Home to one of the World’s greatest natural spectacles, the annual Wildebeest Migration, Kenya’s Maasai Mara has a lot more to offer than its diverse wildlife.
Maasai Mara’s endless plains that touch some of the most dramatic skies in the World are hauntingly beautiful and frequently overwhelming.
In the distance, the horizon is lined with the gentle rolling hills, speckled with areas of acacia and fig trees. In the foreground is the endless green and golden sea of tall swaying grass.
Compared to its neighbour, the Serengeti, Maasai Mara’s “dry” season is never completely arid. With pockets of short rains, the landscape maintains a soft lush green that reflects the strong sun on to the rocks, trees and animals with the softest of glows – perfect for beautiful photography.
Like clockwork, afternoon storm clouds gather in the expansive skies. Towering dark masses of dense condensation, Cumulonimbus clouds, swell in clusters suddenly and create formidable lighting bolts straight from the heart of the cloud; leaving the unforgiving sun to shine through the crevices in between the clusters of clouds, creating shadows in the low hills whilst accentuating the true colours of the Kenyan sky and plains.
This was my third time visiting the Maasai Mara in eight months, and every time I review my photographs from each trip – I have to ask myself if my camera settings were right, did I have a filter, did I boost the colours with post-processing and whether the sky was really that hauntingly beautiful. And, every time my conclusion is the same – the Maasai Mara is simply that unforgettably magical.
PICTORIAL: Susan Wong 2012 © All rights reserved.
