Great stuff Marc and Andy.

This was cool, (photo by Vicky Womack): I got out of the vehicle, and James our guide, just took off leaving me with the Giraffes

This last shot reminds me of the panoramas in Out of Africa. Simply gorgeous.

Originally Posted by eoren1 Is my EXIF lying to me or is that lion shot taken with the Powershot S90

LOL, maybe a pimped out S90 It was taken with the Nikon D3s and 200-400.

Originally Posted by Andy This was cool, (photo by Vicky Womack): I got out of the vehicle, and James our guide, just took off leaving me with the Giraffes

Don't lie in the giraffe poop!

Every night was filled with laughter, food and fun! One always had to keep their eyes open......



Speaking of drinks, how about a "Power cocktail" ?



One of the Maasai and his decorations. Those are flowers on the top, so cool!



After the lights went out and bed time rolled around there was still shootin to be done, right from our porch.



Then we woke up a few hours later for a "tree drive" that is we lined up some Acacia Trees with stars and later with the sunrise.



More coffee was had to keep everyone from wondering off into a lion or something.....
Jacques with "french coffee in hand" The French know when the good light is over and it's time to drink!



I understand many are crazy about he mammals in Africa, but I could not stay away from the amazing variety of Acacia trees that filled my view finder with brand knew compositions all day long.







We did manage to locate some mammals though, in fact here is one image with two types of zebras ( Grevy and Plains ) and an elephant to boot.



On this day I rode with the girls "Lucky me" that is until they all formed a mutiny and demanded we find the nearest loo. Guide, Dave Simpson made a stink then finally being out numbered three to two we drove back to a nearby ranch. It just turned out that on the way we ran into these Baboons. Thank you Sarah, Chris and Vicky



It is hard to imagine this dirt road being a happy commute but that is just what it is. These three Kenyan woman are on their way into work, singing and dancing the whole way.


Once back in the park there were just way too many animals to photograph.












While others were flying I took a walk up into a cave with Simon and Jim Pickrell. The cave was lined with Candelabra trees which made for dramatic surrounding and the views were wonderful.




There were many rodent bones from an eagle that had been feasting for years.




Jim on a termite mound


It got dark soon after but just when we thought we could head back to camp a herd of elephants walked through the scene.


And then the light got even better.......


Dinner was finally had, followed by a long and arduous crit

Some great images in the new addition

Really great stuff. The animal pictures are just superb.

This thread brings out tremendous conflict within myself. There is a portion of myself that is jealous and sad that most likely I will never experience anything like your trip.

Then there is the other part that is totally enthralled with your images and commentary. I look forward to more images and tall tales.

One question I do have is while I have never been to Africa I have been in the woods once or twice, and viewing your breakfast layout I was surprised there weren't like a billion insects. Was this Africa or a Hollywood movie stage?

Keep the images and posts coming!

Sam

Originally Posted by Sam I was surprised there weren't like a billion insects. m

There were really no insects at all in Kenya - not in Lewa, not in the Mara, not in Amboselli. Oh you'd see the odd fly here and there, but nothing to write home about. The flies are much worse here in the US.

I did not come home with a single mosquito bite after 13 days in Kenya, half of them spent along the Talek river in Rokero camp.

We actually talked about how few bugs we saw while eating lunch along the Mara river and watching the hippos down below in the water. The temps varied from mid 60s to maybe a high in the mid 80s just a couple days. At noon the sun was warm on the skin as we were 1.25 degrees south of the equator, and had 4 bars of cell signal on my iPhone...

No bugs, pleasant temperatures, and glorious scenery.

Here are the lat and long from my iPhone

I love Marc's narration, of course. Termites in the pants must be far more annoying than ants!

I did not even see any termites in the termite mounds, Stephanie. And certainly none in my pants

Great stuff--I am really enjoying my vicarious African journey!

It's always been a dream of mine to go shoot in Africa. How many lenses each did you guys bring and which ones?

Originally Posted by PhotoDavid78 It's always been a dream of mine to go shoot in Africa. How many lenses each did you guys bring and which ones?

We all brought mutiple lenses with us. I used the Nikon 200-400 f/4 for most of my wildlife captures. The 70-200mm 2.8 VRII got a lot if use also. I used the 14-24 2.8 and the 28-70 2.8 for my landscape captures. The 50mm 1.4 got some use for people captures. The 1.4 TC and the 2.0 TC got some use too.

My D3s and D3 were my primary bodies. The D300 got some use on the last day but was along primarily as a back-up body. I also got quite a few captures with the Fuji X-100.

Originally Posted by PhotoDavid78 It's always been a dream of mine to go shoot in Africa. How many lenses each did you guys bring and which ones?

I used primarily three lenses, the 500 f/4L, the 70-300L and a 24-105L. Zooms are practical as one minute you're photographing a small animal rather far away, and the next minute there's a leopard not 10 feet from your vehicle I brought a few other lenses, too - wide angle prime for landscape shots, and a fisheye as well.

I am loving this adventure report, the photos are beautiful (except for the spider...that just scares me). Can't wait to see more.

Kristine

So, the 2nd part of our trip was 5 days and nights in The Maasai Mara at Rekero Camp. Can't really call it "camping" with ginormous tents bigger than most hotel suites, comfy beds, flush loos, fresh linens, amazing food, great guides, beautiful common areas and a gorgeous location on the Talek River.





As a group we managed to hit 10 sunrises and sunsets - not too shabby! Each morning was glorious, here's a typical sunrise in The Mara


Hippos were everywhere in the Mara and Talek rivers




I mentioned that Lewa was a birder's paradise - well, they're all over The Mara, too


You really need to be prepared when on Safari here - one moment you're shooting at 500mm and the next there's an ele not a meter away from you!


This photo doesn't capture the amazingness of the Wildebeest - there are some 2,000,000 of them that migrate, everywhere you turn you see scenes like this




It did rain a bit here and there, never bothering us though - and then the rainbow!


Sarah and Chris getting up close and personal with a leopard


Fred enjoying the sunset - sometimes you just don't need a camera!


Watching the predation and the movements of the animals is fascinating. Here is a group on hyenas, this is the start of a gang war, sharks v jets style, where this group wanted the territory held by the group off camera to the right. Attack, parry, thrust, gnashing of teeth, etc - the home team fought the aggressors off 3 times, and held their ground - we watched this for well over an hour, just amazing.





...more to come!

More please!