After playing around with my video footage from Guyana yesterday, I decided to take a look back at what I captured in Africa last June. Turns out I had the camera rolling more often than I thought, especially in regards to this family of cheetahs we encountered each of the four days we were in Samburu National Reserve in Kenya. It was fun to cobble a few of the clips together, mostly from our final morning in the park. Nikon Z8, 4K, 120 fps, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second.

This one goes out to all my friends in Detroit — here’s to another big win for the Lions tonight. This particular lion was putting on quite a show for us, rolling in the grass, licking his paws, and doing all manner of other lion things. When I snapped this shot, he was distracted by something in the distance and was on high alert and looking particularly regal. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm lens, ISO 1100, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second.

First day in the Masai Mara back in June, we came across this male lion in the rain, up on a small hill, surveying his environment. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 116mm) ISO 900, f/2.8 at 1/640th of a second.

It’s always hard to show perspective when posting dik dik’s. They’re so small, but without any reference it’s hard to tell just how small they really are. Same goes with this image, but for some reason, perhaps the angle, this Kirk’s dik dik kind of gets close to illustrating their diminutive fifteen-inch height. Photographed in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 250, f/5.6 at 1/1600th of a second.

On the African savanna you find your fun wherever you can. In this case, two cheetah cubs found it in the form of elephant dung. A good time was had by all. Photographed in Samburu National Reserve in Kenya. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm lens, ISO 450, f/5.6 at 1/800th of a second.

Dwarf mongooses are a fairly common sight around safari camps. A bunch of them were scurrying around in the woods surrounding our camp in the Masai Mara of Kenya on our recent trip. On the technical side of things, this is a good example of a very high ISO image (12800) that has minimal noise thanks to an even and proper exposure. If I had shot at a lower ISO and then tried to lighten it in post processing, it would have had a lot more noise. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 12800, f/5.6 at 1/320th of a second.

Hope everyone had a great holiday. To get things going again, here’s a young cheetah cub taking a quick rest in-between chasing siblings across the savanna. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 1800, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.

We had a nice low vantage point on this hippo pool, which is unusual from a safari vehicle. We kept waiting for one of the hippos to show us those giant teeth but it was a relatively subdued group and they weren’t exactly cooperating. Finally this guy let out a bit of a half-hearted yawn and this was the best I could do. Photographed in the Masai Mara of Kenya on our recent trip. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 3600, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.

The yellow-billed stork is widely distributed throughout sub-Sahara Africa. That said, they exist in greater numbers in East Africa. Interesting fact about these guys — they hunt by their sense of touch rather than sight. They’ll dip their beak into the water and start moving it around until it comes in contact with prey (mostly small fish, but they also eat crustaceans, frogs, worms, insects and the occasional small mammal or bird). Once prey is detected, a rapid snap bill reflex occurs and the beak slams shut, the stork raises its head and swallows. This stork was resting along a river in the Masai Mara of Kenya. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 280, f/5.6 at 1/2000th of a second.