Savanna Silhouettes
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Malaika and her cubs carry on, unperturbed by our presence, watching the sun leave behind a trail of vibrant red and orange. Two of the cheetahs lounge, their heads barely visible amidst the tall grass, but one sits perfectly erect, showing off its stature against the horizon.
Captivated by the play of light and shadow on the curves of the perfect model, I forget to change the settings of my camera. Sid and Guru not only remind me, but share their ISO, Shutter Speed and White Balance settings so I can adjust quickly, without missing a beat.
Thankfully, I am able to capture the striking frame of African elephants walking towards the same acacia tree, while the cheetahs look on.
The young ones then decide to give us the dream shots. The brothers make their way back to the tree and eventually climb up, while my camera goes off in burst mode!
After they descend and walk into the shadows of the savanna, I take in a deep breath and scroll through the camera display to see the output.
There is one shot very close to my heart, where the cheetah is vertically aligned with the tree trunk, his tail intersecting that of his brother’s — inky feline figures scaling the iconic acacia tree, against surreal copper skies — I guess this is quintessential Mara.
With perfect end-of-the-day lighting, the trip captains are excited to capture more silhouette shots of impalas and topis grazing nearby, and I am not one to complain! The antelopes’ horns rising above the horizon and into the flush orange canvas create quite the contrast.
And just when we may think we have met the quota for the day, we sight a pair of ostriches.
The Masai guide starts driving away from them, leaving me utterly confused.
Then the mentors explain to me, that if we stay at the same level as the ostriches, they would be half-covered by grass. Instead, we take the advantage of undulated terrain and move our vehicle further down, in order to line up the ostriches with the horizon.
Result: silhouette of the largest living bird with a splash of gold in the fiery background.
Thrilled with the experience of our very first safari, a couple of days later we indulge in similar outlines of wildebeests, and even some vultures perched on tree-tops. Needless to say, these figures were etched forever in our minds.
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