This morning I arrived early at the DRC Embassy. A much more impressive building and district than the one in London. In Paris you can see the Eiffel tower from the front entrance, in London it is Kings Cross station! I walked into an already busy waiting room. It was not clear what everyone was doing as they appeared to be Congolese and presumably did not need visas? Anyway after a while I was able to go up the dark back stairs of the building and meet an elegant chap who spoke good English. He took my passport and the supporting documents (letter from bank, message from the Paris police about my stolen passport, yellow fever certificate and invitation letter) and said come back at 4pm when it "should" be ready.
Off to Air France where I booked myself on the Saturday morning flight hoping that the visa would come through. Calmed myself down with a nice lunch and a bottle of house red and then back to the Embassy. More waiting around with the same group of people. We were all looking confused, but the Embassy people seems to be well organised. Eventually I was shown back upstairs and waited in a very elegant reception room with a photo of DRC's ruler; Major-General Joseph Kabila. At 4.50pm the nice chap came back with my passport with the visa.
This brought a very big smile on my face! No complaints at all about the Embassy in Paris. Pretty slick indeed ... Thank You!
Adam
I like it when a plan comes together - 28 December 2007
Letter from the Congo - 28 December 2007
Apart from the humidity, everything is very enjoyable. Tropical fruit is so plentiful and the meals are really good; a combination of Congolese and Belgian-French. And the hospitality here at the guest house has been very generous. (A far cry from first impressions on arrival at the airport but that's another story.)
I have three favourite locations: one is a bit of a walk (only half an hour or so but the humidity is the killer) but the forest is so serene and peaceful when you get there that it is well worth it. The other is on a bateau, floating quietly in the river where my 500mm F4 on a tripod with the Wimberly head comes into its own. And the third is at Bamboo Beach, a tiny little spot where some of the Bonobos also step into the water; here a 200-400 lens on a beanbag is fine. ISO needs to go up to about 200 by about 3.30pm. 
I have been out on the bateau a few times now. Today I saw one of the Bonobos slide itself down head first, on its back to drink water upside down from the river. I am not sure why (!!) the shots are certainly very interesting. The little ones are always fun to watch with their quizzical expressions. And the adults are climbing the trees, their feet allow them to be more adept at climbing and holding things and they are sleeping up there, all spread out like a leopard along a horizontal branch. A couple of them walk across the shallow part of the river from one side to the other. I have found some eggs which I am allowed to feed to them tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to get them right where I want them!
One of the Bonobos is sick, nothing serious but she looks miserable. Some of the others stay with her and don't come down river to feed. Quite nice I thought - most of them are very kind, there's just that one mother to stay clear of.
There's also a lot of sexual behaviour - it's quite extraordinary but hey, it seems to keep the peace.
Julie
More frustrations! - 27 December 2007
As Julie is with the Bonobos in DRC I continue to be frustrated here in London! I spent three hours outside the DRC Embassy in London waiting for it to open. Various people turned up with the same thought; ranging from couriers delivering passports through the Diplomatic protection arm of the police to various Congolese men. The embassy did not open ...
I rang the DRC embassy in Paris, which was open but unfortunately did not speak English. I had been chatting to one of the Congolese chaps who offered to speak in French to the embassy staff. He did so with great gusto and told me that if I turned up in Paris tomorrow the embassy would issue me with an "urgent" visa.
So back on the Eurostar this afternoon, stay overnight in Paris then to the Embassy tomorrow morning.
75% chance of getting a visa and flying on Saturday? Bets are open.
Adam
Heart of Darkness - Christmas Day 2007
I arrived in the Congo on Saturday evening and it is always incredibly humid! I certainly notice when I am shooting. Perspiration runs down my face and arms and the Bonobos take advantage of me when I stop to wipe my face; they get in quickly trying to snatch my sunglasses or yank at my shoelaces, or worse, have a go at my camera strap. I have learned to have the strap around my neck at all times although I daresay they are not fussed whether a camera comes with or without a neck. Their curiosity is no different to Chimpanzees and they are a lot of fun although I am not convinced they are always gentler. They do noticeably settle most disputes with sex so squabbles don't last long.
