Farewell To A Friend, Part One

It all started in Mole Park, Ghana. I was sitting on a platform overlooking the elephant pond. Earlier in the day, I had met a Slovenian lady during our elephant safari. We chatted a bit, and I could see that she had a very serious camera. As our group climbed up through the valley she asked me to turn around.

I am really glad she did that, despite the fact that I was on the verge of a heart attack, having clearly shown my age among my twenty something companions. As I turned around, the visual reward of my hard effort was revealed.

Below was the African wilderness. Elephants and antelopes frolicked freely below, and I almost wept at the beauty before me. My Slovenian friend was madly taking shots with her camera.

A little further on we stopped and took more pics. I strive to be a courteous man, and often during my travels I have had occassion where people ask me to take pictures of themselves, but this time I turned the tables.. I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture of her.

Did I want to flirt with her? Maybe a little, but mostly I wanted to grab her camera, and show a little traveler etquette at the same time. I took her picture and admired her camera.

Later, we met again at the elephant perch, and she showed me a picture of an antelope that she had taken from at least two hundred yards away that clearly showed the face of the antelope. I knew at that moment that my $99 Kodak that I bought in 2003 wasn't going to cut it over the long haul.

I wanted to learn more about taking photographs, and less about taking pictures.

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