Stripes

Back to the safari today! As I’ve mentioned before, the zebras were the most fearless animal we saw; I think that any fear they have is overwhelmed by a reluctance to move out of the way. Either way, it made shooting animal portraits very easy!

Maasai Smiles

Before we started our safari, we visited a ‘working Maasai tribe’, which, despite its name, was clearly a tourist trap and very different from what Maasai life is actually like – it helps if you’re travelling with someone who spent a week working in a Maasai health centre! That being said, they said to take as many pictures as we like, assumably to promote the experience, but it gave me a chance to photograph local people without being inconsiderate or offensive. This little chap was definitely my favourite!

The Ostrich

We saw absolutely loads of ostriches in Tanzania and I always loved the patterns and textures that their feathers formed, particularly on the females, who have grey feathers as opposed to black ones. We watched this particular bird for a few minutes as it surveyed the local area and I was astounded at the crazy positions they could get their neck in – as someone who’s up for the “World’s Least Flexible Person” award, I was a little jealous!

Serval Cat

I’m still wading through hundreds of shots from Tanzania, but here’s a shot of the relatively rare Serval Cat from the Ngorongoro Crater. While it’s not one of the big five, or even an animal I had given thought to before I left, this was actually one of my favourite spots from the trip. You can see zebras, wildebeests and many other big game creatures with relative ease, depending on where you go, which made the spotting of such a small, wild cat hunting for its dinner so exciting – I wouldn’t have even spotted it without the expert vision of Simon, our guide!

Tanzanian Dust

Tanzania is amazing.

I was only there for six days, but it was one of the most amazing trips I have ever taken. As you can probably guess, we were visiting to go on safari and I soon became an addict. It’s been a dream of mine to go on safari and I’m already trying to figure out whether I can get away with going again next year!

This is an atmospheric shot from the Ngorongoro Crater, the first stop in our trip. It amazed me how close we were able to get to the animals, but I haven’t got round to editing those shots yet, so I thought I’d share this one with you to whet your appetite!