SAFARI
A college coach asked me at the Batbuster whether I had really worked for the government, gone on safari, etc., or was I a journalist all these years who wrote good stories?
The following is the intreoduction to a pamphlet I wrote on photographic safaris at the request of an investor affiliated with the Mount Kenya Safari Club.
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SAFARI
By Rayburn F. Hesse
An African safari is not unlike serving a gourmet dinner, replete with an exquisite wine; you and many other people must prepare carefully to achieve maximum enjoyment.
You need to plan ahead, and planning must involve more than just selecting an airline and a land tour company. You must conceptualize yourself, and companions, jostling along dusty, unpaved trails across the African savannah, camera at the ready. Are you physically and psychologically prepared for Africa?
Think pictorially. The first hard decision is whether you want to take pictures or photographs. The second hard decision is to decide how good a photographer you are or want to be. What do you want to photograph – animals in their habitat, or pictures of Aunt Minnie against the background of Kilimanjaro? That determination will influence the kind opf camera you select and the kind of film you choose. How you will care for your camera, film and accessory gear before, after and during the time you're on the hunt.
You must consider the pro's and con's of individual versus group safaris, ie, the economics of group travel against the pictorial control you exercise as an individual or with a group you've put together.
We open this discussion with these advisories, not to discourage you, but to give you some guidance that should manifest in heightened enjoyment of your trip.
By all means, go. Even if you’re the typical tourist with a small digital or other camera with a narrow focus, go!
Africa, particularly East Africa, is one of man's last remaining frontiers of adventure. Exciting is not a big enough word, when you're sitting before a camp fire in the Amboseli, with the dark mass of Kilimanjaro dominating the eastern horizon, and you hear a leopard cry into the night. Your blood pulses, your heart accelerates, and your mouth gets dry -- you're on the Dark Continent, you’re in Africa, witnessing nature as it existed when ancient Egypt was in its infancy.
You'll remember the first time you saw Paris, and that will be the only memory that ranks close in comparison. Years afterward, no matter how much you travel beyond East Africa, when friends see you staring with that far-away look in your eye, they will know you're back in Africa -- for certainly a part of you will never leave.
The Kenya of Hemingway is still there; indeed, the Africa of Stanley exists just beyond the fringes of rapidly modernizing cities like Nairobi and Mombasa. This is the great dichotomy of today's Africa – the bustling cities with their cosmopolitan hotels; the very good transportation facilities, air and land; the European-class accommodations in the game preserves; traveler's meccas like the Mount Kenya Safari Club upland, which offer an endless variety of personal sports and modern facilities, yet retain the African personality; and, in contrast, the bush!
You can make this new/old Africa work for you to increase your personal enjoyment. Experienced tour operators can fly you to Africa, book your safari, and conduct your safari. Service personnel throughout East Africa speak many languages. Food service ranges from good to superb. Currency exchange is swift and efficient. Shopkeepers will give you good value on your purchases, and most will mail artifacts across the world. Major credit cards are universally accepted. In other words, the logistical support you expect when you travel anywhere are available and functioning in East Africa.
All you really have to do is tell people what you want to see, what you want to photograph, how you want to do it, and how much you want to spend….
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The remainder of the text gave advice on cameras; how to photograph various animals; and cautionary advice on taking pictures of the natives.
I’ve done three safaris, two by myself with a driver/guide in a Land Rover. Did not want to argue. Most group safaris go out for a morning and evening run, and will visit two parks in a week. I was on the go continuously. Took one group safari with an Assistant Secretary of State; after putting up with a couple of the large egos, he agreed we would go off on our own once the small plane landed. I put one guy down hard – without saying a word. He was loudly mocking the others in the group who mostly had Kodak Instamatics or their ilk – while he had a late model Canon with a 200mm lens. I opened my large camera bag, took out an expensive Nikon F2 with motor drive, attached a 50-300mm zoom which Nikon made for safaris, the mounted it on a frame with a handle like a machine gun – awesome. The guy stammered a few words, finally his wife told him to put his camera away. You can take photos of the elegant Masai herding their cattle, framed against the sun setting on the plain, or capture an entire pride of lions resting on a hillock overlooking the NgoroNgoro crater, which the lions rule. I have several hundred photos like the ones below:
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