Kenya (Amboseli, Ol pejeta, Naivasha, Mara) - Sept/11 to Sept/20, 2017

[amybatt]

Holy cow!  That really did work out for you!  And you had exceptional presence of mind to manage to capture all that on camera.  Really, really good sequence.  When I saw the cheetah get the little warty, I actually said out loud "ahhh, he got him".  As it's a dream of mine to see these 5 Musketeers, I'm insanely jealous, but also very very happy for you.  Great sighting.

[AmyT]

Wow! Spectacular sequence!  So glad that you were there to capture it!

 

[Gilgamesh]

9 minutes ago, amybatt said:

Holy cow!  That really did work out for you!  And you had exceptional presence of mind to manage to capture all that on camera.  Really, really good sequence.  When I saw the cheetah get the little warty, I actually said out loud "ahhh, he got him".  As it's a dream of mine to see these 5 Musketeers, I'm insanely jealous, but also very very happy for you.  Great sighting.

 

Thank you!

You said you were tempted to go to Mara to see the five brothers. I said wait till you learn something else and you'd be even more tempted... Now you know they pretty much hunt every evening 

[Gilgamesh]

6 minutes ago, AmyT said:

Wow! Spectacular sequence!  So glad that you were there to capture it!

 

 

Thanks! I was absolutely thrilled to have seen it...I think me learning photography for all these years, getting to know my equipment etc. has finally culminated in me being able to capture this ... it feels great!

[AmyT]

@Gilgamesh, although we followed a cheetah for hours, she did not hunt... I'd have loved to see the speed of cheetahs first hand! You've had a most excellent safari!  Still waiting for the big finale!! 

[Alexander33]

What a wonderful report!  Your genuine enthusiasm definitely punctuated the narrative.  The conclusion could not have been more dramatic. No matter how many safaris one goes on, the first always leaves an indelible impression. But why do I have the feeling that this, your first African safari, will not end up being your last?  Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. Truly memorable. 

[Seniortraveller]

Have you booked your next trip yet? Having had such an incredible first safari, I can just imagine how strong the desire to book another one must be! 

[Dave Williams]

This trip report is getting more and more ridiculous. How could anyone get that lucky?!!!!!!

Splendid sequence of the hunt although you feel sorry for the little piglet.

Must admit when I saw all the vehicles in the shot I thought that is not for me but I guess it's a common situation and the majority of photographs never show it. I would prefer to be aware of what to expect before I went so thanks for including it. Invaluable information.

Out of interest, how many frames of the chase did you take, what card is in that camera, which lens and how much cropping on the final results? 

Edited October 5, 2017 by Dave Williams

[Dave Williams]

Just had another look at that chase sequence, you did incredibly well sir. Hats off to you .

 

I have a guilty admission too, after the deadly deed was done and the piglet was in the mouth of it's captor my thoughts were " That would be good spit roasted!"

[wilddog]

Excellent series. I think when all this started she had the two little ones? Normally they have a lots more babies and it makes you wonder if these cheetahs have been focusing on little warthogs for a while. They make a decent snack but not much for the five of them.

 

You seem to have been lucky with your guides and Meshack certainly knows his own backyard and the animal behaviour really well. 

 

You certainly seem to have hit the jackpot with this trip...... and like someone who posted earlier, I wonder what you will do next.

[Gilgamesh]

6 hours ago, Alexander33 said:

What a wonderful report!  Your genuine enthusiasm definitely punctuated the narrative.  The conclusion could not have been more dramatic. No matter how many safaris one goes on, the first always leaves an indelible impression. But why do I have the feeling that this, your first African safari, will not end up being your last?  Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. Truly memorable. 

 

Thank you very much. I've been waiting for over a decade for my first African safari...I've always been telling my wife the vacation I wanted most was to go to Africa. Yeah! It definitely won't be our last.

 

You are welcome!

Edited October 5, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

6 hours ago, Seniortraveller said:

Have you booked your next trip yet? Having had such an incredible first safari, I can just imagine how strong the desire to book another one must be! 

 

I did say I won't drop celebrity names like @pault, but you have given me an opportunity to at least quote something from a movie and blabber a bit 

 

Here is a quote from Kill Bill, one of Quentin Tarantino's wonderful creations...

"...Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there’s the superhero and there’s the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn’t become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red “S”, that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that’s the costume. That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us."

