Serian - Day 2 AM

We set out at 06:15 with James, Moses and Trei.  She and I discussed photography in general and how she might be able to help me this morning.  It’s difficult to vocalise but I have taken many photos that are good (modest ha!) but they are just what I term record shots – animal in frame either centred or on a third.  I suppose I haven’t really had much in terms of action and when I have, I’ve usually failed to capture the moment but I just feel there is something missing.  

Trai is very personable, quietly spoken and gentle.  Based in North East England she worked for the BBC for many years in various guises; weather girl, wildlife presenter on radio and in film production but took the opportunity of voluntary redundancy XXX years ago and became a freelance photographer, filmmaker and photographic group tour leader.  She already has her year mapped out and is travelling all over the world.

We started off with a few back-lit sunrise shots.

Very quickly the sun was too strong to look at so we moved on.

We seemed to get on very well and Ian enjoyed chipping in from time to time and making us all laugh.  We discussed the spirit crushing comments of some judges and she gave me a lovely alternative phrase to describe the Kiss-Slap-Kiss approach to judging - sh*t sandwich.

Scadoxus multiflorus is of the Amaryllis Family and known locally as Fireball Lily.

Young male Topi play-fighting.

Trai suggested focusing on Oxpeckers on Buffalo for something creative (something I've done to death already but I didn't like to say).

Much as the buffalo rely on the birds to remove ticks and clean wounds, they are clearly something of a nuisance at times.

We stopped for breakfast under the shade of a tree and shortly after James came up to me and started touching my leg with a grass.  Soon he showed me what he had removed - a very large, spiky caterpillar, several cms long and about 1 cm thick.  James was keen not to touch it as although not poisonous it can cause severe skin irritations.  When we looked up the tree was absolutely dripping with them so we quickly packed up our breakfast things and moved on.

That'll teach Trai to only go out with one lens!

James and Moses are our first Masai guides and their outfits are lovely.

This particularly conservancy has a policy of creating "No Go" areas where they are young cats, the guides report sightings to the rangers who then cordon off the area for a few weeks so the Mum can raise her cubs without disturbance.  I think this is an excellent idea as bothering the two week olds at Kicheche didn't seem very fair.

The pride we saw this morning had several young of differing ages, probably 3-6 months, so a few random pictures.

These two little scamps were having a great game of chase over a bundle of dried grass.

I've deliberately left the fuzzy bit at the edge of this picture so show how close the cub was - the fuzzy bit is our truck.

One of the adults appeared with a half eaten warthog and she certainly wasn't prepared to share it with the rest of the pride.

This is what happened when one brave sole tried to get a nibble - out of focus as I was caught unawares.

Grrrr there always a blade of grass in the way.

I like to think this one was crying because she couldn't have any warthog (obviously she was just having a clean up).

Finally one of the others managed to get a small scrap and straight away her cubs were after some of it.

Mmmmm, delicious.

Eventually we left them to it and found a group of Elephant, the young ones having a tug-o-war.

This little one eventually moved out of her mum's shadow and let me get a nice picture.

Then it found a very small mud pond and went in for a drink.

Then we found cheetah, laughing!

It was then off and after something so we followed for a while.  I quite like this shot, it's my most successful attempt at panning (panning = move with the subject so that it remains in focus and background is blurred).

But as usual nothing happened and it lay down again very soon.

It's the same with all orders/families of living creatures; you get the beautiful ones (Grey Crowned Crane).

And the considerably less beautiful ones (Marabou Stork).

And finally a wallowing warthog who got up pretty quickly and scampered off.

We stayed out most of the morning and it was blisteringly hot when we got back.  I'm completely shattered after 6 hours of intense concentration.

Trai has suggested a few major changes, ie. back button focus which I’ve tried before but not persevered, so I’ll give it a go and see how I get on (I’m also using a different focussing method recommended by Charles so two new things is probably enough for now).