Toronto Photography Meetup Group

well , a post or a pole in the middle of the pond to hold the camera just above the water level and wireless tethering to a laptop would have done the job with much less risk for the photog.

Some people are risk takers and don't worry about the consequences. I ride motorcycles and know some people (very small percentage) that accept the risks of riding 260+km/h and if they crash and burn, that's life.

I hear you but I can't see myself getting an adrenaline rush from being (silently) bitten by ticks and worms and what not.

But who am I to judge?

True. No doubt he wanted the water level shot, or else he wouldn't have taken it. But did he conceive of that shot before he arrived?

If he was trying to get THAT shot, the water level shot no more than 2 inches above the water, just what was he doing in his months of attempts with ditches and self-built blinds?
Where would this ditch have been dug if it were to place him exactly 2 inches above the water? And where would this blind have been, if not 2 inches above water in order to get that water level shot?
I can't imagine how he figured he'd get a water-level shot from a ditch or self-made blind unless it was directly across the lake/watering hole. If so that means he simply didn't have the proper lens.
But perhaps I am missing the obvious.

Well he was perfectly placed in the event the thrill of waiting hours in the swamp water was too much for him. It's a great place to be if he involuntarily empties his bladder.

This would appear to me as conjecture.
However, please explain to me. a layperson, how being submerged neck high in water (thus further restricting one's ability to move and flee) puts one at less risk than lying prostate on a raft hidden under a blind. He also admitted to having employed ditches. How is being in a hole, movement impeded, putting oneself at less risk than on a raft? And just which 200 pound predator is more prone to eat you on a raft rather than in the lake or ditch?

"watchful Greg who was just 'one leap away' from the colossal predators.

'There were times when I was shaking with so much with fear I had to stop what I was doing and breathe to get myself calm.

'I had to get the camera steady so I could get the pictures I had waited so long for,' he said."

A healthy dose of skepticism may be needed to accept this account. I'd like to be able to ask him a few questions (and not just because he's good looking). How close did he have to be in order to be within leaping distance? How could he take shots of the animals from that short of a distance and still have NO water movement? Look at the photos. The water surface is calm, completely calm. Not likely if he was shaking. Not likely if he had been standing for 2 hours straight and was holding a camera above water. How do you stand that deep in water for 3 hour periods and hold a camera above water the whole time? I couldn't with my small G10. Could anyone here?

Is it possible for more experienced members here to look at the photos and estimate what focal length was used and if indeed he was within leaping distance?

Like all writers, I'm sure liberties have been taken to make the story a little more interesting.

I agree with Fionah on her assessment, however maybe she's analyzing it a bit too much (her lawyer side is coming out).


I originally posted it for others to enjoy the photos and appreciate the effort it took to take them (regardless of his decision on how he took them).

Some people just take the fun out of the interwebs. How else am I supposed to distract myself from my day job?

It did occur to me later that he could possibly have sat in the water at that depth.
Sorry guys. Not trying to be a partypooper. My lawyer side always comes out. That's our biggest problem. We forever see the world through lawyer's eyes. I see liability where others see fun and excitement. Pity me, don't hate me.

There's always sudoku

]

I'm also a lawyer and while my risk adversity pervades many aspects of my life, for some unknown reason, I'm less prone to allowing it to do so when looking at images.

What type of law do you practice and where?

A little research yeilds he's shooting a 80-400m: http://www.gregdutoit.com/i/dude.jpg. I don't see a TC on that camera. You can also extract the exif data on his similar photos and read his own accounts: http://gregdutoit.com/blog/

At 400mm you bet the water could be completely motionless. The distance between himself and the lions would take quite a while for the water to ripple over especially if his movements were subtle.

Anyhow... it takes a special person to be this dedicated (some would say stupid). His actions remind me of Steve Irwin.

Animals don't recognize a head sticking out of water as a man - it's in the article. For that matter, you can get much closer to most waterfowl and birds in a canoe than on foot. I can flush a Goldeneye duck from nearly a 1/2 mile away just by standing on the shore, but the guy in the boat does not.

