2014 Vacation Suggestions

[jinman]

I think Thailand and Singapore would be pretty cool, but also anywhere Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. Of course, none of those places are in Europe.

 

[dmccarty]

The couple on the Alaska trip with the 500 and 600mm lenses, called the 600mm "JR" ; they actually named the lens. Both lenses had their own special backpacks, and industrial tripods.

Nice action shots on the pelicans.

Our Alaska trip was at the end of the film era; we took 3600 frames of slides. With bracketing, some shots had three pictures. If focus and exposure were not perfect, all of them went. We threw away 100's and 100's of shots. We had done plenty of photo work before, but catching shots of humpbacks in full or partial breach was challenging. But, we got some great shots of humpbacks breaching and bubble-feeding, Orca's, Grizzly bear at Pack Creek, etc.

Thanks for the comment.

Last year I worked on a photo project with a local group. The D800 was on order and only arrived after the project was complete. I had a couple of photos that would have been much better with the D800. I had hoped to revisit a couple of the subjects I photographed with the D800 and maybe a "better" lens than the 300mm/F4. That lens is affordable to buy/rent and is light which helps when having to walk a 3-4 miles in Tick and Chigger infested woods. I really wanted to rent a more expensive lens but the money and weight are not attractive. I did not have time to revisit the two locations this year, hopefully in 2014.

The nice thing about digital is that it does not cost as much as film and it is not costly to toss the "bad" photos. I delete many photos to free up disk space but I still keep some photos I would never display just because. I want to say that a slide cost me about 50 cents to a $1 in film and processing. That cost really made you slow down you picture taking. I traded in my D700 after taking over 20,000 images on it. No way I could have afforded to pay $10,000 or $20,000 in film. I remember taking photos at a college gymnastic event where the lighting was awful and I spent either $300 or $600 on film and did not get many/any shots because of the poor light. I was using the best film available but had to push it from ISO 800 to 2400 to get the shutter speed up. The prints looked like scat. A D700 or the D800 could handle that venue with no problem today.

Moose Peterson has some shorter class/trips in the US that are not as expensive as the African Safaris. Workshops : Moose Peterson's Website

Later,
Dan

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you for the suggestions and the links. Karen and I are more into seeing new places then the photography. We are hobby photographers at best, and just like to take lots of pictures and see what we get. We both have pretty nice point and shoot cameras that we are more then happy with.

I've been to 35 countries and I want to see a lot more. Northern Europe and Eastern Europe are at the top of my list, as well as Africa. In Europe, we've been looking at another cruise, but the cost doesn't seem to make sense compared to what we think we can do on our own and traveling by train. We're still looking at cruise lines because of how nice our last cruise was. It's great waking up in the morning and being in a new country!!!!

I've been on one hunting safari to Namibia. We can go there and hunt for $400 to $500 a day for the both of us and then pay for what we shoot and then go take pictures of the animals on our own or get the owner of the company we hunt with to take us for a day or two at an additional cost. Everyone I know who has done this has either done it as part of their daily fees of staying at the outfitters house or just paying the expense of the vehicles and guides. I think an extra $500 is what I've been told in the past. So for a total of ten grand, we could fly there, hunt for a week, shoot half a dozen animals and go take photos. I'm not sure if that's what we are going to do or not. That's what we'll find out in January at the Dallas Safari Club Convention where dozens and dozens of outfitters from all over Africa will be there.

Hunting and shooting animals is something I really enjoy, but it's not really a must have. What I'm trying to figure out is why it's so expensive to just plan a photo trip compared to what it costs to go there and hunt? Seems like there should be some more affordable options to go there and see some animals.

Eddie

 

[dmccarty]

... What I'm trying to figure out is why it's so expensive to just plan a photo trip compared to what it costs to go there and hunt? Seems like there should be some more affordable options to go there and see some animals.

Eddie

Good question.

I suspect it depends on where the safari goes. The one I linked moved every day or so and covered a large area. They have to take everything they need with them in vehicles and they have a fairly large staff to run the camp and drive the vehicles for something like two weeks. Not cheap. But they are also seeing places that very few people have ever been too. You would think one could get a cheaper photo safari, especially if you don't need a professional photographer along for the ride and one stayed in one area/park.

