This Week At Angama #40

9 November 2018 | This Week at Angama |

Elephants, Elephants, Elephants…the Mara is full of Elephants. Oh, and let’s not forget the rare appearance of a pack of Wild Dogs!

It seems no one has told the wildebeest that the migration is meant to be over. Indeed, many of the larger herds have already made their way back down south into the Serengeti but there are still tens of thousands of wildebeest dotted around the southern throws of the Maasai Mara. The gaps left by the wildebeest are being filled by majestic elephants – large family herds dotted along the short grass plains. So whilst elephants dominate this week’s edition of This Week At Angama, a pack of Wild dogs made a glorious appearance…a first for the Mara Triangle in 2018.

Wildebeest panorama
Back to the Serengeti they go … until next year. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/1250, ISO 400]

Elephants panorama

The elephant herds are back in full force. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/1250, ISO 200]

Elephant Trunkplay
A young bull elephant plays with his trunk, showing off his big beautiful tusks. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/1000, ISO 200]

Elephant Mom And Calf
The Mara Triangle is currently celebrating an abundance of tiny elephant calves, each never wandering too far from the herd. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/1000, ISO 200]

Elephant BnW
Beautiful as they are in colour, images of elephants often work more interestingly in black and white. Here, I experimented with different gradient scales to get a more greyish tone of black.  [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/800, ISO 160]

WILDDOGS

Just seeing a wild dog in its natural habitat is the most incredible sighting I have ever had since I started wildlife photography. So much so that I almost forgot to take the actual photographs. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/500, ISO 200]

Male Lion black n White
This big male was in such a typical lion stance that I could not resist taking the shot. Some black and white editing made it look a little more out of the ordinary. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/400, ISO 200]

Male Lions on mound
Two big males take a well-deserved rest after defending their territory from an invading male. Although these two look very similar to the Angama Pride males, they control a different pride. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/640, ISO 200]

MALE LION FEEDING
This lion was clearly in no mood to share his food as he put up a fight every time any of the other lions edged closer to his meal. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/125, ISO 400 -0.33]

Short tail - Male Lion
Short Tail from the Angama Pride scans his kingdom for potential rivals. This week there have been a number of scuffles over territories, the culprits mostly being young nomadic lions. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/2500, ISO 320 -0.33]

Blondie - Male Lion
As a result of the fight Blondie was left injured and currently has a limp. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/800, ISO 250]

young male lion
For this image, I decided to edit a little more creatively by working on the lion and the background separately. This allowed me to make the greens cooler and greener without compromising the colours on my main subject. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/320, ISO 250]

Rim Lit lion cub
The light was absolutely perfect for rim lighting. If the topography was different, it would have been a jaw-dropping shot to capture. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/4000, ISO 400 -2.67]

Jackal
A silver-backed jackal crosses the road with the lovely golden morning sun providing perfect lighting. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige –  f 5.6, 1/640, ISO 250]

Giraffe baby
A giraffe baby sits calmly whilst being groomed by yellow-billed oxpeckers. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/250, ISO 250]

Giraffe baby 2
As this baby giraffe inched closer towards me I was able to capture the detail of the hair tufts on his ossicones.[Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/1000, ISO 200 +0.67]

Zebras Drinking
Whilst out on drive with great wildlife photographer Graham Wood, he taught me that underexposing zebras works beautifully because it doesn’t darken the subject as you can’t underexpose white. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/2000, ISO 400 -1.7]

Hyena Portrait
A handsome portrait shot of a smiling hyena. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/1600, ISO 400]

Wattled Plover
I love including birds in my blogs. Even when the light is harsh, birds are so photogenic. This wattled plover decided to strike a pose for me, and the light could not have been any better. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/250, ISO 250]

Heron at the water
In the morning, this pond usually has very still waters which could make for an amazing reflection image. I go there first thing every time I’m out on drive hoping to capture that shot – no luck yet. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/125, ISO 250]

Crowned crane
I loved how this crowned crane had puffed up its feathers. [Photograph by Jeffrey Thige – f 5.6, 1/2500, ISO 400]

Adam made it back from his recent travels around Kenya, just in time to witness the scene below. A young elephant was found dead near the Tanzanian border. Apparently one male lion was briefly seen feasting on the free meat, however by the time Adam got on site it was covered in hundreds of vultures and the lion was no where to be seen. Rangers removed the small tusks and thankfully no issues of foul play were suspected.

Vulture on elephant

Vultures on elephant 2

Vultures on elephant 3

[Photographs by Adam Bannister – f/4.5  1/640, ISO 800 +0.33; f/5.0  1/500, ISO 500; f/5.0  1/400, ISO 500]

AUTHOR: Jeffrey Thige

Hailing from Nairobi, Jeff’s younger years were spent watching Big Cat Diaries with his mother. Images of wild animals roaming across the savanna inspired Jeff to travel the country, study wildlife management and move into photography. Jeff aims to use his camera to become an ambassador for conservation. He joined Angama Mara as an intern in 2018 and is now employed full time as assistant photographer at the lodge’s Photographic Studio.

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