On Safari – Elephants

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Of course I’d seen elephants before, but only in captivity: in zoos, circuses and the like. Seeing them in the wild was a completely different experience. In captivity they looked subdued, still magnificent but rather sad as if all their energy had been taken away. In the wild they’re full of energy. As we approached this family group (I assume) the large elephant on the right broke off and moved in our direction. I wouldn’t have liked to have tangled with him (or maybe it’s a her) and thankfully we didn’t have to. This picture fails to give a true impression of their size. Even though it was taken almost 20 years ago I still have a strong memory of their size. They’re enormous.

Taken with a Canon AE-1 and, I think, a Vivitar 70-210mm zoom lens.

On Safari – Two lions feeding

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This is another shot from our visit to the Masai Mara in the late 1990s (See also: Cheetah). It depicts one of the most dramatic moments in our safari. We were driving along when we came across a young, dead zebra – possibly dead at birth. After a couple of minutes along came a lioness and started to drag it away. Not long afterwards a second lioness arrived and grabbed another part of the dead zebra. This led to a lengthy “tug-o-war” with both lions trying to take possession. As I recall one of them managed to tear of a small piece, which it then took away while the second dragged away the larger portion.

Taken with a Canon AE-1 and, if my memory is correct, a Vivitar 70-210 mm lens.

On Safari – Cheetah

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As far as I can remember this was taken late in 1999. We (myself, my wife, two daughters and my mother in law) were in Kenya for a wedding, but before it took place we went on safari to the Masai Mara. This is where this picture was taken, most likely with a Canon AE-1 and I think a Vivitar 70-210 mm lens.

While there we were able to see most of the wildlife: Giraffes, Elephants, Cheetah (such as the one above); Wildebeast, Buffalo, Antelopes of all kinds, Zebra, Baboons, Hyenas etc. We were also lucky enough to see a rhino, which were told were quite uncommon. The only animal we didn’t see was a leopard, which was for me a shame because I’ve always loved leopards. Apparently they’re quite solitary animals and not easy to spot.

We had a great time. I’d love to go again.

Reclining Woman

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Taken sometime in the late 1970s to early 1980s. I don’t remember which camera I was using. Nor do I remember what film I used other than that it was some kind of slide film.

And yes, I know that the white balance is way off. I’d seem some pictures in a book which used a daylight balanced film with tungsten lights and I quite liked the effect so I thought I’d try to emulate it. I also recall that I used some kind of technique (possibly a sheer stocking over the lens) to get the soft focus look.

Online portal at George Eastman House

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According to a November 6, 2016 Shutterbug article:

The famous George Eastman Museum has created a new, public portal where you can view over 250,000 images and other objects from their vast collections. The database is searchable by artist, collection, classification and date, and includes a wealth of photography, cinema, and technology related to imaging.

…

The 250,000 objects currently on the site are but a mere fraction of the museum’s collections of several million objects, but additional holdings are being added to the portal weekly.

It’s certainly an impressive undertaking. I briefly browsed through it and there’s a lot to see. Unfortunately they seem have started off with the image metadata, to which they are gradually adding images. I imagine it’s faster to add the metadata than it is to scan all the images. So the end result is that many of the entries indicate that the image is “not available”. For example I searched for Ansel Adams and got 18 pages of results. On the first page there were 24 entries. 18 of them indicated that the image was not available. I’m sure that over time these gaps will be filled.

It’s potentially a great resource.