I felt a strong desire to create something different today, and was drawn to inverting the colours on some images, and then converting to black and white. The result isn’t quite the same as shooting with an infrared filter, and then converting to black and white, but there are some similarities in the ghostly white trees and vegetation.
These images were all shot during my time in Kenya, and they definitely inspire the hope that I will get back there one day and can play around with some infrared long exposure work. Till then, I can have some fun in Photoshop.
Part of an enormous herd of elephants seen in the Maasai Mara. We basically just parked the vehicle in a clearing surrounded by fever trees and watched group after group meander by, grazing, finding great scratching post trees and visiting amongst other family groups.
Seeing wildebeest crossing the Mara River was one of the things I was most excited about about during my time in Kenya, but given how short my stay was, it was not something that was guaranteed. I did luck out though and see a small herd cross the river, and was it ever hectic when it finally happened.
It’s not at all like what you see on the nature shows, at least the day that I was there. There had to be 30 to 40 vehicles in the area and with some people, like us, there for close to five hours before the action started. It was a really fun atmosphere though and I spent the afternoon chatting with my guides, enjoying a lovely picnic lunch, and chatting with the people in the neighbouring vehicle. The river crossings this year would have been a much different scenario with all the travel restrictions; the animals just having to contend with the crocodiles, lions and hyenas without a bunch of spectators.
The poor little gazelle in the first image though…. it was picked off by a crocodile not long after I took this picture. The gazelles head into the river alone, to avoid being trampled by the larger wildebeest and zebra, but that makes them very easy targets.
I had several wonderful lion sightings during my time in Kenya, and decided that these big cats would be the focus of my images for today. While in Selenkay, the lion sightings were late in the day with fading late, so the images aren’t the greatest, but I have fantastic memories. Not long after the first few images were taken, the cubs were playing on a tree stump when the two males starting roaring; the sound was intense as they were very close to the vehicle, and the cubs stopped in their tracks, almost as if they were in awe of the sound they were hearing. For me, looking at these pictures takes me right back to the moment they were captured.
I hope you enjoy, and wishing you a wonderful week ahead.
A curious cub approached our vehicle to check us out. At about 15 feet out it thought better of getting any closer.There were lots of sticks available, but these two insisted on playing with the same one.The cubs with one of the male lions.A different pair of cubs, much smaller than the others, but from the same pride. The mother had not yet brought these little ones tonkin the rest of the pride.
A group of three young males seen in the Maasai Mara. The guide told me they had fairly recently been evicted from their pride.
Enjoying the last remnants of a meal; there were jackals close by hoping to steal a morsel or two.
Elephants are such a wonderful subject for monochrome images. I know I have shared dozens before, but what’s three more?
Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.
This bull spent each afternoon around our camp, browsing among the tents and enjoying the waterhole.A youngster in Amboseli marsh, on the move to catch up to the rest of the herd.A small family group, part of a larger herd of around 30 individuals, seen at Amboseli National Park.
