The Wildebeests of Africa - A newborn trying to stand for the first time

If you ever go to Tanzania during the migration or reverse migration, you will likely see tens of thousands of wildebeests and they follow the rain.  You may have heard of the "Big 5" (animals that most people want to see in Africa). Well...the wildebeest are part of the "Ugly 5". Not the best looking animals, but they are everywhere.

Here is a group of wildebeests crossing a small lake in the Ndutu area of Tanzania.

Since we see so many of these animals, I typically don't photograph them unless I try something different. To capture this photo of the wildebeests in motion, I set my camera to a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second and panned along with the them as they ran.

Our photo tour group was in the Ngorongoro Crater when we heard there was a wildebeest ready to give birth in the area. Our guides drove us to the spot where we saw this female who was in labor. You can see the back legs of the offspring coming out of the mother.

We waited for the birth, but it was a slow process. We decided to go to our lunch spot since we were all hungry. Later we returned to the spot where we saw this little one standing up a with it's herd. It had been born maybe 30 minutes earlier and it was already up and walking.

Amazingly, these animals can not only stand within minutes of being born, but they can run at the same speed as the rest of the herd within an hour of being born. This is a necessity for survival so that they are not easy prey for the spotted hyenas.

We thought that this was the youngest wildebeest that we would see, but...

...on our second tour we came across this newborn just after it dropped from it's mother. Some of our guests actually saw the birth!

We watched as the adults coaxed the newborn to get up and move.

Click the image above to play the video

Before capturing the still images, I switched my Canon 1D X Mark II into video mode and captured this one minute video of the newborn trying to take it's first steps. It was an awesome sight to see in the wild and, in this case, the video captures that experience better than still images.

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If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
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Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

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Tanzania, Africa - The Maasai Tribe members

This week, I am changing things up a bit and not sharing images of the animals of Tanzania, but instead the people from the Maasai tribes that we visited on our two photo tours.  They are an interesting group of semi-nomadic people with a primitive way of living. Some of the tribes will open up their homes to us (for a fee) so that we can learn how they live. It is so different from the western civilization that it is fascinating.

When you visit Tanzania, you will likely be drawn to the bright blue and red colors that these people wear.

Many of the tribes are nomadic, but now that some have built school houses and other hard-walled facilities, this is not always the case. The women are tasked with most of the hard work, such as building the homes (made with mud and cow dung), getting the firewood and water, and doing all the cooking. The Maasai men traditionally have more than one wife, and visit them in each of their own huts when they desire.

It is very common to see the Maasai woman wondering through the area gathering water while the boys tend the goats and cattle. The Maasai people typically live off of their cows. They eat the meat, drink the milk and even drink the blood at times. The amount of cattle and children determines the wealth of the male owner.

As you can see from these photos, even the young boys are put to work at a very early age. I asked our guide if these young children are ever in danger from the wild animals which roam the area and was told that this can be a problem for these youngsters out in the open.

Here you can see the Maasai women in their traditional clothing and the jewelry made from beads.

I have visited many Maasai tribes in the past, and always carried my Canon 5D Mark IV and Canon 24-105mm lens. This time I decided to bring my Canon 5D Mark IV with the longer Canon 100-400mm lens to get tighter shots of the people. Here you can see this woman who has stretched her earlobes, which is another common practice amongst their people.

The Masaai were doing their traditional dance while our guests were taking photographs. The Maasai men are more attractive to women if they can jump high. It is also a way for the men to make themselves look bigger and stronger in the face of wild animals.

While the others were photographing the dancing, I looked around and took photos of the children who were watching the elders' performance.

The beautiful young girl was taking care of this toddler. I saw all the flies on the little one's face and wanted to shoo them away.

Here is a mother and her daughter. The babies are not recognized as people until they are 3 months old. This is mostly due to the high mortality rates (in previous generations) when many babies failed to survive past the first 2 months.

All the youngsters were smart enough to stay in the shade of the hut.

