length: 400mm; Shutter speed: 1/400; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 800.

See previous blog post, Little Bee-Eater Perched on Reed Stem, for more about photographing small birds from a boat on the Zambezi River.

Caption: Little bee-eater (Merops pusillus) perched on a broken reed stem near the banks of the Zambezi River, Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia.

Camera: Canon EOS 1D Mk II; Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 USM; Focal Length: 400mm; Shutter speed: 1/500; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 800.

Additional Info: The chief characteristics of these attractive and brigthly colored bee-eaters are their small size, yellow throat, orange-buff underparts and squarish tail. Often found in pairs or groups near rivers and open areas in woodland or thornveld, they’ll usually be seen perching on low branches from where they hawk.

The above photo was taken from a flat-bottomed boat under the control of a skilled helmsman who was able to take us close to the small bee-eaters and kingfishers that frequent the reeds fringing the main river and many side channels.

Although the helmsman was able to control the drift of the boat to some degree with the motor, the current in the main Zambezi channel is strong, so one is never stationary but always moving, making it awkward to frame and focus the small birds.

For this reason I set the camera’s focus to AI Servo mode to track the subject towards which we were drifting. Using a “pro” camera body like the Canon 1D Mk II, plus the fast focusing Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 lens, gave me confidence that the camera would be able to lock onto the subject and keep it in focus.

The light wasn’t good, so I had to set ISO to 800 to ensure a fast shutter speed (1/500), particularly as the 400mm f/5.6 lens isn’t image-stabilized.

I didn’t take a tripod on this trip because of weight restrictions on the small aircraft that flies visitors into the park. However, I did pack my Manfrotto tripod’s center column and head which I usually attach via a Manfrotto column clamp to the arm-rest of the seat when in a game drive vehicle.

On the boat, I found I could use this same set-up to steady the camera and lens by attaching the clamp to the wooden arm rest of a camp chair – see picture below. This, though not as effective as a tripod, at least allowed me to keep the camera and lens reasonably stable, albeit from a moving platform.

For more about combating camera shake when photographing wildlife, see this guest post I wrote, Camera shake, resulting in blurred photos.