Its Not Always About Wildlife Photos, Its Also About The Memories

A Lion in Tsavo East National Park with half a dozen Egyptian Geese in the background

After leading hundreds of safaris i can safely say that i remember almost each and every one of them! Believe it or not, its true. If not in their entirety then at least in some bits and pieces. I can look back at a photograph from ten years ago and remember some very interesting moments about the scene and quite likely the entire day in general.

How is that possible you ask? Well because i believe that wildlife photography can serve me many purposes. The main purpose being; its a hobby that i enjoy very much and I try to capture the finest of wildlife moments to later share and educate the people around me on the beauty and importance of nature. 

The other purpose is; i use photography to remember wildlife behaviour. Take the above photo for example, a male lion from the Aruba Pride walks towards us after quenching its thirst at the distant waterhole. Ordinarily, most people would have simply focused on the main prize, the big cat itself. Well i did take a couple of shots with better composition i admit, but what i remember most about this moment was the behaviour of the egyptian geese in the background. As the lion was drinking at the waterhole, the geese who clearly disapproved its presence started to vocally protest by causing an intense vocal uproar of alarm calls. The combined sound they made was quite remarkable serving as a warning to all animals for a good one kilometre or more that danger was about. To remember this behaviour of the geese, i took a photo of the lion with the avian protesters in the frame. So now whenever i look back at this photograph, i shall vividly remember the geese head bobbing their unforgettable chorus of alarm calls. So this photo was not just about the wildlife in it, but also about the memories.