There are 62 Bonobos here and they live in three different groups, each group with its own keeper who knows them all by name and personality. I have seen all five babies. The groups are easy to get to, although there's one very short, steep hill to get up. No big deal even with the humidity and the camera gear.
Today was such a great morning - I spent all my time with one group who gave their all. There was one adult female who seems a bit aggressive and I am wary of her. She threw quite a lot of dirt at me, to the extent my camera was covered in it, and my face and arms caught a lot. She really caught me by surprise but I have clocked her now and am on guard. She then had a go at an adolescent Bonobo which had got a bit close to her baby. Bonobos have a really high pitched squeal and this adolescent squealed for the Congo, I have never heard anything like it. Ironically, it was the female's baby that made peace by handing over some fruit - and then some others provided some pretty fruity behaviour and harmony was restored.
I was also treated to seeing a couple of the Bonobos going into the water. There are a couple who apparently cross the river frequently. This was a treat although I was a bit too far away for good shots. To help me out, the keeper is going to get me out on the river in a boat, (no engine) which will be brilliant - I should be able to get closer to the crossings and also just get a different perspective.
Julie
Dangers of Paris - 23 December 2007
We arrived in Paris on Friday, 21 December, and went out to buy some lens cloth for our lenses. I was suffering from the end of a Christmas flu and was not on best form. The next morning when packing for the flight to the Congo I found my money belt and Irish passport missing. After tearing the room apart, we concluded that I had probably been the victim of a pickpocket. Reported it to the local Police (who insisted on ONLY speaking French) and then some thinking.
Quick decision; Julie to catch the original flight and I would make my way back to London and try getting another visa on my UK passport (I have dual-nationality) on Christmas Eve and fly to the Congo on Christmas day.
Out of interest, on my arrival at the Eurostar I had no idea how difficult it would be to get back to the UK without a passport. Fortunately Gordon, a very nice Brit from the border people, checked me on the computers and let me through. Out of interest I was wrestling with 75kg of luggage and was not in the best of moods.
So today ... Julie arrived at the reserve and is photographing and observing the Bonobos ... Adam in the office putting together another visa application form and wondering if the embassy is open tomorrow or not.
Not a great start for Adam, but Julie is in deepest Africa enjoying the Bonobos.
Adam (feeling very frustrated indeed)
Bonobos - 7 December 2007
Bonobos alongside Chimpanzees are mans' closest relatives. Whilst Chimpanzees are well known, Bonobos are not. Partly because they are only found in one country (the Democratic Republic of Congo) and partly because they were only discovered relatively recently.
Yesterday Adam collected our passports from the Embassy with our Visas. Over the Christmas break we are heading to the Congo in central Africa for a chance to interact and photograph these fantastic creatures. We are staying at the "Lola ya Bonobo" or "paradise for bonobos" which is a sanctuary whose aim is to protect the species by a variety of means. If you are interested, we recommend reading their excellent website. As well as paying for our lodgings, we have donated US$3,000 as a way of contributing to the work of this charity.
We are really looking forward to spending time with these wonderful relatives of ours! We will keep you posted - we are going to see whether we are able to update this blog whilst we are there so watch this space from December 26th. And as a travel tip, to get arund the one piece of hand luggage restriction at London airports, we have decided to take the train to Paris and fly from there.
Have a fabulous year end and holiday season everyone. Safe travel.
Julie and Adam
Printer fun - 11 November 2007
We have solved two issues in the past couple of weeks.
A. Producing large prints
Up until now we have used an old Epson 1270 for printing on up to A3+ sized paper (and the Canon PIXMA 8500 for up to A4). This was generally fine until one of our clients asked for something larger than A3+ for his office. Given that the Epson was about six years old we decided it was time to replace it. The recent Mac show at Earls Court was a good time to examine a range of machines and strike a deal. In the end we opted for the HP Designjet Z3100. This is a floor standing 12 ink printer with the ability to print up to A0 size. That is massive, the paper is 24 inches wide. The printer is big, but is a really clever piece of kit. Putting it together, setting it up, calibrating the printer and then calibrating the monitor on our big Mac took an afternoon. But once set up, printing is really easy.
