Have you ever tried to photograph one of these things up close? Yeah, me either. But I learnt that you can't fit a whole one on into your standard 75mm lens when they are that close. So I was screwed. They were either too far (hence the lens) or WAY too close. You just get elephant eye-cam. Not so pleasant. So, while I have a lot of photos of elephants in this post, I can assure you there's about a hundred more in my filing system which will never see the light of day. But enough about that. Onto the elephants...
What an impressive creature. The first thing we saw as soon as we got into the Serengeti was evidence of these guys. Their poo is about the size of a rockmelon. Eeew. Good news, it doesn't small since it's just grass. Win.
We were really luck and saw loads of these guys; bulls, females with babies & my personal favourite... a visit to our overnight camping grounds by two giant bulls who decided to take water from our campsite well. Yeah, it was 9pm at night and we were enjoying a glass or two of Konyagi (Tanzanian rum/vodka poison) when we hear this rustling sound about 5 meters away. So we go inspect. In hindsight, I'm not sure that's a wise thing to do in the middle of an african safari - but the Konyagi made us do it. Our inspection leads to an up close & personal encounter with these wild animals. I've never felt so small and fragile in my life. My headlamp torch shone directly into the eye of the biggest one; he didn't like that so much. But in the end (after I froze like a deer in headlights), we left them alone to their drinking while we sat & watched them from our dinner table under the stars. Happiness for everyone involved.
