kenya My River!

This one is from the Masai Mara Migration workshop in Kenya. We had organized a private mobile camp for our group next to a river that attracted a lot of wildlife.

Every now and then we had to cross this river with our Jeeps to get to our camp. One day, on our way back to camp, we saw a hippo in the river close to where we wanted to cross. I decided to stop the vehicle in the middle of the river for the low perspective and just wait to see what would happen. The light was almost gone, so there was not much else we could do anyway.

After ten minutes or so the hippo decided it was time to show us that this was his river, and wildly rose his head out of the water to intimidate us. Hippos are very territorial, so it doesn't take much for this kind of behavior. It was exactly what I was hoping for and we all got some great shots of this impressive animal.

[if you would like to join me on our next Kenya workshop, please have a look on my website for more information]

The angle of capture makes for a very impressive image. Tack sharp.

Well done.

Regards

Great back story to go with the great photo you have here.  As a frequent traveller of Africa, always with camera in hand, I can appreciate the wait necessary for that one shot that defines the moment and meets or exceeds your expectations.  This is an excellent example of this.  You can see the dribblings of the hippo's chin giving the photo a great sense of immediacy and power.

I have an aunt who honney-mooned in Zambia and canoed through an area rife with territorial hippos.  She was snapping pictures and relatively unaware of the danger before the Zambian scout in the boat (armed with an AK-47) told her that it was time to leave the area NOW.

Such majesty, beauty, diversity and danger with the wildlife of that continent.  Your photo is quite the testament to that, bravo! 

Well done !!! Great shoot!!

 

BestRegard_