Lioness in the Sun

We were amazed at not only how many lions we saw, but how close they came to us. Many times conditions were overcast, but we had some nice light on the Lioness above.

Lioness 1

This female was moderately far away when I started shooting, and I was using my 600L with the 1.4x Teleconverter. But it kept heading towards us, filling more and more of the frame.

Lioness 2

Here she was still about 60 feet away, but with the glass I had on, I was almost filling the frame with her head.

Lioness 3

Here, she was about 30 feet away, and I had to take off the 1.4x Teleconverter, but am still just a little too tight for this frame-filling shot.

Male Lion

The large, dominant males, usually kept their distance. This one was perhaps 300 feet away, requiring my 600L and 2x Teleconverter to get any kind of shot. The lion's colors are clearly well selected by evolution for their camouflage properties.

Lioness Pair

We saw several prides of lions, each of which had perhaps 15 to 20 or so individuals. They often walked right next to our Safari Vehicles, and seemed completely oblivious of our presence.

Lion Cub

This individual was perhaps 30 feet away, relaxing in the shade. There were probably a half-dozen or more vehicles in the vicinity, but once again, they ignored us completely. In fact, they often laid down in the shade provided by the vehicles.

Lion Feeding 1

One of the ladies in our group actually saw (in the distance) the lions bring down this Zebra. Our guide raced as fast as he could to get us close enough to see and shoot the feeding that then took place. In this case, they were still far away (EXIF data showing 'Infinity' probably meaning more than 300 feet), and even with the 600L and 2x Teleconverter, some cropping was necessary to get this shot.

Lion Feeding 2

When the male arrived, he chased away the females who had actually brought down the zebra, and started to feed. You can see the red in the faces of the females who had started feeding right after the kill.

Lion Feeding 3

This was a different kill, but we were closer to the action.

Cheetah Yawning

We were thrilled to see this magnificent cat on a few occasions. Here it had been resting on a Termite mound, surveying the plains around him.

Cheetah in the Grass

This individual was closer (perhaps 90 feet or so), allowing us a good look, but it didn't hang around too long, disappearing into the woods and grass behind it shortly after this shot was taken.

Cheetah Staring

We had better light for this shot (the yawning one was taken during very overcast, drizzly conditions), and it was a little closer as well.

Leopard

This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. This individual had been spotted hiding in the grass, with the expectation that it would be heading up to a tree where it had previously dragged a Thompson's Gazelle it had killed. It was probably close to an hour before it started moving, and ironically it ended up in a different tree than the one closest to it. It had apparently killed 2 gazelles, and had each of them in different trees. Here, it stayed for a few seconds before it headed up to eat its kill. Heavy foliage obscured this, but we were still able to partially see and appreciate the action.