lion
We are very excited to announce that on 13th-20th June 2020 we will be leading a photography safari adventure tour to Kenya – back to the beautiful Enonkishu Conservancy in the Maasai Mara.
We’ve teamed up with the UK-based safari holiday specialists Far & Wild Travel to offer a unique opportunity to spend 8 days in the Maasai Mara and learn how to take better photos. For more information and booking details please see their dedicated page to this Photography Safari in Kenya here.
Here’s a short video I made to show what to expect…
We have some amazing plans for the trip, while it is aimed at photographers it would also be a trip of a lifetime for non-photographers who just want to experience the magic of the Maasai Mara. All of the photography activities & learning are optional (although included in the price), to all intents & purposes this is an amazing safari trip with the bonus of photography tuition included.
Planned activities:
- A morning and afternoon-evening game drive each day, with photography instruction where needed.
- Two night drives.
- A morning visit to the Rhino Sanctuary at Kileleoni
- A full day visit to Masai Mara National Reserve (park fee of US$80pp excluded)
- Kileleoni village visit (with opportunity to photograph villagers singing/dancing)
- Visit Maasai herders for Thursday morning cattle dip/evening boma round-up
- Visit to Emarti school and meet the Rangers (Ranger Parade)
- Sundowners on a couple of evenings
- Night-time Milky Way astrophotography instruction
- Evening post processing instruction & teaching photography, plus tips, tricks, etc.
- Final evening slideshow
Over our last two trips we have seen a huge array of the diverse wildlife that live on Enonkishu Conservancy and the neighbouring conservancies of Lemek & Ol Chorro – the three conservancies have an agreement so our conservancy fee for Enonkishu (included in the price) allows us full access to Lemek & Ol Chorro giving us a huge area to explore and many different habitats – from the foothills of Kileleoni Hill (the highest point in the Mara), to the savannah grasslands, scrub woodland, marsh areas and many waterholes where the animals come to drink. Not to mention the mighty Mara River with it’s thriving population of hippo & nile crocodile.
Bordering Enonkishu is the rhino sanctuary with two resident white rhinos – we have included a trip to see the rhinos one morning which should be an amazing photo opportunity since the rhinos are very tame and docile.
Each day begins with an early morning start in order to be out amongst the animals as the sun rises. The sunrise in the Maasai Mara is a beautiful spectacle in itself but when you then add in the iconic animals that live here it is absolutely mindblowing. After a few hours seeing what animals we can find & photograph before the sun gets too hot, and the animals retreat to the shade, our drivers will find a shady spot under an acacia tree and set up for morning coffee & a snack – usually homemade cake or cookies. Morning coffee while watching hyena skulk past and the view across the plains dotted with zebra, wildebeest, impala, Thomson’s gazelle, giraffe & buffalo is like nothing on earth.
The Mara is a haven for bird-lovers too, my favourite is the Secretary bird (below, top right), an incredible looking bird which eats snakes, like something out of a Harry Potter movie! There are hundreds of species in the Mara, including many eagles, vultures, egrets, bee-eaters, ground hornbill, great crested cranes, mousebirds, oxpeckers and much much more. Our guides are great at identifying the birds and carry bird guide books so if it’s just a fleeting glimpse they can show us what we just saw.
It always astounds me how close to the lions we can actually get. So long as you stay in the vehicle you are perfectly safe, the lions & other predators are used to safari vehicles and totally ignore them so we get a chance to see their natural behaviour up close & personal!
One of the big features of this trip is that you will learn how to get the most from your camera. From optimum camera settings, lens choice, composition, exposure tricks to the little tricks of the trade which will make your photos the envy of your friends! I’ve been running photography workshops for a few years now and we always see plenty of ‘lightbulb moments’ when it finally clicks (pun intended).
We will have daily photo challenges with vouchers for the evening bar to be won for the best shots. Compositions like the below of a giraffe can be really interesting and offer a different take on the standard safari photos.
In the evenings I will be offering post-processing instruction and advice using Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop – lots of tips & tricks to really bring out the best from your images and make them sing!
Often when we find the lions they are lazing in the shade since they generally hunt at night but that’s not to say we might not get lucky & see a hunt. The below shot was from one of the mornings when we found the resident pride of Lemek lions (originally from the famous Governor’s Camp Marsh Pride as seen on David Attenborough’s Dynasties series), finishing of a buffalo carcass from the previous night’s hunt.
On the subject of the Marsh Pride – we have put aside one of the days of the trip for a day at the Mara National Reserve – home of the Marsh Pride and world-famous thanks to countless TV documentaries. There is an additional fee of $80USD to visit the reserve but I guarantee it will be worth every penny.
These two cheetah brothers below are resident on Lemek Conservancy – just a ten minute drive from Enonkishu (well, ten minutes if you don’t stop to check out anything on the way but the beauty of any game drive is that you never know what you will find, so driving without stopping many times to view the animal activity is very unusual!)
There are many leopard living at Enonkishu & the surrounding conservancies, the challenge is finding them. We were lucky enough to see this resident female one evening on the hunt in the scrubland along a small stream. She is known as ‘Half Tail’ due to her short tail after an altercation with another big cat. Such an amazing treat to see these stunning creatures.
Thanks to the amazing work by the rangers and land-managers of this area the lion population is thriving. Enonkishu is an incredible success story of re-wilding where they have taken an area which was once intensively farmed and devoid of wildlife to this thriving ecosystem. It’s taken a lot of work and we will learn about the process while there. In fact every person that visits is contributing to the conservation through the conservancy fees, tourism in the Maasai Mara is essential for the survival of the wildlife.
