Cathy and I recently got back from a trip of a lifetime: we went on an African safari. We visited four countries in total, three on the actual safari (Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana), plus South Africa, where we flew in and out of Johannesburg from the US via London. I bookended our trip by giving workshops in Johannesburg before the safari and Cape Town at the end, so we were out of the country a few days shy of four weeks, with thirteen days spent out in the bush. I’ll be posting more details over the next few weeks, but I don’t intend to create a travelogue here; I want to talk more about what I learned on the trip than what I saw (we’re working on creating a book that will incorporate our best photos).
But before I do that, a brief comment and “thank-you” to a good friend of mine, Monica Youngblood. Monica and I have worked together for a number of years. She started out as a sales rep in Las Vegas and Southern California, moved up into sales management, did a successful stint in Marketing and then went back into sales management as our Western Region Sales Director. She and I both report to our VP of Sales; I really enjoy collaborating with her. She also helps me stay out of trouble.
Anyhow, Monica does a lot of traveling and is an accomplished photographer. When she heard we were going on an African safari she asked me what type of lens and camera combination I was taking. I had more or less decided on a small Canon point-and-shoot that we have, which is acceptable for family gatherings and the like but not very adaptable (in fact, not at all adaptable beyond a zoom feature), but has the advantage that it’s small. Tiny, in fact. And would not take up any room at all. Cathy had stated unequivocally that she was not carrying any big photographic equipment, and in fact felt that the camera feature of our cell phone should be totally adequate. (Yeah, I know. But at the time I thought she had a point.)
So when Monica heard that she said “You are NOT going on an African safari without a good camera!!” And she insisted on lending me one of hers—a Nikon body with two (TWO) telephoto lenses. She said it’s not her “good” camera; it’s been “rotting away in a cabinet” (her words) and she was planning on giving it away or selling it on eBay, so she insisted I take it to Africa and brought it in to work. I am so happy she did! I took more than 2500 pictures (in this digital age storage on a memory chip is trivially inexpensive; you take a boatload of photos and delete the bulk of them). Among them are some truly wonderful shots that will help extend our memories for a lifetime.
So…THANK YOU MONICA!! The trip was spectacular and your generosity (and, as usual, good sense) have given us tangible reminders of a life-changing trip!
