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Archive 2008 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Elessar
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p.1 #1 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

... and lions do it!!!

Well, I was going to say that I didn't have a lot of time tonight and so this would have to be a quickie, but all of you know me well enough to know that I would never stoop to using a bad pun.

We actually saw several lions mating this trip; these two at Maasai Mara just happened to be the ones easiest to photograph. When a lionness is in heat, she and the male will spend hours mating. The act itself only last a minute or two, then they rest for 15-20 minutes, and then they're at it again.

In photo number one, the female is resting in the shade underneath the tree that the male is walking towards.

Edited by Elessar on Mar 26, 2008 at 12:52 AM GMT

Edited on Mar 25, 2008 at 07:52 PM

Mar 25, 2008 at 07:44 PM

Elessar
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p.1 #2 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

#2 Maybe he's thankful for what he has received and is about to receive again?? Meanwhile, she's just being a flirt.

Edited by Elessar on Mar 26, 2008 at 12:46 AM GMT

Edited on Mar 25, 2008 at 07:46 PM

Mar 25, 2008 at 07:44 PM

Elessar
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p.1 #3 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

#3 They lead each other away from the brush - which was nice because the first time we saw them mate they were obscurred by the tree. Notice that he has her tail in his mouth. I also notice that the lens hood of the photographer next to me is in the shot. In the heat of the moment, these things happen. Oops, how did that pun get in there?!?

Mar 25, 2008 at 07:46 PM

Elessar
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p.1 #4 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

#4 Gentlemen, start you engines!!

Mar 25, 2008 at 07:47 PM

Elessar
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p.1 #5 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

#5 Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase - "Love Bites!"

Mar 25, 2008 at 07:47 PM

Elessar
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p.1 #6 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

#6 As the Japanese would say, "the moment of clouds and rain." Such a nice, innocent sounding euphemism.

Mar 25, 2008 at 07:49 PM

Elessar
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p.1 #7 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

#7 And now for something completely different. These giraffe were also were at Maasai Mara. These six were walking along in single file for quite some time. Auditioning to be telephone poles perhaps?

Mar 25, 2008 at 07:50 PM

Elessar
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p.1 #8 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

#8 Finally, as I mentioned last time, we stayed in the Little Governor's Camp at Maasai Mara. The camp had a lot of wildlife living in the camp. Warthogs were frequently seen during the day, hippos could be heard every night, and then we had this female elephant and three younger ones frequently wandering near or through the camp. Each day the camp served a buffet lunch overlooking the marsh that was in the rainbow shot I shared last time. This day, the female decided to feed on some brush near the lunch tables.

Mar 25, 2008 at 07:50 PM

Elessar
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p.1 #9 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

#9 She wandered off a little, but was very relaxed and happily munching so we just went ahead and ate. However, I did have to have one of the other photographers take a picture of us and our lunch guest!

Mar 25, 2008 at 07:51 PM

Josh S
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p.1 #10 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Great images - it looks like you got pretty close to the action. They didn't seem to mind much huh?

Also, I enjoy the narration... So, the expression of the moment of "clouds and rain" is a new one to me... I just finished poking around google to enlighten myself

Mar 25, 2008 at 08:01 PM

Tim Kuhn
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p.1 #11 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Wonderful comp on the giraffes! Too cool. Very nice series, what an experience that must have been. Wow. Thanks for sharing.

Tim

Mar 25, 2008 at 09:21 PM

Jim Rickards
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p.1 #12 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Nice group of photos and narration to go with it too. Training those giraffe probably took some time!

. Good work.

Edited on Mar 25, 2008 at 09:35 PM

Mar 25, 2008 at 09:35 PM

Doug Bentlage
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p.1 #13 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Excellent series Jay, love the photos and the commentary. Although they are all amazing shots, my favorite is the giraffes, very cool shot!

Doug

Mar 25, 2008 at 09:45 PM

harshaj1
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p.1 #14 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Excellent commentary and photography. Love # 6 and 7.
I also came across 4 mating pairs of lions during my trip. Three of the pairs were too far to get decent pictures. It rained when I came across the last mating pair. I got some shots but not as sharp as I want them to be.
Harsha

Mar 25, 2008 at 10:03 PM

Chris Willis
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p.1 #15 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Jay, I am continuing to enjoy the pictures from your trip. The mating lions are great, but the giraffe pictures is really captivating to me. What a lineup! Also nice to see that elephant be so calm near the camp -- last time we were around elephants in Africa (Botswana) the females were almost uniformly very aggressive so we generally kept our distance! Interestingly the males we encountered were very cool and we got quite close to them without incident. They are awesome animals to be close to on foot, I am sure that was an unforgettable experience.

Chris

Mar 25, 2008 at 11:15 PM

Lil Judd
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p.1 #16 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Jay,

you're just have too much fun.

You're one lucky guy.

Lil

Mar 26, 2008 at 01:46 AM

72chevelle454
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p.1 #17 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Lil Judd wrote:
Jay,

you're just have too much fun.

You're one lucky guy.

Lil

I would say Mr. Lion was the lucky guy

Jay, great series, I really enjoyed this one greatly.

Mar 26, 2008 at 07:25 AM

Elessar
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p.1 #18 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Josh S wrote:
Great images - it looks like you got pretty close to the action. They didn't seem to mind much huh?

Also, I enjoy the narration... So, the expression of the moment of "clouds and rain" is a new one to me... I just finished poking around google to enlighten myself

Thanks, Josh. Yes, we were quite close. These were all shot between 90 and 170mm so I didn't even have to go fully telephoto with the 28-300.

I picked up "moment of clouds and rain" from the book Shogun (great book, highly recommend it). It never occurred to me until I was constructing this post that I might someday use it to describe a photograph I took.

Jay

Mar 26, 2008 at 05:45 PM

Elessar
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p.1 #19 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

Tim Kuhn wrote:
Wonderful comp on the giraffes! Too cool. Very nice series, what an experience that must have been. Wow. Thanks for sharing.

Tim

Thanks, Tim. It was actually very dark and overcast with rain all around us when I shot the giraffes. I had to lighten it up in processing quite a bit to make it presentable.

Jay

Mar 26, 2008 at 05:47 PM

anthony whitmo
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p.1 #20 · Birds do it, bees do it (mature)

totally awesome capturing these guys in "The Act"
The Giraffe shot is absolutely stunning and would be a very interesting print !!
The pics around camp very interesting

Well done

Anthony Whitmo

Mar 26, 2008 at 05:52 PM

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