Yesterday morning I was sent on an assignment in the post-apocalyptic world of New Mombasa documenting the Orbital Drop Shock Troops movements as they wiped out hoard after hoard of alien invaders. Daron Letts – Entertainment writer for the news north – was my chief editor and ordered me to go “balls to the wall” if it meant getting shots of the fray. This was my world about 10 minutes prior to being woken up by my assistant photographer, pro high-end nature photographer Thomas Koidhis, buzzing away on my cellphone on the bedside table. I didn’t find out it was him until halfway through the conversation.

I picked up the phone groggy and glanced at the clock. 1 in the afternoon. Makes sense, I thought, after all we were shooting with Nyki till 2 in the morning and playing halo 3, which probably explained the dream, after wards. It has been on my mind to call up Darren about the Showcasing The South Slave exhibition we are hosting in July.

Tom: “I need your help”

Me: Sure, no problem. What do you need?

Tom: I need you to go to the store and pick me up a shaver for my head. Im using a machete to trim my mohawk and I just cant reach this one spot. I would ask my girlfriend to do it but I dont want to wake her.

Me: Right Sounds good, what do you need me to do?

Tom: “Pick up a shaver kit from the store and I will pay you back when I can”

Me: Wicked. Who is this by the way?

Tom: “…..tom”

Me: Oh, right. All right. I will be there there. Sorry, You sounded different.

Tom: “Did you just get up ? You agreed to help a random caller shave his —-?”

Me: Be right there, shower first.

Tom: “Bloody he—–”

*click*

To make it worth my while, I decided to get him to agree to let me blog about it.

After that little adventure we had nothing to do for the day except answer emails. That took all of 15 minutes between the both of us so we decided we would take a trip out to Pine Lake. Along the way we found herds upon herds of wild buffalo and made a few “detours” to get some unique shots of them…

We got stuck for about 20 minutes behind a herd of them later on up the road (going there and back). Its important to proceed cautiously because its rutting (mating) season and be wary of baby bison (calves) near your car. You can see a few in this picture here (the short golden ones) . These bison are a lot more than just furry cows, sometimes they have been known to charge your truck or car so its best to wait for them to move.

When we arrived the whole landscape lit up with the crisp melting golden glow from the sunset and the view was worth the mosquitoes (make sure to pack a ton more bug dope than we did). Walked around a bit, stayed until the sun went down. Took some shots along the bank of the lake (which is actually supposedly a sinkhole filled with water, but everyone just calls it a lake).

Went back up and along the way up the trail I looked back and whipped out the 70-200 + 2x kenko converter to grab a shot of a loon cooing goodbye. Got back in town around midnight with the resonating sounds still going through my ears.