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www.africam.com/leopardcam/
Here is your opportunity to become a virtual wildlife
photographer. In real time, join three noted wildlife filmmakers
in South Africa's Mala Mala Game Reserve as they film a new documentary about
Tjololo, a wild male leopard. by Rod Lopez-Fabrega
Well, here is your opportunity to become part of a
type of project previously the domain of no more than a handful of talented and
resourceful adventurers. What is best, thanks to the electronic age, now you
can do it seated right where you are at your computer. All you have to do is
log on to www.africam.com/leopardcam/ then click on leopardcam
and join noted, prize-winning South African wildlife filmmakers Kim Wolhuter,
Dale Hancock and Richard Slater-Jones in real time as they are actually filming
their next documentary.
Remember that South Africa is seven
hours ahead of the eastern coast of North America and tune in between the hours
of noon and 10pm (EST.) Instantly, you will be transported to the back seat,
just behind the driver of one of their two specially outfitted Toyota 4x4s as
they plunge through the South African bush in pursuit of Tjololo, the
four-year-old male leopard that is the subject of the documentary they are
filming. It is night time in the Mala Mala Game Reserve on the Western borders
of famed Kruger National Park. In Mala Mala may be found the world's largest
concentration of leopards, and that is why you are there. You have just joined
an 18-month project described by Kim Wolhuter as, "the documentation of
male leopard behavior." He has made films about female leopards and their
broods, but little has been done to record the activities of the male of the
species. This is your chance to help out. As
the Toyota lurches through the underbrush, specially rigged lights making a
brilliant spot of illumination directly ahead of your vehicle, you look
intently over the driver's left shoulder, watching for a glimpse of Tjololo,
who moves ahead through the underbrush, perhaps searching for prey or marking
his territory or even headed for a visit with Tjellers, one of his two mates
and her cubs. When Tjololo stops--so accustomed to the lights and the vehicle
that he doesn't even look back at you--the vehicle stops also, and this is your
chance to snap a photo. You may catch a glimpse of Tjololo's hyena
"friend" who follows the leopard as a moocher with an excellent meal
ticket. The action is all LIVE (with a 30-second delay,) and all
you need to do back at your computer station is to right click
and save as to Disk or Photoshop or My Documents. Then,
you have the option to e-mail the photo you have just taken back to base camp
where video transmission takes place. The address is: leopard@africam.co.za ,and
it's a good idea to do it quickly as there are other eager e-assistants riding
in the Toyota with you. The best snapshot submitted by anyone that night is
posted on the leopardcam site, along with the name of the photographer,
with up-dates made every week. Technicalities:
While you are busy with that, the second Toyota is
doing the more advanced work of actually filming the documentary. Here's the
way the filmmakers describe the technicalities: "The
leopard film being made is being filmed on a Super 16mm Arriflex camera
converted for high speed filming. All top quality, "blue chip"
wildlife films are shot on film, primarily Super 16mm. Kim Wolhuter, the
award-winning cinematographer is on the Arriflex. Richard Slater-Jones is on
the live digital video camera. Filming nocturnal animals requires specialist
skills and equipment such as the bank of eight Omni Lowel lights on Dale
Hancock's vehicle. Hancock is the lighting and sound specialist and, during the
day when his lights are not needed, you may see him in his vehicle filming on a
16mm film camera. Modifications of the Toyota HILUX 4x4 vehicles themselves
include removal of the roof, windows and roll bars, construction of
steel-reinforced breast plates, extra strong custom-made bull bars, shock
absorbing seats, camera equipment storage and protection, vehicle-mounted
tripods, extra alternators, batteries, two-way radios, new electrics, etc.
