May
16
While photographing a leopard last month in Kenya, this seven month old cub surprised us all by bundling out of the bushes having been called by the elder one, its brother as it happens, who was baby sitting while mother was out hunting. We were fortunate, cubs are seen infrequently, and I don’t think there are many things to photograph that are cuter than leopard cubs.
This was a cub of Olive, a leopard made famous by the BBC’s big cat diary.
Taken using a Nikon D3s with 200-400 zoom lens at 400mm, f/5.6, 1/250th, and ISO 1600.
May
02
This elephant female certainly looked to be dancing, and to be honest I’m not too sure what she was trying to do here. She was just metres from our vehicle, so maybe it was a half hearted mock charge, given the position of her ears. I shot this at wide-angle, and a few inches above the ground last month in the Masai Mara, Kenya.
Taken using a Nikon D3s with 24-70 zoom lens at 35mm, f/9.5, 1/750th, and ISO 400.
Apr
25
Last week’s Masai Mara trip may not have yielded my hoped for black cloud and rain – it was meant to be the short rains there – but more than made up for it with six encounters with three leopards and one cub, which is the most I’ve experienced in one visit there.
I’d like to say it’s good to be home again, but I’ll be honest and say I’d rather still be out there. Oh well, August, my next trip, is only four months away.
Taken using a Nikon D3s with 200-400 zoom lens at 270mm, f/5.6, 1/500th, and ISO 400.
Mar
28
This is the original colour version of the monochrome one of an elephant matriarch which I posted here last December. It’s one of a few pictures that proves just as strong in colour as it does in black and white. I took her picture from quite low down, about two inches or so off the turf, last November in the Masai Mara in Kenya.
I couldn’t have been luckier with the sky and light, and when I saw it, we quickly located and chose this matriarch, primarily because she was in the right place, and certainly because she had the nicest looking tusks in her group.
I posted this here today much because this picture appeared on EarthShot’s Photo of the Day today.
Taken using a Nikon D300 with 12-24 zoom lens at 20mm, f/11.0, 1/180th, and ISO 500.
Mar
13
I never expected to upload this at all because I never thought it existed until this morning. But after fossicking around in my Lightroom library today, I unearthed this one, in its raw colour state, and made this monochrome version from it. It always pays to go back over your old pictures, there’s usually something you’ve missed the first time around.
I took this in the Masai Mara, Kenya last September at the same time as this one here. In fact these two lions, undoubtedly brothers, had an almighty but brief scrap just after this picture, which resulted in the blood on the muzzle of the other.
Taken using a Nikon D700 with 200-400 zoom lens at 400mm, f/4.0, 1/250, and ISO 360.
Feb
13
I’m not sure how this one has passed me by, it’s one of my favourite lion images, but I don’t seem to have really mentioned this one here until now. I took this one early one morning at sunrise on the last day of a trip to the Masai Mara in Kenya in August 2009.
Lions are active mostly at dawn and dusk, and when the light shines at its best too. One morning when there did not appear to be too much on offer, we came upon this male lion and his lioness partner. He was one of a mating pair, shortly after a kill, a little after sunrise. The light breeze and morning light played out some nice texture variations onto his golden mane.
I often try to photograph as low as possible too, this time I was scrunched up on the floor of the vehicle trying for the very lowest point. Then as we were watching he looked up, right through me, just for a few seconds, but time enough for me to catch this one picture.
Taken using a Nikon D300 with 200-400 zoom lens at 400mm, f/5.6, 1/500th, and ISO 200.
Jan
05
These are, from five down to one, my own favourite five pictures for 2010. I’ve no particular reason for picking these other than personal satisfaction and aesthetics, they’re the ones I’m likely to frame and put on my own walls. I find any such list to be dynamic, so what I chose today might not be the ones I choose tomorrow. So given that, these are my very own favourites from 2010 as of 29 December 2010.
Number One – Botswana Leopard – 28 May
During dusk at Linyanti in Botswana, we’d already lined up some elephants approaching single file, but given we were likely to see these again, we decided to visit a lone male lion which has just appeared instead. The light had become appealing at five-thirty, and we’d been with the lion for barely ten minutes when a leopard took his place at the base of a nearby termite mound.
As one person has said; this was a gift from the leopard, out in the open, unobscured, and in the early evening sunlight too. And just when we were thinking how nice it would be if he were to sit on top of the mound, he promptly jumped up and sat on top of it. I’d seen a few leopards, but never had the privilege to photograph one in setting such as this.
Taken using a Nikon D700 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 400mm, f/4.8, 1/125 and ISO 800.
Number Two – Maramania – 1 September
One point five million wildebeest cross the Mara River every year on the way to or from Kenya and Tanzania. On this occasion, some 10,000-15,000 traversed at this point in the river, taking almost an hour and a half to pass. What a photograph cannot capture is the sound, and I also think any photo would find it difficult to catch the mayhem involved as well.
After the passing a dozen or more wildebeest remained in the river, either by drowning or having been trampled to death.
This was undoubtedly the highlight of my trip to the Masai Mara in Kenya during August and September. I’ve witnessed river crossings of some 1,000 wildebeest of ten minutes or so duration, but this one clearly was much more memorable. On top of this there were many of the Mara’s cats, lion, cheetah and leopard which I’ll post here in the next week or so.
Taken using a Nikon D700 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at 70mm, f/9.5, 1/250 and ISO 400.
Number Three – Elephant Matriarch – 18 November
This was shot from quite low down (two inches off the turf) last November in the Masai Mara in Kenya, similar to the one I posted earlier here.
The sky was very kind too, in colour it represented a gun metal grey, and the light played out nicely over this large female elephant and the plain too. The colour version of this is impressive (if I can say that) but I felt this also renders strongly in monochrome. In fact, It’s one of the few that works equally well in both treatments.
Taken using a Nikon D300 with 12-24 zoom lens at 20mm, f/11.0, 1/180th, and ISO 500.
Number Four – Mara Cheetah – 30 August
A female cheetah on the Masai Mara plain during the annual migration last August. She was with her two near-fully grown cubs who are just out of frame. A simple picture, but often simple is enough.
The soft background was achieved using a wide lens aperture and the tips of the grass were blurred by the breeze and a relatively slow shutter speed.
Taken using a Nikon D700 with a 200-400mm f/4 lens at 340mm, f/4.0, 1/90 and ISO 400.
Number Five – Marsh Pride Lion Cub – 2 September
A young lion cub, one of several, were using a fallen tree as a jungle gym. I took this at midmorning during an overcast day, which was ideal for watching lion pride activity because without the heat of the direct sun, they’re less likely to be snoozing under the shade of trees.
I think there were about sixteen in this group, two mature males, lionesses and several cubs of varying ages. Earlier, we’d encountered three young males who’d been recently kicked out of the pride to begin new lives of their own.
These were all of the Marsh Pride, made famous by TV’s Big Cat Diary.
Taken using a Nikon D300 with 200-400 zoom lens at 400mm, f/4.8, 1/180th, and ISO 400.
Dec
26
Here were two young lions grooming each other within a pride of about twelve, then one distant one looked up and wandered over and put his own head right between those of these two. And those two duly obliged and carried on grooming the new arrival. All I really wanted now was this one to look up, ideally right at me, and at the split second he did, I took their picture.
This fell at number six just outside my own top five pictures of 2010, which I’m posting later this week on the 29th of December.
Taken using a Nikon D700 with 200-400 zoom lens at 400mm, f/4.0, 1/250th, and ISO 400.