 

I know for many hardcore safari goers here, the safari hat and the vest is not their costume. What they wear away from a safari is their costume. They wear regular clothing to blend in with us...they are the superman of safari going ...but, alas I am not it. There's so much to see...Antarctica, The Himalayas, Patagonia, Iceland...they are all calling me.

 

So, no I have not booked my next safari. But eventually we will return...it was easily the best vacation to date, so we'll be back.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

4 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

This trip report is getting more and more ridiculous. How could anyone get that lucky?!!!!!!

Splendid sequence of the hunt although you feel sorry for the little piglet.

Must admit when I saw all the vehicles in the shot I thought that is not for me but I guess it's a common situation and the majority of photographs never show it. I would prefer to be aware of what to expect before I went so thanks for including it. Invaluable information.

Out of interest, how many frames of the chase did you take, what card is in that camera, which lens and how much cropping on the final results? 

 

I was thinking the same...thank god for the photos, otherwise no one will believe me.

 

My wife still can't see the pictures of the actual capture...even the rest makes her uncomfortable. I thought this was as a clean of a hunt as possible.

 

This and one Leopard citing in Olare Motorgi were the only times we felt the crowd. Even then it wasn't as bad as say a prime bear sighting in Yellowstone...almost all favorite destinations in the USA is ridiculously more crowded. Crowd was not a problem, besides it's only going to get worse as Mara gets more popular.

 

Once the Worthog came into picture I included every frame. If you notice the frame where the young warthog turns directions in an instant, you can see the mud and stone being thrown off of the Cheetah as it puts on its breaks, on the next frame you can see the mud and stone still up in the air. At that time, that's how quickly I was shooting. My camera cache wasn't full...later I had to slow down a bit. The one frame I omitted was also uploaded but I neglected to insert it into the narrative and decided to just delete it. So, I included every frame I took of the actual hunt.

 

I had set my camera to 'jpeg only' to avoid the camera cache getting filled with RAW files...I did that a lot for any instance where I anticipated the need for high burst speed capture. The lens used is on the first post, where I listed all my gear. It was the Sigma 50-500mm F4.5/6.3. A 10X superzoom, consumer grade lens. I have to drop it down to f8 to get any useable results at 500mm. It however has an excellent OS setting for panning. I bought it as I am not serious with telephoto photography, but it exceeded all my expectations.

 

I bought a new card prior to leaving it's the Sandisk Extreme PRO 95MB/sec...capacity 128GB.

 

This image is right out of the camera with no cropping, just opened and exported from lightroom

Edited October 5, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

4 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

Just had another look at that chase sequence, you did incredibly well sir. Hats off to you .

 

I have a guilty admission too, after the deadly deed was done and the piglet was in the mouth of it's captor my thoughts were " That would be good spit roasted!"

 

You must have seen the EXIF and noted I included every frame, except the one (which also came out just fine) of the actual hunt and Warthog defending its young.

 

Ha! Ha!

Edited October 5, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[amybatt]

4 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

This trip report is getting more and more ridiculous. How could anyone get that lucky?!!!!!!

 

 

Indeed!!  In your first safari you've seen about 7 safaris worth of notable sightings.  It'll make your next one hard to beat!

[Gilgamesh]

3 hours ago, wilddog said:

Excellent series. I think when all this started she had the two little ones? Normally they have a lots more babies and it makes you wonder if these cheetahs have been focusing on little warthogs for a while. They make a decent snack but not much for the five of them.

 

You seem to have been lucky with your guides and Meshack certainly knows his own backyard and the animal behaviour really well. 

 

You certainly seem to have hit the jackpot with this trip...... and like someone who posted earlier, I wonder what you will do next.

 

Thank you very much. There were three little ones. Two escaped, thanks to mom. The cheetahs made a wildebeest kill the previous night and had not finished it. They have it stashed away somewhere.

 

We have been very lucky, from that first lion in Ol Pejeta who listened to our pleading, stood up and walked past us to the last morning drive. I kept adding newer things to see everyday and all of it came to fruition. Even the last morning game drive has wonderful new things.

 

Yes! We do feel like we've hit the jackpot. A lot of preparation went into it. Thanks to this forum...every little bit helped. Something as small as someone saying change the camera date to the local time to better keep track of things...even that was very helpful.

