Dates: 15 August – 22 August 2021 (8 days)
Itinerary: Nairobi – Maasai Mara during the Great Migration
Photo safari leader: Alyosha Romanov
Price: $5,995 per person.

This exclusive photo safari is limited to a small group of 6 photographers (three photographers maximum per one safari vehicle). Double room occupancy. Single occupancy is an additional $1295.

We are very excited to announce our most amazing photo safari: The Great Migration, 2021!

We have created this wildlife photography safari and workshop for the photographer who wants to create a unique portfolio of wildlife images and greatly improve photography skills.

This photo tour is different from all our other photo tours to Kenya. We will be staying in only one national park: Maasai Mara – and there are several reasons for that.

• This photo safari is strategically timed to coincide with The Great Migration. The Great Migration is the most spectacular event in the natural world and is often referred to as the Greatest Show on Planet Earth. This largest movement of animals on the planet happens between the Serengeti in Tanzania and Maasai Mara in Kenya in the months of July through October. More than 1.5 million wildebeests, 400,000 zebras, and 200,000 gazelles cross the Mara River and move north to graze on Mara’s lush grasses as part of the Great Migration’s annual cycle. When crossing, the wildebeest face tremendous threats, such as drowning in swirling water, breaking their legs, being snatched by hungry crocodiles, or trampled to death in a stampede. Needless to say, such a huge number of herbivores attracts a lot of predators, unveiling one of nature’s most impressive dramas.

 

• For the wildlife photographer, no other place on the planet will compare to East Africa, and Kenya’s Maasai Mara is arguably the best place in the world for wildlife viewing and photography. It simply cannot get better than that! You will see everything: Lions, Elephants, Leopards, Cheetahs, Giraffes, Cape Buffalos, Rhinos, exotic birds, and so much more. The second part of July and August in Maasai Mara is the peak time to see one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World – The Great Migration. And that’s exactly when we will be there! Why go anywhere else if we can spend an entire week in beautiful Maasai-Mara?

 

• We will eliminate all driving between parks on this photo safari, which saves us 14-16 hours of driving. Instead, we will do four additional game drives!

The Mara is one of the few places left on earth where wildlife still lives comparatively undisturbed in numbers that once roamed the plains of Africa. With its sweeping savannahs and abundance of wild animals, photographers are guaranteed to get an amazing portfolio of images and produce life-long memories. It is going to be an experience of a lifetime!

A poet said: “You could leave Africa, but Africa will never leave you!”. We could not agree more. Africa and its raw untamed beauty will stay with you long after you return home and will inspire you to come back again soon.

 

Trip Highlights:

• Seven shooting days in East Africa’s best National Park, Maasai Mara, during the high season, when the Great Migration takes place.
• This exclusive workshop is limited to ONLY 6 photographers. This allows more one-on-one time with the photo instructor, greater freedom, more flexibility, and the feeling of a more personal private safari experience.
• An emphasis on photographing The Great Migration and The Big Cats – everything that made Maasai Mara famous.
• Only 3 photographers (and optionally one non-photographer) per eight-passenger 4×4 Toyota Land Cruiser, allowing more room for photographers to move around the vehicle, have unobstructed views and keep all the photo equipment handy on a separate seat. Each photographer is guaranteed to have their own row of seats.
• Unique optional 3 days off-road permit in Maasai Mara National Reserve, allowing us to get closer to the wildlife than anyone else.
• Our trip strategically timed for prime wildebeest and zebra migration dates in Maasai Mara.
• We will stay in the two most amazing locations in the heart of the National Reserve.

Exclusive off-road permit in Maasai Mara

What really makes our photo safaris in Kenya different – is that we can arrange a unique benefit for the workshop participants that very few wildlife photo safari workshops could offer: 3 days off-road permit in the beautiful Maasai Mara during the Great Migration! These notoriously hard to get permits will give us exclusive rights to get as close to the wildlife

as animals will allow. Unlike all other tourists, we will be able to leave the official roads in Maasai Mara National Reserve and drive right through the savannah. Needless to say, closer distance means everything for the wildlife photographer: it could turn good photographs into award-winning images. This permit will also allow us to get closer than anyone else to the river crossing during the Great Migration!

 

 A small number of workshop participants and a lot of space in safari vehicles

Unlike many other photo safari companies, we offer each photographer one row of seats in a safari vehicle, which allows more room for participants to move around in the customized 4×4 Toyota Land Cruiser, take unobstructed shots, and keep all the photo equipment handy on a separate seat. Since each safari vehicle is shared only by 3 photographers instead of 6-8 people, it significantly raises the expenses for this photo tour, however, we believe that the small group size ensures lots of personal attention and greatly improves the wildlife safari experience for serious photographers! We will also be able to accommodate one non-photographer (a spouse or a partner of a workshop participant) on a front window seat of a Land Cruiser for a reduced price.