Use of this printer is on open offer to all out clients who want to print out a special photograph in a much larger format, perhaps on some of the very specialised papers available - we can walk you through these but for instance canvas is an option.
B. Printing in the field
While looking at photographs at camp on the screen of our Mac is fine, we want the ability for our clients to be able to print some of their photographs, either 4x6 say, or up to A4 while with us out on an expedition. Adam had been out in Iraq on business a couple of years ago and had used a small Canon printer in fairly crude conditions. The quality was good, it was portable and relatively light so for our ShutterspeedTravel where we needed an upgrade, we opted to go for its replacement. So... we have acquired the Canon iP90v. The only obvious downside of this is the ink cartridges are quite small. We will be trialling this printer out in the field on our expedition to the Congo over the Christmas holidays; once we sort out our visas that is... we shall tell you more about this next time. Hopefully the printer will trial well, in which case our clients on our Uganda and Rwanda Gorilla and Chimps trip in February 2008 will be the first to benefit from printing and checking some of their shots each day.
Subject to weight allowances, we will be bringing this printer on our future expeditions for all our clients to have a go. It will be great also to give photos to our guides, children and anyone else who shows an interest in what these people with long lenses are doing.
Julie and Adam
Internal flights and weight allowances - 21 October 2007
Photography with long lenses is a heavy business. As usual, for our recent trip to Kenya we brought with us; four bodies, an F4 600mm, an F4 500mm, a variety of other lenses, two pairs of binoculars, a GPS receiver, chargers, ipods, back-up storage devices ... oh yes and some clothes!
The allowance for internal flights in Kenya is 15kg each. We put some kit into the pockets of our excellent Domke photovests and tried to look casual (and not guilty) as we put our bags onto the scales .... 75kg in total ... 45kg excess baggage! For reference, the airport guys weigh everything, including your hand luggage. Our main concern was to get the bags on the plane. Thankfully they accepted our bags and we had to pay excess baggage for the flight to the camp and back two weeks later.
Total charge 9,000 KSH ... or £50! The cost is not the issue, but the worry is that the plane will be overloaded and they refuse one or more of our bags.
If anyone has any smart ideas how to get round this problem, let us know.
Julie and Adam
GPS and Google Maps
In the Masai Mara the Wildebeest herds cross the Mara river at points which have been used for hundreds if not thousands of years. Some of these are on steep cliffs and others on less challenging gentle crossings. For our August expedition we decided to plot the different crossings we saw to see whether there was a pattern or any logic to the mind of a Wildebeest.
We invested in a Garmin hand held GPSMAP 60CSX receiver (they need to do something about their naming conventions!). Aside from the name this is a really excellent device. At each of our eleven river crossing, three cheetah kills, Lion cubs and other significant sightings we marked the position which was stored on the Garmin's memory. This was really useful for the Cheetah and her cub. We sat for a day with her and aside from playing, the mother did not do much. The next morning we went back to the location, using the GPS as a guide, and found her. That day she killed three times! The GPS also is able to track your moving position. One afternoon it started raining ... very, very hard. We closed down the covers of the Landcruiser and the driver attempted to get us back to camp. Looking at the GPS later it was clear that at times because of the rain we were driving in circles!
Another amazing aspect is the ability to imported GPS data into Google Earth. This is simply a matter of downloading a file of the waypoints, dragging them onto Google Earth and like magic the crossings we spent so much time photographing appeared on Google Earth. This is really an excellent takeaway from the trip. The extract which we reproduced above does not really do Google Earth justice. With Google Earth and our data imported you can fly up the Mara river past each of the crossing points and in some parts of the Mara, the detail available on Google Earth is astonishing.
