As Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” It was an icy-cold afternoon in Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana. We were on the Photo Mashatu open vehicle and I had a blanket over my knees. We stopped at a sighting of two lionesses with small cubs; one of them had two very small cubs. The interaction between them was fascinating, so I decided I should take a video on my iPhone X. I set my iPhone up on a small ‘gorilla grip’ tripod, started the video and then continued taking photos on my Canon 7D. After a while I noticed my iPhone was becoming unstable. I put my Canon down on my lap to remove the iPhone, and then, before I could stop it, the camera slipped off my lap and fell on the ground with a thud.
Without hesitation, the lioness with the bigger cubs approached, giving us no chance to retrieve the camera. It had fallen with the lens facing up. She gently flipped it over and grasped it by the barrel of the lens... Read more in the Photo Tales book.
Story by Barbara Jensen Vorster
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