There are those moments, that when you see them, you know are special … moments in your life that come by on rare occasion.
They say however, that if you want something badly enough, and you visualize it time and again, then sometimes just sometimes dreams become reality.
For years I had envisioned photographing a leopard in a baobab tree where the great tree showed off its tremendous size and the golden cat shined within its muscled limbs.
It is a sight that I had last seen nearly twenty years before, but on that occasion the leopard was lost within the tangled mane. And therein lies the conundrum, too much tree and leopard is lost, too little tree and the scale of the giant is unappreciated.
At first thought, it is not such a difficult sight to imagine, but the reality of finding a leopard within the great baobab’s frame is not common. Then to have it shine and complement the great tree’s majesty without a confusing limb or distracting branch detracting from both, are the spokes so often puncturing the proverbial wheel.
And so it was that on a recent visit to Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park, the wish that I had put out into the cosmos found fertile ground.
After a few days of futile effort trying to marry up baobab tree with elephant, we got a call that not more than five kilometers from where we were, a golden cat had been seen scaling a giant tree.
Nervous with excitement, we raced off.
Finally, after what seemed like an interminably long time, we rounded a bend and there before me was what I had dreamed of.
A thousand-year-old baobab tree stood ancient sentinel to the winds of change that had blown through its textured boughs. It had endured the fall of empires, the rise of kingdoms, it continued to survive drought and stood tall during flood. For sure, great tuskers had walked within its shadows and black-manned lions’ roars would have echoed through its fibrous trunk, but today a golden jewel sat within this botanical crown that defines the African landscape.
A magnificent leopard sat twenty-five feet high within the fibrous network, and with regal pose surveyed its kingdom.
Fumbling and shaking, I grabbed first one lens, then the next, knowing that at any moment this marriage of icons could be lost. I need not have worried, as for the next four hours, two of Africa’s defining symbols of cryptic cat and venerable tree united as one.
Available Sizes
Exhibition: 139 cm x 173 cm (55” x 68”)
Large: 117 cm x 146cm (46” x 57.5”)
Classic: 95cm x 118 cm (37.5” x 46.5”)
Available Editions
Exhibition: 12
Large: 12
Classic: 12