Our conclusion on how Wildebeest decide where to cross ... completely random!
Julie and Adam
Tips on ticks - 23 September 2007
Ticks are closely related to spiders (both have eight legs) and sit in trees, ferns and blades of grass waiting for a warm blooded animal to pass by. The scent and warmth of the animal wakes them up and then they quickly burrow their heads into their host and feast on warm blood.
On our recent trip to the Masai Mara, Murray and Adam each picked up a tick. Whilst they are both nature lovers, the thought of having their blood drained was not for them. In the field there are several ways of getting rid of ticks. DO NOT immediately pull the tick out; you will leave its mouth parts embedded in your flesh and this will cause an infection. It is far safer to kill the tick and a few hours later, the head can then be pulled out with the body attached, wthout the risk of breakage.
In the right hand photograph above, Murray is killing the tick with a lighter. Whilst effective, it can burn your flesh! In the second photograph, our Masai guide killed a tick by piercing its body with a thorn from a bush. Very effective, and painless!
Since then we have researched the subject and found that the lighter method is not recommended. Apart from the risk of burning yourself, there is apparently a risk that the stress will cause the tick to regurgitate the contents of its stomach into the host .... yuck!
Thankfully ticks have not been common on our trips.
Julie and Adam
In memorium ... in the Mara - 9 September 2007
We spent two full days with a Cheetah mother and her cub during our August 2007 expedition to the Masai Mara. We spent the first day watching them sleep and play together. The second day we watched the mother kill three young Thommies.
Unfortunately the cub suffered from either congenital glaucoma or cataracts in both eyes which gave both eyes a deep opaque blue colour and a vacant stare. Cheetahs and other wild cats often develop cataracts following injury, often a thorn but this cub was only weeks old and of course both eyes were afected. It was presumably congenital. Surgery is possible, and indeed has been perfomed on Lions in other parks. We were told that a vet had looked at our Cheetah but had judged it too young for treatment.
Shortly after our return to London, we heard from the park that Lions had killed the cub. Whether this was because the cub had poor vision is not known, but it cannot have helped. This was very sad news however it does demonstrate the balance of nature and the means of survival. We found the following from Richard Dawkins....
"Nature is not cruel, pitiless, indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous -- indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose"
All the best,
Julie and Adam
Immediate impressions from the Masai Mara - 23 August 2007
Amazing, incredible, outstanding!
We arrived back from Kenya last week to a very wet London. We had been in the Masai Mara for 12 days and had some really exceptional sightings. A trip report is being produced once we have sorted through our 11,000 photographs (!!!), but the highlights were:
1. Eleven crossings of the Mara River by Zebras and Wildebeest. Two of the crossings were for over an hour and nine with the animals coming towards us, which of course makes for much better photographic opportunities. As you can see from the snap above, our driver was able to position our vehicle in some really fantactic spots.
2. A Cheetah killing three young Tommies over the course of three hours. The first the Cheetah caught, but then was distracted and went off to kill another one within 20 minutes. This first victim was then finished off by a vulture. A couple of hours later the Cheetah killed again! We could not believe our luck.
3. Following a pair of mating Lions. Seeing them being chased off by a Buffalo and over the top of the hill, the Lions spotting that three Cheetah brothers had just caught a Tommie. The female Lion sped in, picked up the Tommie and ran off. Three very annoyed Cheetahs!
4. Our best views ever of a Serval. "Eagle eyed" Murray spotted the small and very shy cat in short grass and for a few minutes there was complete panic as we all tried to get some good shots. Fantastic stuff.
5. Following one of the famous BBC Leopards, Zawadi, one morning for about three hours. A troop of Baboons spotted the Leopard and gave chase. It ran up a tree and was followed by the Baboons! We held our breaths at the Leopard sat at the very top of the tree with about 20 Baboons looking up and thinking of ways of catching it. Thankfully the Baboons got bored and climbed down and ambled off!
Thanks to Wendy, Murray, Jackson and Makala for making this a really memorable trip.