As I mentioned, the women do most of the work in the Maasai culture. The men "retire" at 35 and let the women do everything from that point on in their lives. And the work is not easy, with the women having to carry large loads very far distances.

This young man is wearing a traditional Maasai blanket, which can be purchased in most stores.

The tour company that we work with in Tanzania is very generous and had donated money to this particular Maasai tribe to build a school house. I was in that building and took this photo of the teacher. Perfect catch light in his eyes.

This little one was so cute. I captured this shot of him as he clapped his hands to a song.

Mike sat down with the kids and took some selfies with them...

...while Rachel (sporting her awesome hat) made a new friend.

Glenn (another one of our guests) let this young Maasai boy try his camera. I think I need to work on his hand positions, but that will be on the next visit. :)

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Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
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If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

__________________________________________________________________________ 

The monkeys and baboons of Tanzania, Africa

When people think about the wildlife in Africa, they typically think of lions, elephants, zebras and giraffe. But along with those animals, there is also an abundance of monkeys and baboons. Although the baboons can be a bit pesty and aggressive, they are also fun to photograph.

Today's blog post is all about the monkeys and baboons in Tanzania.

Throughout the month in Tanzania, we encountered many troops of Vervet monkeys. They generally hang in packs between the size of 10-70 animals. They have very human-like characteristics and are fun to photograph. For most of these images I used the Canon 1D X Mark II camera with the Canon 200-400mm lens. I should also mention that I shot almost the entire safari on one 256GB Pro Grade Digital memory card.

As our guests were photographing the monkeys I kept reminding them to wait until the animals had catch light in their eyes before firing the shutter. For those of you who are not photographers, the catch light is that little burst of light that shows life in the animal's eyes. It is most prominent when the animal looks into the sun or out into the sunlight of the day.

This little baby vervet was looking down at me as I shot up into the tree.

This monkey cracked me up with his different hand positions, And I was happy that he was sitting in perfect sunlight.

And then there are the baboons which are everywhere in Tanzania. We see a lot of these primates while on our photo tours in Africa. They have existed in Africa for more than 2 million years.

The baboons and monkeys will feed on the termites, and can be seen climbing termite mounds for a snack or just to get a good view of their surroundings.

This little one was getting it's nourishment from mom...

...while this little one was hitching a ride.

I have been to the Ngorongoro Crater 5 times now and know that the baboons like to hang out by the "check-in" gate. I usually prep our photo tour guests to get their long lenses ready at this location to get some tight baboon shots. At this location, the primates are used to people and will not run away. Actually, it is worse than that. They will scavenge food from any vehicle that is not totally secure.

I saw these baboons breaking into a vehicle and laughed as I quickly raised the camera and got this shot of them exiting the Land Cruiser.  Their guide scared them out of the vehicle but not before they stole food from the unsuspecting tourists.

Having close access allowed us to get some nice shots of the mothers and their babies.

And we got some great facial expressions too. You can see that the baboons have dog-like muzzles. Under those muzzles they have very powerful jaws and extremely sharp canine teeth. Believe it or not, they eat not only insects and small birds, but they actually eat the vervet monkeys too.

This is my favorite baboon shot from the trip. I just love the clean coat and the piercing eyes.

All the guests enjoyed watching the baboons interacting with each other.

Ahhhhhhhh.....

This was one of the younger baboons that we saw.

Before and after a little nursing session.

The female baboons have a 6 month gestation period and only give birth to one baby at a time. These primates typically live for 30 years in the wild.

I hope you are enjoying my "blog by animal type" this time around. So much more to come.

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Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
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If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

__________________________________________________________________________ 

Come and see me at the WPPI show next week!

I am back from Africa and right back to shooting senior portraits and a big event this weekend. Then I take off for a week in Las Vegas where I will be presenting at the WPPI show.

If you have not signed up for this photo show, you can click HERE to get a free expo pass and save money on platform classes as one of my guests.

