This Week At Angama #40

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.

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

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

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

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]

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]

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

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]

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]

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.

[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]