08-FEB-2013
Alligator Tracks, Everglades National Park, Florida, 2013
It was moving swiftly towards us, propelled by a tail moving back and forth through the swampy water. The ever-widening, rippling circles around that tail speak of its inexorable approach. When I made this image standing at water’s edge, this partially submerged alligator was barely a few feet from shore and still in motion. I waited as long as I could to get the most out of the pattern it was leaving on the surface of the water, and then made this image at a focal length of only 93mm. It works as an expressive wildlife photograph because it is more than just a description of an oncoming alligator. It is an image of threat, a throw back in time to an age when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The soft puffy clouds, reflected on the water’s surface, offer a benign counterpoint to the danger rushing towards us.
08-FEB-2013
White Ibis, Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, 2013
Dozens of these delicate water birds make the swamplands of Florida their home. During the breeding season, the American White Ibis gather in huge colonies near the water – some of them as large as 30,000 have been counted. Much of their time is spent roosting on trees, where they preen, biting their feathers with their long red bills. That’s what is happening in this image. Three ibis balance their fragile long legs precariously on the thin branches that support their weight. I waited until two of them began to preen, and when the third turned in the same direction as the others, I made this image.
12-AUG-2012
California Harbor Seal, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Carmel, California, 2012
This harbor seal seems perfectly matched to its environment. By shooting it from overhead, I compare the unique pattern of spots on its back to the spotted pattern of kelp chunks decorating the rocks around it. About 25,000 of these seals can be found along the entire California coast. They feed in kelp forests, and rarely are found more than twelve miles from the shore. This harbor seal is hauling out – taking a rest after foraging for food.
27-APR-2011
Heron, Green Valley Park, Payson, Arizona, 2011
Green Valley Park, dedicated in 1996, offers three lakes covering 13 acres. Payson, a small city in central Arizona, boasts “if people can’t get out of town to fish, we will bring the fish into town for the people.” The lakes also bring wildlife into town, looking for those same fish, such as this heron sitting at water’s edge, waiting for a meal. The late afternoon light throws it into silhouette, and brackets the lush green grass with blue water in front and dark shadows behind. I used the diagonal line of the shoreline to pull the eye through the image.
17-JUN-2009
Graze, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Orik, California, 2009
A young male elk, antlers soft as velvet, enjoys the grass meadows of this lush park. Herds of elk gather here to feed, as well as to enjoy the nearby beaches. I used a 400mm telephoto focal length to hone in on the feeding action and blur the background at the same time.
22-JUN-2009
Heron, Astoria, Oregon, 2009
This heron was poised on a rocky point quite a distance from us. Using a 400mm long telephoto focal length, I able to relate this fishing bird to its environment while displaying detail in the feathers and coloration. Its beak moves forward, echoing the thrust of the jutting rocks behind it.
07-OCT-2008
Grizzly, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
Only a few moments after entering Yellowstone, we were stunned to see dozens of cars parked along the side of the road. Nearly 100 people were standing nearby photographing a single male grizzly under a blazing mid-day sun. We spent almost a half hour photographing it. It was a very difficult subject. The bear seldom lifted its head. It was digging for underground morsels such as roots. The high sun created harsh contrasts – the bear was dark brown, and the surround logs were light brown. I often found myself making the same mistake – zooming in tightly on the bear instead of pulling back to include its relationship to the environment. The world does not need another animal portrait – we should spend our time as photographers going beyond animal portraiture to create animal landscapes. And that is what I’ve tried to do here. It is an image about an endangered species. Yellowstone is one of the few places in the United States were we can view grizzlies in the wild. The fallen trees in this image have boxed him in – he seems to be wondering which way is out. He also seems cornered and somewhat diminished because of it. He is a living reminder of our natural assets that are living on borrowed time.
08-OCT-2008
Stretching, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
It is very easy to make pictures of bison in Yellowstone National Park. It is more difficult to make a picture of how bison live in Yellowstone National Park. I always look for an image that goes against the normal view. Most bison stand. This one was lying down. As I waited, it began to stretch its legs to get the circulation going. I noticed that its hooves were split into two “toes.” I quickly changed my vantage point to include some fallen branches that not only echoed the stretched legs of the bison, but also had symbolic “toes” at the end of them.
09-OCT-2008
Gray Wolf, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
As we traveled along the twelve-mile road between Norris Junction and Canyon Village, we were astounded to find a group of Gray Wolves standing alongside of the highway. Such a sighting is very rare. Wolves had been extinct in Yellowstone for many years, and were reintroduced only in the 1990s. There are less than 200 wolves in this vast park, and they are mostly invisible, except when seen through spotting scopes at over a mile away. Our trip leader had been to Yellowstone 18 times and had never seen wolves this close before. Yet here were three members of a group known as the Canyon Pack right in front of us for a few seconds. By the time we were able to stop our van at a pullout, exit the car, and focus our cameras, they were heading back into the forest. Most of my hurried images were just jumbles of fur. Only this wolf stopped for a second to pose for me in full profile. I cropped the image just behind the front legs to express the relationship between the wolf and its home – the deep forests of Yellowstone.
