KISIKI 👣

The leopard pauses, looking down carefully, as it prepares to leap to the ground below, silhouetted against the ember-red glow of the final African sunset moment.

Kisiki in Swahili means "stump."

It was a moment. A very brief one. He had eaten his fill and was returning to the ground, hesitating slightly to give me this moment. His skill for making the leap, honed a thousand times before, set his silhouette against the shape of the tree. Like a stump, he kept dead still for a few seconds, forming the shape of the surrounding gnarled, crusty black branches. His body and head shaped his presence, almost symbolic of how nature guides the living to melt into their abodes or places of hiding and safety. The silence was deafening, leaving one with only the crack of his landing, padded by the soft grasses below, and his swift, now silent disappearance back into the bush for another night.

I managed to take a few varying captures of this incredible time with the leopard after we had tracked him for a bit to this tree. More to come, but this shot was, for me, a thematic touch on the tree rather than just a leopard in the tree. It forms a sense of oneness where the leopard almost becomes a part of the tree in that very moment, helping create the illusion of a single subject in that second. Photography can be an odd craft when one reflects that subjects can change in a heartbeat, just like this one did in my case.

RAW AFRICA COLLECTION

Welcome to Africa - the wise, the restless, the life giving.

This soulful land of dreamers gives rise to the underbelly of a beautiful, gentle beat that is only heard by those who listen for it. This photographic journey explores, profiles, and captures what I hope is the heart and soul of Africa's true wilderness kingdom. From its deep bush to its dry savannah and desert, Africa remains a place where life is represented by timeless vistas that are distilled into moments to treasure.