BootsnAll 2009 East African Photographic Safari
This year BootsNall World Adventures is offering a special training/photographic trip to the Serengeti and surrounding wildlife conservancies in the company of wildlife and ravel photographer Sam DÂCruz. This is a superb opportunity to test your wider photographic skills in one of the worldÂs premier eco-travel destinations, while enjoying, first class accommodation, trip organization, guiding and photo-technical expertise.
Your Resident Expert
Sam DÂCruz was born and lived in England for most of his life. Picking up a keen interest in photography in his teenage years and then being inspired by renowned Australia Landscape photographer Peter Lik, Sam progressed to becoming a professional photographer specializing in travel, wildlife and commercial photography. Sam is self taught and had some help initially from National Geographic wildlife photographer John Arifin.
SamÂs journeys, largely for the purpose of travel photography contracts, have covered over 20 countries and spanned over 5 years. This has included extensively exploring South East Asia, India, Nepal, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Alaska, parts of USA and East Africa. His work often required travelling completely alone and having to learn local languages to get by in remote areas where foreigners are seldom seen.
Travelling the world on photography contracts has entailed climbing several challenging mountain peaks; Stok Kangri  6,150m (Himalayas), Mt Kilimanjaro  5,850m (Africa), Mt Kinabalu  4,100m (Borneo), Mt Fansipan  3,143m (Vietnam), Throng La Pass  5,400m (Nepal), Black Tusk  2,319m (Canada). Sam firmly believes that travelling the world has proved invaluable in gaining an insight into different places and cultures, giving a broad perspective on many different levels.
Some of SamÂs assignments included some amazing moments, such as being a passenger in a tiny aircraft flying in and out of the mountains and glaciers on the West Coast of New Zealand, hiking 10kms along an original piece of the Great Wall of China, viewing the Taj Mahal at sunrise, trekking in the middle of the night to find pythons in Northern Australia, diving the Great Barrier Reef, marveling at the Ancient ruins at Angkor Wat, Cambodia, getting up close with big game wildlife across Africa, climbing a Himalayan Peak in Northern India, seeing Monks chant an ancient Buddhist recital in the oldest temple in Tokyo, Japan just a 10 minute walk from the neon lights and sky scrapers in Tokyo and many more.
Sam has exhibited and sold work online, in Bangkok, Thailand, at several venues and in Vancouver, Canada, where he now resides. His work has been used in a multitude of mediums including; press, aid organizations, marketing material, websites, auctions, stock agencies etc. There is a long list of satisfied clients on an international platform.
Sam is working on publishing several books and looking towards the future he will continue to work on photography contracts worldwide, as well as trying to help others gain an insight into this fascinating art and produce stunning results for themselves.
SamÂs inspiration remains the same as when he first picked up a camera; the fascination of interesting subjects and the challenge of capturing a result pleasing to the eye – often by pushing the camera and lenses to their very limits.
Photographs: Sam D’Cruz