The thing about traveling in Africa is that you always meet a million awesome people. It turns out the students you meet are just generally super open and active and TEND to not be huge dicks. So frankly it was to no surprise that within two days of arriving Mike and I met Gibson and Manu who immediately invited us onto their weekend safari trip. There really is nothing more exhilarating than dangling through the sun roof of a van cruising through a national park in Africa. Seat belts be damned! As if there was a better place to die anyway…
The abundance of light certainly made the technical side of shooting atop a moving van easy, though the brown tones everywhere makes things a bit drab. Honestly I kicked up a lot of the colors in post-editing because my shots just weren’t doing the park justice. You may notice that I didn’t capture any wildlife “up close and personal” as I didn’t pack a telephoto zoom. I had planned for this limitation though. You can’t bring every lens (especially when you’re a poor student) and I’m not a wild-life photographer so much as a street shooter…a rather shit one at that. An elephant in the distance is cool and all, but I’d rather frame Manu’s beautiful bone structure any day…
Everybody talks about seeing the big 3: elephants, lions, and giraffes, but just being amidst these animals in their natural habitat feels transcendental. I have always felt a bit uncomfortable in zoos as we parade ourselves through a maze of animals stuck in their tiny exhibits. There is a feeling of freedom at Murchison that is hard to replicate. As the van cruises through the park at too fast a speed with too few safety measures, you can’t help but let go of everything. You’re no longer a medical student searching for direction, but a human gliding through nature surrounded by all that is majestic…
“Bitch I’m a model…call the photooographer”
– Plies
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