When I was a kid, my Dad gave me his old camera and I haven't been without one since. When I retired from practicing law, my husband and I began to travel to exotic, fascinating places and I was able to spend much more time shooting photos. Most of the photos on this site were shot in those places; due to political changes in the past few years several of them cannot be visited today—Mali, the fabled city of Timbuktu, Niger, Algeria, Tunisia and even Egypt. Our philosophy of "go while you can" has enriched our lives immeasurably.


I hope that my photos may awaken a desire to travel the world, especially the vast and diverse African continent. Africa is the world's last remaining and best place to see elephants, big cats, wild dogs, birds and other animals that in most parts of the world can only be seen in zoos. The bad news is that all of these animals are threatened by loss of habitat, poaching, and even poisoning. Ecotourism is one of the most important things we can do to reduce these threats. If visiting Africa isn't in the cards for the immediate future, please consider supporting one of the many nonprofit groups working to preserve these iconic animals.


All profits from sale of prints from this site will be sent to the Wilderness Wildlife Trust, a nonprofit that supports wildlife conservation and research. Donations will be directed towards conservation of and research on the big cats, wild dogs and elephants.

See http://www.wildernesstrust.com/about-us/  for more information.

Thank you for visiting,
Shirley Sanderson