Wow!

Moar? Sure! As we continued our 5 days and nights in The Maasai Mara, we saw animals all the time on our early morning and then late afternoon game-drives.

Lion posing, just after waking


Getting ready for the hunt, gotta stretch those important muscles!


There were many opportunities to see family interaction









We loved the baboons - and next trip we'll spend even more time with them - including walking amongst them!





After this early morning game drive, it was lovely breakfast in the field, followed by the one-legged Maasai races


Then it was back to camp for downtime, lunch, and an afternoon critique session. After that, back out on another game drive....

I love capturing the animals' movements with slow shutter. Zebras and a beestie:


Giraffe abound, here are a mother, father and young one. The male is checking the female to see if she's ready for mating - she rebuffed him. Giraffes have a very long gestation period, and then - the young are delivered while the female is standing up imagine being dropped from that distance! They do this because to lie down and give birth would put the mother in a very vulnerable position, to predators.


Another of our many leopard encounters, these are such beautiful creatures


Day is done.


More coming, I hope to make my next post about predation.

This last set is truly amazing, Andy--I can't pick a favorite because they are all so good. Might you have a couple more shots to share?

Lauren

Awesome... simply amazing. This is my dream trip - all the sites you all saw... the animals... wow... Blown away - keep sharing if you've got them!

Some great photos in this thread. I was with a few colleagues working in Namibia a few years ago and we decided to charter a plane out to one of the national parks in the north. The plane ride was spectacular but we were all very naive, thinking we'd get good wildlife photographs with Ixus and Sony digicams....... :).

Andy,

I really like day is done. I think it screams for a pano crop.

Sam

Originally Posted by redleash This last set is truly amazing, Andy--I can't pick a favorite because they are all so good. Might you have a couple more shots to share? Lauren

thanks Lauren - yeup, more images coming - next set will be good to view after eating

Originally Posted by mjordanphoto Awesome... simply amazing. This is my dream trip - all the sites you all saw... the animals... wow... Blown away - keep sharing if you've got them!

Thanks so much, more to come

Originally Posted by Internaut Some great photos in this thread. I was with a few colleagues working in Namibia a few years ago and we decided to charter a plane out to one of the national parks in the north. The plane ride was spectacular but we were all very naive, thinking we'd get good wildlife photographs with Ixus and Sony digicams....... :).

Seeing Africa by small plane is amazing, glad you got to do it!

Originally Posted by Sam Andy, I really like day is done. I think it screams for a pano crop. Sam

Thanks Sam! I haven't yet critically looked at all my shots, much less the lansdscape-y ones but I love your suggestion!

Predation. We saw plenty of it. If I had to come back as an animal, I'd want to be a lion in The Mara. There's food everywhere you look! I love the audience, there are vultures and other birds always standing by... pretty much NOTHING goes to waste, there are even some micro-creatures that eat up all the bone marrow









Marc will have some more predation shots I'm sure.

I ts always about the food with you.

Great captures

Linda's response when she saw the lions feeding off the wildebeest, "I may never eat ribs again".

Fast food here has a totally different meaning to what we're used to.

Cuong

WOW. Fun stuff! Nice shooting!

Originally Posted by Harryb Linda's response when she saw the lions feeding off the wildebeest, "I may never eat ribs again".

Still envious but enjoying every photo.

Originally Posted by dlplumer Still envious but enjoying every photo.

Next trip: Feb 2013

Originally Posted by Andy Next trip: Feb 2013

Let's talk.

I have been thoroughly enjoying this trip vicariously through your photos and commentaries. Now, if that lottery win would just come through.....

Fabulous images and an amazing experience, I'm sure.

Ceci

I learned a lot in Africa!

I know this journey has moved on to the Maasai Mara,,,,,,,,,,, but,,,,,,,,,, there is one more "butt" that I wanted to highlight from Lewa.

Did you know that an elephant butt looks like the front of an elephant




I promise much much more insight in the next post

And here is more!

On the way from Lewa to the Mara we flew over some Flamingos...... actually thousands


Next year we are planning on spending a night here.

Once in Camp Rekero we had some business to take care of, so we hired the Maasai. Trickle down economics



We headed out in the rain.



And captured animals in the soft light, I call this "blurry light"




This being our first game drive in the Mara, the graphics of the scenery appeared supercharged



I rode on this afternoon game drive with Harry and Lynda. After photographing for a few hours on the large plains we headed down to a sighting we will never forget! A female lion and her cubs. I have video of this scene, which I am editing into a piece for the entire trip, but Harry's shutter was firing the entire time so much for the audio





Then while our shutters were firing totally out of control Lynda says to us, "Oh look up" and for a good reason....



Then it was getting dark but but but..... I had a camera that can shoot in the dark!


So I found this very interesting! I have seen many upon many sunsets over the years and have seen many upon many upon many ways to process sunsets Of all the methods in photography that I simply dont like is an over-saturated sunset...... So I usually try very hard to only bring out the colors with contrast and then even find that most often I am de-saturating the final image. Believe it or not that is what I had to do with this scene,,,, but look at all those colors! The colors are there in the RAW files so I did not make them up. I guess it's just a Mara Sunset



And yes there is still much much more to come.

Originally Posted by Marc Muench And yes there is still much much more to come.

Somehow I'm not feeling all the guilty about my camera's clicking ruining your audio.