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Kenya. July 2011

I would have liked to put a very good photograph that I took above this post, but I am afraid it will be impossible. It is no longer  in my possession. I can still see it very clear though, so clear that if I had good drawing skills I would have been able to recover it perfectly.

I have arrived to Samburu R. in Kenya as a safari guide of a very nice group. On the first day I had asked every member of the group what would he like to see the most during the next 8 days safari. People came up with their wishes. Leopard, Cheetah, Giraffes, the big migration of Wildbeasts and Zebras that started to come into Masai Mara just that month.

For myself, I wished for the ultimate photograph. One of those that while clicking you already know that it is one of the best you ever took, one that holds the moment in a perfect way and can hand it well even to someone that wasn't there when you took it.

Our Second day in Samburu, while watching 4 Grevy's Zebras grazing I had that chance. From nowhere came a big male Zebra looking for his females. He run around them kicking and barking and took a sharp turn while facing our vehicle. There was a moment there that his striped body leaned to the side due to the sharp fast turn, clouds of dust came up from his fast run and his nostrils were wide open.  I could hear my own click and felt that my smile is from my head to toes. I was in the perfect position and was just playing with the settings of my camera to try something new. It was perfect and I knew it even before looking at it.  

For the next 2 days that this photograph was in my possession I was looking at it so many times that I can still see it in my eyes very clearly. I admired this photograph and felt that my mission was accomplished. I also had a growing fear of loosing it. Little did I know that my camera along with all my photographs in it was going to be stolen only 2 days later.
3 years I have traveled with this camera everywhere I went. I has became my traveling body until someone in Lake Naivasha Country Club has decided that he would be better off with it.

Theft is a strange thing.  Someone is going through your personal stuff, taking things that might mean money for him, but mean much more to you. As someone that can get sentimental even to hair band that had traveled with me somewhere special, yes I admit- I was very sentimental about this camera. It was a very big part of my life. And along with loosing it, I lost a week of photography and I lost my perfect photograph.

The next 2 days I spent between my group's activities and taking care of paper work. The management of Lake Naivasha Country Club was more worried about their reputation then about the well being of their client and made it an even bigger head ace.

I use to say that the most perfect shots are the ones stuck in your mind after having missed them. The ones you never took. Wrong setting, wrong position, battery died on you or you just didn't have it with you. We all know those frustrating moments so much that it seems like we are ever ready. But I can say now that the best shot might be one that you took perfectly, but will never be able to enjoy again.