Later, in the post-production for this documentary, at the end of the 18-month
filming, Hancock will edit all the footage taken over this period, and you will
be able to see the finished product." As
for what you see on your screen, two on-board video cameras record still shots
every 30 seconds and these are fed live onto the Internet. The image data from
these cameras is then converted into radio signals and is transmitted to base
camp. From there, the signal goes by radio-phone and telecommunications lines
to Johannesburg, where the data again is converted back into an image on the
Internet. All this happens in real time, so what you seeing is live, with a 30-second delay. Amazing! The
Filmmakers:
Their
credentials are impressive as some of the world's most specialized filmmakers: Kim
Wolhuter is the son of Harry Wolhuter, the first game ranger in the Kruger
National Park and a legend as the only man to kill an adult male lion
single-handedly with a knife after it had pulled him from his horse. Kim spent
his childhood years in Kruger National Park, a kind of Paradise for a growing
boy. Later, he served two years in the South African Defense Force, studied in
the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, and did a two-year stint as senior
warden of Mlawula Nature Reserve in Swaziland. Eventually, he became involved
in filmmaking with respected South African wildlife film producer, Richard Goss
and their associates, developing prize-winning nature documentaries for
National Geographic, Nature Conservation Films in the Netherlands and Survival
Anglia, Ltd., U.K. Dale
Hancock knew what he wanted to do from childhood. He wanted to make films. Born
and raised in Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Kwa-Zulu Natal, he graduated
from Maritzburg College and went on to the Pretoria Film School. Eventually, he
teamed with Richard Goss and Kim Wolhuter to produce a National Geographic
special about leopards and warthogs, "Beauty and the Beasts--a leopard's
story." In addition to this, and involvement in the production of many
other noted wildlife documentaries, Dale has merited attention as author of a
book and many articles about wildlife filmmaking. Richard
Slater-Jones, the junior member of the trio, has a B.Sc. degree in zoology and
botany and is a declared expert on amphibian exotoxicology (modestly pointing
out it was a one-year study) and, to a lesser degree, expertise as a behavioral
researcher on the Arabian Oryx. Over the next few years, his travels included a
stint as photographer and researcher for an international conservation
awareness television series from London, four months alone on a desert island
in the Seychelles setting up environmental protocols and base management plans
and, finally, a leap into international wildlife filmmaking with Kim and Dale.
He suggests that you follow the rest of his story as it unfolds right on your
screen. These
fellows put in long nights on the job, and during the day when they are
catching up on their sleep and the rest of their lives, you are able to
continue monitoring the activities of wildlife in the Mala Mala Reserve and
other parts of Kruger National Park. Africam.com:
There is much more to this story. Leopardcam is
just one of the interesting activities going on under the umbrella of www.africam.com
, a daring enterprise backed in part by Peter Armitage, a top-rated analyst
at Merrill Lynch, Peter Henderson of NewsForce (the largest independent
news-gathering service in the world,) and set up by Graham Wallington and Paul
Clifford in June 1998. Africam, calling itself, "the world's first
virtual game reserve," provides live footage from the South African bush
24 hours a day. Dozens of cameras have been set up beside water holes, nesting
sites, animal dens and other strategic locations as well as on a mobile van,
manned by rangers, that follows interesting game activities around the reserve.
In
addition, on africam you are able to continue your photo activities,
sending them back to home base for a weekly evaluation of the best photo, which
is then posted on the Internet along with your name and location. Even better,
once a year africam selects the best picture of the year and the winner
is treated to an all-expenses-paid trip for two to Sabi Sabi, Kruger National
Park and the Djuma Game Reserve. Already,
africam is Africa's most visited Internet site, but it is just beginning
to be known in the rest of the world, so you had better climb on board before
those 4x4 bush vehicles get crowded. Good hunting!
Interesting
links:
http://www.africam.com "The world's first virtual game
reserve." PHOTO IMAGES BY: Wolhuter, Hancock,
Slater-Jones, Rod Lopez-Fabrega |
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TM
Have you ever wished you could turn your back on all
the demands and pressures of your life and, instead, become a wildlife
photographer making those marvelous animal documentaries in Africa? Of course
you have, but you haven't actually done so because you know it really takes
"absolute dedication" to spend as many as sixteen hours out of every
twenty-four, weekends and holidays included, exposed to biting insects,
sweltering sun, torrential rains in summer, and sometimes below zero nights,
rarely seeing "civilization" and friends and family, while you track
your animal subjects through tangled underbrush, scorching savannah, rocky
terrain, across swollen rivers and deal unassisted with all sorts of unimaginable
technical difficulties with field cameras and your damaged 4x4 vehicles.
At this point, you might wonder if these fellows are really
serious or if all this is just a show of electronic wizardry. Be assured that
they are dead serious. Appreciate that they have let you in on their
professional activities as a means of promoting the enormous investment of time
and effort involved.
Just as you've been doing in following Tjololo around in the
company of the leopardcam crew, you can look in on any of africam's
sites in real time. However, be forewarned that animal watching in the wild requires patience. You may watch a
particular water hole for an hour and not see a single animal. On the other
hand, you may see any of the big five: lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and
rhino at any time--or any of the other 150 species of mammals, 114 species of
reptiles, or 510 avian species in an area of the world teeming with a uniquely
abundant diversity of life.