Brazil 2023
This was my second ORYX expedition with Dale, and it more than met my expectations. As usual, Dale was a witty and very pleasant tour leader. He worked well with Sergio, our local guide. Between the two of them, many interesting animals were located and identified. They provided us with interesting information about each of the species we observed.
As the tour leader, Dale was great! He did his best to help each photographer find windows for obtaining images of the various species of birds and mammals that were spotted. He always put the clients first, and his own photographic needs second. He gave us lots of great technical advice and suggestions of ways to try to get photographs that did more than document the species we observed. Dale did sometimes take shots and show them to us to demonstrate things that we could try. I appreciated this. For the most part, I am pretty confident in my ability to use my photography gear. While I did not need a huge amount of technical help, I learned a number of things from Dale on this trip that will be useful to me in the future. A couple of the clients were having difficulty with their cameras, and Dale needed to work with them quite a bit to try to resolve their issues. I felt that he was able to provide the assistance they needed without slighting the other photographers on the trip. Dale constantly engaged each of us to make sure we were doing well even when working out issues with others. I appreciate the effort he put into each and every one of us to help us return home with memorable images, and, even more importantly, a life-enriching experience in an exotic place.
Dale also encouraged us to have some fun on this trip. Although I am a fairly quiet person, I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the majority of the group and made some new friends.
Jaguar spotting from an open boat can get hot under the tropical sun, but both Dale and Sergio were very attentive to our needs and made sure that everyone was able to stay hydrated by providing cold drinks and snacks. I particularly appreciated Dale putting ice in my neck scarf to help me be less uncomfortable in the heat. I did not witness such attention to detail on other boats while we were lined up at jaguar sightings. Dale seemed to be far more attentive and interactive with his clients than was the norm.
In summary, I can say that I enjoyed this trip very much and felt that I more than got my money’s worth. I am looking forward to being a client on another of Dale’s photo excursions in the near future. I can say that he is one of a very select few tour leaders with whom I will travel, and I can’t wait until the next time!