 

 Safari vehicles custom-built for photographers

 

 During our workshop, we will use safari vehicles (converted 4×4 Toyota Land Cruisers) that are designed and custom-built with photographers’ needs in mind. These vehicles are equipped with open-sided canvas windows, wooden sidebars for placing or attaching your camera, bean bags for stability, laptop and phone chargers, and a pop-up roof to facilitate game viewing. Needless to say, these safari vehicles are perfectly adapted for wildlife photographers.

 

 

 Unique shooting position

Not only you will be able to photograph in a sitting position from the safari car windows or standing up from the roof of the vehicle (the car is equipped with a pop-up roof for better viewing and photography), but also, if desired, we can request our driver to  provide us with a completely unique shooting arrangement, not offered by other photo safari companies. We can have the front row of seats and a side door removed, which allows the workshop participants to photograph while laying down on the floor of the vehicle. The shots taken from the animal eye-level give a personal, almost intimate feel to photographs, allowing the viewer to become fully immersed in the scene. This is exactly what most professional wildlife photographers are looking for! And yes, our safari operator will provide a very comfortable mattress for photography from the floor of the vehicle.

 

 Experienced wildlife driver-guides specializing in working with the photographers

One of the most important factors for the success of the photo safari is the local wildlife guides. For this photo safari, we partnered with the best safari guides and trackers in Kenya. All of them are from the Maasai tribe, born and raised in Maasai Mara. They know this incredible park like the back of their hand. We have been working with these guides for years and we can attest to their amazing skills.

These guides went through extensive training and have thousands of hours working with professional and amateur wildlife photographers. Not only are they natural-born wildlife trackers and certified specialists with extensive knowledge of African flora and fauna, but they also know how to exactly position the car to achieve the best lighting and composition for exceptional photography. They will point out some unique photo opportunities to you. Their advice such as “Get your camera ready, the leopard is going to jump off that tree!” or “Make your shutter speed setting fast, the birds are going to fly off the giraffe’s neck!” can turn ordinary images into amazing award-winning photographs, capturing rare moments that invoke an emotional response from the viewer. A good photo guide can create incredible photographic opportunities, by putting the prey between you and the predator and predicting that the chase is coming your way or positioning the jeep to achieve dramatic backlighting.

Our wildlife guides are very patient and used to working with serious photographers, who often take a longer time when composing their shots or simply waiting for a rare moment to happen. They are aware of the difference between the needs of the clients on a wildlife photo safari as compared to the clients on a regular sightseeing game drive.

In addition to public radio channels that are used by regular guides, our guides have vast personal networks (phone calls, Facebook closed groups, private radio channels) through which they receive information about rare sightings. Having a large network is crucially important for the most amazing photo opportunities.

 

 Affordable prices

Photo safaris during the Great Migration are notoriously expensive, with prices starting at $1000 per day. We offer so much more but charge so much less!

 

Image review and post-processing instructions

We will spend most of the day in the field photographing wildlife. However, after the sunset and during the mid-day, when the light gets too harsh and the animals are not active, we will return to the camp. We will allocate time to review images and discuss shooting techniques. Your photography instructor will help you with post-processing your images in Photoshop to get the most out of them.

• 15th August, 2021: Arrival – Nairobi
• 16th August, 2021: Nairobi – Maasai Mara
• 17th-19th August, 2021: Full Day Maasai Mara Game Reserve (Keekorok Lodge)
• 20th-21th August, 2021: Full Day Maasai Mara Game Reserve (Entim Camp)
• 22nd August, 2021: Maasai Mara – Nairobi

Accommodations for our photo safari are chosen for a combination of their strategic locations and easy access to the best wildlife viewing spots, as well as for their uncompromising standard of quality. Just because we are spending time in the savannah does not mean we have to have it rough. Kenya is known for high standards in the safari industry and the infrastructure to support these high standards is among the best in the world. Our accommodations are first class and range from classic upscale safari-style lodges with modern conveniences to luxury tent-style camps.

Regarding the tent camps: these are not the standard tents you have used when camping on family vacations. Perhaps the only similarity is that they are made of canvas, but that is where it stops. The interiors of these permanently built camps are impeccably clean and huge, with plenty of room. Ceilings are 12-feet in height. Each room has one or two queen or king beds with fresh linens atop beautiful hardwood floors. Each tent has its own private bathroom with a flush toilet, sinks and hot-water shower, numerous lights, power outlets for charging batteries and laptop computers, comfortable seating, a writing desk for your work, and a patio or a deck for watching the sunset. You might forget that you are in a tent because inside it looks like a luxury hotel room.