 

Yes! It's Meshacks backyard...but, it's more than that. After our morning drive when we met Jake, there was another native Kenyan husband and wife sitting with him. I complimented on how great Meshack was that morning. Then Jake said the couple sitting with him were Meshack's parents. Then that night that same gentleman sat next to me at dinner. We did not speak much...but, later I heard he was the Maasai chief for that whole region. So, Meshack is the son of the Maasai chief.

 

P.S: Thank you for the pm. I appreciate you fixing some of the errors I've made.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

8 minutes ago, amybatt said:

 

Indeed!!  In your first safari you've seen about 7 safaris worth of notable sightings.  It'll make your next one hard to beat!

 

Wow! That's good to hear....I haven't even posted the rarest sighting/image yet. Jake said he had only seen it twice in the 20 plus years. Many are thinking the Lion climbed the tree to snatch the kill left behind by a Leopard ... it's more special than that.

[Gilgamesh]

Day 9 (Porini Lion) - Evening Game drive cont'd

 

As the Cheetah's completed the hunt with still some day light left, we raced to see the Leopards. Meshack told me how stressed out he was this morning having heard we did not see a river crossing. He said he could have shown us a lot more if he was not under pressure to show us a crossing. But, he was glad he is taking us to the leopards now.

 

On our way we saw a Bat-eared fox. I had my camera setting all messed up...may be from the excitement of seeing the hunt, the second image was taken at 500mm at a shutter speed of only 1/25...the others not much better. But, as we have not seen a bat-eared fox before, I'll post some mediocre images of it.

 

We also saw a Lioness next to a fresh kill...but, we did not have much time to stick around

 

 The pair of leopards on day 7 were shot mostly at iso6400 with a couple of images at iso3200. The light today was still good enough to shoot at iso800. Those Leopard pictures next...

 

Edited October 5, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Gilgamesh]

Day 9 (Porini Lion camp) evening drive cont'd

 

I switched to the Pentax 60-250/4 lens...much better quality than the sigma and the wider aperture should help with the low light. Also, it's time I get some quality Leopard images.

 

I absolutely love the look of them...

 

After this she went and laid on the ground...we enjoyed our sundowner watching her. I took one of these last shots of her at iso 6400, f4 and the frame was completely black. I did +4EV in Lightroom to get the image. These are the pictures of the mother, she usually has a son close to her.

 

Another 20-30 minutes passed. We've finished our sundowner and by now it was pretty much completely dark...When we were about to leave, just a few feet away from us Meshack spotted the...cont'd on next post.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[AmyT]

3 minutes ago, Gilgamesh said:

 

Another 20-30 minutes passed. We've finished our sundowner and by now it was pretty much completely dark...When were about to leave just a few feet away Meshack spotted the...cont'd on next post.

 

Now you're just toying with us!!  Like a cat with it's warthog!!  Come on, then!!

[Gilgamesh]

1 minute ago, AmyT said:

 

Now you're just toying with us!!  Like a cat with it's warthog!!  Come on, then!!

 

Im quickly processing it...there's one more sighting before the "rare" image...he did not spot the lion, something else.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[Dave Williams]

3 hours ago, Gilgamesh said:

 

You must have seen the EXIF and noted I included every frame, except the one (which also came out just fine) of the actual hunt and Warthog defending its young.

 

Ha! Ha!

 

There isn't any Exif hence the question!  Presumably the lens for the Cheetah chase was at 500 then? It's always a dilemma what lens is best and the flexibility of a zoom is a major plus. 

[Gilgamesh]

9 minutes ago, Dave Williams said:

 

There isn't any Exif hence the question!  Presumably the lens for the Cheetah chase was at 500 then? It's always a dilemma what lens is best and the flexibility of a zoom is a major plus. 

 

That is strange. I'm using the free Opanda EXIF viewer on my internet explorer desktop and they are there.

 

It was shot at 144mm first and then at 93mm on a crop sensor. Then cropped. I included a full, uncropped image above. 

 

I think the relatively light zoom gave me tremendous flexibility and hand holding was very useful. With a more expensive fast telephoto prime some of the images will of course be much nicer, but at the same time will miss a lot of opportunity. 

Edited October 5, 2017 by Gilgamesh

[AKR1]

Great Cheetah hunt sequence! 

 

I have added it to it to this thread

 

[Gilgamesh]

19 minutes ago, AKR1 said:

Great Cheetah hunt sequence! 

 

I have added it to it to this thread

 

 

Thanks!...If you'd like, once I'm done here I can add the relevant post with pictures there.