Happy 🌏 Day ✌🏼
Here’s one of my favorite images from South Africa
#earthday #savesharks
(at South Africa)
Earth Day /
natgeotravelpic
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Despite barely scratching the surface, Africa is teaching me a lot.
Mt. Kilimanjaro broke me, but also taught me how to persevere and find strength when there is nothing left to give.
Our planet is truly a wonderful and beautiful place, incredibly diverse and magnificent, despite it’s complexity. It is worth protecting.
The wilderness has the power to transform and build character. There is nothing quite like being in the wild and you can get trampled by an African elephant if you’re not careful.
I’ve been enriched and moved in so many ways, mainly by the people that I’ve encountered along the way.
There is beauty everywhere worth pursuing and exploring, even in the places that we least expect it. Get out there and find it.
Be fearless. Be wild. Be free.
All My Best,
Reuben
#thisisafrica #bigcatsplayball
(at Zanzibar, Tanzania)
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Today’s surf mission on the outer reefs
#thisisafrica #bigcatsplayball
(at Zanzibar Island)
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Went diving and found a few fish
#thisisafrica #bigcatsplayball
(at Zanzibar Island)
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Surface to Air II
#thisisafrica #bigcatsplayball
(at Zanzibar Island)
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My travel partner in crime @andrewmklein in the light.
We’ve had one hell of an unforgettable African journey together that included getting chased by elephants at camp and seeing great white sharks swim inches from our faces.
He led me to the summit of Kilimanjaro, and looked after me after I barely made it down.
This journey wouldn’t be the same without him, and my heart is full after sharing this great adventure together.
#thisisafrica #bigcatsplayball
(at Zanzibar, Tanzania)
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RAWRRR!!
#thisisafrica #bigcatsplayball
(at Serengeti National Park, Tanzania)
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We are the reckless,
We are the wild youth
#thisisafrica #bigcatsplayball
(at Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania)
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A lioness on the hunt
#bigcatsplayball #thisisafrica
(at Serengeti National Park, Tanzania)
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A sea of pink flamingos
#bigcatsplayball #thisisafrica
(at Lake Manyara, Tanzania)
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Our first up close and personal lion encounter in the Serengeti.
We easily saw over 100 big cats in the Serengeti.
#stayfierce #bigcatsplayball
(at Serengeti National Park, Tanzania)
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Lions don’t have a very high success rate when it comes to hunting. We saw 4 prides of lions fail to capture their prey, and here is an image of 2 lions failing to take down a Cape buffalo. It literally scared the crap out of the buffalo afterwards.
#keepitwild #bigcatsplayball
(at Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania)
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One rite of passage from boyhood to the status of junior warrior is a painful circumcision ceremony, which is performed without anaesthetic. These young Masaai warriors have been recently circumcised.
#bigcatsplayball
(at Serengeti National Park, Tanzania)
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Maasai and their cattle on the way to the Serengeti. Sometimes the Maasai have to defend their cattle from lion attacks using their spears.
#bigcatsplayball
(at Serengeti National Park, Tanzania)
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Kakesu
Maasai village of Baraka, Tanzania
The Maasai are a semi-nomadic people that live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They still continue their age old customs despite pressure to become modernized.
#bigcatsplayball
(at Tanzania)
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| 8:05 AM TODAY |
A great white shark breaches the surface while hunting near Seal Island in False Bay just outside of Cape Town, South Africa. This great white shark breaching behavior has only ever been observed around Seal Island in False Bay.
It was absolutely mind blowing and surreal to finally get a chance to experience and photograph this firsthand!
#sharkaholic #bigcatsplayball #saveoursharks #airjaws
(at Cape Town, South Africa)
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Happy #worldoceansday!
This is another image from my first Drake Passage crossing on the way to Antarctica. The Drake Passage is the stormiest sea in the world and people often ask me how the crossing is. For someone that gets sea sick easily, I didn’t think it was that bad and managed to survive 6 crossings.
Out of all of my Antarctic photographs, these are some of my favorite images. Perhaps it is because I have a deep connection to the ocean and have spent most of my life in and around the ocean.
I find a tremendous amount of beauty in our oceans, even in the midst of its chaos, and I’m truly grateful for everything it has to offer. Let’s do whatever we can to protect it!
#antarcticaordie
(at Antarctica)
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| HOW WAS ANTARCTICA? |
When people ask me, “How was Antarctica?” I usually struggle to find words to describe my experience. I do know that my experience in Antarctica transformed and forever changed me. Never in my entire life have I ever been in such close proximity to so much wildlife and such raw, untouched beauty. Penguins walked up to me and bit my fingers and my camera. Fur seals charged at me to the point where I would have to throw blows to fend them off (they were actually much more aggressive than the bulls I ran with in Pamplona, Spain). There was magic everywhere and so many choices when it came down to deciding what to photograph. Antarctica humbled me, taught me so much, gave me a better appreciation for our planet, and is truly unlike any other place on earth.
I’ve always dreamed of going to Antarctica ever since I was in 4th grade, and Antarctica made me feel like a kid in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, enthralled and captivated by pretty much everything I saw, felt, and experienced. Our expedition leader told me that I found my wings.
Thank you for following along and for allowing me to share some of my images and stories. I’m forever grateful to be able to share these stories and I hope I have inspired you in one way or another.
I will leave you with a quote about Antarctica that resonated with me:
“Take the rockies, the alps, and Mount Washington, cover them with thick, crusted snow that, like frosting spread by a giant’s hand, has spilled down over the land, to end in a jagged, uneven boarder where it meets the sea.
Imagine yourself on a spaceship in another world - a world that for 10 million years has been locked away behind ramparts of ice and where escape is blocked in all directions by a cruel, cold ocean.
Take all the adjectives in Mr. Roget’s thesaurus and you still haven’t got it, not even Mr. Roget’s best can convey one’s first impression of that vast, mysterious immensity of ice. It’s a lesson in humility, an unforgettable reminder of man’s immortality, and it is like no other place on earth.”
- Jenny Darlington
#antarcticaordie
(at Antarctica)
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“Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?” - Rumi
#antarcticaordie #earthday
(at Antarctica)
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Happy Earth Day!
Scenes of the Gentoo penguin colony at Port Lockroy, the southernmost post office in the world located in Antarctica.
This year the Penguin Post Office received a record number of applicants for 4 jobs requiring a 5 month stint without running water or electricity.
There is so much beauty all around us and Antarctica has definitely given me a greater appreciation for our planet.
#antarcticaordie
(at Antarctica)