The elusive one
After the long drive, we checked in at he the excellent Serena Samburu lodge (all the lodges were fine, like five or four stars hotels). Then at 16.30 it was finally time for the first game drive. We drove in the same though four-wheel drive Toyota mini-vans with retractable roofs as we travelled with, and the drivers were our guides.
I didn’t know what to expect. I understood of course that this should be some great photo opportunities.
I was a little bit worried by the fact that the period our journey lasted, 12-22 June, was regarded as low season. High season started in July when the big migration of wildebeest from Tanzania reached Kenya.
However, after less than half an hour I realized that the problem wouldn’t be getting images of animals. Around every second corner there seemed to be antelopes, elephants, monkeys, giraffes. The challenge was to compose, find interesting light, find new angles, in short create interesting photos while things often happened fast around your camera.
The drivers had radio communication. At the end of the afternoon, they started to talk eagerly on Swahili on the radio, it was obvious that they were excited. A big leopard had been spotted. “He is so elusive”, our driver said, explaining their excitement. The ten or twelve safari vans almost created a traffic jam as the drivers tried to sneak closer to the leopard. We didn’t get any real good images, though. The leopard was a bit too far away and soon disappeared among the bushes.
The next morning we started out at 6.30. One reason I had choose the 70-200 2.8 with a TC instead of a longer lens was that I wanted to be prepared for low-light shooting by detaching the TC. I have read that the predators were most active in dawn or dusk. However, it showed that the period between pitch black and good light was short around the equator and for the rest of the trip I kept the TC on almost all the time.
On this drive we had good luck. First three cheetahs were spotted, sneaking in on a small heard of impalas. However, the distance was bit too far for an otherwise excellent photo opportunity.
Then the drivers surprisingly found a leopard, resting on a tree in the shadow. Our driver manoeuvred carefully with great skill, and this time we got incredibly close.
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