EYES ON THE WILD
Story and photographs by Eli Weiss / WildiZe Foundation

There I was, caught between two lions and an elephant. They are right outside my window, deeply involved in 'amour'. They are close enough to touch, or another way to look at it, close enough to rip me to shreds in seconds. I'm trying to photograph the courtship while maintaining some sort of calm as the lion becomes more impatient, figuring feline ways of outmaneuvering us and the lioness- for she is now using my vehicle as a decoy.

My hand is outside the vehicle, holding the lens, and moving would bring unwanted attention to me. No, thank you. Then my guide whispers quietly, "Look! Look! Look!" I tear my eyes away from the lions to look forward and see him pointing toward the front of the vehicle. I'm thinking, "What?!" Then I see it. Hard to miss, actually. A young bull elephant is running towards us! Now I hear it too. He's trumpeting. His trunk is up, his ears are flared back, and he's covering ground quickly- of which there's not much between him and us, and none between us and the lions. We think, "Okay! Time to go!"

But a look o the lions shows me the lioness' tail is tucked under our rear tire, the lion is pacing around the back of the vehicle, using us as his breaker, we can't go backward. We can't go forward. We can't move. Now I hear something else too, a low deep growl that seems to vibrate through me. It's the lion outside my window, he's not happy and I'm seeing lots of big teeth. I unexpectedly think, "Now I know what it feels like to be a lion and an elephant sandwich."

It's thrilling. It's terrifying. An accumulated 6 tons of wildlife is bearing down and surrounding me. I am nothing. The vehicle nothing more than a tin can. I'm also thinking, 'Oh, please don't hurt the lens'.

I

love my work! I'm an African wildlife photographer. I love being out there watching animals in their natural habitat, doing what they do, and when the chance prevails, photographing them, and sharing those visuals with viewers. I also think it very important to educate my viewers on what goes on behind the photos, the importance of what you are seeing, and its relationship to the real world. For instance, when you watch Discovery Channel, or Animal planet, and see the wildlife they are featuring, it isn't always understood that all that action isn't happening at once, let alone all the time! There it is, brought to you right in your living room, in a wonderful and timely half hour. But the reality is those scenes take months, or even years to photograph and edit together.

To capture on film those split-second heart-searing moments can take hours and hours of time in the field. I have driven around for days in hopes of finding a lion with its eyes open; they sleep so darn much! Even though they are still exciting to just watch, they are not doing anything 'exciting' to photograph that will elicit a response from the viewer. The chance of photographing a 'kill' is even more remote.

So, all that excitement you seen on the film, whether it be a still photo or TV, takes a lot of patience and time invested by the photographer, and cooperation from the weather, your crew, your vehicle, your camera equipment. There is nothing worse than finally arriving at that moment only to have your gear fail you! Wildlife photography is nine parts preparation and 1 part luck. And I absolutely wouldn't do anything else.