Mar.

31

Pastiche of Peter Beard

Prior to my first safari last summer, I watched movies like Out of Africa and I read books like I Married Adventure, but it was Peter Beard’s books, interviews and photographs that best captured my imagination. My mission was always to understand Africa as it exists, not in my romanticized Hollywood version, but in its sights, sounds and smells.

For the past 30 years, Peter Beard described often as the ultimate wildlife photographer has captured the true essence of African life in Kenya. His intense interpretations of that Kenyan life are chronicled most vividly in collages, diaries and photographs known the world over. Mr. Beard’s life story is the stuff of legend and thoroughly fascinating, like the fact that he was crushed by an elephant and survived. Can you imagine?

I humbly titled this post because I am not a photographer of his genius, nor did I capture fully the disturbing rawness that exist in the wild, but because of Mr. Beard, I opened my eyes to the realities of an exquisite land not completely trampled by human consumption yet. And because of him, I took hundreds of photos respecting that I was just a visitor hoping to be welcomed kindly by the Big 5. Outside of being charged unsuccessfully by both a rhino and an elephant that left us floating on adrenaline, going on a safari was the most majestic experience of my life to date and I can not wait to go back, maybe next time with a group of adventurous girlfriends for the ultimate girlfriend getaway!

One of my favorite series of photographs was with this giraffe. I named her Lucille.
We were enjoying a sundowner (cocktails in the bush) when I heard the leaves rustling behind me. Now, on safari you are instructed to be hyper-aware of your surroundings at all times, so of course I swung around defensively to see what was approaching and to my surprise Lucille was standing just a few feet away eating her dinner.
On this particular night drive I didn’t have my telephoto lens with me, so I photographed Lucille as best I could while trying to be as quiet as I could because giraffes are notoriously skittish and I did not want her to run away.
In this photo I am talking to Lucille very softly trying to coax her from behind the tree. I want a photo of her face. As you can see, she’s ignoring me.
Finally, Lucille backed up. I backed up too, just in case, but not too worried because our Ranger was a few feet away with a shotgun, the reality of being in the wild. Then as if on cue, Lucille struck the perfect beauty pageant pose (one foot in front of the other, waist slightly turned, chin down) and flapped her gorgeous eyelashes and I got my shot. Ain’t life grand?