10-OCT-2008
Grazing elk, Gardner River Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Montana, 2008
We came across this herd of female elk grazing through newly fallen snow on the banks of the Gardner River. I built this image by comparing the herd on land with a single elk crossing the river in the foreground. The elk graze in and among snow-laden pine trees, seemingly safe, while the single elk wades alone, exposed for the moment in the bitter cold river. She will soon join them below the trees.
11-OCT-2008
Tongue, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2008
This would have been just another descriptive image of a grazing moose, if not for the long tongue coming out of its mouth. The tongue is the detail that gives this image its message: a moose having a good breakfast.
10-OCT-2008
Toughing it out, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
Three female elk huddle together on a ridge, riding out snow shower on a ridge near Yellowstone Lake. I kept the pines in the image because their pointed tops echo the pointed ears of the elk. As a wildlife photographer, I am more interested in images of animal behavior than I am in making animal portraits. This image tells us how these elk react to a snowfall – they tough it out.
10-OCT-2008
Moose dinner, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2008
I was able to photograph this Bull Moose from behind as it reached forward to grab a choice morsel from the foliage along the Snake River. I like the way the upward thrust of the weeds behind the moose echo the upward thrust of its antlers.
09-OCT-2008
The eye of the bison, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
We were able to get reasonably close to this bison grazing in a snow shower near Yellowstone’s East Entrance gate. My 300mm telephoto focal length brings us close, and a crop brings us even closer. The snow is falling so fast that my 1/80th of a second shutter speed can’t freeze the snowflakes in place. Instead, they become flying needles of blurred snow, creating an incongruous screen over the face of the bison and perfectly framing its baleful eye.
11-OCT-2008
Moose landscape, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2008
Instead of zooming all the way in on this moose, which was grazing on a wash next to the Snake River, I pulled back my zoom to about 200mm, so I could create a landscape rather than portrait. The moose stands adjacent to the image’s largest feature – the huge boulder that links the land to the empty wash. The texture of the stones contrasts sharply to the texture of the grass, while the silky texture of the moose’s coat links the two. All three elements are part of the natural world, and all are interrelated. The Snake River and its surroundings are home to many of Grand Teton’s moose. And this image is all about that home.
13-MAY-2008
Grazing bear, Yosemite National Park, California, 2008
This is one of the most difficult wildlife images I’ve ever made. I made this photograph at 9:00 pm -- long past sunset. The twilight was essentially gone, and what there was left of it was purplish in color. Meanwhile, the large bear was far away, and on the move. I was hand holding the camera, and had to use ISO 800 in order to make a stable image. Even then, my shutter speed fell as low as 1/20th of second, usually causing camera shake at a long telephoto focal length. I coped with the obvious camera shake risk by taking advantage of built-in image stabilization. I also used my multi-imaging feature, which let me to make multiple images with only a single press of the shutter button. I made at least fifty images of this bear, and this was the one that worked the best. I cropped the image substantially to make the bear as large as possible. In wildlife photography, it always pays to make as many images as you possibly can and then choose the best of them. I liked this one because of the grass hanging out of the bear’s mouth.
14-MAY-2008
Angry squirrel, Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite National Park, California, 2008
Photographing squirrels can be very difficult. They make small targets, moving very fast and unpredictably. This squirrel was angry at something and was running around the grounds of Yosemite’s elegant Ahwahnee Hotel making a loud chirping sound. The mid day sun was intense and the shadows were harsh. I waited until as much of the squirrel was in shadow as possible, and then lowered my camera down to its level. It paused its violent chirping for a moment to take my measure. Using spot metering and nearly the full length of my 420mm telephoto lens, I caught it with its teeth bared and front paws ready to strike.
23-MAR-2008
On the track of the tiger, Ranthambore National Park, India, 2008
There are only 26 tigers in Ranthambore. They are solitary animals and are rarely seen. But the people in these vehicles have high hopes as they enter the Tiger Reserve.
23-MAR-2008
Tiger on the hunt, Ranthambore National Park, India, 2008
After an hour of searching, we found this female tiger sitting in a clearing, watching for prey. Dozens of vehicles crowded the adjacent road and the disturbance caused her to abandon the hunt for the moment. She walked right in front of our truck. Our guide estimated her age at eight years. We were very fortunate to see her -- on my previous trip to India in 1990, I looked for tigers in four reserves over a two week period and saw only one. This time, we saw one within just an hour of starting. I made this image with my telephoto zoom lens extended to its full 420mm length.
23-MAR-2008
Marking territory, Ranthambore National Park, India, 2008’
The tiger in the previous image walked directly in front of our vehicle for minute or so, and stopped to spray the grass with urine -- telling the world that this land is hers. Many wildlife photographers prefer making portraits of animals. I much prefer interpreting their behavior and actions. This tiger is communicating with us -- she is showing us who the boss is here.