On a raft, you're on something that the lions will recognize as solid, and may choose to jump on top of. The pool was only 20sqm, only about 4x5m, so any platform in the middle would easily be within jumping range.

Hidding in a ditch on land would likely cause him to shoot from too high an angle. Then there would be the problem of getting stepped on.

As for the water, this is the point. Out of focus water tends to look very calm and smooth. I do the same with waterfowl, and it works very well if I can get down very low.

If anything rational need be said, it could be that he should've researched the risks of sitting in the water and taken countermeasures as best he could such as wetsuit (as others noted), completely sealed from the neck down.

Other than that, the images are awesome and I would love to get even one of those. Remotely running the camera creates more complications as specific focus, controlling the zoom and view point. Granted some heavy duty remote motors could've been used, but then you're moving away from as silent as possible and increasing risk of missing the shot.

Aside from that, there are much greater risks that photo journalists have taken and have died. Just type "photo journalist killed" in a Google search and you'll find several names, so his choice actually could be argued as a safer route for his career. Its a different breed of people ... and I can appreciate the images they capture.

Take one watering hole. Add photographer and let marinate for 3 months. He could have been lion food but got a cool shot.

Maybe the lions could smell that this guy was "off" and didn't want to eat him.

Sounds like it'd be an easy circus trick to set up. Wow - I would have liked to see shots of that too. Lions jumping on to a raft. And I always thought cats disliked water and only swam if they had to i.e. cross a river to get at migratory animals. Thanks for clearing that up.

I lived and traveled in this area, more Tanzania but a bit in Kenya too.

This is guy is crazy / dedicated to wade into one of these watering holes and he got only a minority of diseases most would guess are contractable. Getting malaria twice only benefit is becoming familiar with the symptoms for when it comes again, which it will.

Some notes:

Lions, warthogs (as pictured), and other animals rarely or never actually go in the water. So probably he was safer from them sitting in the water than in a blind or a ditch. Hunted wounded animals often run into water holes as sanctuary, waiting out their hunter or succumbing to their injuries and then rotting away in the watering hole.

Crocodiles will be there only if the watering hole is substantially wet year round or close to a riverbed. Bird flocks will invade, sometimes so many the water is hard to see. Tsetse fly. Snakes. Poisonous catfish.

Large multivariate bacterial culture + lots of regular hours of hot sun mean these watering holes usually have a thick cover of stinking, fermenting scum bubbling away.

Lions are often easy to get up close to so I don't really buy this guy's unique shot argument too much. However, watering hole animal dynamics are immensely entertaining to watch. Several national parks have 24/7 webcams pointed at watering holes.

The problem in Africa is theft. If this photographer sets up unattended remote-trigger type shot some bushman, Massai, Kikuyu, poacher, etc. wandering buy will just steal all the equipment and sell it or chop it up and wear the pieces as jewelry.

Lion shots in Africa are like nice flower or sunset shots: several million nice ones yesterday, today and tomorrow, etc. This guy's obsession is easy to understand. I spent an entire day in northern Serengeti trying for closer shot of a pair of male lion bachelors waiting out a rainstorm; one was so beautiful, huge, regal in profile on a slight hilltop rise, dark coat and bleach blond mane. Never got a good shot, tried to find the same lion pair again for 10 days.

They are at a disadvantage might be the reason they don't hunt in the water.
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I did see a show where they had adapted to the wet lands and hunting in water

In all my years of experience reading about the big cats I've never heard about lions jumping on to rafts or big rocks or even wildebeasts in the water. They hate water. Some lions will walk in shallow water but not submerging themselves. I don't think you'll get lions jumping on to rafts, not bloody likely. Tigers are a different story.

Yes. Perhaps I should have spoken only for myself rather than painting all lawyers with the same brush.

Currently immigration law -currently that is all I feel comfortable disclosing in a public form. Should our paths cross at a social or event I would be happy to discuss it in greater detail.

Bloody hell - I keep stalling on a Puffs face tissue advert. Real slow internet connection here on my second choice wireless laptop and couldn't wait for the vid to load.


So did the bloke have a Steve Irwin moment or is he doing the talk show circuit flogging his new book? Did he make Oprah?