I picked up a 50-200mm telephoto zoom lens back in March (see: More elephanty goodness) primarily for the Maasai Mara safari—and any other wildlife we might encounter on our overland trip through East Africa. Looking back at my previous posts, it was completely worth it.

Still, I really love taking wide-angle landscape shots, but it just wasn’t feasible to switch back and forth between the 50-200mm and my workhorse 21mm pancake lens. Lacking the luxury of two camera bodies, I left the telephoto zoom on during the entire safari.

That doesn’t mean I couldn’t or didn’t take any landscape shots. Maasai Mara is sufficiently grand that even at its widest (50mm or 75mm-e) the lens was able to capture some pretty stunning vistas. Here are a few of my favorites.