Wishing you a Happy New Year filled with exploration, wonder, amazement, inspiration, mystery and enchantment.

May you experience the abundance from, and greater appreciation for, this fascinating world around you.

May your friendships grow and may you receive just reward for your labours.

In this post I have created a gallery of some of my favourite images from what was a terrific 2016. My photographic intention is to continuously improve the technical quality of my photography and to be better able to show the beauty of this amazing world around us.

“The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
speaks to me.
The faintness of the stars,
the trail of the sun,
the strength of fire,
and the life that never goes away,
they speak to me.
And my heart soars.”
~ Chief Dan George 

The dominant male lion in Mashatu

Young independent leopard sprawled on the bough of a fig tree at last light in Mashatu.

Male lion mating in the long Serengeti grass.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
~ Anais Nin

A one-eyed lioness drinking with her two cubs at mid-morning in the Serengeti. Her eye was damaged by a kick from a zebra.

Adult lions up a balanite to get away from biting flies and get some peace from the cubs in the Serengeti.

Pale morph Tawny Eagle trying to land in between two “hoods” in the Serengeti.

“We eat light, drink it in through our skins. With a little more exposure to light, you feel part of things physically. I like feeling the power of light and space physically because then you can order it materially. Seeing is a very sensuous act–there’s a sweet deliciousness to feeling yourself see something.”
~ James Turrell

Dawn on the Serengeti.

A tower of giraffes just before sunrise on the Serengeti.

A flying impala ram in front of an impressed group of giraffe on the Serengeti.

Striped morph Tawny coming in to land and feast on the left overs of a zebra kill on the Serengeti.

A Lilac-breasted Roller dive bombing a Black Chested Snake-Eagle in the Serengeti.

“Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.”
~ Betty Smith

An afternoon rain storm in the distance while we were watching lions in the Serengeti.

One of two young leopards in a grove of acacias in the middle of a large open plain in the Serengeti.

A Yellow-necked Spurfowl preening itself while perched on the bough of a tree in the Serengeti.

You don’t often see leopards running. Two young leopards were cavorting and chasing each other in the long grass just next to a grove of acacias in the Serengeti.

A male White bellied Sunbird in Aloe Farm just outside Johannesburg in late autumn.

Two zebra stallions fighting in the Grumeti area of the Serengeti. The fight turned quite savage but neither male was injured.

“One cannot but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
~ Albert Einstein

African Jacana flying between water lily pads on the Chobe river.

Two young elephants mocking fighting in the Chobe river.

A bull elephant with intentions on an island in the Chobe river.

Lilac-breasted roller in its full glory in the morning light on the Chobe river.

A pair of Pygmy geese about to fly away on the Chobe river.

“Life just seems so full of connections. Most of the time we don’t even pay attention to the depth of life. We only see flat surfaces.”

~ Colin Neenan

Sunset on the Chobe river.

Unusual fishing technique of the Black Egret on the bank of the Chobe river.

Dawn on the Chobe river looking at the iconic three Jackalberry trees.

Two elephant bulls tussling in Amboslei in Kenya.

A baby Olive baboon in Amboseli in Kenya.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
~ William Blake

The beautiful female Painted Snipe in a marsh in Amboslei.

A wildebeest disturbs a huge flock of lesser Flamingoes in Amboseli.

The sun peering through thick morning cloud in Amboseli.

One of the big bulls in Amboseli.

A Serval cat hunting in one of the marshes in Amboslei at last light.

This lioness locks onto a few zebra in the distance in Amboseli.

A running Golden Starling in Tsavo West National Park in south east Kenya.

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
~ Carl Jung

A young leopard having just eaten a Dik Dik it had caught in the long grass in Tsavo West.

A lesser Kudu in Tsavo West – a first for me.

Another young leopard strolls along the road in front of us in Tsavo West.

Two bundles of fun with claws in Mashatu.

“Humanity has passed through a long history of one-sidedness and of a social condition that has always contained the potential of destruction, despite its creative achievements in technology. The great project of our time must be to open the other eye: to see all-sidedly and wholly, to heal and transcend the cleavage between humanity and nature that came with early wisdom.”
~ Murray Bookchin

The dominant male lion in Mashatu walking headlong into a cool morning wind.

Dappled beauty, camouflaged to perfection in Mashatu.

The same leopard up a tree moulded into the shape of the bough of a tree in Mashatu.

Two young male giraffe sparring in Mashatu.

“That’s the whole problem with science. You’ve got a bunch of empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder.”
~ Bill Watterson

A pack of wild dogs in Mana Pools had come down to the Zambezi river to drink in the afternoon.

Dawn in the Trichilia area of Mana Pools.

Two elephants quietly browsing in one of Mana’s forests.

Three up and three down. We caught the attention of three of the zebra in Mana Pools.

Hippos tussling in Long Pool in Mana Pools in last light.

A Mana Pools sunset.

I hope you enjoyed this small gallery of images from my photographic trips in Africa in 2016. I cannot wait to get out into the bush in 2017 to take better images and experience the beauty and abundance of the African bush.

“The secret of beginning a life of deep awareness and sensitivity lies in our willingness to pay attention. Our growth as conscious, awake human beings is marked not so much by grand gestures and visible renunciations as by extending loving attention to the minutest particulars of our lives. Every relationship, every thought, every gesture is blessed with meaning through the wholehearted attention we bring to it. In the complexities of our minds and lives we easily forget the power of attention, yet without attention we live only on the surface of existence. It is just simple attention that allows us truly to listen to the song of a bird, to see deeply the glory of an autumn leaf, to touch the heart of another and be touched. We need to be fully present in order to love a single thing wholeheartedly. We need to be fully awake in this moment if we are to receive and respond to the learning inherent in it.”
~Christina Feldman

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike