Archive for the 'Photo safari' category

Doom 2009

So, the great FPS game will be back before the end of the year 2009. Either the launch campaign started early in Nepal or the bus drivers are using their vehicles as video game weapons (the latter would explain the extraordinarily high frequency of dramatic road accidents there).

Sometimes an image (from Nepal or elsewhere) hesitates on the better orientation to give to the photographer. Which one of these two Nepalese paddy fields would you choose?

Copyright (C) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved - Click on the thumbnail to enlarge it

Copyright (C) 2009 Yves Roumazeilles - All rights reserved - Click on the thumbnail to enlarge it

When visiting Nepal, I could take a plane trip for some sight seeing, from Kathmandu to the Mount Everest (the highest point of our world at 8848m or 29028ft).

Its Nepalese name is Sagarm�th� (Nepali: सगरमाथा), and it is very near to the Lhotse, another 8000-summit (precisely 8516m or 27940ft).

Everest and Lhotse

The image here was taken from the pilot seat when we were at the nearest point to the Everest during the flight (click on the small image to enlarge it).

The unlabeled peak on the right is probably the Makalu (8463m or 27766ft). But this needs to be confirmed by somebody more expert than I am.

Even the local guy does not seem too sure about it!

I’m not prone to vertigo, but I would not try it. I am happy being currently in Nepal and not in Pakistan. Wait! Here is a bridge in Nepal:

I am leaving France for a photo trip to Nepal. Why did my colleagues pay a part of that trip?

Met in the forest of Rambouillet (near Paris, but more precisely in the fern land at the end of the Espace Rambouillet of Office National des Forêts), two roe deers that were stuck in the sights of two camouflaged wildlife photographers.

Roe deers (Click to enlarge)

I’m just out of eBay where I bought a second-hand Minolta 1.4x lens converter to extend a little my tele-lenses when I put them on my Sony Alpha 700 and the old faithful Konica-Minolta Dynax Maxxum 7D.

I think it is going to support me when I go to Nepal (Bardia National Park) in next October. With Alain Pons and Amawanda.

I have been publishing some photos from my travel to Kenya last October, but it became apparent to me that I had forgotten to present the photos I took during a short encounter with a serval (Leptailurus serval, previously Felis serval, pronounced /ˈsÉœrvÉ™l/) which is a relatively large-size African wild cat. Amazingly beautiful, it is quite difficult to observe by day. Actually, it’s Alain Pons (our guide and famous wildlife photographer) who called “Stop!” after seeing a pair of ears just a couple of inches above the grass of the Masai Mara. Even, after braking hard, it took us some time to find it again.

Serval - Copyright (C) 2008 - Yves Roumazeilles	Serval - Copyright (C) 2008 - Yves Roumazeilles
Serval - Copyright (C) 2008 - Yves Roumazeilles	Serval - Copyright (C) 2008 - Yves Roumazeilles
Serval - Copyright (C) 2008 - Yves Roumazeilles
Click on the image to enlarge thumbnails

On the last picture, you can notice the black and white pattern of the back of the serval ears. They are considered as a beacon to help kittens follow their mother, giving them very visible indicators that stay invisible from the point of view of their preys.

You wanted to go to Kenya for a safari or a photo safari (this will quickly become very fashionable, thanks to the latest Disney movie, “The crimson wings” whose location is Kenyan Tanzanian lake Natron)? You wanted to get your visa in the Nairobi airport after landing (this is much easier than queuing at the Kenyan embassy in London)?

Beware! There is a change: You no longer can pay your visa fees at the airport immigration counter in Euros, Kenyan shillings, Swiss francs and British Pounds (having a wide choice could be interesting in order to choose the best price according to the exchange rate at the time of entry in Kenya). So, you must have a 50 US dollar bill (US$ only). Don’t be surprized and change some bills before leaving your country of origin or… go queue at the embassy.

Monitor lizard - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles

Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.

Young males tend to fight together useful wide head moves. Here are a few giraffes suddenly met while in the middle of a personal fight. Wide slow motion, violent collisions, elegance of the very dynamic exchanges.

Girafes - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Girafes - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles	Girafes - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

A very nice set of camouflaged animals.

A Grey Cicada hides on pine bark in France

Source: Daily Mail.

A few baboons walking down a Kenyan road.

Guinea Baboon - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Male Baboon - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles	Guinea Baboons - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

Guinea Baboon (Papio papio, Babouin de Guinée, Papión de Guinea), Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.

Hippopotame - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles

Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius, Hippopotame, hipopótamo común). Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.

Leopard is a big cat special because it protects its largest preys (those which will make more than a single lunch) by dragging them away and up into a tree. It can take its own weight (or a little more) up to a high branch where no hyena would be able to steal it.

It takes the carcass, usually by the collar.

Leopard - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles

Then, it will choose the right branch, look and find the right climbing path.

Leopard in front of the tree - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles

Unfortunately, this one did not succeed in dragging up the Bohor Reedbuck it had caught late in the afternoon. It’s only during the night that (after reducing the weight by eating more of it) that the leopard brought the prey in its tree. Before light out, it just “visited” the tree.

Leopard in a tree - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles	Leopard in a tree - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

Leopard (Panthera pardus, Léopard, Leopardo), Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.

This lion is also eating a gnu.

Lion - Copyright 2008 Yves Roumazeilles

You will easily notice that flies are a very common insect around big cats. No, these are not black defects on the image.

Lion - Copyright 2008 Yves Roumazeilles

Lion (Panthera leo, Lion, León), Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.