I remember working for my father when I was still at school. My jobs were always to file in his office. “It’s easy to file. The hard part is to find something after you’ve filed it” he would say. That was way before computers. Now we all drop files into our hard drives and hope…
My Travels: Light and Dark in the Namib Desert
Light and Dark in the Namib Desert What hit me this year with not a cloud in the sky for five days was the wall-to-wall feeling of light in the Namib Desert. For the last two years I had been blessed with rain and dream clouds, with spectacular orange and red sunsets and sunrises. Now…
Sugarman and Serendipity
On Friday I had lunch with a friend who collects cameras. He has just had a video released about his passion. “The Collector.” You should watch it. He closes by saying “if I die it doesn’t matter, I did something that I love.” So did Rodriguez, I thought. My friend asked what I was doing…
Conversations about Coming Home
Last night I attended a talk by Ian McCallum at the Yellowwood Café in Howick. He has just completed his expedition from the west to east coast of Southern Africa linking various elephant migratory routes and publicising the need for environmental action by focusing on pachyderms, a key species in the ecology of wild Africa…
The Costa Calla Chronicle: The more things change the more they stay the same.
It is a long time since I wrote for the chronicle. At the house in Costa Calla I have five bound books of my musings over the years 2000 to 2005, when I used to go up almost every second weekend and take pictures and walk. The more things change the more they say the…
My Travels: A visit to a Masai Village – Part 2
The village is poor beyond the comprehension of someone from places they call developed. The village children wore western clothes, shorts and shirts, dirty and faded. The woman wore bright blankets, barefoot with dream catcher ear rings. The higher the status of the woman, the more fancy was the dream catcher hanging from her ear.…
My Travels: A visit to a Masai Village –Part 1
The interesting thing about wildlife viewing in East Africa is that the Masai are an integral part of the scenery. These tall and regal cattle herders work in the reserves as guides (like Wilson), askaris and managers. They live in the adjoining conservancies, where cattle still graze. We visited a small village in the Naboisho…
My Travels: The Grass of the Mara
Now that I have grabbed everyone’s attention with great herds of wildebeest and innumerable sightings of big cat, let me tell you what really impressed me about the Mara this winter. The grass. There are a few large plains, set in long wide valleys or on high plateaus on the Mara. There are hills they…
My Travels: Crossing the Rivers – Part 3
A crossing is a photographers dream. There is complete chaos with an overriding goal to make the crossing. This was the fourth crossing I had witnessed in the Masai Mara in five days. I was truly privileged. The first was before lunch under the trees at Rekero Camp on the Talek River. We were having…
My Travels: Crossing the Rivers – Part 2
At that Marius jumped out of our Landcruiser and spoke fast. “Mr Shah, hello, I’m Marius Coetzee. I’m a huge fan of your work. It’s an honour to meet you. I would be honoured to shake your hand.” The Guru looked humble and stunned. “You know who I am?” “Yes, yes. I have been inspired…
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