Here is where you can find me next week:

Wednesday, Feb 27

10:30 to 11:30am - Tiffen (Booth #347)

12pm to 1pm - Zenfolio (Booth #556)

4pm to 5pm - Camera Bits (Booth #1249)

Thursday, Feb 28

11am to 12pm - Zenfolio (Booth #556)

12:30pm to 1:30pm - Tiffen (Booth #347)

Friday, Mar 1

10:30am to 12:30pm - Master Class: Streamline Your Way to Success: The Ingredients to Running a Profitable Business (Tradewinds D)

WPPI is my favorite trade show, not only because of the quality of the education, but also because it is a great place to hang out with so many amazing photographers. If you have never been, you should come and check it out. And for those of you already signed up, I look forward to seeing you all in Las Vegas next week.


__________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

__________________________________________________________________________ 

Tanzania, Africa - Endless herds of elephants

The one consistent thing about safaris is that there is nothing consistent about them. One year you might see very few sitings of a particular animal and another year an abundance. This year we saw a record number of elephants on our photo tours, and it was awesome!

I am excited to share the images with all of you.

Here is a family of elephants in varying age groups. African elephants can live up to 60 years.

I captured this photo of these elephant in front of the infamous Baobab trees which can only be found in the lower elevations of Africa.

I shot this photo at a slower shutter speed (1/125th of a second) to get some motion blur in this elephant's tail.

This photo was taken at 1/1250 of a second to capture the elephant feeding. Their trunks are comprised of approximately 40,000 muscles and are strong enough to rip large branches from the trees. They also use their trunks to suck up water and spray it into their mouths.

We saw herds everywhere, on land and in the water.

I love the varying colors and textures in these amazing creatures. Did you know that the wrinkles in the elephant's skin helps them cool down their bodies? The body heat is released through the creases in their skin, helping them release up to 75% of their body heat.

You will notice that many of my elephant photos here were taken wider to show more of the environment. I made a note in my iPhone to remind myself to shoot wider on this trip. It seems that every time I see these massive animals, I tended to use the Canon 1D X Mark II with the Canon 200-400mm lens to shoot very tight on them, but wanted to change that on this go around.

For most of these wider photos, I used the Canon 5D Mark IV with the Canon 24-105mm lens.

Elephants touch each other often, for greeting, playing and social interaction. Look at the interaction between this young elephant and its mother. So precious.

We saw this herd of elephant coming down this path and parked our vehicle to be right in front of them as they approached.

More young elephants....Ahhhhhhhhhh.

You will notice that older sibling is starting to grow its tusks. They grow throughout their lives and most elephants will favor one tusk over the other, much like we favor our right or left hand.

It is quite common for the elephants to spray themselves with water to cool them off in the summer heat.

I saw this interaction between the mom and sibling with this little baby and loved it.

We were photographing this large herd when this tiny baby appeared and happily pranced through the grass towards us. These are very social animals with the capacity to experience happiness, sadness, fear, remorse and excitement.

This cute little one seemed very happy.

I waited for the baby to catch up to its mother and captured this shot to show the difference in their sizes. This is one of my favorite photos from the trip.

The soil in the Tarangire National Park is very red, and the elephants frequently throw that soil and mud on themselves. The soil acts as sunscreen for the elephants. I really liked the coloring and curled trunk on this one elephant.

At one point, we had this one young elephant come right up to our Land Cruiser to check us out. I quickly changed from the long lens to the Canon 24-105mm lens and shot this image at 85mm.

Elephants can be very playful. Here are some youngsters playing around. I laughed as I shot this photo since it reminded me of a circus pose.

These two elephants were sparring for quite a long time. It was like watching two teenagers rough housing.

I think that we saw more than 400 elephants last month and it was an absolute joy to watch these gentle giants in the wild.

Next up on the blog will be giraffe, baboon, cheetah, lion and more.

__________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

__________________________________________________________________________