A short walk to the main hall and the dining area provides an excellent place to rest and meet other safari-goers over a freshly prepared cocktail, glass of wine, or any other drink of your choice. Scrumptious meals are prepared by expert chefs and served in the dining area. Following a full day of game viewing and photography, you will have the opportunity to relax in your luxury tent while listening to the wild sounds of the savannah – an experience that comes close to true bliss.

We will be staying in two carefully selected places in Maasai Mara: Keekorok Lodge and Entim Camp, which allow us to extend our game drives to a greater area without the inconvenience of driving long distances each day to get to a sighting. The first location is a well-known predator-rich area, while the second is right on the banks of the Mara River, just a few steps away from the main crossing points.

 

Keekorok Lodge 

 

No other lodge or camp in Maasai Mara boasts a more central location than Keekorok. Since we will be staying in Keekorok, we don’t have to drive for hours to get to wildlife action, because this lodge is located right in the middle of it all, in the heart of the Maasai Mara.  

Keekorok has an interesting attraction: a hippo pond in its natural habitat adjoining the property, which means you can watch animals without leaving your lodge. 

Wouldn’t it be amazing to stay right in the middle of the most famous wildlife reserve in the world in the luxury of a five-star hotel? 

 

 

Entim Camp 

Entim Camp has a prime location along the Mara River. It is unrivaled for seeing and photographing animals all year round, but particularly for observing The Great Migration.  

You may not realize how rare it is to witness a migration river crossing, because the wildebeest can hesitate on the riverbank for days before taking the leap! But since Entim’s main wing overlooks the Mara River, while the private wing has an intimate bush setting, it is possible to observe the migration crossings without leaving the camp. Entim guests are usually first on the scene, without other tourist traffic around.  

Each year the migration moves right through the Entim camp showcasing hunting activity from the predators of the Maasai Mara.  

Entim’s is a luxury 5-Star camp. Its tented rooms are furnished with all the amenities that you will require for a comfortable stay while visiting the Maasai Mara. All the tents have both cold and hot running water for showers, a washing basin, a flushing toilet, and comfortable safari chairs to experience amazing views from a veranda.  

The Entim experience is not your average hotel or lodge. It is a feeling of being part of the landscape and having profound encounters with wild animals and Maasai people in their own land. It is a sharing of passions and significant moments in the heart of one of the most famous wildlife reserves in the world. 

 

• A good DSLR or Mirrorless Camera is mandatory to get great wildlife shots. Simple point-and-shoot cameras do not have a high enough frame rate or resolution to capture beautiful photographs.
• Lenses:
  • High magnification tele lens (400mm-600mm) is recommended to get fill-the-frame wildlife images.
  • Medium range tele lens (70 – 200mm) is convenient for closer distance wildlife.
  • Wide-angle lens (16 – 35 mm) or a mid-range zoom lens (24-70 mm) is needed for landscapes and wildscapes.
  • With this set of lenses, you can cover the range of 16mm up to 600mm. There will be some opportunity to photograph landscapes, people, and animals at close range, so having a wide range of lenses will help to ensure that you have the right gear for each situation.

• It is recommended to bring two camera bodies, so you do not have to swap lenses often in potentially dusty conditions. It is very convenient to have one camera body with a long lens attached and another body ready to go with a medium range lens.
• A 1.4x extender is also advised, but not critical. It will potentially give you an extra 100-200mm reach.
• Bring at least 2 memory cards of 128 GB or more. You will be surprised at how fast you can go through memory cards when the animal action happens and your camera is going full burst. On average, you will be shooting 300-800 images a day, and you do not want to have to delete photos on the go.
• A laptop with at least 500 GB of hard-drive space to review and backup your photos. If you are planning to edit photos while on safari, please make sure you have Lightroom and Photoshop installed on your laptop. We will allocate time to edit photographs after the game drives. Photoshop instruction is included in the price of the workshop and hopefully, you will take full advantage of it.
• Additional storage to back up your photographs. An external hard drive with at least 500GB of space is great. Nothing could be as tragic as losing all your images from this photo trip. An extra hard drive is cheap, trips to Africa are not. Get into a habit of backing up your images every evening!
• Camera cleaning products (cleaning cloths, dust blowers, brushes). It can get quite dusty on the safari. You could get dust on the lenses and sensors, especially if you are changing the lenses in the field.
• Extra batteries for your cameras. You don’t want to find yourself in the situation when you are running out of battery in the middle of an epic moment. Every camp or lodge will have electric outlets to recharge your batteries in the evening, but plan on having enough batteries for at least one full day of shooting.
• 3 prong (triangle shape) UK plug adapters (220V) for your laptop and chargers.
• We will provide filled bean bags for you at no extra charge, so you don’t have to bring them. Bean bags are used to give a stable platform for your camera when shooting.
• Photography on the safari is typically from safari vehicles, so you don’t have to bring a tripod.

