Kruger National Park

Safari photography is a patience exercise disguised as an adventure. You can do everything right — the right light, the right position, the right settings — and still come home with nothing, because the leopard stayed in the tree and the elephants moved in the wrong direction and the light was perfect for exactly four minutes at a time when you were pointed the other way. Kruger teaches you to be ready before you think you need to be.

The photographs I'm most attached to from this collection are the lion portraits: close, direct, natural light, no distance between you and the subject that the 500mm doesn't close immediately. A lion at ten meters, in the late afternoon, looking at the lens with complete indifference to the fact that you're there. The subject does all the work. Your job is to have the camera up.