A big expense for the photo safari was the photo workshop fee or whatever he called it. I would assume that a hunting safari would charge for the guides either as an extra price or built into the cost. My guess is that many of the photographers leading these trips do so for two reasons. One, they make money on the trip. Two, they use the trip to get them to places where they can get unique photos which makes them more money and increases their "brand." Photograph is a very hard business to make money, especially wild life/nature photography. These guys get unique photos from these long trips which helps them sell their images. I think GETTING the image is sorta easy once you reach a certain level on photographic skill. The next hard step is getting to the animals, having time and patience to get The Shot, and having the money to have the equipment to get The Shot. The most difficult part of photography is having a business that generates income and money to buy the equipment and trips to get you to the critters. The business side of photography is VERY hard, especially wild life images, since there are not very many outlets who are buying.

Later,
Dan

 

[Depmandog]

I had the good fortune to spend six weeks in southern Germany when I was 16. A good friend of mine's father was an army officer stationed at Heidelberg.

I fell in love with the country and people. So many things to do and see. We visited at least a dozen castles, took two river cruises, one on the Rhine and the other on the Neckar (sp?). Camped in alps, toured several WWII sites. Beautiful country and some of the best beer in the world!

 

[EddieWalker]

Got an email from Travelzoo. I've never used them or booked anything they offer, but I subscribe to their emails which offer all sorts of deals for travel. Has anybody used them?

One of their deals is to Tanzania, which is very high on my list of places I want to see.

5 Night Tanzania Wildlife Safari Special - ET African Journeys

According to this link, it's less then $3,000 each for the trip including air from Dulles Airport in DC. It covers everything I want to see and do in just over a week.

Any thoughts?

Eddie

 

[czechsonofagun]

Eddie, If you want to go Europe and have enough time, by all means forget a cruise and take trains from place to place. You will love it. You can also take overnight buses from city to city, options are endless and the history and food excellent.

I can point you to places in Czech Republic and Slovakia to see and do.

 

[dmccarty]

Got an email from Travelzoo. I've never used them or booked anything they offer, but I subscribe to their emails which offer all sorts of deals for travel. Has anybody used them?

One of their deals is to Tanzania, which is very high on my list of places I want to see.

5 Night Tanzania Wildlife Safari Special - ET African Journeys

According to this link, it's less then $3,000 each for the trip including air from Dulles Airport in DC. It covers everything I want to see and do in just over a week.

Any thoughts?

Eddie

That is a much better price! :laughing::laughing::laughing: Especially considering the price includes the air fare.

A cost per day comparison, the safari I mentioned is $874 vs $600 for yours. I don't think the safari I mentioned included air fare to South Africa. A quick check shows one MIGHT get a ticket from Dulles to South Africa for $1,500. Which would work out to a bit over $100 a day spread over the safari so $974 vs $600 per day. On the other hand, the $974 price seems to cover EVERYTHING regarding the safari itself, so the $600 might be a bit low.

What our family has discovered is that short vacations stink. A really good vacation, where we are going to be doing things, needs to be at least eight days, and hopefully, a bit more. We went on a 5-6 day vacation over the summer and it was not bad because we did NOTHING. We went on the beach, or to the pool, and that was it. I took pictures of Pelicans and the sunrises. It was real relaxing and stress free, except for me getting up before down each day to feed the no see ums while I waited for the sun to rise. :laughing::laughing::laughing: However, we have gone on 5-6 day vacations to Disney which was not enough time. A problem with the shorter trips is that we enjoy the first few days of the vacation, then you hit the mid point of the vacation at day 2-3, and I start thinking about what I have to do to leave and that the vacation is about over. On a longer vacation, 2-3 days prior to leaving, gives you more time to bask in the vacation. Course, one of my problems is that it is not easy to escape work, I am always tethered to work, and now a days I HAVE to connect to work a couple of days a week even on vacation.

If price was no object, I would pick the more expensive safari, since that trip is going places danged few people have ever gone and it is a longer vacation. Of course, price is a concern and I don't ever see being able to afford that safari.

Later,
Dan

 

[gsganzer]

Eddie,
How about a Scandinavian trip? You could make a run through Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark. They all seem to have some quaint little places and some beautiful scenery. Places like Bergen, Norway, used to be great shipping ports centuries ago and are rich with history.

 

[EddieWalker]

Gordon,

That's one of the three options that we are considering. There are some great cruises up there that hit just about every country from England to Russia. Prices are all over the place, but the more places you see, the more time you have, the more it's gonna cost. It's really more of when we go there.

How many days until you leave?

Eddie