Some photos from my recent trip to South Africa

[hsuthard]

Hi guys,
My family just got back from a 24-day journey to South Africa. I took about 3000 photos and wanted to share some of my favorites! I have a lot of birds as well, if anyone's interested. They're really hard to get a good capture of, though.

Wild Dogs in Madikwe


Mother Lion with cubs:


Giraffe nuzzling:


Cheetah (there's actually two here, can you see one to the right as well? Her back is to us):


Hippos covered in oxpeckers (I love the birds that sit on the hippos and giraffes!):


I love how the elephants look like they're staying in the shade (it was freezing, though, I'd have thought they wanted to be in the sun!):


LOVE zebras now, they're my favorite



We saw this guy from the safety of a riverboat (and I used my 300mm lens with 1.4x extender):


Sunset:


The elephants would hold out their trunks like this to smell us and make sure we weren't predators:


More zebra:


Doesn't it look like the giraffe is talking to the yellow hornbill?


Isn't this spooky?


A rhino chasing off a cheetah (nobody messes with rhino!)


This baby rhino kept trying to wake up his mom so he could eat and she was having none of it! LOL


Lioness resting:


A rare male white lion (they're not albino, just "blondes"):


A hippo and baby in the water:


I'll add some more later!

[mlewis78]

Nice.  Did you use zoom or were you that close to them?

[telracs]

Is it okay with you if I post some of my South Africa pictures here also?  They're not as cool as yours, it was before I went digital.

[hsuthard]

Scarlet, please do add them! I was surprised at how close we could get to many of the animals, but I did use either a 200mm or 300mm lens for almost all of my shots. I found that was sufficient for everything but the landscape pictures. And some of these are cropped a bit as well. 

[telracs]

[Sendie]

I loved looking at these and I can't wait to see more!

[Monique]

Holly, your pics are wonderful. The animals are just amazing. I'm so jealous of both you and Scarlet!

[CNDudley]

Holly, these are really cool!

My husband was on safari in Kenya, and he (1) took zero pictures and (2) said they didn't see much but dust. Lucky you!