Evanston Animal Shelter

Taking pictures of animals, especially cats, is a very special kind of challenge.   You need to spend time with each cat to understand their personality.  Are they lap cats?  String chasers?  Maybe they're a little timid and need some time to get comfortable with you.  

The time spent is well worth it when you finally get that shot that shows the cats true personality.  Once a week my wife and I volunteer at our local shelter (Evanston Animal Shelter) and we've found that a great picture can be enough of a reason to get an adopter into the shelter to meet their new best friend!

This is Harley, and she's been at the shelter for far too long.  If you have some open floor space where Harley Ann can play soccer with you, she will be in her happy place. As a polydactyl cat (she has 6 toes on both of her front paws) she has a bit of an advantage, but don’t tell her that!  As an older cat she prefers to live life on her own terms – but if you give her some space and let her think she’s in charge she’s happy!  Harley would do best in a home with an experienced cat person, and without any small children.

 

Africa!

In September of 2015, I had the incredible chance to travel to Africa with my wife for an almost 3 week safari.  From the barren desert of Namibia to the lush green delta of Botswana, to the humbling Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe we felt so welcomed by the people we met and returned home with a lifetimes worth of memories.  

I learned so much on this trip about photography in less-than-ideal circumstances!  We were limited in the gear we could bring (i.e. no tripods) and since this was not a "photo safari" we had to make the most of the shots that came to us.  This meant LOTS of shooting through the windows of a moving bus bouncing down washboard roads.

But some of these shots...the ones where I knew I had only about 3 seconds to take the shot before the opportunity was gone...are my favorites.  

Two giraffes...hugging?

A Cape Ground Squirrel is QUITE interested in our lunch, just outside the Sossusvlei dunes in Namibia.

"The Hitchhiker"

Sunset over the Botswana delta...good night Africa!