Please read the next to last paragraph before viewing photos.

We returned yesterday (3-08-2010) from our winter trip to Yellowstone. We were fortunate in being able to shoot otters in the snow as well as many of the remaining wolf packs in the northern range. It will probably be the first of next week before these pictures are uploaded. Sherry also shot some of the finest Coyotte shots we've ever taken. We would like to say hello to all of the folks that we met on this last trip from England, Germany Switzerland, and Norway as well as various locations across the U.S. We also lament that the total Wolf population in Yellowstone has dropped to an estimated 95. This is down more then a third from last year. The Famous Druid pack is down to one female and may well cease to exist this year. The Slough Creek pack that is seen in many of our current photos has already ceased to exist.

We've finished uploading a sub set of the 18,017 photos that we took on our most recent trip to Africa. (Sept and Oct 2009). These are by far some of the best we've every done. The new photos are at the start of the various galleries.Later this month we will be removing some of the old ones. As previously stated, I think these are some of our best to date. We had a hard time selecting from the many cheetah, leopard and lion photos. Some of those not used were also good, but we had to draw the line somewhere. Some of the very best were at the Amani Lodge in Namibia. We are adding a discriptor to the start of every photo in the African Galleries, to identify the location taken. "A" is Amani, "K" is Kruger, "S" is Sabi Sands and "E" is Etosha. We also got some excellent photos of a cheetah and elephants in the Etosha Park Namibia.

Sabi Sands was once again the place for leopards, although the shots of a leopard nursing a very young cub were taken in Kruger.

While all photos are on the site,that will be on the site from this trip, over the next few weeks we'll be adding to the discriptions under the photos, and if I figure out how may add a couple of short film clips.

We had an afternoon to kill in Winhoek Namibia so we went to a Cheetah rehabilitation lodge for the afternoon game drive this turned out to be one of the best afternoons ever. The owners do a super job of accomodating photographers. While we only saw one cheetah in the wild this trip we got some great photos at Amani my hats off to Alain. http://www.amani-lodge-namibia.com As you look in the leopard, cheetah and lion folders, I will highlight the shots taken at Amani. The food was excellent. So if your plans take you to Windhoek this is good value for the money. By the way, the Cheetah at Amani are wild, and by now may have been released back into the true wild ie, an uncontrolled environment. This is one of the main goals of the folks at Amani.


This photo of Sherry and I was taken in Kruger National Park in front of a typical safari vehicle. This was our third trip to Africa and while we didn't believe it was possible, it exceeded our first and second trips. In addition to South Africa, we also visited Naminia. We only spent 5 days in this country concentrating on Etosha Park. This was not enough time and plan on returning next year for a more extended stay. Namibia is large in land area, being about twice the size of Germany. The population though is quite small somewhere less then 2 million. The people are friendly and crime is less then in many other African countries. In the north of the country some of the folks are holding on to the old ways most significantly the Himba people. Between us, we took 18,017 photographs. Once again George and Judy James of Boma Tours were our guides in South Africa. In Namibia we rented a truck and went off on our own. Boma Tours now offers two different options for touring Kruger the first being an open vehicle such as that shown above, it was this mode that we used for our first two trips. The second option is an enclosed van. The van option is slightly cheeper and the way we went this year. There are pros and cons to both options. The van is heated and air-conditioned so you're not cold in the morning and hot in the afternoon. Additionally if it rains this is not a problem, in an open vehicle you're in a poncho. The open vehicle option leaves you more at risk of the elements. The pro is that you're up higher and have an unrestricted view with more ease of movement for photography, you are likely to be under blankets in the morning and sweating in the afternoon. Sounds like the van option is the way to go huh? If your looking for comfort it is, but we'll take the open vehicle option again on our next visit. Maybe were masacistic In any case, we hope you enjoy our photos, and if it motivates you to make the trip yourself, we recommend http://www.bomatours.co.za

By the way we used one of the largest tour operators to reserve our rooms in Etosha and even though we paid 6 months in advance, when we got to Etosha we didn't have a reservation. It took several hours to obtain lesser accomodations. This large company did pay the park for this change, (downgrade) but didn't even appologize for their error, until I contacted them on our return. For obvious reasons I'm not including the name of this company, but the lesson here, is be careful. Next time we will deal directly with the park ourselves.

We have added some shots of Yellowstone that while not of good quality show some rather unique behaviors. Under black bears, you will see a bear with a duck in its mouth. It swam a small lake (Blacktail) went into the reeds and came out with a duck?? Under Brown bears you will see some unique shots. One is a three shot sequence of a coyote biting a sleeping female grizzly on the butt as her mate sleeps beside her. A second shot in the snow shows the female climbing a tree without limbs. So those who think climbing a tree makes you safe from a grizzly should think again. In black bears there are two shots of a mother and two cubs (at a great distance) running toward and then up a tree. Never saw what scared them. Probably a boar. In the wolf area I have added a couple of shots of wolves pulling a bision out of Blacktail lake. I left out the most graphic, but some of the photos are still a little grim. Comments on adding photos of lesser quality and of a graphic nature will be appreciated. For those keeping score, on this trip we took 12,602 photos. Only a small portion of which end up on this site. We hope you enjoy.

If you would like to know more about any photos, please feel free to ask. e-mail irishbob@comcast.net