If ifs and ands were pots and pans…
As you may have noticed, there was a little bit of disruption to people’s travel plans in 2020! Here were all the trips I was supposed to go on but were either postponed or cancelled altogether:
El Karama Lodge, Laikipia, Kenya: Resident Photographer for a couple of weeks
Ol Jogi, Kenya: Resident Photographer for a week
SouthWild, Pantanal, Brazil: lecturer for up to three months
Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, India: Resident Photographer for a month or more
Eagle Island Lodge and Savute Elephant Lodge, Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park, Botswana: Resident Photographer for a month
Gabus Game Ranch, Namibia: Resident Photographer for two weeks (postponed from March to October)
Okonjima, Namibia: Resident Photographer and Videographer (postponed until 2021?)
Etendeka and Al Aiba, Namibia: Leader of wildlife photography workshop (postponed until 2021?)
Etosha and Sossusvlei lodges, Namibia: Resident Photographer for a week or two (postponed until 2021?)
Parque de la Naturaleza Cabárceno, Cantabria, Spain: Photographic trip with friends for a long weekend
I still managed to escape to Sicily with my girlfriend, Miriam, and spend a couple of weeks at Gabus Game Ranch in Namibia and 10 days at Kicheche Bush Camp in January, but I was very, very disappointed to miss out on so much last year. I was even due to lead a few photography workshops with Handmade Creative Workshops and Park Cameras, and I was looking forward to running another photography class at Canary Wharf and perhaps helping to judge their Wildlife Photography Competition again. Ah, well, never mind…
Looking on the bright side, lockdown appears to be (gradually!) coming to an end, and I do have a couple of possible trips planned for 2021.
Kings & Queens of Katmai, Alaska, USA: paying passenger on a trip led by Andy Skillen
Antarctica Frozen Continent Expedition: paying passenger with Young Pioneer Tours
Sadly, though, I’m having to pay for my trips these days. When I managed to get four months’ free accommodation in Africa in exchange for taking pictures for &Beyond and Cottar’s in 2019, I thought I’d found a fantastic way to get access to my favourite photographic destinations for just the price of an air ticket.
Unfortunately, Covid put paid to all that. I’ll see if I can resurrect one or two of the trips I had planned for last year, but it all depends on how quickly the tourism industry can manage to get back on its feet again. As the manager of Sossusvlei Lodge told me, “We’d love to have you here, but there aren’t any guests…!”
If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.
If you’d like to book a lesson or order an online photography course, please visit my Lessons and Courses pages.