Best of Uganda 2012 (Ugandan style)

Ugandan photographic safari

Was a great way to end the year on a high and what great guests we had this time. I was joined by my good friend and work colleague Tom Svensson a new Canon Ambassador  and deservedly so.

I met the guests (Thomas,Albert,Magnus,Julie,Emil and Daniel) at Entebbe airport late on the 1st of December to embark on our adventure together and we traveled to our first accommodation a short drive away.
as the flight arrived so late the next day was a rest day but there was no holding the guests back.

Day one

And we woke early to go on a birding day organised by our bird mad guest Thomas.
Our destination was Mabamba swamp in search of the elusive Shoebill stork!

Okay before we get into this please forgive the quality of some of the images they were taken on a small compact Nikon on auto so i could quickly capture the moments of the team  and are not intended to be award winning images ;)

Magnus taking an image of Tom and the birding guides working out the boat situation

Daniel and Magnus looking for one of the many malachite kingfishers in the reeds

Was a lovely day with just a few clouds and wonderful sunlight but many of us got sun burnt due to the intensity for the suns rays

 So we limited the boats to three photographers in two boats and two in the other so we could keep them stable and protect our expensive equipment!
but i must say they were surprisingly stable and not bad to photograph from.

Albert shooting geese with the canon whilst Julie and Emil take and more measured approach

balance! it is not easy standing in a thin rocking boat whilst looking through a small viewfinder eek

when we approached a bird the motors went off and the paddle was used to try and stalk our prey

Albert making good use of his new combo of 1Dx and 500mm f4 (not jealous at all!) These guys have the balance of gymnasts!

 Right so now we have a feel for what it was like to photograph from small boats in a swamp lets have a look at some of the birds we were lucky enough to see.
My only gripe and its shared by the group was that the guides went a little to fast and we missed some opportunities as it is hard to reverse a boat.
But still was well worth it.

There was more Malachite kingfishers than i have ever seen! it was seriously every 20 meters or so that we came across one.

They are so beautiful with amazingly vivid colors if only the boat driver would have gone slower so we could spend more time with a individual bird.

Some kind of duck species of which i am not sure yet but i will find out and put the name up  but they were lots of them as well

African Jacana doing what it does best trotting on lilies.

Again some small brown bird probably a reed warbler or swamp warbler but never fear we have our resident birder Thomas to help me identify all the species and the correct name will be put up soon (i am a bird of prey specialist these LBJ's just confuse me haha)

White pelican having a bath

what a handsome bird he is

Not an easy image to capture from a moving boat but i did manage this one sharp image of a Malachite taking off to its next perch

I know i know it is a terrible picture but the best i could do with my 300mm lens you would have needed a 800mm for this guy as he was very shy but still nice to see

After the trip we had a short birding walk and saw some cool species like the greater blue turaco which i will show images of from our trip to the Botanical gardens in the evening.

On our way back we even found some birds in the middle of a busy market!

Nest of black headed herons chicks looking at the moon

the black and white casqued billed hornbill a wonderful bird!

This was the end of our morning exursion to Mabamba swamp and we settled down for a relaxing lunch before work was passed round to go birding at the Botanical gardens.
Thomas,Daniel, Magnus and myself where the only ones with the energy for more birding and we set off leaving the other to recover from the flight.

The Botanical gardens are beautiful with a huge variety of interesting trees providing the ideal habitat for birds and monkeys.
Our hunt for the birds didn't last long as we found about 15 greater blue turaco's fighting in some nearby trees

This is my first time to see these birds so good and they are simply amazing and really big! i love the silly hair do

they are not the best or most graceful fliers but still put on a noisy display for us hopping around the branches chasing each other

Flying straight over me i nearly fell over backwards to get this shot

Just a bit of feather pulling but nothing serious

Flying high they look really goofy when they fly

Okay the last flight shot of the Turaco's

Okay enough of the Turaco's here is some other birds we saw

After the Palm nut vulture landed an African march harrier didn't like its presence so attempted to scare off the vulture but he was not budging for anyone

Once the Harrier had given up a brave Hammerkop decided to have a go at dethroning the Vulture

But nerves got the better of the Hammerkop and even the vulture turning around was enough to scare the 'pijebus' out of him

 Right lets move on to the shore now and have a look at some birds found on the shores of lake Victoria
(Africa's largest lake and the second largest lake in the world after the arrogantly named Lake superior in USA )

Never seen so many pied kingfishers this is just one of many bushes full of these cool little guys, got to feel sorry for all the small fish

Some small weaver with a insect that it caught off the water surface

flocks of black winged stilts flit around the shores of the lake

on the way back we found this dragonfly on a nail and thought it was a good subject to play with Depth of field.