23-MAR-2008
Tiger traffic, Ranthambore National Park, India, 2008
The tiger in the preceding images continued to walk down the road in front of us for several minutes. At least five vehicles surrounded her at one point. She never looked up as she vanished into the bush just around this curve. There are no secrets in Ranthambore. Once a tiger is sighted, the word is spread, and every safari truck within miles converges on the spot as quickly as they can.
07-JAN-2006
Twilight, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
A wet-season safari in Zambia offers photographers abundant sightings of African wildlife in an emerald green setting under cloud-streaked skies. I have tried to take this image beyond just another wildlife sighting. I offer a surrealistic impression rather than a descriptive landscape. The twilight hovers between being there and not there, creating a painterly aura through muted color that makes this image seem less real, and more symbolic of a world that may be slowly slipping away. The two elephants are incongruously reminiscent of ancient mastodons upon the land. The incongruity of the dead tree standing amidst lush green surroundings implies the presence of death as well as life, while the horizontal streaks of clouds in the sky offer a counterpoint to the vertical threadbare branches. It is an image that takes us back in time, yet also implies an ecosystem in jeopardy.
03-JAN-2006
Creatures of the road, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
No matter where one goes in South Luangwa National Park, wildlife abounds on its roads and tracks. This warthog and francolin are keeping in step with their shadows near the Mushilashi River. I have used abstraction here to involve the imagination of the viewer. Rather than describing the appearance of these creatures (you can always consult a wildlife guide for such illustrations) I am suggesting nature at work here – with the large played against the small in an incongruent scale relationship. Neither the warthog nor the bird are mindful of each other. Each marches to its own stately beat, while the man-made track slices diagonally across their paths.
11-JAN-2006
Impala herd, Chichele Hill, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Impalas are part of the Luangwa landscape. Chichele Hill is rocky high ground, and during the wet season animals frequently congregate there. Our tented camp at Puku Ridge, one of two camps I stayed at while in Zambia, was not far away, and I saw them grazing here every morning and evening as we passed by on our game drives. The concept of an integrated landscape of animal, vegetable and mineral subjects fascinated me, and I worked on it every day while at the Puku Ridge location. It was the randomness of this image that made it work for me. The boulders have fallen in place over the centuries; the lush blanket of green plants comes and goes with the seasons, while the herd of impala searches for sustenance. Most graze, but some are in motion, while others cast a watchful eye. (Watchfulness is important – a pride of lions makes its home in the same area.) This image offers a blanket of black, tans, and green – the colors of nature itself.
08-JAN-2006
Puku at dawn, Puku Ridge Tented Camp, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
The Puku, along with the impala, is ubiquitous in Zambia's Luangwa Valley. It is sturdier than the impala, and lacks its markings. Pukus emit a shrill whistle, almost like birds. This female puku came to drink from a pond behind our tented camp every morning. The rising sun glows in a marshy pond, edged in darkness broken only by the silhouette of the puku. There is a sense of peace, loneliness, and perhaps even vulnerability here. To stand in a tented camp and see a sight like this is an important part of the Safari experience. This image is based on abstraction and mood. I am asking my viewers to bring themselves to this place and see it, and perhaps even listen to it, along with me.
07-JAN-2006
Leopard, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia,
During the second week of this, my fifth wildlife safari, I photographed my first leopard. It was high in a tree, not far from our Puku Ridge camp. Leopards are frequently seen in South Luangwa National Park, generally at night, but there are no guarantees of a sighting. During the first week, we briefly saw a leopard running through bush in the glare of a spotlight during a night game drive. But this one was sitting high in a tree in late afternoon. It was a difficult shot at best -- the leopard was in deep shadow, and sun was coming directly into the lens through the leaves. I exposed for the leopard, and extended my zoom lens to nearly 700mm to bring it close enough to look us in the eye. Extremely shy, this leopard would take flight even as I pressed the shutter button. This image is compelling because of its context and its intimacy. It is more than a closeup of an animal. It tells us where it lives, and reflects its wary, tense response to my presence. The green eyes are enormous, aware, and dramatically outlined in black. We don’t see all of it – just enough to integrate its body with the branches of the tree. It seems to be protecting itself, framed in bark and vines and leaves. A study in reclusiveness, its the story of the leopard itself.
After posting this image, viewer Alister Benn suggested cropping it to place greater emphasis on the leopard itself, and less on its original leafy context. It is the cropped version you see here. You can compare it to my original full frame version which is posted at
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/271122/photo7.html
07-JAN-2006
Leopard in flight, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
This leopard, the only one I was able to view in Zambia, raced down the trunk of a Sausage Tree (named for the shape of its fruit) only an instant after I had photographed it higher up on its branches. It is moving so fast that even at 1/60th of a second, the shutter records little more than a blur of spots. Yet that blur echoes its speed and strength. Leopards are powerful enough to haul prey as large as full-grown antelopes or baby giraffes high into the treetops, foiling scavenging hyenas or opportunistic lions. The diagonal placement intensifies the energy expressed by the leopard, as does the blur.
