Photo of the Day - Lion in the Sabi Sands

Lion Stare

Sabi Sands, South Africa

Nikon D3x, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR1, 1/200 @ f/4.5, ISO 800

This is one of the members of the famed Mapogo group of male lions. The Mapogo can adequately be described as one of the most badass group of male lions, and have enjoyed photographing them when I am in the Sabi Sands. With this image we sat next to him off to the side of our Land Rover, as he was relaxed but alert. You can tell he has been in many altercations, due to the amount of scars on his face. I used a 70-200mm lens on a D3x to capture this image, which indicates just how close we were to each other. His stare just went right through me, which is an envigorating feeling. Do a Google search on the Mapogo Lions or Mapogo Males if you get a chance. Some fascinating reading, to say the least.

I will be running two back-to-back safaris to Singita Sabi Sands in June, which is part of the historical territory of the Mapogo males. For more information on these South Africa Photo Safaris, here are two links:

Singita Sabi Sands Photo Safari, June 2-11, 2012 (only 2 spaces available)

Singita Sabi Sands Photo Safari, June 10-19, 2012 with Marc Muench and Andy Williams (only 4 spaces available)

Photo of the Day - Lion at Mombo

Lion, near Mombo Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana. July 2011

Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/800 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 1600

Safari Update - Serengeti

The Chase

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. March 2011

Nikon D3x, 200-400mm, 1/1600 @ f/5.6, ISO 400

Ok, where do I even begin? Let me first start off by saying that I am not going to write down all that happened today, other than one amazing wildlife moment. It was a moment that is up there with my best wildlife viewing moments over the past 10 years of running photo safaris in Africa. It was that kind of cool moment. So here goes.

We saw a kill. A good one, at that. We were sitting at a good watering hole, watching zebras and wildebeest come in for water. After about half an hour we saw a huge splash in the water as a lioness came running out of the bushes to chase the subjects were just photographing. I completely missed the shots, as we were in a bad location to shoot the lioness, but we did track her down afterwards. We noticed she was very very interested in the wildebeests that lay beyond the water, and she started stalking back towards the water’s edge. We moved our vehicle into position to anticipate where she would hunt, and right as we settled down…….POW! She was chasing after a couple of older wildebeest in hopes of having a nice meal.

I grabbed a few frames before she ran within my minimum focusing distance on my Nikon 200-400mm lens, as you can see in the following frame.

Whoops. The minimum focusing distance on the 200-400mm is only 6 feet. Nothing like a lioness chasing a wildebeest only inches away.

The lioness grabbed the wildebeest by the throat only a few feet from the back of my Land Rover, and the struggle only lasted about a minute as the wildebeest was brought to the ground. We had to maneuver the vehicle to be able to shoot from the windows, as the lioness was still trying to finish off the job, so to speak. Autofocus was a challenge, for sure, as there was waving grass right in front of her face. I had to tweak the focus manually, as autofocus just does not work in these situations. The best thing to do is to tweak it manually and stop down a little bit to make sure that you have enough depth of field in case you missed the focus.

…And the final shot

Lesson learned: always be ready for the action, and always decide ahead of time which lens you are going to use. The 70-200mm would not have been ideal for the chase, however it might have worked when they ran by the vehicle. That wasn’t ‘the shot’ I was after, so my 200-400mm was chosen and I went with it.

The rest of the day was also amazing, but in a very very different way.

Serengeti Safari Update #4

Today we left our camp at El Makati, and made our way south towards Ndutu. The southern part of the Serengeti ecosystem is where the wildebeest calving season occurs, typically during the months of January and February, and also early March. The short grass plains in the area yields rich grass, which the wildebeest prefer when they are nursing their young.

We took the long way to our next camp, Ndutu Safari Lodge, which took us past the Masai Kopjes, vilima saba (7 hills), Naabi Hill, and the southern part of Serengeti National Park. We photographed a nice pride of lions at the Masai Kopjes, which were bathing in the morning sun, all on top of various granite rocks. The kopjes, or inselbergs, are excellent backdrops which help illustrate that these photographs were taken in one very specific location. It really helps with storytelling, which is what photography is all about. We have to use imagery to tell our stories, as we don’t often have words to explain what and where our images are all about.

