Lentorre Lodge is located in the heart of the Great Rift Valley, surrounding the soda lakes of Magadi and Natron, deep in the heart of the Olkirimatian Conservancy. Paul and I took a small group of photographers there for three nights following our recently concluded Mara trip.

When we arrived at our lodge, we were greeted with freshly pressed watermelon juice with a hint of mint, a cool washcloth, and warm smiles. The lodge had an open-air concept with large, thatched roofs and a tropical flair. Our meals (even the vegetarian meals) were all scrumptious and I cleaned my plate at just about every meal.

My room was enormous with floor to ceiling doors and windows— except there were no doors or windows, just large expansive openings overlooking a tree top haven complete with a small private plunge pool.

Our lodge is well known for its low, underground hide set up especially for nighttime photography. It attracts all kinds of wildlife that come to the hide to drink. There are strategically placed lights (even backlighting).

On our first night we photographed a porcupine, it was very unexpected and very thirsty! An African wildcat (I missed it), a few waterbucks, some dik-dik and a couple of hares. The next morning, we went to Lake Magadi which is the southernmost lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley to photograph lesser and greater flamingos feeding on the soda lakes. We were treated to quite a show, with large numbers of flamingos, very near to us. During our time on the ground at Lake Magadi, I photographed some flamingos using a slow shutter speed (from 1/6 sec. to 1/20 sec.) to express their movement. All images in this post were created using my Sony A1 or A9 and 200-600mm lens and my 24-105mm lens. Though I think that the 70-200mm f/2.8 would have been good to use in the hide as well.

We visited a local Maasai village where the cattle and sheep farmers are nomadic. We learned that the children don’t go to school, that is why this tradition has lasted. They were very happy to see us and allow us a glimpse into their lives. I took photos of the children and showed them their images. They all giggled when they saw themselves. We also photographed the Maasai men herding the animals with a lot of backlit dust in the air. The opening image in this blog post is one of the shots I captured there of a Maasai and his cow, they had a tender bond.

Three of us did some aerial photography from a helicopter over the soda lakes. The colors were out of this world, and we saw flocks of flamingos circling around and feeding in the lakes. It was fantastic to see and capture. I concentrated on the intense colors and patterns and created some interesting abstracts. And one of my favorites (shown below) is of elephant tracks across the lake bed.