You wont see this shot on a postcard rack because it asks something of the viewer – we must see in our minds what we can’t see with our eyes.
07-JAN-2006
Leopard on the prowl, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
After fleeing its perch high in the Sausage Tree, the leopard darted through heavy brush and burst into the open a good distance away. I made this image by extending my zoom to nearly 700mm. The big cat, about five feet long, could be clearly seen plodding deliberately across Luangwa's fields, heading deep into an awaiting forest, probably to emerge again only at night. This prowling leopard must compete for its food with a lion pride that claims the same territory. This image points up an important principle of expressive wildlife photography. This is not a picture of leopard – instead I have made a landscape that happens to features animal behavior. In this case, the animal is much smaller than its context, yet because of the contrast in color, and the shock of seeing this rare, nocturnal animal in full daylight, the image stimulates the imagination of the viewer, and asks it to fill in the details.
(Shortly after writing this caption, I read the comments of Michael Reichmann, who runs the well known photography website The Luminous Landscape, in an interview on page 9 of issue #4 of Pbase Magazine. His comments reinforce the very principle I am demonstrating with this image of the distant leopard. Reichmann says “I guess any wildlife photographer needs to ask himself: ‘Does the world need another photograph of a lion?’ The answer is probably not. We really do have enough, and yet to me the challenge is to find a new way to interpret what already is a clichéd subject. If you look at my wildlife work, what you will frequently find is the animal itself tends to be relatively small in the frame and I tend to show it in context of its environment. So to me, I guess it’s landscape with creatures rather than just a photograph of the animal. I am not interested in animal portraiture.”)
04-JAN-2006
Monitor lizard looking for a snack, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
We saw this monitor lizard, a reptile about four feet long, crossing a road. It is actively searching for food, perhaps a snake, or squirrel. Even a large insect might do. It swallows its prey whole, and can maneuver on both land and in water. To seize the essence of monitor lizard, a portrait won’t do. When I looked at the two-pronged shadow this animal was casting, I noted that its extended claws reached for one of the prongs and its extended forked tongue reached for the other. The image becomes a moment stopped in time, rich in tension and incongruity. This is a cropped version, displaying only one third of the original picture. The full image showed the entire lizard, including its full belly, rear legs and distinctive long tail. It was too literal -- there was too much going on at once in it. The tension, the hallmark of a stalking monitor lizard, only appeared when the image was cropped.
09-JAN-2006
African Cape Buffalo, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Among the most vicious of all of the African mammals, the Cape Buffalo can kill a lion or a human with its sharp horns. It can run as fast as 35 mph if need be and if wounded, will sometimes stalk its prey. It's ugly as well -- and usually gathers in herds. We saw many of them in Luangwa, including this huge animal grazing in the deep bush. This is essentially an environmental portrait – without the sea of high grass around it, and the leaf incongruously hanging from the open mouth, this buffalo would become just another animal having its picture taken. The lush sea of green surrounding the buffalo expresses the flavor of the Zambian wet season. Only in the rainy summer does this buffalo have it this good. I also feel its confrontational presence – this animal comes at us from around a bush, as if we have taken it by surprise. If I was not making this image from the safety of a Land Rover, I would probably be much the worse for wear.
13-JAN-2006
Wounded Lion, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
A deep facial wound does not seem to bother this old male lion. He probably picked it up at a squabble over a kill. He sleeps up to 20 hours a day. This image works as expression because of its intimacy and detail. The wound is an incongruity. It tells a story. Without that detail, it’s just another sleeping lion shot. I shot more than 20 images of this lion, and selected this one because it was the most abstract. It showed less, and thus says more. The huge head is framed rich green vegetation, which obscures much of the face, and softens the gory effect of the gaping wound filled with flies. Because the foliage hides the mouth, the big black nose stands in for it. It almost seems to be incongruously grinning, as if from a pleasant dream.
06-JAN-2006
Riverscape, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Spectacular cloud formations are a photographic benefit of Zambia's wet season. I made this image in the late afternoon, exposing for the cloud and letting the Luangwa River recede into darkness. Safaris offer more than wildlife – unique environments are involved as well, and images such as this can help give a safari its sense of place. I used Photoshop’s “Shadow/Highlight” control to restore a bit of detail in the river, while keeping the delicate colors in the sky intact. The tradeoff, of course, is a noisy sky. But “electronic noise,” as some pixel-peepers would have us believe, is not always a drawback. In this case, it adds a subtle impressionistic texture that enhances the expressive mood and meaning of this picture. The noise helps it become an image filled with power and beauty of nature itself, reminiscent of 19th Century paintings of New York’s Hudson River Valley.