We checked into Ndutu Safari Lodge, ate some lunch and headed back out around 3:30. We drove the swamps to the west of the lodge, as we had heard of a mother cheetah and her 3 cubs that was in that direction. We never found her, however we did come across a pride of lions in the middle of the marsh. There was one adult male, six adult females and 3 young cubs. The young cubs were quietly sleeping, and then all of a sudden they realized they were hungry and attacked their mother for some milk. CUTE is a good word to describe the moment. Dang these cubs were cute. We sat and watched for about 2.5 hours, as the show before us grabbed all of our attention. We saw a lone cheetah in the distance, but we didn’t budge, as we had a bird in hand, so to speak.

I look forward to processing some of the images from today, as I think I have a few keepers.

Photo of the Day - Lioness in Tree

Lioness Climbing a Tree, Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa. November 2010

Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, 1/800 @ f/5.6, ISO 1000

I absolutely love it when I find things in nature that surprise me. Lions in trees is one of those situations that isn’t all that unusual, but most of the time these scenarios turn out to be photographic busts. Most of the time I see twigs and branches in the way, and rarely do I get a clear shot with an alert cat. Here we had a few lionesses who were climbing up and down this tree, and even though we had an uninteresting background with marginal light, the light was at least soft in the middle of the day for us to stay out longer than we would normally be out on a game drive. A typical game drive may end by 9:30 or 10am in the summer time, as it gets quite warm and the light is harsh. Yes, there are twigs and other branches in the way, but it is at least worthy of sharing for the blog.

Greg du Toit will be running a small and intimate group of photographs to Mala Mala in late July, and you can find more about this safari on my main web site:

2011 Predators of the Sabi Sands Photo Safari with Greg du Toit

Photo of the Day

Lioness in a Tree

Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa. November 2010

Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8, 1/400 @ f/7.1, ISO 800

Day 22 – Tuningi Safari Lodge, Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

Today was a little warmer than the past 3 weeks, and it was very welcome. The sun came out in full force, and the morning warmed up into the 70’sF rather quickly. I had forgotten what it was like to wear shorts, even though back home I haven’t worn long pants to the office in at least 4 or 5 months.

This morning was a little on the quiet side, so I am focusing this entry on the afternoon’s sightings. I really enjoy the winter’s dining schedule, because morning brunch is typically served around 9:30 or so, high tea is at 2:00 and game drives leave around 3:00 or 3:30. Dinner is usually at 7:30, which tends to be within 15 to 30 minutes after getting back from the afternoon game drive. This is great, because I am typically wiped out at the end of the day and there isn’t too much time to mess around after getting back from the game drive.

This afternoon we took off around 3:30, and headed back to one of the more productive watering holes. We were joined by Gerry Van Der Walt and his wife Adele, so it was nice to have a casual drive with friends today. Gerry is a great photographer, and he also runs Photo-Africa.com, a great web site for photo enthusiasts who also love Africa.

Immediately after our arrival at the dam, we found numerous family groups of elephants. There were two large families, one small family and then some sparring bulls scattered throughout. It was a virtual playground of elephants today! I really enjoyed sitting back and just watching their behavior, and how they organize themselves when drinking water. What I mean is that adult female elephants really do look after their young, especially when a family is clumped up together and drinking from a small water source.

My attention quickly went towards two sparring males, and I really enjoyed watching just how gently they pushed each other around, because when they fight for real it can be quite violent.

After the fight, we moved around and noticed three lions deep in the mud. They had obviously taken down an impala, and were ripping it apart. This was definitely a fresh kill, and the challenge was that they were a little far away and not at a good angle for us. We couldn’t get a better angle, so we just sat and waited for them to finish their mud-crusted meal. It took some time, but they moved off the carcass after a while and made their way into the thick bush. I was able to grab one quick shot of one of the lions up on a hill, and the lion was about as muddy as a lion could ever get. She quickly hurried off into the thick bush, and we headed for sundowner drinks after we lost them a few hundred meters into the bush. 

What a great day!

Bull elephants sparring at the watering hole

Bull elephants sparring at the watering hole

Three lions eating in the mud

The lioness, all covered in mud from head to tail. Only her eyes and a little bit of her whiskers were showing

..and she scuttles off into the bush

Adele, Gerry and Leslie take a break

Photo of the Day

The Chase

Nikon D300, 200-400mm, 1/1600 @ f/4, ISO 800

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania