One thing about Mount Kilimanjaro is that you never know what you’re going to get. And if it’s looking good, it’s even better when you have an elephant in the viewfinder.
I photographed this elephant in the Selenkay Conservancy near Amboseli National Park, Kenya. This conservancy, and many others leased from the Maasai, are private conservation lands that provide large acreages for wildlife habitat outside national parks in Kenya. The conservancy idea is in use outside Kenya as well.
I was in Kenya recently. This photo is from Amboseli National Park which is known for its elephants.
I injured my right elbow before I left for Kenya and ordered a Gimpro Gear Safari Clamp which took all the weight off my right elbow. An RRS fluid gimbal is mounted to it and I used a Canon R5 and Canon RF100-500mm lens the whole trip. The clamp worked great mounted on a Gamewatchers Safaris truck. It’s like having a tripod without having to deal with the legs in the vehicle. They are very popular in South Africa.
Here are some of my favorite photos that I blogged about in 2019.
A bull tule elk feeds at sunset inside the elk enclosure at Point Reyes National Seashore.
At Point Reyes National Seashore 400-500 elk are kept locked up behind an 8-foot tall woven-wire fence to keep them away from the ranchers who live on and control 28,000 acres of park land and raise 6,000 dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep. NPS bought their ranches decades ago, but never removed them. The 28,000 acres are managed as the ranchers want, not as lands in a national park are supposed to be managed. I know of no other national park where wildlife is locked up like in a zoo for the visitors to see.
A night view of Angel Island, Alcatraz and San Francisco.
Mountains and fog at dawn in Torres del Paine National Park
A mother guanaco and her chulengo appear before sunrise in Torres del Paine National Park.
A red fox mom returns to her den with an arctic hare to feed her kits in Yellowstone National Park.
Three lionesses are on the hunt in Serengeti National Park.
A bald eagle perches on a limb in Alaska.
A male elephant walks near a wetland in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania.
An African lioness surveys her domain in Serengeti National Park.
A coyote stops just before sunset as it travels across a ranch pasture in Point Reyes National Seashore.
The National Park Service purchased the ranches several decades ago, but it has never made the ranchers leave.
One bald eagle bites another at Homer, Alaska.
A coyote walks across a ranch pasture full of non-native European grasses in Point Reyes Seashore.
The National Park Service prioritizes private ranching over wildlife in Point Reyes National Seashore. This is the worst example of privatizing a national park that I am aware of. It involves 28,000 acres of national park land. If anyone knows of a worse example, please let me know.