03-JAN-2006
Puku Trio, Luangwa River, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
A week spent at the Luangwa River Lodge included several game drives by boat. We floated past these three female pukus, which have arranged themselves perfectly for us, integrating three bodies into one. Their heads are in perfect relationship as all stare intently at me. The heads and ears create a rhythmically repetitive horizontal movement, echoing the flow of the river and the grass they stand in. The afternoon light outlines their bodies, and contrasts their dark brown forms to the rich green grass. I used my spot meter to expose for that grass, which caused the muddy riverbank behind them to become virtually black. If I had used normal matrix metering, the image would have equally balanced between green grass and brown mud and the impact of the three puku would have been greatly reduced. This image speaks of family, and of constant watchfulness. Puku, like all of Africa’s ungulates, are vulnerable to predation by lion, leopard and crocodile.
02-JAN-2006
Elephants crossing the Luangwa, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Elephants regularly cross the Luangwa River in the morning and again in the evening. I made this image from the beach, using my 420mm zoom lens a good distance from the elephants. If I had been any closer to them, they would not have crossed. Since the point of the picture is movement, I organize it to stress motion through a strong horizontal composition. I placed five elephants on the right, leaving the left half of the image open for them to move into. I strengthen the sense of movement by repeating the rhythmic flow of the horizontal lines below, behind, and above them. The lines in the water, the long strand of river reeds below their feet, the sandy beach, muddy river bank, line of bushes and trees behind them, and even the bank of clouds in the sky, all echo the rush of the elephants. It is an image in motion, and that’s what this image is all about.
31-DEC-2005
Elephants climbing the river bank, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
The Luangwa River defines the Eastern boundary of South Luangwa National Park.
Elephants hanging out near our camp at Luangwa River Lodge usually spent their nights in the game management area just outside the park on the other side of the river and then crossed over in the morning to spend the day inside the park. They made use of the same depression in the riverbank as we do to get up and into the park. Only we used Land Rovers, while the elephants just marched up the side of the bank. I photographed these elephants from the river’s beach just a few moments before we followed them up the bank. This image helps tells a story through incongruity – it is not often that both man and wild animal will share both the construction and use of a ramp to higher ground. Our vehicles made it easier for the elephants to get into the park, while the elephants trampled the mud into the ground and made it a firmer track for our vehicles. This image makes a strong follow up to the preceding image as well. It adds another dimension to the river-crossing story.
01-JAN-2006
Cool hippos, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Many of Luangwa's lagoons are covered during the wet season with a plant known as Nile Cabbage -- favorite places for hippos to spend the hot African summer days. This image is rich in abstraction and incongruity. I use the cabbage as an abstracting device to incongruously disguise the hippos. It is an image rich in color and unfamiliar textures, which complement the incongruity of seeing a hippo’s head detached from its body. A layer of green powder clings to the forehead of this hippo, almost as if it was a cosmetic. A second submerged hippo adds context. It almost seems as if these enormous animals are playing hide and seek with us. Actually, they are merely trying to keep as cool they can. Once again, less is more. The hippo is one of the largest mammals on earth. Yet these are barely revealed to us.
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.
10-JAN-2006
Babies make faces, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
This baby Thornicroft's Giraffe wandered over to our vehicle and told me exactly what it thought about having its picture taken. It is an image expressing, through incongruous humor, the lighter side of the safari experience. The young giraffe had the last laugh. I did not see the tongue sticking out until I had already made the image. And I did not appreciate the potential teaching power of this image until Monique Jansen made a point to me about the power of humor to trigger the human imagination. One can spend a good amount of time just thinking about what that little giraffe must be thinking.
11-JAN-2006
Lion on Chichele Road, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
It was still light enough to see the red gravel and earth road, which provides a striking backdrop for a golden male lion that stood motionless in front of our vehicle while searching for its pride. Zambia is one of the few countries where visitors can take night game drives, but only with licensed guides. As dusk falls, a spotter stands in the front seat with a powerful spotlight in hand, and this evening was off to an impressive start. These bright spotlights are very useful for night game viewing, but night photography of wild animals is usually very difficult because they are usually moving. In this case, the presence of dusky ambient light, in addition to the spotlight, my image stabilized lens, and the motionless stance of the lion, allowed me to make this image hand-held at a very slow ¼ of a second shutter speed.
02-JAN-2006
Spotted hyena, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Since it’s virtually impossible to photograph a moving animal at night -- even in a spotlight -- and get a sharp picture, I deliberately used blur to my advantage here. Such implied movement as this can be very expressive. This hyena was in a hurry as it ran in front of our vehicle, and its blurred form makes it seem all the more rushed. In this image, made at a third of a second, not only is the hyena moving, but so is the ground. That’s because I moved the camera in the same direction and speed as the hyena at the moment of exposure. In that way, I could actually define the hyena’s face and the spots, but the ground seems to be flowing under it, and its feet are all but invisible.
