The Sword of SantiagoÂ
In Ernest Hemmingway’s classic novel, The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is the grizzled old fisherman whose suffering and torment of enduring eighty-four days without catching a fish, is spectacularly ended by his hooking of a huge marlin. For days he drifts further and further from home as he fights the unfatiguing fish. Finally, […]
The Point of No Return
Indisputably one of the great gamefish of the world, the marlins and billfish, share a common trait of being able to light up when excited. Each species has its own hunting technique and its own beguiling and entrancing light show that bedazzles and confuses its prey. From a natural history point of view, to be […]
Of Might and Magnitude
On a vast and endless ocean, you could be forgiven for not realizing the scale and scope of a distant hoisted whale fluke. However, when you are just a couple of meters away, it is simply overwhelmingly impressive and inspiring. With the strength and lustre of polished ebony, the 15 foot wide glistening fluke of […]
Salutation
Proudly arching high into the illuminating first rays of the morning light, the near perfect vertical disposition of this Humpback Whale’s fluke portends a deep dive into the dark inky depths that await it. As if in deference to the whale’s decision to exchange the realms of air for ocean, a myriad of diamond like […]
The Great Wing
The roughly translated scientific name of the Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, means Great Wing of New England. Indeed, there can be few sights more alluring or entrancing than the huge foil-like wing of the Humpback Whale hoisted ten feet clear of the water with a cascade of droplets streaming from its glistening surface. Of the […]
Destiny
The black-manned lion is an undisputed African Icon. It is the most spectacular looking of all lions, but due to indiscriminate trophy hunting and poaching, the species gene pool is both small and isolated. There are now but a few locations, primarily in Southern Africa’s arid reaches, that offer a small chance to encounter one […]
The Sisters’ ArtemisÂ
There are few things in nature with as much deadly beauty as the movement of intent lionesses as they synchronously marry muscle and fur in a gait of predatory prowess. They truly personify Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. There are many very good lion images already out there. It is thus surprisingly difficult to create […]
A Natural Selection
When in the darkest of nights, the lions’ roar portends the coming of death, they stand bellicose, warriors through and through. One-ton buffalo, gladiators, stand as one forming an impassable fortress of horns at the advance of their nemesis. Under siege they counter the danger, and when they move, they do so united, an impenetrable […]
An African Dream
Been born of Africa, extensive exposure to this continent’s wonder is my most prized gift. I type these words wondering when next I will have the privilege to bend my ear to the deafening silence of the passing of the giants. In each footfall, there is a memory, a rekindling of a step taken before, […]
Bless the Rains down in Africa
It is hard not to get tears in my eyes and hear the famous Toto ‘Africa’ lyrics when I think about the beauty of seeing this male lion proudly standing atop his granite throne, whilst in the distance, the rains fall upon the great migration that freckles the endless plains of the Serengeti. For days […]