Africa Photos

I've been going through my Africa photos and I can't believe how many I took in two short weeks! 1200 photos plus about 50 videos. And I still feel like I didn't get enough. I wanted to capture every minute, but it was difficult because we weren't there as tourists per se, but volunteers so we were expected to work. You can't exactly be shooting photos and video when you're supposed to be scooping lion poop or painting fences, etc. But, I'm quite happy with the photos I got.

My next task is to use one of the programs that came with my camera for some post production adjustments (or whatever the pros call it). That basically consists of cropping, optimizing, etc. I'm a bit of a purest when it comes to photography; I don't want to alter images very much. I think the whole beauty of photography is for others to see exactly what you saw on a given day at a given time and location. To experience the photo. So I don't want to crop out background images or otherwise change what I actually saw through the viewfinder. That being said, most (if not all) of the pros "optimize" their photos which is just enhancing the contrast or saturation levels, etc.I have no problem with that at all since it's not changing the essence of the photo.

While I was writing this blog from Africa, I was extremely limited on time  to post and upload photos. I couldn't go through all the photos and choose the perfect one to post that day. Photos got posted that weren't in what I considered the "A" category. Now I can post photos that I feel are some of the better ones I took and you can be the judge. Please provide me with your feedback but keep in mind I'm not a professional photographer and have only been doing this for a few months. However, you won't hurt my feelings.

I've been really surprised to learn that photos I think are absolutely awesome aren't met with the same enthusiasm from my friends. And photos I'm ready to delete are their favorites! You never know what will appeal to someone's sense of aesthetic, so I'll try to include a variety of shots. That being said, some of my favorites are close-up shots of the various lions' faces. You can tell so much from the overall look on the face and in the eyes and how the lion holds his head. The coloring and markings on lions are so gorgeous that you just can't go wrong. Even thought I spent a lot of time with the lion cubs, I didn't get very many good shots of them. Their coloring is very different from the older lions, plus they're constantly on the move, so getting good shots was difficult.

Here's today's photo. You may have to click on the photo to see the full size; it's difficult to see the details otherwise.

Animals Matter.