10-JAN-2006
Elephant dreams, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
An elephant family, caught in the glare of our spotlight, becomes a dream like image when the camera is using a one second exposure. Since the elephants were standing still, I deliberately moved the camera vertically at the moment of this one second exposure, hoping to expand the size of the huge tusks. The resulting slab like tusks, coming out of the mysterious darkness at right, become the focal point.
10-JAN-2006
Lioness at rest, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
A lioness, her eyes closed, was sitting deep in the forest. The beam of our spotlight caught her head -- she was so far away that the light fades as it strikes her, making this picture hauntingly abstract. This dim, soft image is quite different from most lion pictures. It underscores her exhaustion – we were drawn to the area by loud roaring that usually accompanies mating. We never did see her partner, but in this image we see her catching a bit of sleep before the next round of mating begins.
10-JAN-2006
Lion hunting on Chichele Hill, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
A nocturnal image of hunting lioness -- this one is just entering my frame, and the fading spotlight is barely illuminating her. All of which gives this photograph the nature of the hunt as I felt it -- mysterious, rushed, and distant. When a pride of lions is on the hunt at night, its members are spread out across considerable distances. Our spotter picked this lioness up in his beam as she was about fifty yards away, and as it drew closer to our vehicle, I began photographing her using the “multiple image” feature of my camera. I held my finger down on the shutter button and kept triggering the shutter several times a second. This image took 1/5th of a second. I must
31-DEC-2005
Nocturnal predator, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2005
We were heading back to Luangwa River Lodge, when our spotlight found several hunting lions walking along the side of the road. This lioness passed within a few yards of my camera. As she moved away from me, I made this softly impressionistic image of a predator on the hunt. I watched her fade into the night, as the bushes around her seem to tremble in the light. The very nature of night safari photography forces us to abstract our images in blur and darkness, eliminating most descriptive aspects of the subject and leaving room for the imagination to work on it.
02-JAN-2006
Remains of a zebra kill, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Several years ago, lions feasted on this zebra, leaving only its skin and bones on the green grass and brown mud of South Luangwa National Park. The carcass is still there, long after the hyenas and vultures have scraped the last shreds of meat from its bones. This was one of the few safari images I could leave my vehicle to make. I could move around to find a vantage point that brings some energy back into the carcass, making life out of death. The skin is in shreds, the rib cage is rising from the rear, yet one leg remains bent, as if in flight.
31-DEC-2005
Sparring impala, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2005
Male impala frequently spar by locking their horns in mock combat. But it's hard to know what is play and what is not. I watched this pair going at it with great intensity for fifteen minutes. It looked real enough to me. Because they moved behind the husk of a fallen tree, I could layer this image, sandwiching the battling impala between the gray tree in front of them, and the golden grass just beyond them. They seem to be fighting for territory, a space serving here as their own private corral between the old dead tree and the dead grass.
12-JAN-2006
Oblivious? South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Six grazing female impala pay no heed to this lumbering elephant that seems ready to crash their breakfast. In spite of appearances, impala and elephants seem to coexist peacefully here. Layers are work in this image as well. I tried to relate the grazing Impala in the foreground to the aggressive elephant behind them – only a line of brown grass separates them and the colors stand in sharp contrast as well. Behind the elephant, I’ve included a field of boulders, which, together with impala, provide vital contrast in scale.
08-JAN-2006
Tusker in the shadows, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
This huge bull was only a few feet away when I made this portrait. I saw the way the light fell on the tusk and on the green leaves before him, and regarded both as symbolic of the major challenges facing the African elephant -- poaching and sustenance. The full 420mm zoom allowed me to fill my frame with its head and extended ears. I used my spot meter to abstract the image, exposing for the leaves and that tiny splash of sunlight on the tip of the tusk, and allowing the elephant itself to nearly vanish into the shadows. Its eyes are fixed upon us, yet we feel their stare more easily than we can see them looking at us.
01-JAN-2006
Consumption and propagation, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Elephants pluck fruit from trees and then excrete the seeds as they walk the land. The seeds sprout in the fertile dung piles and create new trees. 90 different kinds of trees depend on elephants for propagation -- without these elephants, Africa would not be Africa. This image is built around three layers – a foreground of weeds, grass and bush provide a screen, behind which the elephant, as the second layer, can work in peace. The background layer
05-JAN-2006
Trunks and tusks, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
The trunks of trees and elephants have strikingly similar colors and textures. Elephants use their tusks to pry off chunks of delicious bark, and grasp them with their trunks to begin the meal. I draw the two kinds of trunks together in this photo, adding the tusks and even the missing chunk of bark. By abstracting an elephant in this way, I create incongruous juxtapositions to tell this story.
