Sid's Blog

Blog 0: Nov 2025

This is my first attempt to blog, hopefully it will not be my last. A question I often get asked is, “what do you do with your photos?”. My usual response is “Oh I just share them on instagram and print a few for myself and friends”. But this is actually a really deep question, what is the point of all this. What is the purpose of life even…

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. My Great Grey Owl addiction. The first time I saw a GGO was in Yellowstone in May of 2016. It flew up from a pocket meadow next to the road and landed high in a tree. I couldn’t stop and had only a brief sighting of it. I carried on as I assumed owls were skittish and wouldn’t stick around. It wasn’t until a few years later when I was chatting with a fellow wildlife photographer friend that they mentioned that GGO’s can actually be photographed if you are quiet and respectful. A few years later, I would photograph my first Great Grey and since then, for more than 5 years I have been absolutely addicted to wanting to spend all my time in their presence. I had been obsessed with other animals, but not like this. It was worrying…

A few months ago, I was trying to decide between going to look for Polar Bears up North or to go to Africa and look for leopards both of which I had never seen before. I decided on Africa.

I settled on Kruger National Park in South Africa and the surrounding Game Reserves after doing some research on where to have the best chance of seeing a leopard. Little did I know how good of a decision this would be.

As soon as I landed in Kruger something in the air was different. The aura of the place took over and my heart rate went up, “I have to see a leopard… do they really exist”. The first safari was amazing, the amount of birds and other worldly animals was just unreal. I don’t know if one ever gets used to seeing giraffes.

But as it got later, there was a lingering hope of seeing something just a bit more elusive. The sun was close to setting and it felt like we might be out of time. But our guide suddenly stops and listens to the radio.

“There is a leopard on the move, but it is far, so I will need to drive fast and we may not see it. ok?”

“Let’s fking go!”

As we zoom and skid through the rough terrain in our open jeep the anticipation starts to become intolerable. It’s hard to describe the adrenaline of the possibility of seeing something you want so bad coupled with the fear that it may be gone. We arrive at a spot where a dried creek bed intersects with the road and a young male leopard has just crossed and is walking away from us, spots, shoulder muscles flexing, blue eyes, long tail and all. So they do exist.

During the rest of the trip, we would have many more sightings of leopards and other incredible animals, but it was never enough.

On the last meal of the trip we were eating breakfast with our guides and talking about what the best/most special animal was. One of the other guests said “But what about Cheetah’s, they are the fastest animals”. My guide looked over at me and we both smiled, the other guest just didn’t get it yet. He chuckled and finished with:

“Leopard is the special one.”