Lion in the rain - Kenya, November 2022

[loafer247]

Lovely trip report. The other cheetah with a single male cub you saw is called Sila. She is the daughter of Selenkei and is also very successful at raising cubs.

[Kitsafari]

super shots of the King!

and i love the sawing of the leopard. I've only heard it once, but it was so good. 

 

Thank you for finishing this up. 

Next up - tanzania! looking forward to that.  

[Zubbie15]

On 3/9/2023 at 3:07 AM, loafer247 said:

Lovely trip report. The other cheetah with a single male cub you saw is called Sila. She is the daughter of Selenkei and is also very successful at raising cubs.

 

Thanks @loafer247, I'm really bad about asking/remembering animal names, but it is interesting when you can follow lineages and histories so well!

 

On 3/9/2023 at 4:24 AM, Kitsafari said:

super shots of the King!

and i love the sawing of the leopard. I've only heard it once, but it was so good. 

 

Thank you for finishing this up. 

Next up - tanzania! looking forward to that.  

 

Thanks @Kitsafari - the leopard sawing so close to us was definitely special.  Not sure how (or if) I'm going to do a report on Tanzania, we took our kids on their first safari and it was definitely a different experience, and not as intense for wildlife watching.  I'll have to see once I've gone through the photos if I can get something worthwhile together.

 

Also as an addendum,  I've been talking to our tour operator about a possible return for February 2024.  They just mentioned yesterday that there are reports that the female black leopard (Giza) in Laikipia has been seen mating recently.  So there might be black leopard cubs around in a few months....  in case anyone has the time and inclination to try to look for them!

[michael-ibk]

Thanks for a really great trip report - high class photography. You really had non-stop-excitement throughout.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @michael-ibk, it was definitely an eventful trip. I think we were lucky it was fairly cold and rainy, the animals were much more active during the day than if it had been hot and sunny. 

[dlo]

Nice report @Zubbie15 appreciate you taking the time to finish. You certainly had no shortage of cats., hopefully you got your fill in Tanzania as well.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @dlofor catching up. We certainly did pretty good in Tanzania too, although it wasn't as eventful as this trip was. 

[Zubbie15]

Just to close the loop on this trip report, I've been excited to have some luck with a couple of photos from this trip, especially the mother giraffe with the baby.

 

 

This photo was one of the Greatest Maasai Mara choices of the month in January. It didn't make it to the top 10 unfortunately, but it is active in their "people's choice" contest right now. If any has an Instagram account, they are running that part of the contest via their stories, so if you want to vote (ideally for me, but in general).  Also as part of that my photo was chosen as the cover image for Travel Africa when they wrote a story about the competition. My first magazine cover!

 

 

It also got published, somewhat randomly, in a newspaper in England.

 

 

Finally, it took 1st place in the International Photography Awards 2023 in the category of non-profession nature - wildlife.  

 

 

In addition to that photo, another photo of a trio of elephants also made the monthly selections/top 50 in the Greatest Maasai Mara. I was more surprised about this one, although I do like I didn't really think it had much of a shot. It's also currently part of the people's choice, although in a tough fight!

 

 

Thanks to everyone who read this report, I was amazed when I went to pull it up now that it is somehow over 11K views!

[Caracal]

@Zubbie15- Congratulations on making the front cover of my favourite magazine and for the other well deserved awards.

   Loved your report and plan to revisit it over the weekend.

 

[TonyQ]

Well done, beautiful photos 

[michael-ibk]

Congrats, well deserved, the Giraffe photo especially really is a stand-out!

[Zubbie15]

Thank you @Caracal, @TonyQand @michael-ibk. I have to admit it's now my favorite magazine too! 

[John M.]

Excellent photos.  The giraffe with her youngster is a stunner, 100% cover material. Impressive elephant image, too.

[Treepol]

Congratulations on making the front cover with your beautiful photo.

[Atravelynn]

Your photo is cover-worthy for sure.  Great shot!  Congrats.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @John M., @Treepoland @Atravelynn. Sadly (for me at least) both were eliminated from the GMM people's choice yesterday, I'll have to try again next year! Luckily we're back to Kenya in a couple of months. 

[Atravelynn]

You'll get 'em next time!  But to even have that cover shot is quite amazing.

[vikramghanekar]

Fabulous photographs, the giraffe mother- baby cover is well deserved.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this TR.

Thank you

Vikram

[Zubbie15]

On 2/24/2024 at 11:37 AM, vikramghanekar said:

Fabulous photographs, the giraffe mother- baby cover is well deserved.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this TR.

Thank you

Vikram

Thank you so much @vikramghanekar! 

[Tdgraves]

Congratulations, a wonderful photo