We just returned from 9 weeks in Africa,
8 of these occupied by three photo safaris of two or three week
durations. In our orientation, we always urge people to stop for
every shooting opportunity, and we stress that there is never
a rush to get anywhere, that the wildlife will come, and that
you'll be most successful if you just go slowly and appreciate
everything. In short, we tell folks to just take the time to 'smell
the roses' and enjoy every aspect of the experience, whether that's
landscape, birds, flowers, antelope, dung beetles, or the big
cats.
This year's trips were outstandingly successful because, for the
most part, almost everyone did indeed take the time to smell the
roses. On two of our three trips that was the rule without exception,
and the success those safaris had was just incredible. Unfortunately,
on one of the three safaris a few individuals were impatient and
did not take the time to appreciate everything, to take the time
to 'smell the roses.'
On one occasion, a participant said to his fellow shooters that
he was only interested in action, and that person spent most of
the morning game drive doing just that. In doing so, the photographer
spent only a few minutes at a hyena den with pups - because the
pups were only nursing, and only slightly more time with a serval
walking through the dawn grass. Had that photographer waited,
the photographer may have filmed the hyena pups as they played
and wrestled with one another, or clambered over their mother's
head, or raced about the den site chasing feathers or tugging
on sticks and bones - all activities those more patient filmed
at that den that morning. Had the photographer stayed with the
serval, a bobcat-sized, beautifully spotted cat that is only rarely
seen by day, the photographer would have had a chance to shoot
this cat as it performed several incredible leaps in the air as
it bound, coyote-like, onto hidden prey rusting in the long grasses
before it.
Instead, the photographer was looking for action, but it was there
all the time, if one simply let it develop before you! On one
of our trips this was so clearly illustrated:
We'd had a great safari, and had photographed virtually everything
we could expect to see. We'd seen and photographed crocodiles
taking down and feeding upon zebras at a Mara River Crossing,
seen a lioness bring down a zebra; witnessed a true war between
a clan of hyenas and three lionesses defending their kill, only
to be distracted when a rival clan of hyenas tried to horn in
on the action; filmed two cheetah hunts; and watched the nerve-wracking
spectacle of a male hippo trying to attack a calf, but thwarted
by the defensive efforts of its mother.
On this day, however, everyone seemed ready to just meander about
and truly 'smell the roses,' filling in photo gaps here and there
with shots of rollers, hawks, giraffes, and antelope. My vehicle
was doing exactly that - we'd stopped for Kirk's dik-dik, a small
antelope that rarely strays out of the thick brush scattered across
the Mara grasslands, and we had just finished a ten minute session
with a cooperative Thompson's gazelle mother and new born. The
baby was only a day old and we followed the pair as the fawn nursed,
scampered about, and periodically wove itself beneath its mother's
belly. It was to be the highlight of our morning shoot we thought,
although it was only 7:30 in the morning, when events suddenly
changed.
The antelope pair had wandered off, trotting into a large pocket
of open grassland surrounded on three sides by riverine forest.
We talked quietly about how neat that shooting encounter had been,
and were just about to put our photo equipment down in preparation
to driving on when suddenly a cat shot out of the brush and bounded
towards the two antelope. I could hardly believe my eyes - and
for a second I thought a cheetah had appeared out of nowhere when
I realized that I was watching a leopard about to make its kill!
None of us had time to react, and my only shots of the initial
encounter was the moment the cat grabbed the fawn - a distant
shot with most of the animals obscured. A second later the leopard
bounded back into the brush the way it had come, carrying the
baby by the neck in a hold that showed it had not killed the fawn.
I shot a complete 29 frame, buffered-out motor drive blast of
this run, and caught several nice shots. All of us were elated
- we'd seen one of the most difficult acts one can witness in
nature: a leopard making a kill.
But more was in store. A few seconds later the baby Thompson raced
back out into the clearing, with the leopard in close pursuit.
It caught the baby immediately and withdrew again into the thicket.
A few seconds later it happened again, and we realized that the
leopard was actually playing with the fawn, in much the way that
a mother cheetah often lets her cubs play with a fawn to teach
them how to hunt. But here there were no cubs, just a lone young
adult, and she was playing!
The action continued for nearly an hour, and we were able to call
in all of our vehicles to witness and photograph this incredible
behavior. Not one of our Kenyan guides had ever heard or seen
such behavior, and neither has Mary or I, so we're talking of
over 120 years of combined safari experience!
Eventually the leopard retreated into the thicket for good, where
she climbed a tree and continued to play with the baby. The tree
was at the edge of the thicket and we still had views, and after
she finally killed the fawn, she climbed back down the tree to
feed at its base.
This little anecdote is just one of many, but illustrates the
importance of 'smelling the roses,' for one never knows when or
where action will occur, and if one races about looking for action
you are almost certainly not going to find it! Regardless of where
you are shooting, whether that's in the high country of Yellowstone
or the plains of East Africa, take the time to enjoy and observe
everything, and smell those roses!
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Contact us by e-mail: info@hoothollow.com