Plenty of moody buffalo in the area, not a problem in the vehicles but I wouldn’t fancy meeting one on foot!
Our camp for the stay is at the Mara Training Centre, part of the Enonkishu Conservancy and right on the edge of the Mara River. On the right here you can see the safari tents and to the left are the banda cottages which are available for a small upgrade fee. The bandas have ensuite toilet & showers, for the tents there is an ablution block (just hidden in this shot in the trees just behind the tents). Falling asleep in the tent listening to the hippo in the river, the millions of crickets & frogs chirruping and pinging and distant hyena & lion calls is just incredible. I would take this over a luxury safari hotel any time – it really is an immersive experience and truly life-changing. If you have never been on safari before this really is the best introduction.
Below is ‘The Cow Shed’, the social area where we have our meals, it also has a self-service bar (mmm Tusker beer!) and in the evenings the log fire is lit. This is where we will do the evening post-processing training and presentations. Plenty of power sockets for charging laptops & camera batteries and the good news is that Kenya uses the exact same three-pin plugs we have in the UK so no need for any travel adaptors.
Below, myself & Leanne with the wonderful Enonkishu Rangers – we will have a chance to meet the rangers and they will hopefully put on a ranger parade for us, showing off their marching skills. A really great bunch of chaps who dedicate their lives to the protection of the wildlife at Enonkishu.
To ensure everyone gets a great view of the animals we will only have 4 guests per safari vehicle – everyone gets a corner seat so no-one gets the short straw of being stuck in the middle and having to crane over other people to see the action.
We will be using specially adapted Toyota Land Cruisers with our own friendly, experienced safari guide drivers. These guys really know their stuff and are more than happy to share their knowledge while using their tracking & spotting skills to find us the wildlife and get the best positions for viewing & photographing them. We are hoping to be able to use brothers Wilson & Moses (pictured with me above), absolute legends of the Maasai Mara and incredible hosts.
Below the rangers with the headtorches we gave them on our last trip. We were able to take bags of essential equipment for them including binoculars, torches, a telescope, compasses, etc plus we gave them each a Leatherman multi-tool which will be very useful on their patrols. We made sure the tools have a wire cutter which is needed for removing any illegal snares they may find on their patrols.
Through the ‘Power the Rangers’ fundraiser in 2019 we were able to raise over £6000 to help the rangers and would like to do something similar when we return in 2020. We are hoping some of our guests may get involved & help us to bring them more equipment.
One of the other unique features of this trip is that we will be meeting and photographing the local Maasai Tribespeople – they have a settlement at the base of Kileleoni Hill. We will visit the village to see their traditional singing & dancing and they are only too happy to show us around their huts finishing with a visit to their gift area where traditional Maasai jewellery, etc is available to purchase.
We will also head along to the cattle-dip on Thursday morning to watch & photograph their cattle getting their weekly bath and we’ll be spending some time with them to capture beautiful portraits of them (with full instruction from myself where needed).
Another exciting offering of this trip is the chance to do a night-drive or two – nothing prepared me for the experience of heading out into the night in the safari trucks armed with red torches (so as not to dazzle the animals). The Mara takes on a totally different atmosphere at night when the nocturnal animals emerge and the grazers try to get some sleep between avoiding the predators.
We found a huge hyena den, below you can see a mum suckling a pup, we saw elephants, sleeping giraffes, a huge eagle owl on the ground, spring hares bouncing around, bat-eared foxes and so much more. Many safari reserves don’t allow people to be out at night as it hampers their poacher prevention but at Enonkishu the poaching problem is minimal so we can make the most of the incredible opportunity.
Not just the sights but also the sounds and smells at night are totally different – this will blow all of your senses!
While staying at Enonkishu last time I set up a wildlife camera trap outside out cottage and was stunned to find that we had captured photos & video of this beautiful adult leopard right outside our room. I will be bringing a couple of camera traps with me in June and if any of our guests wanted to bring one it would be great to get them set up at various places around the camp/conservancy & see what we can get.
We will also be having some sundowners on the trip – drinks & snacks while watching the sunset – a magical way to see the end of an incredible day on safari.
I’m a sucker for a nice sunset so while the sun drops we can take photos which capture the colours and atmosphere – more tips & tricks there since many people can’t understand why their sunset photos look washed out & unimpressive. I also love shooting timelapse videos of the sunset/sunrise so will be more than happy to teach the tricks of the trade if anyone is interested.
This really does promise to be an incredible trip, we have so many great adventures planned for the trip and a few surprises up our sleeve. The trip is limited to 12 people so don’t delay if you think this may be for you.
More information about the trip is available at the Far & Wild page and their advisor Marc would be more than happy to answer any of your questions and send a personalised quote/trip itinerary.
The price per person is £2935 per person, staying in a safari tent. The price includes all accommodation, food, soft drinks, conservancy fees for Enonkishu, Lemek & Ol Chorro, a visit to the rhino sanctuary, internal flights from/to Nairobi to the Maasai Mara (Ngerende airstrip, just a 15 minute game drive from the camp), full photography instruction and we’ll produce a hard-backed book for every guest on our return with a selection of the best photos from everyone on the trip. Leanne will also be filming the trip and producing a short video – the ultimate holiday video to show your family & friends!
All that isn’t included is your return flight out to Nairobi (this can be arranged by the guys at Far & Wild if necessary), any alcoholic drinks and the $80 reserve fee for the visit to the Mara National Reserve.
I am also happy to discuss our plans and advise on photography equipment in advance of the trip so please feel free to drop me an email to info@christaylorphoto.co.uk or give me a call on 01263 821589 / 07941009745.
