Ambush at Sunrise
Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart. And I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again. Oriah Mountain Dreamer
©kathykarn
I’m delighted to share this week’s story with photographer and friend Cathy Langen. Follow Cathy on Instagram @wildscapephotos. Let me set the scene: we were four women in the vehicle, Brenda Senewa Korian, our Maasai guide and driver, photographer friends Cathy Langen and Heather Wall and myself.
Morning game drive with Maasai guide Brenda Senewa Korian ©kathykarn
When we set out on our morning game drive with Brenda in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve it felt like we crossed a threshold into a living Rothko painting in pinks and purples. Ephemeral silhouettes of giraffes emerged in the morning mist. It was breathtaking. I struggled to adjust my camera settings to capture the ethereal moment.
As the sun rose higher the sky changed from purple to orange revealing another group of animals in the shadows, a pride of lions, females and sub adult cubs
Lions at dawn ©kathykarn
Cathy, Heather and I did our best to record the wonder and raw beauty of the moment. Mystical giraffes, then ghostly lions and we were barely out of camp. Amazing!
Bands of mist transitioned to grey as the sun approached the horizon exposing more of the landscape. The lions moved off nonchalantly down the road, and then, they saw the giraffes ……
©kathykarn
There was a collective intake of breath and unspoken prayer Noooo, please, not the giraffes! I know we can’t pick sides in the circle of life. I love giraffes and lions, but …. there’s something about giraffes that makes them off limits in my mind. They are simply too beautiful, too elegant, too BIG to hunt. There was a pregnant pause as our horror and the lions’ hunting instinct hung in the air, then the younger cats decided fair game! and took off after the prey.
A sub adult lion sprints after prey in the early morning light. ©kathykarn
We anxiously scanned the scene for the giraffes and spotted them racing away in a panic along the forest edge.
©kathykarn
Cathy made an evocative video of the ensuing drama from a selection of her images. Watch her Ambush at Sunrise here.
©CathyLangen
Our hearts in our mouths, we tried to capture the split-second action knowing there was no way to influence the outcome. One of the lions was in hot pursuit and closing in fast. Cathy caught the moment when the big cat made a leap for the giraffe’s leg …. and missed (the cat not Cathy). We gave a collective sigh of relief when the giraffe pulled away and the distance gradually widened between the pursuer and the pursued.
©kathykarn
As the giraffe galloped into the distance, the young lions returned to the pride playfully swatting and chasing each other as if the entire experience was a game of tag. Be still my heart!
©kathykarn
Although these cats were fully grown, at this stage of development they are like impulsive teenagers. Every chase is a game and practice for when they will have to depend on their own skills to survive. For now, their mothers are responsible for feeding the pride. As we watched the rambunctious adolescents rejoin the pride, I imagined the lionesses thinking, “Kids. Sheesh, those youngsters need to learn a thing or two about strategy and planning before they scare away all the game in the territory running off on a wild goose (giraffe) chase.”
©kathykarn
Cathy, Heather and I were relieved with the outcome and eager to see if we’d caught anything we liked in our cameras. Photography challenges me to synchronize heart and mind. My goal is to share the emotional impact of a moment with the aid of the camera’s technology. My heart is in the present while my brain struggles to simultaneously remember settings and be creative. The learning curve is steep, but the classroom is never boring on safari.
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