Wildlife Photo Tour

Elephants and Mount Kilimanjaro

Amboseli National Park offers one of the most classic and breathtaking views of Kenya, with Mount Kilimanjaro (in Tanzania) as the back drop. At 18,652 feet, Kilimanjaro dominates the plains like a powerful god ruling the world from his white capped throne. In fact, ancient Swahili and Arab legends tell of a great inland mountain with a terrible god living at the top. As punishment for anyone daring to approach his throne, he would paralyze their hands and feet. Interesting how inhabitants of tropical areas described being frozen. Mount Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania but the most spectacular view is from Amboseli National Park.

Grey Crowned Crane

Back to Amboseli, we arrived at the Amboseli Serena Lodge in time for lunch and then an afternoon game drive. The lodge is truly wonderful. The accommodations were on par with an upscale US hotel. Meals were buffet and well prepared, again very westernized.

Despite your first impression that this is nothing but a dry, arid and dusty land, you soon become educated. Amboseli has plenty of water year round, it’s just underground. The snows of Kilimanjaro melt, soaking into the porous subsoil layers of volcanic rocks. These underground streams bubble to the surface forming two clear springs in the center of the park. Water also oozes up at several other points in the park creating large marshes like the Loginya Swamp. These swamps and marshes have become private spas for elephants, hippos and buffaloes.

Wildebeests at Sunset

During my stay in Amboseli I photographed some truly huge elephants and hundreds of other plains animals. What I didn’t see at Amboseli were cats. In fact, I didn’t get a photograph of any predators.

From Amboseli my tour took me from the north side to the south side of Mount Kilimanjaro as I headed for the Tarangire National Park.

My Northern Arizona Photography Tour from April 28 to May 1, 2009, covers a lot of ground in Arizona. This Photography Tour and Workshop in Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, the Wave in the Paria Wilderness (subject to permits), Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado river, and the Grand Canyon.

Upper Antelope Canyon-Heart 19076

Antelope Canyon is a small but spectacular canyon cut through sandstone over thousands of years, by rushing water flooding into Lake Powell (Colorado River). This geological formation is located in northern Arizona on the Navajo Nation and is one of their tribal parks.

Tours through Upper Antelope Canyon take about an hour of easy walking. You are dropped at the entrance by 4X4 vehicles for your tour. A guide will lead you through the canyon. It is breathtaking to say the least. As a photography tour we are allowed to stay in the canyon for four hours and guide ourselves.

Upper Antelope Canyon

Walking through Lower Antelope Canyon is another proposition altogether. You are required to climb up and down steel ladders throughout the canyon. This portion of the canyon is a moderate to hard walk and climb.

Photography tours to Monument Valley is a must for the serious photographer. Located in both Arizona and Utah, the Valley is a Navajo Nation Tribal Park. The Valley contains some of the most striking and recognizable sandstone buttes, mesas, monoliths and spires in the southwest.

Hunt's Mesa, Monument Valley 8390

Totem Poles, Monument Valley 8065

The Wave, Paria Wilderness Area

Paria Wilderness Area requires a $7 permit and a 2+ mile moderate hike. The wilderness area is managed by the BLM who only allow 20 permits a day for the area, ten on line and ten walk-ins. Getting a permit can be extremely difficult. On my last Photography Tour to the Wave there were 82 applicants for the ten walk-in permits. I’m happy to announce we were successful.

Horseshoe Bend, Colorado River Page, AZ

Grand Canyon