Julie and Adam
Getting ready for the Masai Mara - 5 August 2007
In five days we will be right there in the Masai Mara with our guests watching one of nature's most amazing sights: over a million Zebra and Wilderbeest crossing the plains in search of good grazing. And if we are really lucky, we'll see some lengthy river crossings which will really get the adrenaline going. As we write this our guys at camp have updated us on the herds' progress - the migration has arrived in the Mara, having made the journey from the Serengeti. Late rains have slowed them a little this year - they were also late to have their calves, once again due to the rain, as we saw first hand from our trip to the Serengeti in February this year. But they have arrived in the Mara and small groups of Zebra have been crossing the river near to our camp so fingers crossed the large numbers of Wildebeest will be crossing by the time we arrive.
It seems a good time to be leaving London. The wettest summer on record has suddenly switched to a very warm one, and this is the time to get out.
We spent the weekend getting everything ready; cleaning all the camera gear, downloading the latest drivers for our cameras and computer gear, trying to pack everything into our "carry-on" Peli cases and check-in luggage ... we're not yet ready to weigh anything!
For the first time we are trying Garlic tablets as a way of keeping the insects away. There is a fair amount of research that suggests this does work. For example:
http://www.bth.se/fou/forskinfo.nsf/alfs/ef7b5b63b84666d4c1256e2a00340af5
In a few weeks we will report on how the trip went....
Julie and Adam
Corrupted cards - 23 July 2007
Julie recently returned from a treking expedition to Nepal; partly raising money for a charity, but also checking out the place for a possible Shutterspeedtravel trip. The treking was tough, but the scenery and people made all the pain worthwhile!
On returning back to the UK Julie downloaded her images and found that 40% of the images on all four cards she had used were corrupted. The four cards were from different manufacturers. This was the first time we had encountered such a problem. Julie downloaded the excellent "imagerescue3" software from Lexars site:
http://www.lexar.com/software/image_rescue3.html
Using this program Julie was able to recover all the images. We are still baffled why the cards became corrupted. We were not able to recreate the problem using the same cards in the same camera body back in London.
The lesson from this experience is do not give up! There are many clever solutions out there on the net that can solve many problems, including those that you do not know about .... yet!
Julie and Adam
Cruel nature .... in London - 16 July 2007
A few weeks ago we spotted a bird which had built a nest in the courtyard of the building in which we live. This is located right in the heart of central London. The bird had built its nest on top of a post attached to a wall at head height. Eggs were produced which then hatched. Each morning we would creep past the nest, peep in and then walk to work happy that nature had produced another surprise.
However, and there always is a however, one day the bird and babies had gone. The nest was bare. We think that something had come along and eaten the young chicks, possibly a rat. A great shame, but in reality this was not the best place to build a nest.
First one to identify the bird ... gets named in this blog!
Julie and Adam
Tricks for weight limits on internal flights in Kenya - 15 July 2007
The weight limits on internal flights in Kenya are only 12 to 15 Kilos. Given that our Peli cases fully loaded are about 18 Kilos, this presents a challenge. Each extra Kilo can cost at least US$10 per flight, which obviously add up! The check-in desk weighs all your kit; check-in bags and "hand huggage". There is no getting around this.
For our August trip we have invested in Domke Photo vests. The idea being that just before checking in we load up the pockets with camera bodies, batteries, short lenses and anything else that is small and heavy. We think we can get away with about 8 kilos a vest, which should save us several hundred dollars. Given the vests cost about US$100 each, that is a good return on the inVESTment!
We will let you know how we get on!
Julie and Adam
Botswana April 2007 Trip
We have been lucky enough to have been to Botswana twice already in 2007.
