The Nature, Wildlife and Pet Photography Forum - Fine Art Landscape Photography

Back from Botswana

Posted By: PeteD

Back from Botswana - 11/17/05 12:12 PM

Hi everyone,

I've just come back from Botswana and am working my way through 2500+ pictures. I look forward to showing you some when I get a minute to sort through them. Unfortunately with Agfa having gone bust (and I just bought a new Agfa lab at £150,000) my mind is elsewhere at the minute.

Attached picture 924-lioncub.jpg
Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/17/05 01:27 PM

Hey Pete,

We look forward to seeing your work when you get a chance. I am very sorry to hear about your situation with Agfa.

-JM
Posted By: Loopman

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/17/05 05:18 PM

"Unfortunately with Agfa having gone bust (and I just bought a new Agfa lab at £150,000) my mind is elsewhere at the minute. "

I am sorry to hear about this too. What does this mean for you?

Lou
Posted By: PeteD

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/17/05 06:16 PM

At the minute we are not too sure. I am still trying to speak to the administrators as our rep from agfa has already been laid off. For a small company this is obviously a huge investment, and its quite diasastrous that things have unravelled so quickly. I paid extra for a 3 year service contract but if there are no spares and no engineers then the future looks very uncertain. Agfa were very very shy about letting 3rd party engineers on to their technology which means that there is no independent company in the uk which can step in. A company called A&O were looking to purchase the service side but I have heard nothing about this yet and the question would still be raised about actually getting spare parts. We have already had to switch to Fuji Crystal Archive paper as agfa stocks have run out (not that I'm unhappy about that of course - but it adds to my grievance)

At the end of the day I am a small company (4 people) with a 13year history. I hope that this doesn't mean we wont make 14! I hope it doesn't sound too melodramatic - I just feel kind of empty at the minute.
Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/17/05 11:43 PM

At the end of the day I am a small company (4 people) with a 13year history. I hope that this doesn't mean we wont make 14! I hope it doesn't sound too melodramatic - I just feel kind of empty at the minute.

Hey Pete,

I don't think you are at all being melodramatic. I wish there was something that we could do. I hope ultimately that you are able to make this experience somehow positive - though right now that might be a bit of a push. Did you find out about this while on your trip or after you came home?

Sincerely,
-JM
Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/18/05 06:14 AM

On another note, I just saw the download you made available. Great shot of the lion cub. This may be a silly question, but was that in captivity or in the wild?

-JM
Posted By: PeteD

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/18/05 08:38 AM

The pic of the lion cub was in the wild although it had wandered about 4 feet away from my safari truck. It had just bent down to sniff something on the ground then almost fell down and pulled a funny face - I guess it must have smelt bad.

I have to recommend the reserve I visited - the game viewing was the most intimate I have ever experienced. Mashatu is 75000 acres - an enormous site but extremely well managed with a wealth of researchers working from the site. There is a web cam that national geographic have set up at the site which lots of people in the states are going mad about now. It is sited at a watering hole near to where we stayed. The trip was expensive but it seems that any trip to Botswana is. I am looking to possibly go back in March and combine it with a trip to the Okavango Delta as well (that is if I haven't gone bust over this machine thing!)
Posted By: RomanJohnston

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/18/05 01:52 PM

Pete...dude...sorry to hear about the whole Agfa thing. I get this fealing all will be OK, but totally identify that it is scary when the rug comes out from under you like that. I am sure somone will pick up the service contract on that. Hopefully it will be somone with some real desire to honor the contract with some commitment to true service.

Ok....on to the shots....went to your web site, and it looks like you had an awesome trip. Very nice work. 2500 shots...wow thats a lot to go through. Look forward to your presentation of the cream of the crop.

Roman
Posted By: PeteD

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/18/05 03:57 PM

Hi Roman,

Yep - its a lot of shots but I was soooo lucky that I just had to keep taking pictures. We arrived and the temperature was +48 degrees and the country was in drout conditions, 3 days later we had the most enormous storm and loads of rain and 2 days after that the river that had dried up was in full flow - so we had all the animals rushing down for a swim. Imagine the site of baby elephants who have never seen a river before! I just had to keep snapping. All in the space of a few days.

Unfortunately I'm now back in England and it was -7 degrees this morning - will have to try and speed up the next trip!
Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/19/05 02:39 PM

Hi Pete,

This sounds awesome. I went to your website but only saw a few shots that you have on your spash screen. Am I missing something?

Thanks
James
Posted By: PeteD

Re: Back from Botswana - 11/19/05 04:21 PM

I haven't got further than backing everything up on my laptop yet - the only picture from the Botswana trip is the one available for download that I put up with my original post. I was going to try and sort them this weekend and get a small gallery of some of them on-line. (But you know what its like coming back from a trip - there is always so much to do you wonder whether it was worth it!)
© 2024 The Nature, Wildlife and Pet Photography Forum