If you don’t own a good camera or recommended lens for wildlife photography, there are several companies in the US that rent photo equipment at reasonable prices (e.g., www.borrowlenses.com). Most of them offer a good discount for first-time customers and they ship everywhere in the US.

If you have any additional questions about the photo equipment, do not hesitate to reach your photography instructor, Alyosha Romanov (personal email: romanov.alyosha@gmail.com).

 

Is this photo safari for you?

Photographers of all levels who are passionate about wildlife are welcome. Our tour leader is experienced in guiding and photography instruction. A very small group (no more than 6 photographers) allows a lot of personal attention and guidance.

 

What our day will look like?

We will spend most of our time in the field shooting. We will wake up much earlier than the regular tourists and arrive at our morning photo location before sunrise. Often, we will bring a picnic breakfast with us, so we don’t miss any photo opportunity when the light is still fantastic, by having to rush back to the camp.

Most days, we will return to our camp for lunch and a nap/rest in the middle of the day, since the light gets harsh and not too much animal activity is happening. In the evening, we will return to the camp for dinner shortly after the sunset, taking advantage of the golden hour photography in the savannah, when the light is soft and animals are very active. In the evening or during the afternoon break, we will have time for the post processing instructions and review of the photographs.

 

Is this a photo workshop or a photo tour/safari?

 A photography workshop is specifically focused on teaching new skills (technical or creative). An instructor’s goal is to teach you and give constructive reviews. Once we learn some important photography skills, like exposure, depth of field, composition, and focusing, we start snapping away thousands of pictures, but soon we find ourselves getting stuck at the same level and stagnating. The photo workshop is a great way to break free of this rut.

The focus of a photo tour or photo safari is to take a group of photographers to an incredible destination at the best time of the year and at the right time of the day, ensuring the best possible lighting. Instructors will spend a lot of time in advance preparing logistics and itineraries for the tour, based on their own prior personal experience. For each photo safari, they establish a relationship with an experienced team that deeply understands photographers’ needs. The instructor does not spend as much time guiding/teaching the tour participants as on a workshop, but rather helps participants to create their own photographic vision of a scene, being supportive by answering all their questions.

What we offer is a combination of both: a photo workshop and a photo safari. We do expect you to be familiar with the settings of your camera because we do not want to be figuring out the basic exposure or learning to focus while a cheetah is chasing an impala in front of us – that will not be the best time to learn nor to get the unprepared shot. We strongly recommend you take some time before the trip to learn your camera settings and photography basics offered via numerous online classes, YouTube videos, and introductory workshops. However, an instructor will be available in the field to answer your questions about exposure, composition, and technique. When we return to the camp after the game drive, we have an optional class/workshop, where the instructor could teach you photography techniques, help with the camera settings, answer questions, and offer post-processing instructions in Lightroom and Photoshop in order to bring the most out of your images.

• The price for this premier all-inclusive 8-days wildlife photographic safari is $5995 per photographer.
• This photo safari is limited to a very small group of 6 photographers (spacious arrangement with three photographers per 8-passenger Toyota Land Cruiser).
• We will be able to accommodate one non-photographer (a spouse or a partner of a workshop participant) on a front seat of a Land Cruiser for a reduced price of $5795.
• The price assumes double-room occupancy.
• Single occupancy is a supplement of $1295. If a solo workshop participant wants to share a room, we will do our best to match him or her with another person of the same gender; however, if this is not possible then the single occupancy supplement will be charged.
• A 40% non-refundable deposit for the workshop needs to be paid via bank transfer to our partner safari operator “The Land of the Lion Safaris”. Once your registration and deposit are received, we will send a confirmation receipt and trip details.
• The final balance (60%) is due 30 days before the beginning of the trip via bank transfer to our safari operator “The Land of the Lion Safaris”.
• Our experienced safari operator will be happy to assist you with pre- or post-safari arrangements (e.g., an idyllic beach vacation in Malindi, Diani, or Zanzibar; gorillas trekking in Uganda or Rwanda, etc.).
• Safari seats are transferable.
• Purchasing travel-cancellation insurance is highly recommended.

Financial Protection

Payments for all the photo safaris are made through “Land of The Lion Safaris”, which means you have financial protection of booking through a registered tour operator.

Covid-19 Guarantee

If there is a government restriction of travel in 2021, we can offer you a new date or a full refund for the safari photography tour. You don’t have to worry about losing your payment if you cannot join us due to the uncertainty of Covid-19.