08-JAN-2006
Hippo tracks, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
The hippo footprint is easy to spot -- not as big as an elephant's, yet featuring four toes. Hippos came up at night to feed near both of our camps. While having dinner at our Puku Ridge tented camp, we watched a huge hippo graze its way into the bushes just outside of our dining room. Hippos may look gentle and slow, but if provoked, they can behave violently. We held our breaths as it disappeared into the night. This image does not show the huge beast. Instead it uses abstraction to imply its ponderous presence. The tracks stimulate the imagination, causing us to imagine the hippo as a somewhat prehistoric beast, seeing it in our mind’s eye moving through the muddy ground before us. I use perspective control to emphasize the size of a hippo’s foot by employing a semi-wideangle 35mm focal length. It makes the tracks closest to us very large, and they gradually dwindle in size in comparison as they recede into the background.
10-JAN-2006
Summer storm, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
A heavy late afternoon rain approaches our Puku Ridge tented camp. I intensify the overwhelming presence of that huge rain cloud by wrapping it in overhanging leaves, limiting the space through which it must pass. There are more clouds than space in this shot, and it is that juxtaposition that gives this image its tension and power. And yes, when the rains came, they came with high winds and great energy. But the stronger the rain, the more quickly it ends. The typical summer rain in Zambia lasts for an hour or two, generally between five or six in the afternoon and seven or eight at night.
05-JAN-2006
Soaked buffalo, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
A herd of African Cape Buffalo waits out a late afternoon rain in South Luangwa National Park. We stayed fairly dry -- our vehicle had a canvas top, and we kept our cameras under our rain ponchos. There are significant advantages to visiting Zambia during its wet season: more colorful images, fewer tourists, and lower prices at the lodges and camps that remain open. This image is another example of dominating an image with context, and using the subject itself in smaller scale to carry significant meaning. The herd is reduced to distant black hulks. It is the driving rain and skeletal trees that provide both context and meaning here.
09-JAN-2006
Mudbath, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
An African Cape Buffalo and her calf, seen following a roll in the mud. The rainy season ensures an amply supply of it. The mud has incongruously abstracted the animals, changing their appearance to seemingly fictional creatures. I used a 420mm lens to move in and make the heads as large as possible. I then cropped the image, retaining only about one quarter of the frame. Because I use an eight megapixel camera, this cropped area becomes equivalent of just two megapixels. Yet it still retains adequate detail and
significant meaning. The juxtaposition of the large, heavily caked, old head and the smaller but smooth young head create a final incongruity, symbolizing the opposite ends of the age spectrum.
04-JAN-2006
Baboon curtain, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Our chalets at Luangwa River Lodge featured boardwalks leading to the river. A troop of baboons used this area as a passageway and playground. They would often sit outside my window, their shapes dimly visible through the bamboo curtains that covered the screened doors to our chalets. I take advantage of the abstracting power of those curtains. The distance of the baboons from the curtain, as well as the intensity and direction of the light, determines how much the curtain abstracts them. Just as these playful baboons played tricks on each other and on lodge guests, the screen itself plays tricks with our perception. What is that blurred figure behind the door and what does it want with us?
Baboons mimic humans, and when abstracted in this manor, this baboon becomes incongruously human.
05-JAN-2006
On the termite hill, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
This baby baboon has left its mother’s back to climb a termite hill, creating a strong diagonal line that runs from the upper left hand corner down through the middle of the picture. The strong backlighting brings a glow to the baby’s body, giving this image an incongruous, otherworldly effect. Its mother is backlighted as well, as she searches for nutrients in the soil. The late afternoon light enriches the lush green context that makes up the background, representing the larger world beyond the little hill, with all of its dangers and possibilities. This image speaks of curiosity, risk, and independence. The mother does not even watch its baby explore its new world. These abstracted baboons offer a metaphor for man as well – symbolizing challenges to be explored and threats to be understood and acted upon.
11-JAN-2006
Seclusion, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Some baboons are brazen. Others, often mothers carrying babies, are more cautious. This one seeks shelter amidst some bushes. This image speaks of vulnerability, an essentially human value. Yet animals can also share that value with us. I try to intensify the feeling of vulnerability by partially abstracting both the mother and baby in the bushes. The mother looks away, leaving us to focus on the tiny eyes of the baby pressed to her belly.
06-JAN-2006
Birds and buffalos, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
A herd of Cape Buffalo draws a flock of overhead cattle egrets, while a yellow-billed stork considers joining the party. I use perspective and scale to draw the viewer into the image. I was drawn to the scene because the stork was in the process of drying its wings, and incongruously seems to want to embrace the huge buffalos in the background. The wings of the cattle egrets, hanging in the air over the buffalos, are tiny echoes of the stork’s widespread wings. It is a layered image – with the stork in the foreground, the expanse of grass leading to the buffalo and birds as the middle ground, and distant trees forming the background.
05-JAN-2006
Sacred Ibis at dusk, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Sacred Ibis stand ready for nightfall near Mfuwe Lodge in South Luangwa National Park. This white wading bird with its distinctive curved beak was venerated in ancient Egypt and often mummified. It is often seen in Zambia's Baobab trees. I silhouette the birds through backlighting, matching the dramatic curve of the central bird’s beak to the curve of the branch beneath its narrow legs. The heavy foliage and brooding clouds intensify the mysterious mood of this image. And what better symbol of mystery than a bird that holds spiritual status?
11-JAN-2006
Monochromatic Stork roost, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Nature itself has converted this image from color to black and white. There is not a shred of color in it. Five black storks on a long dead tree, which has been shredded by elephants, are silhouetted under a leaden gray sky. While conceptually similar to the previous bird image, this picture differs in that the form of the branches is as much subject as context here. The mass of dead wood symbolizes decay, and the storks take on the persona of scavengers. It represents a harsh and unforgiving Africa.
06-JAN-2006
The wind before the rains, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
The sun is gone, and flocks of egrets soar over the banks of the Luangwa River under a painterly sky. The birds seem to flow between the clouds and the trees, pushed by the winds that precede the evening rains. This image is also drained of its color by nature itself. I did not convert it to black and white – but the elements did. Perhaps a subtle touch of greenish blue yet floats among the clouds. If so, it adds a touch of reality to an unreal scene. It’s an African abstract, shot from a small boat being blown down the Luangwa River. I wanted it to represent how I felt about what I saw at that moment. I think it does just that.
08-JAN-2006
Giraffe geometry, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
I waited for this pair of Thornicroft's giraffe to create a triangle for me, which I've placed within a square frame. The result is natural geometry. The Thornicroft giraffe is only found in the Luangwa Valley. Its unique markings differentiate it from giraffes found in other parts of Africa. The focal point of this image is, of course, the powerful diagonal created by the immense neck of the giraffe in the foreground. Diagonals express power and energy, an appropriate metaphor for this, the tallest mammal on earth.