This was my first experience at a Hyena den. We got close to them and it was wonderful. There were two little-ish ones who showed their faces briefly. A few lazy caretakers lay around for protection. We swung by the den on two occasions. The light was better during the second visit. Here are the images from these visits.

Let's focus our attention on this last image. Where this images fails, for me, is the angle at which this image was taken. I am shooting slightly down on the Hyena. This means that the background is close, right behind its head. The result is that I could not blur the background to make the Hyena stand out more. It lacks any kind of wow-factor. The ideal would have been to get down low and shoot from ground level, thereby placing the background much further back, allowing me to blur the background more.

          But what is one to do in the wild? You can't get out of the vehicle lest the Hyenas see you either as a threat to the little ones or as food. Neither of these options are better than the other. In anticipation for scenes exactly like these I brought a mono-pod along. The idea was to lower the camera upside down on the mono-pod to ground level. I was going to trigger the camera with a wired remote release. By using my phone as a monitor for the camera, (bluetooth) I was going to capture a much better image. After all, that is what I learned to do from an OM Systems photographer.

          While I don't know how this OM Systems photographer got away with it, I can tell you that our driver refused permission to use my contraption. You are not supposed to break the silhouette of the vehicle. The animal should only see the vehicle and nothing else outside of the vehicle. The Hyena's were very peaceful and lazy, I strongly doubt if a mono-pod right from the vehicle's side would have made any difference to them. Regardless, we have to stick to the rules. We can just wonder about how others do it.

          Perhaps the lesson to be learned is that the animals come first, not our photography. Sometimes we should just enjoy the experience and do the best we can photographically.