And that was the end of our first exciting day in Uganda!

 Day Two

Another early start for us and we had breakfast at 7am for our 8am pick up with Travel lust
We met our guides Mehdi and Albert who were going to take us to all of our accommodation as well as do all the game drives and teach us about Uganda.
We were to travel in two land cruiser 79 series safari vehicles ( some of the toughest trucks ever made)
Myself, Tom, Magnus and Albert jumped in with Mehdi and Julie,Daniel,Thomas and Emil followed with Albert.

Off we go to Murchison falls and our first night in Paraa lodge on the nile river.
We had a very long drive and had to rush a little due to having suffered a blown out tire in my vehicle with Mehdi who did well not to crash!
But all was sorted and we made it to the top of the falls in time :)
Again forgive the quality of the compact camera images they are only for documentation

Mehdi and Albert sorting out the vehicle packing and making sure we are good to go from our nights accommodation at the Boma

Albert looking happy to be in the rear and Magnus preparing for the trip with a wide angle lens

Eshhh our blown out tire gave us some hassle to change but myself and Mehdi got it done and we carried on to Kampala

On our way we stopped at the main office in Kampala to sort all the paperwork and get funds for the trip.
as well as get money for the beverages of the night ;)

Very diffrent to Entebbe Kampala was very busy and the drivers where crazy! look at the motobike taxi's you have to be a serious thrill seeker to try one of them

One of the markets in Kampala with all the hustle and bustle you would expect

Glad we were in a indestructible land cruiser for this crazy traffic

There was thousands of fruit bats! all over the city sky's flying around as they were disturbed by all the people

you have to wonder why they roost in the city? with all the disturbance

another one of those comic African moment which was nice for the guests who are seeing Africa for the first time it never ceases to amaze me what these guys can carry and the crazy ways they do it! T.I.A

the very cool Ankole cattle that are found all over Uganda with their ridiculous over sized horns!

Another African special using wood as scaffolding whilst building

 Okay now lets have a look at our entrance and the animals we saw going into the Park our first leg in the side of the park we were on was a fast one as the tsetsi flies where out in force and if you know anything about them you want to avoid them!

Yes finally arrived to be bitten to death by Tsetsi flies

Albert looking very cool waiting for us to be signed in

The olive baboon was the first animal we saw and they were everywhere. our highlight coming in was seeing a chimp cross the road sadly no images

Portrait of a female Olive baboon

well for the rest of the drive we didn't stop because of the flies.
And finally we have reached the falls! and what a sight it is they are roaring through a narrow gap showing all of natures power and beauty.

Jump! a young olive baboon playing in the afternoon sun just before we got to the falls

Showing our ballerina skills on the boat up by demonstrating some real balance

A little portfolio of bufalo images i got just as we were about to get to the falls after the baboons

surely one of the coolest buffalo sightings i have had this year they were completely submerging themselves in the mud

what up homie?

not as sharp as i wanted but the image i was going for as a buffalo left the puddle of mud

works well in B&W too!

sorry last one but look how cool he is! half closed eyes and covered in mud yerp i am cool and i know it. Moooo

 Right after my false promises of images with a waterfall in them i will now deliver on that promise and show my attempt at some landscape which is not the best but i am getting there slowly :)

HDR image of the falls from above them and a nice rainbow

Another HDR please forgive the over saturation i am working on it and will get better i promise as this is my first attempt at HDR

Okay back to where i am comfortable with single exposures i love the different extremes of light making it difficult to shoot but rewarding

well that was all for this day as we took a short ferry trip to the other side of the park for our night accommodation and i must say i was impressed Paraa lodge is amazing really nice place and a pool over looking the nile with a bar in the middle need i say any more?