Sedona Trip
Sedona was beautiful as usual. My trip up there was uneventful, which was nice. The weather up there averaged a balmy 95 degrees each day. Most of the time, there seemed to be little or no wind at all to cool you down. The trip back to Tucson was miserable. It took us three hours from Sedona to Phoenix. Normally, we’d be back in Tucson in out about 3 and a half hours. The traffic was backed up for miles and miles and I still don’t know why. It’s a good thing I was in the back of the vehicle watching movies with my son. 
Out of Africa Wildlife Park was definitely worth visiting, in my opinion. I believe its more or less a crapshoot for those “once in a lifetime” shots everyone anticipates getting. In the first part of the park we visited, most of the animals were hunkered down in the shade behind fences and basically looked like your typical zoo photos. However, for each exhibit, there seemed to be only one vantage point to get decent photos over the fences. Having said that, a zoom lens is a definite must, if you want to get closer to the animals in the shade. The fences were the worst part of trying to get an unobstructed view of the animals. Glass would have been nicer, but of course, a lot more expensive.
Our second part of the park, the Serengeti ride, was definitely fun. The animals come right up to you as you ride in a jeep tour. We had zebra’s, ostrich, giraffes, and a few others either come up to the jeep or walk by. Normally the giraffes will come up and eat out of your hands, except in our case. They were mating that day. They did come up twice, however, it took the driver of our jeep tour an awful lot of patience and coaxing to get them to come near us. They are supposed to be opening up a “Tiger Splash” event in the spring of 2007. I think when I visit again, I’d like to go in the spring to avoid the heat and see this new event. It would be awesome if there were a “behind the scenes” tour where you could walk the park (inside the fences) and take photos. Of course, this is an obvious liability issue, but if there were caretakers with you and monitored the behaviors of the animals to keep you out of harms way, this would be so cool! The photos in the gift shop, taken by the owner, look like she was inside the fenced areas with the animals. Her photos came out so much better, as she didn’t have to compete with chain link fences.
Overall, my Sedona trip was fun, but I didn’t get in as much photography time as I had hoped. About the only keeper shots I think I got were from the Out of Africa Park. When I was finally able to take some landscape shots, it was mid-day and the lighting was just too harsh. Who knows. Maybe when I process my photos, I might be surprised and actually came away with a keeper shot of Cathedral Rock in Sedona. . .