Imagine a herd of African elephants rushing past you at sunset, lion cubs at play, rhinos looking you in the eye, giraffes grazing above the trees. Picture rare lemurs just an arms length away, the snows of Kilimanjaro hanging in the evening sky, a Cape embracing the water of two oceans, a total solar eclipse overhead, and a visit to one of the worlds most remote islands, a place that once imprisoned an emperor.

Now do justice to all of these subjects with a camera. It was a photographers challenge that I gladly embraced in November and December of 2002. We flew from the United States to Nairobi, enjoyed a brief safari in Kenya's Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks, and then boarded the Orient Lines cruise ship Marco Polo at Mombasa for a three week cruise that took us down the East African coast to the island of Madagascar; the South African cities of Durban and Cape Town; KwaZulu-Natal and its Hluhluwe-Umfolozi and Tala Valley game reserves; Port Elizabeth's Addo Elephant Park; the Cape of Good Hope; the vast Namib desert of Namibia, and the isolated historic island of St. Helena, site of Napoleon final exile and death. We also had an opportunity to see a total eclipse of the Sun on December 4, 2002. The Marco Polo sailed to a perfect viewing position off Mozambique, placing us in the shadow of the Moon for several minutes to experience the eerie midday darkness, and the sudden appearance of the Suns corona.

This cruise was arranged through Great American Travel of Phoenix, Arizona (800-929-8638). It continued for another two weeks beyond St. Helena, as we crossed the South Atlantic Ocean on the Marco Polo to spend Christmas and New Years in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. (You can view my continuing article: "Rio de Janeiro to Rio de la Plata", at http://www.worldisround.com/home/pnd1/index.html)

In this article, I share 100 of my favorite African images with you. They express my feelings about what I saw and experienced during my three weeks of shooting in Africa and cruising its waters. On this portion of the trip, I made about 2,000 images on my Canon G2 four megapixel camera. I also used wideangle and telephoto converter lenses that greatly expanded the range of the G2's zoom lens. Unlike film photography, digital imaging allows me to shoot virtually without limits. Every picture becomes a step in a process. I shoot each subject until I can produce a picture thats as good as I can make it. I have kept only ten per cent of the pictures I made -- about 200. You will view half of them in this article. With the help of Adobe Photoshop, I have enhanced all of these pictures, but I have not altered any of the subject matter in the pictures themselves. I cropped some of the images and improved color, contrast, sharpness and exposure as necessary.

I hope you will enjoy them, and that you will share your own impressions of these pictures with me by leaving your comments. If you have any questions about either this journey or my pictures, I would be happy to answer them. Send your email message to me at pnd1@cox.net.

Thank you.

Phil Douglis Director, The Douglis Visual Workshops, Phoenix, Arizona