Gorilla viewing this time in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park was once again fantastic. The first day we were allocated the Sabyinyo group, after a 2 hour hike we arrived with them and they were all high up in the bamboo off the ground feeding. After some time of very obscured views however they all came down and relaxed in the deep shade of the bamboo. We had great views but the photography was challenging. Bumping up the ISO to 1600 meant very grainy shots so decided to shoot black and white only. I was quite impressed with the results, although the hour went by all too quickly.
The second day were allocated the Hilwa group, and after a very short walk of only about 30 minutes total we came on them feeding at the bottom of a valley. The first 10 minutes were very frustrating with very few views all through thick foliage, however they soon moved up the slope and into an open area under the bamboo. It was very dark once again and I stuck to black and white for the second day running.
The rest of the hour was some of the most amazing gorilla viewing I have ever had. There are a number of youngsters in the group and they were full of mischief, one grabbed my leg and had to be shooed off by the ranger, and they constantly were trying to get closer to us which meant lots of maneuvering to keep our distance.
At one stage it seemed one of the females took offense at the constant shuffling the ranger had us doing and gave a short run at us to intimidate us. We also had the youngsters rough and tumble wrestling, youngsters swinging and spinning on the vines and even a female making sexual advances at the silverback who sadly didn't take advantage while we were there! Great day out and to top it off they all moved out into bright sunlight for the last 5 minutes of our allocated hour.
2 comments:
great shots. What lens did you use? thanks fo sharing.
Stuck with the 100-400mm Canon lens, wasn't ideal but it did the job, would have preferred a 70-200 f2.8 for the speed!
Post a Comment