31-DEC-2005
Big gulp, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
A suckling elephant calf at work. The mother provides her newborn with milk, while the rest of the herd pitches in to protect them from predators. I was able to create a triple abstraction with this image – the calf burrows its face into its mother’s breast, while the mother’s head is enveloped by a mass of foliage. A third elephant merges into both, providing safety and shelter. The contrast between the large animals and tiny cattle egrets at their feet adds a touch of scale incongruity to the scene. Finally, nourishment – the subject of this image – is just as much a human value as it is an animal value.
10-JAN-2006
Sheltering the calf, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Rain usually sweeps through South Luangwa National Park in the late afternoons of the wet season. This elephant keeps her two-month old calf from a soaking by providing moving shelter. There is a double scale incongruity here – the tiny calf is a miniature elephant compared to its huge mother, while this pair of animals is quite small compared to the landscape they occupy. The image is not just a study of maternal diligence. I am also commenting on the ecosystem of South Luangwa National Park itself. I’ve organized this photo as a series of symbolic layers – with the elephants as context in the foreground, the dead tree and a field of stumps in the middle ground, symbolizing the devastation caused by feeding elephants, and the leafy trees in the background, representing the trees that elephants have propagated by spreading seeds through their digestive tracts.
07-JAN-2006
Elephants on Chichele Hill, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
In the hot and humid rainy season, Luangwa's elephants keep cool by bathing in the reddish mud. By contrasting the two reddish elephants to one brownish one, it’s easy to see the effect of such pleasures. The elephant at the rear has been nursing the calf in the middle. This image is organized into layers – with the bushes in the foreground adding depth perspective, the two smaller elephants as the middle layer, and the massive nursing mother as the background layer.
06-JAN-2006
Feeding frenzy, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
An elephant and nine cattle egrets simultaneously enjoy the abundant nutrients at Luangwa. This elephant is using its trunk to shovel food into its mouth. The trunk is more than an elongated nose -- it's the elephant's tool for smelling, breathing, touching, hosing, digging, and pulling, as well as eating. The image comes to life because of the sense of movement and the vivid colors. The elephant strides downhill through a field of cattle egrets, carrying grass into its mouth with its trunk at the same time. It seems to be in a hurry, probably because the afternoon rain is moving in. The sky is a deep bluish gray, and the thunder is starting to rumble in the distance. The sun still shines on the rich green grass and on the goldish brown elephant.
08-JAN-2006
Ivory Irony, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
In 1977, Africa had over a million elephants. Today, half of them are gone, all because of those two ivory tusks that come at us out of this image. While it is now illegal to kill an elephant in Africa, the slaughter continues. Farmers shoot them, and poaching is still rampant. I asked one of my guides, a former Scout for the Zambian wildlife service, why poaching can't be stopped in South Luangwa Park. He told me that the Park is over 5,000 square miles in size, and only a tiny fraction of it can be visited -- the rest is a wilderness domain, without roads or patrols. And so ivory poaching continues to remain an issue in not only this park, but in parks throughout Africa. I composed this image with those prized ivory tusks as its focal point. A symbolic arrow made up of the sun struck leaves in its mouth points directly at them. The angle of the warm light illuminates the textures on the skin of the elephant – every wrinkle and crease stands out in bold relief, underscoring its age and toughness. Yet the two ivory tusks remain its most vulnerable point – it could well die because of them. This image is a study in irony – the elephant’s most potent weapon might well spell its doom.
05-JAN-2006
Abundance, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Elephants comb trees for fruits, seedpods, and choice twigs, leaves and bark. When they aren't enjoying a good meal from a tree, they are mowing lawns with their trunks. This elephant seems to have the whole forest for itself. This idyllic image brings the wet season itself into play. Water is everywhere, the trees are heavy with foliage, and laden with abundant morsels that elephants enjoy. Even the color speaks – the elephant’s skin carries the color of both bark and earth, and the rest is emerald green. And best of all, it has it all to itself. The entire image is softly cast, instead of hard-edged – adding a patina of timelessness. This image could have been made a thousand years ago.
10-JAN-2006
Large feet tread lightly, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
The elephant carries its bulk well. It walks swiftly and quietly, and seems to know exactly where it is going. You can spot it coming a long way off, even when you can't see all of it. To tell this story, I isolate the legs of this elephant by abstracting the rest of it in foliage. There is purposefulness in its stride that makes the point, and I leave nothing else in this image to detract from it.
08-JAN-2006
Lion ahead, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
He was looking right into my eyes as he came over the hill and down the road towards my camera. As "part of a vehicle," I was invisible to him. People invariably ask if it was dangerous to be in such situations as this. Lions perceive vehicles and their occupants as part of a familiar, non-threatening landscape, and pay no or little attention to either. There are more than 200,000 lions in Africa, and a good number of them, including this male, roam Zambia's huge South Luangwa National Park. I divided this horizontal image into three vertical bands – high grass, low grass, and gravel. These bands rhythmically echo the frontal view of the lion itself, which prefers to walk on the low grass, and moves directly on us.
