Can't Forget the Elephants

I've just finished putting real actual photographs into an album to take into work tomorrow. I just love digital cameras, bless 'em, but I had over twelve hundred images to sort through and weeding them down to one hundred and fifty or so favourites to show to people like co-workers was a challenge.

I want to share the magic and excitement of my safari, but I don't want them to fall asleep on the six hundredth photo or so. How many zebra and jackal photos can one person vicariously stand?

Also, I want them to be photos the children can look at too, so I made the decision to leave out such gems as the picture of the rock hyraxes copulating. Truly a Kodak moment.

These are two of the elephant photos I printed. I can't show photos of my trip and then leave out the elephants, can I? There were lots to choose from: elephants moving in a herd, elephants taking dust baths, elephants standing around looking big, elephants crossing the road in front of excited tourists.

There was even a photo of three elephants trying hard not to be seen by hiding behind skinny trees. They were doing a surprisingly good job of it. For such big animals, they can move quickly and quietly and blend surprisingly well with shrubbery.

There is an American Express advertisement on foiling thieves that I saw in a magazine recently showing an elephant pick-pocketing something out of a tourist's knapsack with his trunk while the tourist is snapping away with his camera in the other direction. It could happen. :)

One thing for sure is that elephants are amazing to look at in person. Okay, it's obvious, but they are big. Big! And majestic. And intelligent-looking. And, er, big!

In the flat landscape of the Ngorongoro Crater you could see them from miles away. I have a series of photos that made me realize how camera-happy I am. In each frame the animal gets a little bit closer and a little bit bigger...closer, closer, CLOSER....okay, there he goes...SMALLER, smaller, smaller....

If I printed them all into one of those little flip-thru animation books I liked when I was a kid, I could make the elephant move.