Favourite travel photos

As part of this month’s link up with a few other brilliant bloggers, it was put to us to choose our favourite travel photo. This was by no means an easy one for me. I love taking photographs as I travel, almost as much as I love the travel itself.

However, it was pretty easy to choose a country where my favourite images came from: Africa. New Zealand would have come close, but to be honest, I haven’t travelled and taken enough photographs there! Africa was so raw and wild, the people, culture and animals so natural and incredible.

So, with Africa I’ve chosen my 3 of my favourites…

3. Two baboons grooming each other in Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya

I love this image because of the baboon looking up at me as I took the photo (rather close). They are so at ease, with one concentrating hard at grooming while the other just lets its be. These aren’t the ugly, unruly baboons that you usually see running around, stealing food with their backsides on display. These are calm and relaxed animals. I love being close to wildlife and capturing moments like these , in their natural environment, without scaring them.

2. Child on roadside, Kampala, Uganda

This image is a favourite for a different reason. It does not show love or create calmness when you look at it. Instead it tells a story, a narrative. Kampala is a city of two sides: wealth and poor. This child is probably going to get water. She is young and alone. Her clothes and shoes that are very worn and she probably lives in the slums. The setting shows rubbish that is everywhere in the slums. This image opens your eyes to what is really out there. It gives you, the viewer, something to think about.

1. Baby Gorilla, Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

Possibly my favourite image (if I had to pick one) is of this little baby gorilla from the Amahoro Gorilla Group in Volcanoes National Park. It seems it is not just a favourite of mine, as it was also published in the June 2014 issue of Lonely Planet Traveller magazine.

This little baby didn’t have a care in the world. It was so intrigued by the visitors, but also just wanted to play. So much so, that it was tumbling and playing around as our guide lay on the ground chatting away to it. I only had one hour with the group, but it was possibly the best experience of my life, seeing a family of gorillas from small infants to big silverbacks at peace in the wild, grooming, eating and sun bathing in a sunny bush clearing.

This photograph of the baby gorilla makes me smile every time I see it and remember what the wee animal was like.

 

If you liked these images, check out the photography book I’ve published called ‘Footprints through East Africa’ here »