About a year ago I was on safari in the north of beautiful uganda. We had been tracking a herd of elephants for 2 days but had not yet caught up to them. The night before we saw two bull males where fighting in the swamp just behind us, we didnt realize how close they where until i turned my camera ISO all the way up to the max and swung around backwards to see all the commotion. The sky was pitch black despite there being a moon that night the clouds completly obscured it, we saw nothing and herd everything. As the clanking of the tusks got louder the driver got worried and so we pulled forward. Its a good thing he did because just then when i was able to check the monitor to effectively see in the dark i had noticed they where no more than 20 feet away which is way too close to be. As we pulled away to a safe distance a group of lionesses where on the path embankment watching the show or perhaps waiting for an opportunity as the lumbering gigants scared away the smaller animals they would expose themselves to become a nighttime snack. I wasnt able to get a clear shot of the elephants that night but the highlights allowed me for a brief second to snap a photo of the lioness before they darted off into the nights after their prey. Even the lions kept their distance from the elephants which is a reminder who the real king of the jungle is, most deffinatly the elephant.
“When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. ” – African proverb
Later the next day we caught up to the herd and stayed until they roamed off out of sight beyond where the trails reach. This time we kept a safe distance but with my 200mm-800mm and 1.4x teleconverter I was able to snap both photos and video of two younger male elephants play fighting which was distinctly different from the older males fighting for real. In the comming days I’ll post a short video clip of that interaction.
I was also lucky enough to witness this tender interaction between the mother and the baby elephant from far away. The entire herd normally is very protective of the baby but we stayed far enough away from the elephants and stayed very quiet careful not to move an inch so that we wouldn’t disturb them. And with time the baby was able to walk outside the group but still stayed near her mama. I have both large and small high resolution prints available of these beautiful majestic elephants available for purchase.
that’s all for now I got to get back to painting.