In the pans of Botswana there is a somewhat surreal place called Kudu Island. If there is a destination that is truly in the middle of nowhere, this is it. It’s as though your 5 hour drive in what absolutely must be a four wheel vehicle has transported you to another planet. From the top of this rock outcrop you look beyond the alien looking Baobob trees to see miles of pure white pans as flat as a slab. If you ever have the opportunity, it’s worth the trip.

I had the opportunity last week to do some new portraits of Austin, Keisha & Brooklyn. The first portrait I did for Keisha was a maternity session a few weeks before Brooklyn arrived. (You can see that portrait here.) They live out of state so I really don’t get to do this as often as I would like. It’s sure fun when they are here and I can try and capture another phase in the life of the rapidly changing Brooklyn.

Wow, what a smile! Actually, with Jena to title this post “Jena’s Smile” is somewhat redundant. Jena is pretty much always smiling. She tends to brighten any room with her infectious smile. This is another photo of Jena from the portrait shoot we did when the classic cars were in town. I am trying to arrange time to do another session with Jena and her roommate Jessica before they leave for the lights of LA at the end of this month. Wish me luck!

Ok, by special request, here is another Botswana Image… The sun was going down as we floated down the Chobe river in the Chobe National Park in Botswana. (Actually, the other side of the river is in Zambia.) It’s a great time to observe wildlife because they tend to go down to the river in the evening.
By design, I do not have music play when you open the site. You may however feel free to whistle “Elephant Walk” as you view this image.

I truly wish I had been taking copious notes of all the various wildlife we saw during our Botswana safari. In particular, I wish I had notes on what all the birds were. For the ornithologist among my readers, please feel free to post a comment as to the name of the birds. In case you are not aware, you can click on the image to go to my Flickr site & choose “All Sizes” to see a larger version.

Victoria Falls is a stunningly majestic place that I found virtually impossible to capture properly in a photograph. The good news is there are some great viewpoints, the bad news is it rains 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year around the falls. Due to an unusually long rainy season the falls were creating major rainstorms during my visit. Despite the photographic challenges, it was an amazing sensory experience to stand across from the falls & feel their thunder & be soaked through by the rain on a beautiful sunny day.

A couple of months ago Beverly & I were out scouting wildflower locations when we ran across a spectacular field of bluebonnets & Indian Paintbrushes. Beverly’s sister Martha  happened to be close by so Beverly called her and asked her to come join us to share the spectacular place. Beverly & Martha have always shared a wonderful bond like very few siblings enjoy. I’m so glad Beverly invited Martha to join us that day. I took the opportunity to do a few photos of the gals in the flowers. There was lots of laughter and fun. Actually, there was always lots of fun and laughter when Martha was around. We will always miss her. Last Saturday Martha was taken from us in a violent and tragic death that we will never understand.

Last Sunday we sat in shock on the deck of our lodge in Botswana Africa trying to make some sense of the news we had received earlier that morning. We were wishing we had a way to transport ourselves instantly to our side of the planet to support & be supported by those we love & that loved Martha. It was a beautiful morning and the birds were singing in the early morning sunshine. One particular nearby bird was really singing. It was talking and talking in it’s sweet sounding local bird dialect and being very very vocally demanding of our attention all the while hopping from one nearby branch to another. For a few minutes it actually forced our minds off  our sadness. The pretty yellow & green bird simply would not stop. Finally if fluttered from its nearby perch and briefly landed on my shoulder before flying away like a quick hit & run hello and goodbye. There was nothing subtle about the moment. It was like Martha was making sure that we understand that her wonderful fun spirit is still very very much alive.

I’m back… Beverly & I just spent the past couple of weeks discovering Botswana Africa with what began as a couple of guides, three friends & family & eight strangers & ended up as a group of  fifteen friends. The trip was very cool, both literally & figuratively. As I am writing this it occurs to me we were able to be in all four seasons in two weeks. We left Austin in the spring, arrived in Africa in the fall, left Africa in the winter & arrived in Austin in the summer. Needless to say, we shot thousands of images during our adventure. I can’t wait to start sorting & processing my selects. I’ve done a fair amount of traveling but I have never been anyplace remotely so removed from civilization. We would drive for hours down four wheel roads (really just tracks) and never see another vehicle. It was an amazing adventure we will never forget.

One photographic tip from my first Safari; You are going to wish you had a longer lens. Typically my favorite lens is my 14-24 f/2.8. and my ‘long’ lens is a Nikon 70-200 f/2.8. The great majority of my photos were taken on the 200 end of my long lens & the great majority of those will need to be seriously cropped. Our guides were shooting with 400mm lenses (on their cropped sensors that’s actually 600mm equivalent) and most of their images will need to be cropped as well.