Kenya 2013

pathfinder

Posting shots of wildlife, after Harry, is fraught with great risk of embarrassing oneself. But I will submit a few frames for consideration that may be of interest to folks.

My wife and i attended Marc and Andy's workshop in Kenya February 2013 along with Harry. Harry and I shot together from the same vehicle a few times, but usually we were in different vehicles.

There first few days were in the Lewa Conservancy

Lewa had an abundance of wildlife this time, with lots of elephants, and other game.

Here is a classic view from Lewa, looking to the south, towards Mt Kenya.



We shot stars as well as wildlife, the Southern Cross is always fun to see again... The glow on the horizon was light from Nairobi, over a hundred miles away, south of Mt Kenya --




This was the view from my bedroom at Lewa, one evening.



On my windowsill, I spied this little hyrax




There were lots of healthy baby elephants too.



Then it was time to move onto Rokero Camp in the Masai Mara

A few cheetahs in the Mara have learned to use the Land Cruisers to their advantage, using the height of the Land Cruiser to enable the cheetahs to see further on the plains for prey or enemies. I had seen this this in National Geographic video on TV, but never dreamed it would happen to me.

Here is a view from inside our Land Cruiser looking out through the roof opening



It was hard to remain calm, and try to change lenses, while wondering how long the cheetahs would be on top of our vehicle.

Shot with a focal length of 70mm...


We also saw leopards



And zebras



I used an Olympus OM-D E5, as well as a 1Dx. My 1Dx had the GPS attachment, which means most of my files are GPS tagged with time, location, and direction.



Sometimes we saw groups of cheetahs as well



Our final camp was at Tortollis in Amboseli, which is a desert lake bed, complete with wind and dust, and even a little residual water.




In the evening the elephants make their way across the lakebed to the nearest water supply, and make willing photo subjects



In the morning, if you are lucky, and the air is clear, you can capture them in front of Mt Kilimanjaro, all 19,000 feet of it.




Africa is truly a magnificent experience, one that I will never forget. A truly beautiful land.

endurodog

Fantastic shots. I would pick a couple out specifically but I'm impressed with so many. Thanks for sharing.

bfjr

Great Great Stuff.

Cheatahs using LC's as observation posts, Yeah tell me about Dumb Animals

Harryb

Marvelous images Jim. We had some really magical light on this trip and you used it well.

pathfinder

Thanks, guys. I find I continue to wander through my files from Africa, and once in a while, find a gem I missed earlier.

We did have some magical light, Harry, and some clear skies as well, at Amboseli.

ashrugged

What an adventure. I really like the elephants in the afternoon glow, but am floored by the shot with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background. Keep posting.

pathfinder

I am glad folks enjoyed a few of my images

Spotted hyenas



Maybe someone can tell me what this raptor is named?




m4/3 Olympus OM-D E5 Check out the flies along the lower eyelid margins



M4/3s again, the gazelle was still trying to breathe as this was shot



I just found these two files from my trip to South Africa last summer, I think I ignored them because one was "out of focus", but I find I really enjoy it, because it demonstrates just how hard it is to see lions in the grass. The second frame looks like the lions head was photoshoppped into the grass, and you cannot see the body of the lion, but I assure you, that is straight from the camera. Lions just disappear in high grass. Bear that in mind if you ever go walkabout in Africa.

1DMk4



7D

cdiver2

You have some great shots there Jim. I can attest to the lions not been seen when in the long grass, you could just about step on one without seeing it. The 2nd photo of Cheetah on the LC..is there more than one on the LC?

pathfinder

Thank you for your kind words.

Yes, there were two cheetahs on our vehicle roof top.

Our driver, Samy, actually video'd both cheetahs walking along the road and captured them as they jumped on top of our Land Cruiser - the first was not shy at all, the second was a bit more timid as seen in the video. Samy actually had a sneaking suspicion what their intentions were, I think as the video demonstrates. They were strongly backlit by sun with clouds directly to the rear of our vehicle, making photographing them a bit challenging.

http://youtu.be/LJv4wiYf6YI

Here is an image of both of them