This Week At Angama #98

This week, the amazing Shepard Tree leopard delighted guests of the Mara Triangle for three consecutive days. His comfort around vehicles meant that he was always at ease and completely undisturbed. [f 5.6, 1/1000, ISO 400]  

He was atop a tree when I caught up with him, scanning the landscape for a potential meal. [f 5.6, 1/1600, ISO 400 ] 

He eventually spotted a warthog in the distance and immediately climbed down in pursuit. [f 5.0, 1/2500, ISO 400]

[f 5.0, 1/2500, ISO 400]  

Not too far away from the leopard was a serval, it too on the hunt. This is one of my favourite animals in the Mara and I was surprised that it was not as skittish as these cats tend to be, providing an incredible sighting. [f 6.3, 1/320, ISO 320] 

This week, I crossed into the Greater Mara in search of cheetah and was excited to learn about this family of three. To my surprise, they were very skittish. We assumed that they had come from a part of the Serengeti not frequently driven on and so were not accustomed to vehicles. To ensure they didn’t become stressed, everyone kept a good distance. [f 6.3, 1/1000, ISO 400] 

The weather in the Mara has now changed. There have been beautiful sunny mornings followed by showers in the evenings, turning the Mara a beautiful shade of emerald green. [f 4.5, 1/2500, ISO 200  -0.33]

This was one of my best sightings of the year. Two pairs of giraffes, necking in the middle of the road at sunrise. [f 5.6, 1/400, ISO 400  +0.67]

At first they were just sparring, but things soon got very heated. [f 5.0, 1/640, ISO 400  +0.67]

Twisted together.[f 6.0  1/400, ISO 400 +0.67]

The four-headed giraffe [f 6.0  1/400, ISO 400 +0.67]

A long reach. It seems these juicy leaf sprouts were worth the stretch for this giraffe. [f 5.6  1/1600, ISO 400]

Here, there is great hope for the future of Africa’s elephant herds. In the last two months, I have seen so many elephant totos in the Triangle – a sign that the conservancy is doing a wonderful job protecting these grand creatures. [f 6.3, 1/800, ISO 200  -0.67]

The journey. A small elephant herd walking together. [f 5.0, 1/2000, ISO 200 -0.67]

Two elephant calves testing their strength. This was a difficult shot due to the backlighting. I over-exposed the image in post-editing to bring out the details in their faces. [f 5.6, 1/1000, ISO 400 -0.33]

High key photography. With the sun high and harsh, I love bumping up the exposure to get these kind of shots. [f 5.6, 1/800, ISO 500 +0.67]

The light at noon creates shadows that can make things difficult for photographers. At the same time, it can also create some amazing shadow and highlight tonal contrast with the right subject. [f 6.0, 1/800, ISO 250 -1] 

Double-exposure shot of buffalos done in-camera. [f 5.6, 1/1000, ISO 250 -0.67]

This week’s reptile of the week, a tortoise. Yet another rare sighting [f 6.0, 1/2000, ISO 400]  

This Week a Year Ago

Using binoculars, we scanned around hoping to find lions. Instead we were rewarded with this sighting of a fish eagle hunting. Too far to photograph, we saw it dive directly into the water and emerge with a catfish. It landed on a small mound and then flew right over us. [f 5.6, 1/1250, ISO 320]

Photograph by Jeffrey Thige