Wednesday, August 12, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
9
Commentary...
Intimate is the African Night — Part II
skills.= Basically, it means
thoroughly learning and
competently applying a par-
ticular understanding in a
certain setting and situation,
then reapplying it in a similar
setting and situation.
Everything has its time
and place, however.
The remote bush of
Africa, while sitting among
a pride of prowling lionesses
during the night, isn9t the
best time to apply lessons
learned long ago, particularly
when the situation is novel
this time around.
The second lioness con-
tinued to follow the same
path as the first and would
be at the rear of our vehicle
in the next few seconds.
Already growing far too
comfortable in this situation,
I made a hair-trigger deci-
sion to get the kind of pho-
tograph I9d been after since
we arrived in Zambia three
weeks ago.
Camera in hand, I quickly
plotted how and when to take
the magazine cover shot I9d
dreamed of getting, forget-
ting the rules for a respon-
sible safari vehicle passen-
ger. I began naively assum-
ing the actions of this lion
because of how the previous
one behaved, as if it were an
encounter with familiar griz-
zlies on the tundra.
The lioness lightly pushed
her cheek into the rear corner
By Chris Morin
Columnist
A few rules for riding in
an open-air vehicle during a
safari in Africa are:
1. Stay in the vehicle until
the guide says it9s okay to
get out for a break. 2. When
parked for photographs,
never stand up in the pres-
ence of lions. 3. Never ever
extend a hand beyond the
side of the vehicle in the
presence of any predator.
Simple. But new rules can
be forgotten in the excite-
ment of the moment. For a
few of us I guess, the more
exciting the moment, the
easier it becomes to forget.
Having been around
wild animals in the Alaskan
remote backcountry and
marine environments as a
trekker, paddler, and guide,
I had enormous respect for
large mammals but had also
become comfortable being in
close quarters with them.
I considered brown/griz-
zly bears to be like brothers
and sisters. While there was
ultimate respect for each and
every one, I also came to feel
only mild anxiety and almost
no fear during intimate
encounters.
Some educational philos-
ophers offer the notion that
<generalization and trans-
ference= is one of the pre-
mier <higher order thinking
of the vehicle upon arrival,
either scratching herself or
marking it, then began to
proceeded across the back of
the vehicle, her body lightly
touching it as she passed.
I had smoothly stood up,
turned towards the rear, and
bent over 90 degrees at the
waist so that I was beyond
the back of the bench seat
and facing the ground. At
six feet four inches tall, my
upper body stuck out and
cleared the backrest and
vehicle by two feet.
The remainder of the
vehicle9s passengers leaned
forward in the opposite
direction, murmuring while
the three lions in front began
pressing the hippopotamus,
seeing if it might panic and
do something stupid. No,
it wouldn9t. At that very
moment, stupidity was ram-
pant right behind them.
Beside me, Kathleen and
Tony had apparently dropped
into yet another stupor with
the next lioness9s approach
or possibly it was due to
my inexplicably vexing
behavior.
Looking through the
viewfinder, I knew there
would only be a single oppor-
tunity for a great shot. This
particular 35 mm camera
could not be set on continu-
ous photo mode due to the
multiple clicking sounds it
would have made; one click
PHOTO COURTESY CHRIS MORIN
The Morning Drive Break while on Safari
was all I was willing to risk.
It was immediately obvi-
ous that the rear of the jeep
would show up the photo-
graph. This wasn9t necessar-
ily a bad thing; it certainly
provided a certain drama
because it would offer my
perspective while taking it.
Yet, it meant a different sort
of photograph than what I9d
been envisioning.
I quickly zoomed in for a
tighter shot so as to eliminate
the jeep from the picture.
The lioness began entering
the left side of the frame,
not yet below me. Her next
stride placed her within the
frame; she was beginning to
fill up the shot and all I had
to do was push the button as
I tracked her.
The head and eyes
now filled the photo, but I
needed to slightly adjust the
focus, additional zooming
a moment ago made her
slightly blurry.
Instantly adjust the focus!
Refocus my thoughts! One
final look through the view-
finder and & she9s stopped!
Her head had swiveled
upwards during all that, the
eyes looked at me.
In a singular and monu-
mentally appalling moment, I
fully comprehended the great
See AFRICA on page 17
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