Photography: My 2nd Love

My love for wildlife photography began on our honeymoon and is second only to my husband who I had married just a few days prior! We arrived in Arusha, Tanzania at the end of October 2015 for a two week honeymoon. The first week we were on safari throughout many protected parks in Tanzania: Lake Manyara, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and finishing in Tarangire Park. We had a terrific guide named Stanley, from Kudu Safaris, who did our game drives twice a day. He could spot a unique turtle on the side of the road from 100 feet away! The 2nd week of our trip was a relaxing stay in Zanzibar, which I’ll get to in another post.

Lions, Giraffes, & Warthogs, Oh My!

The photo of the two lions below was taken with a small digital camera from about 4 feet away. Stanley pulled up and shut the jeep engine off as they were both asleep. We sat there for what seemed ages, hanging out the window taking photos of sleeping lions! That in and of itself was amazing, but then to have brother lion number 1 wake up, stare you down like you are lunch, stand up, walk to the other side of the tree, yawn and then lie down to finish his nap! That was the pinnacle of the trip. I was literally taking pictures with one hand while holding the window latch with the other, ready to shut it if he came at the jeep.

We saw so many amazing animals on this trip: from giraffes at our hotel window in the middle of the night, to little warthogs running around with their babies to a cheetah making a kill. Most of the photos in this post were taken with a manual 35mm film camera or a 4MP digital camera, which was high tech in 2005! So while the quality of the picture are not that great, the memories are burned into my mind forever. What I would give to go back with my Canon 60D 18MP camera that I currently own! It was truly the trip of a lifetime and if anyone reading this gets the chance, I urge you to take a leap of faith and experience these animals in the wild.