Elsewhere on the site, you can see a short trip report from the April 2007 expedition: http://www.shutterspeedtravel.com/botswanaapril.asp
You can also see the portfolio of all our shots from this and our January expedition: http://www.shutterspeedtravel.com/gallery.asp?Cat=101&Reg=23
While we have been to many African countries, Botswana is different in a number of ways:
1. The Okovango Delta is truely amazing. From April through to August there are clear skys and lots of water. This brings opportunities (shooting Lions swimming across channels on their way to hunt Buffalo!!!!) and challenges (navigating landrovers through deep water is tricky (and your feet are in water which is seeping into the vehicle fast!) The greens and blues are very, very rich and are very different to the dry browns that we usually see in the dry season in Kenya and Tanzania. So it's 'soft' Africa - viewing Lions in lush green grass with bright yellow flowers is very different.
2. One place we always go to is an island where there is a herd of over 1,000 Cape Buffalo ... there are also several prides of Lions. The Lions have adapted to the enviroment by learning how to swim. They also prefer to hunt in the day. Their diet is almost exclusively Buffalo. Hence, when we are there we get up before dawn, track down the Buffalo as soon as we can and usually the Lions will be close by. Then we just sit and wait for the Lions to start hunting. We have seen more Lions killing here than in all our other expeditions put together.
3. Most of the reserves we go to are consessions opererated by reputable outfits. They have exclusivity over access to the reserve and control vehicle numbers. In those reserves with one lodge, there will generally only be three vehicles. In others with more than one camp, there may be six vehicles. The advantage is that anything interesting will not be swamped by vehicles; which in some of the reserves in Kenya and Tanzania can be a problem. The reserves are usually very accommodating and often send out a landrover to our vehicles with our lunch, so we can stay out all day!
4. Access to Botswana is fine. We usually fly to Johannesburg, catch an early morning flight up to Maun in Botswana and then transfer to a light aircraft to hit our first reserve, getting there in time for a late lunch and an afternoon drive. Moving between reserves is usually by light aircraft so we are not enduring long, tiring transfers.
5. Botswana is not cheap, but what you get is very special and as you can see from the shots on our web, you do get very close to the action!
Julie and Adam
Peli Cases - June 2, 2007
In the "old days" we were all able to get away with carrying quite an amazing amount of kit onto international flights: a 600mmF4 over the shoulder, a camera backpack and a plastic bag with duty free, books and magazines. The current security restrictions at Heathrow have changed all that. Today you are only allowed one piece of luggage 56cm by 45cm by 25cm.
For our recent Botswana expedition Julie and I decided to give Peli cases a try. Prior to this trip we had not been that keen on them, possibly because of their weight. However, Peli cases have another big advantage, they are completely waterproof. When we were in Botswana in January we were caught out in an open landrover in a torrential storm and were lucky to get away with no damage to our kit. (Julie did lose an ipod unless anyone has any ideas on how to resuscitate a drowned ipod.)
So we went down to http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/company/London.html by the Thames in London where they have a good range of the cases in stock. We opted for the 1510 which had dimensions of 56cm by 35cm by 23cm and so are within Heathrow's restrictions. The 1510 has a handle and wheels, handy for the long walks at airports!
The cases are really fantastic. Taking all the padding out I was able to fit in the 600mm F4, two Canon EOS1Ds Mark II bodies, a wide angle lens, two JOBO storage devices and various chargers and adaptors. I planned it that the contents of the Peli would give me everything that I needed photographically so if I lost the check in baggage, I would smell, but could take lots of photographs!
Another advantage was that in the Kalahari there was lots and lots of very fine dust. Keeping the cameras in the Peli cases really helped reduce the nightmare of dust on the sensors.
So a very genuine thumbs up on Pelis - (unfortunately we are not being paid for this!)
Adam
New Shutterspeedtravel Blog - June 2007
We have been looking at different ways to keep in touch with you because some people have said they are interested in our views on new kit coming on the market, others are more interested in our views on different wildlife destinations and our recent trips, whilst others are interested in how we process our photographs. So we decided to add a blog to Shutterspeedtravel's site as a way we can get information out quickly.
So here it is! We will add information on a regular basis and aim to add information at least every two weeks. For those of you who know us, we really appreciate your feedback. So please continue to send us your comments on what you think and what you want.
Thank you.
Julie and Adam