The Rocks of My Childhood

Faran Vady, Israel. February 2011

As a kid I have joined kid's activities, involving nature walks and studies. It very much paved my way on. Environmental Studying High School, Guiding kids on nature tours during my army service, then finding my way to Africa.

Last weekend, I had an invitation from one of the kids I use to hike with, to relive the adventure almost 30 years after we started these hikes. The invitation was for a hike in the southern part of Israel, the dry desert of Israel, the Negev. I have hikes in the Negev during the past few years several times but there was something different in this hike. We both lived in other places in the world since we last hiked together in this area, and changed a lot the way we hike. No more running, heavy duty carrying and counting k'm. Just a calm walk, quiet and pleasant. More exploring than running through an area.

Taking this photo it was suppose to show me as a silhouette on the desert's impressive rocks. But looking at it I thought it looks more like me image was curved out from the rocks. That set me thinking of the rocks of my childhood, and the place they took in building my personality and my path in life.

Painful Dance

Arusha N.P, Tanzania. December 2010

It does look like a well choreographed dance- Necking. 2 mail Giraffs, bouncing around, pushing, hitting neck to neck in their fights. A Giraff head is quite heavy and the swing of the long neck looks almost unnatural. It accelerates the movement and the hit of the neck is very powerful.  Sometimes you can hear the sound from a distance and as much as it is beautiful to watch, it never seem to be a pleasure to take part in it

These 2 males were in Arusha N.P. We stood by them for a long time wondering whether what we are watching was a proper necking. They were very gentle with each other, very nicely rubbing each another's neck as it was for the attention rather than a fight. We left them dancing and went around the park. When returning an hour later it started to warm up a bit and sound more like a fight. As we were on the way to catch our flight out of Tanzania, we didn't have the chance to see the end of it and congratulate the winner…

A World of Sands

Sahara, Morocco. 2010

Sahara. Ask anyone what comes in his mind when he hears the word and most of the people will picture sand dunes, Huge ones. Truth about the Sahara is more in what the Tuareg call it. The thousands deserts. Sand dunes are just a part of it, but a great part indeed.

Every time I have a group coming down to the Sahara, we spend a night in a nice camp planted in the middle of the sand dunes. It is a way to get all the luxury services tourists want and still feel that you are out there. In the evening we can sit out under a canopy of endless sky, it's beautiful. The morning in the Sahara is my favorite morning of the tour. I get up early before the sun does. Some clients join for a walk to see the sunrise, other prefer to sleep on, but I am going for a hunt. The great hunt of photos. About half an hour after the sun is up, it shines on the dunes in a angle that brings up all the beauty of it. It can last for long or just stay there for half an hour, depends on the weather, wind and season. But it's there. I was once walking for my morning hunt with one of the clients. He was an engineer in some big hi-teck company and never spent a night out in nature before. Sahara was a revelation for him. But when he saw me looking with my camera to the same direction, selecting the right angel to frame the right photo, he couldn’t understand it. He kept asking what was I looking for. I found that I can hardly answer that question so I finally said- Perfection. 2 days later he looked at all the sand photos on my computer and said he never saw it there, when it was unframed.

I have thousands of photos of sand dunes from my morning hunts in the Sahara, selecting those 6 wasn't easy. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder.