I Have Temporarily Left The Mountain

ON LEAVE

Another year has passed a bit too quickly and I find myself on leave yet again, I don’t know why people find it odd that I have 5 weeks of continuous leave but when you live 11 months of the year deep in shags where there are not many creature conforts or interaction with people other than workmates then it is too short a time. This week is being spent acclimatizing i.e. in bed! But I have a camping tour at the end of the week to the Maasai mara courtesy of the good guys at Bunduz this is my first time to use their services but I hae gotten some good recommendations from blogger pals who have used them in the recent past. The other 4 weeks are taken up by a series of personal projects and generally catching up with long lost pals. Also some movie watching is lined up and top of my list is the new Batman movie The Dark Knight which has been getting great reviews and breaking box office records, will probably post a review when I do watch it.

New Gadget

By now most of you who read this blog know I am a gadget freak well my latest acquisition is a Nikon digital SLR the Nikon D40 after my previous camera was permanently borrowed at a public function I have been surviving on the generous mercies of friends and colleagues to take photos, I have one of those 35mm film gadgets but trust me nothing can motivate me to use it. After admiring the intimidating gadget that EGM carries around I got interested in dSLR’s primarily because you can get more control out of them and it could be an asset at work where I deal with small little critters that you either can’t approach closely or won’t sit still and pose for a photo. Of course the brand debate kicked in (Nikon vs Canon), the specs   (Megapixels etc), accessories (Zoom lenses) and I finally settled on the Nikon D40 or the Canon 400D which are both entry level dSLR’s for non professional consumers and hobbyists, I settled for the Nikon D40 primarily cos of price and the fact that I was able to get a bundle offer with a kit lens (18-55mm) and a Zoom (55-200mm) at a very attractive price this is enough to get me started and I believe with a bit more practice I may decide to upgrade and get a better lens preferably upto 300mm and with Vibration Reduction(VR) for those long distance nature shots.

Here are a few Day 1 shots I managed to take it took ages trying to downloading despite compressing them and cropping, the birds were particularly had to take with the zoom lens but i trust I will learn the art of tracking moving objects.

ps:  to Xs The geese are not gay but I am attempted to bring in another female and see if we can get a menage a trois going!