I'm going to bet that most of these excellent photos were taken with a low pixel count camera, around 12 million pixels, probably something like a Nikon D700. The D700 and the D3s are most probably the winners in the low noise battle.

But most importantly, because those two cameras are full frame captors (and not DX or APC captors) you get the benefit of reduced depth of field and the excellent results when used with high end lenses. The obvious lesson is that investing in expensive lenses and a full frame captor is the best road, from a technical point of view, to take good pictures if the photographer does his part.

Saeed, tell us about the lenses and camera bodies please.

I am afraid you are going to be disappointed.

Personally, I prefer Dx cameras for wildlife, simply for the 1.5x magnification factor.

The photos of the birds at the water hole were taken with a Nikon D300s, and a Sigma 50-500mm lense.

The rest were taken by a combination of cameras, that include:

Sony HX1
Panasonic FZ100
Panasonic TZ10
Nikon D300s.

I do use the D3x and the D700 sometimes, but for travel, I find the D300s to be almost ideal.

The Nikon D300s performed exceptionally well, and I really cannot find any fault with it.

The Panasonic TZ10 also performed very well, taking into consideration that it is a small pocket camera with a 12X optical zoom.

I found that it is the best among the small pocket size cameras available right now.

The Panasonic FZ100 is a good camera, but I got some weird results with it sometimes. And I honestly cannot see why.

Some of the pictures turned out to have an awful lot of noise, despite good light conditions. Other times the results were exceptionally good. This happened without any setting adjustment, and it is teh first time I have used this camera.

The Sony HX1 is a very good camera. It produced very good results, but at night it seems to be a bit slower to focus.

Saeed, I'm enjoying your photos very much. Really liked the bird photos. On my first African hunt I'm afraid I was so into the hunting I didn't spend enough time just looking. Subsequently I try to make time to really see African sights and species I'll see nowhere else.

I'm not a serious birdwatcher, no "life list" or anything, but I do enjoy mornings having coffee on the deck at our isolated Saskatchewan farm, watching and listening to all the birds. Last trip to Africa I spent a lot more time having the PH identify various birds, trees, and animals and getting their photos.

The other thing I really like about your photos is the variety of scenes of camp and your companions. I do like "trophy" photos but one scene of a hunter posing behind a 38" gemsbok isn't much different than another hunter next to a 39" gemsbok.

These are important pictures and need to be recorded but I enjoy more seeing the smiles and laughs of your hunting companions, the campfires and the daily activities of an African trip.

Photography can be said to have three elements: equipment, which is important, but not so much as some would have us believe; technical skill with the equipment; and the hard-to-describe "photographer's eye", the ability to plan a photo, or to grab it when it appears unexpectedly.

Artistic skill is partly inherent, rather like athletic ability, but just as an average athlete can become extremely good by conscientious training, most people can greatly improve their "photographic eye" by viewing and appreciating good photographs, learning some basic elements of composition, and mostly by taking lots of photos - which digital lets us do for much less cost than film.

Anyways your photos are very good indeed, I think by viewing these and the photos of other creative photographers who contribute, and thinking (for example) "I like this photo. Why do I like it and how was it done?", hunters would pick up some skills which would make the records of their own hunts more enjoyable.

Saeed:

In a word, your work is effortlessly professional. There is a spririt of joy that pervades your photography.

Glad you are enjoying the photos.

Plenty more to come.

Last week we were in the Maldives, and I visited by old friend you see above, the trigger fish.

Last year we had a bit of fun me and him. He had an exception to me getting close to him, and was attacked several times by him and his mate.

It was so funny, as a friend who was snorkling with ran away! And left me to face the attacke all by myself.

The funny part was that bopth fish were coming at me very fast, but I held my ground, and they always turn away at the last moment. Although they have been known to actually cause injuries sometimes.

I will post an album of these photos as soon as I can. But first I am trying to finish my safari hunt report. And by the looks of things it might be quite a few more parts to come of that.

The photo above was taken by a Canon G12 in a Canon underwater housing.

I'm not dissapointed at all. On the contrary, it's good to see that the results can be had with a less expensive camera than the D700. And the lens seems to give great results too.

Saeed

Thank you for posting your photographs. For those of us who will never go there, we can get the feel of the land through your great photography.

I say photographs, but they are more, they are what you feel when you are there.

Thank You!