Sunday, October 10, 2010

Amboseli National Park, Kenya

There are several great national parks in Kenya but we didn’t want to spend too much time on the road going from park to park. However, we decided that we HAD to go to Amboseli just to get some shots of Elephants against a Mount Kilimanjaro background. But being the “lucky” couple  that we are, we found the mountain engulfed in  thick dark clouds from the time we got there. For the whole 2 days that we were doing safaris, the clouds opened up only for 15 mts!!! Yes, just 15 mts! Fortunately, we were around some elephants when that happened and were able to get a few shots. Not the composition I wanted but at least it was better than nothing.







We saw lots of elephants and at one point were surrounded by a large herd.







One of the elephants actually looked like a mammoth!!!

Even though the mammoth looked like the oldest of the herd, the matriarch was this one. 


After a while she was not happy that we were near her wards and she did a mock charge at us!

We saw several species of birds
Marabou Stork 


Grey Crowned Cranes

Long tailed Fiscal Shrike

Little Bee-Eater

A mean looking Superb Starling

A cheetah who was tracking a herd of gazelle for her evening meal. We were hoping to see a kill but the cheetah didn’t seem very hungry cos she did a very lazy attempt to catch her prey! Needless to say the gazelle got away but we were treated to a superb exhibition of speed. I tried to do a panning shot of the hunt and this was the best I got

We were able to see some nice sunsets as well. A great end to a fantastic safari experience.

A slide show of all the shots

7 comments:

  1. Incredible photos to begin with and then the monochromatic process makes for photos that leave me speechless, which is hard to do. Simply splendid! Kudos to you!

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  2. Outstanding shots! Love the vibrant colors in the color shots...and the mood in the B&W shots!

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  3. I really dig the processing of the muted top shots of the elephants against the mountain. The second one is especially captivating.

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  4. Great shots on this post. really like the black and white images.

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  5. Superb ! I have been reading about Amboseli since i was a kid, seems such a magical place, and with the stunning view of mount killimanjaro looming over the horizon must be breathtaking.

    Seeing a mammoth tusker like the one you have seen has always been a dream of mine. I hope that I am fortunate to witness such a wonder one day.

    Awesome trip report !! Really enjoyed it. Hoping to read some more nature related posts.

    Follow my wildlife adventures on http://wildlifediaries.blogspot.com/

    Cheers !

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  6. The sunset and the birds pics are just the best. I have gone to amboseli countless times and everytime seems different from the previous. You tell a great story silently with these photos of the great amboseli national park and kilimanjaro.

    Go on a 1 Day Amboseli Trips or 1 Day Nairobi Tours

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  7. The black and white pictures always get at me. They look like the moment captured for eternity. great pictures of elephants especially.

    1 Day Tour to Amboseli

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