02-JAN-2006
Scratching post, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
This sleek year old lioness cub is scratching and smelling a tree -- perhaps taking note of the other lions that have left their own marks and scent there. Using my multiple imaging feature, I held down my shutter button and shot at least ten frames of this cub as she went through her territorial posturing. I chose this one because of how she composed it for me – the angle of her back and head echoes the angle of the overhead branch. I also liked the tension crackling in the space between the cub’s chin and her paw. It energizes the image.
11-JAN-2006
Sisters, Chichele pride, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Eleven lions make up this pride, residing within a five-mile area surrounding our tented camp at Puku Ridge. My six-day stay at Puku Ridge allowed me to eventually photograph all of them. I spent much of one morning with four lionesses relaxing together near the Katete River, where I found these sisters at rest and at play. Once again, the multiple imaging option on my camera, which repeatedly triggers the shutter with just one press, found the perfect moment. The sisters compose this image for me by arranging their legs and heads in a circular flow. The two extended tongues add visual exclamation points. This image incongruously presents the human values of affection and pleasure to us in animal form.
09-JAN-2006
Mating pair, Chichele pride, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
I observed eight matings involving three sets of lions within the Chichele pride. Lions mate over a period of a week, so we could return to them again and again over several days. Although they changed locations constantly, the roars that accompanied mating allowed us to easily locate them. I made this image within moments after a mating session. I organized the image around the diagonal flow of the lioness’ back, which allows me to place the male’s head in the top left corners of the frame and the female’s head in the lower right corner. The female seems to make eye contact with us, while the male only has eyes for her.
08-JAN-2006
Neck bite, mating Lions, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Each mating session takes about thirty seconds or so -- the male gently bites the female’s neck at the climactic moment. The pair spent at least four days mating, coupling every twenty minutes at the beginning and then increasing the intervals as exhaustion set in. The male expresses the emotion while the lioness remains passive. Both will sleep until the next encounter. I originally shot this image as a horizontal, and then cropped it into a narrow vertical. It was the only time I was able to get a shot of mating lions from the front, and this vertical format strengthens the image by contrasting the energetic response of the male to the passive reaction of the lioness as viewed from a confrontational frontal vantage point.
07-JAN-2006
Finale, mating Lions, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
This mating session ends with both parties licking their chops. Unfortunately, lion matings are generally unsuccessful. Most lionesses bear cubs every two to three years.
Lions prefer to mate in the shade, which cause exposure imbalance. I used my spot meter to expose for the sunny area, and let the animals fall into shadow, rather than expose for the shadows and burn out the grass. I knew I could bring out the detail in the shadows later with Photoshop. I used the multiple image option on my camera to expose a burst of frames at the end of the coupling. This was the frame that expressed the strongest emotion, and also created an essential sliver of space between the bodies of the lions.
09-JAN-2006
Mating lions at rest, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Another pair of mating lions, asleep in a sun-splashed forest, are alone except for a photographer and his guide. They were oblivious to my presence when awake, and dozed off within a few moments after coupling. Of all the images I made in Africa, this is one of the most idyllic, a study of the natural world in a timeless and memorable context. I made many images of this scene, and as I shot version after version, I found that placing the lions in the lower left hand corner of the frame created the most expressive relationship with the leafy context. Although they are inert, the lions create a diagonal stepping-stone that pulls the eye into the lush environment, making this image represent a veritable “return to Eden.”
08-JAN-2006
Gilded thunderheads, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
The buildup of thunderheads during Zambia’s rains often last into the late evening and produces sunsets like this one. A surreal touch to what often can be a surreal place. Every evening, while on our game drives, we stopped for refreshments at sunset and often saw spectacular skies such as this one. This image was composed twice, once by nature and then again in the camera’s frame. With the whole sky as a potential palette, I looked for repetitive shapes and colors, and found the billowing back-lighted clouds at right echoing the painterly swirls behind them.
12-JAN-2006
Moonlight game drive, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
Our evening game drives began at four p.m. and lasted until eight in the evening. At sunset, we took a refreshment break. On this, our last night on safari in South Luangwa, our sundowner was illuminated by a full moon. Our game spotter casually leans on the vehicle as he watched me make this twilight photograph, while the canopied Land Rover symbolizes the heart of the safari itself. This rugged vehicle, with no walls, and an elevated viewing platform, was far more suited to wildlife photography than the crowded “pop-top” East African minibuses supplied on previous safaris. For many of my game drives, I was its only passenger -- shooting my pictures from the seat next to that ladder. I abstracted this image by underexposing it, barely depicting the vehicle and silhouetting our spotter. The moon is small, but because it rides alone in the vast African sky, it's large enough to be seen instantly. As I made this image, I could hear nearby hippos grunting and the distant trumpeting of an elephant. This photo may not function as photographic art, but it evokes vivid memories – another valuable function of Safari photography.