Our first 2 nights we will stay at the beautiful Mt Meru Game Lodge in Usa River (Arusha). While here we will have a chance to try our photography skills on blue monkeys, possibly the black colobus monkeys, and 1000′s of birds. We will walk to the schoo…l which is being supported by my travelers … classroom building/finishing, refurbishment, landscaping, hand washing stations, etc. We will spend an afternoon at Arusha National Park which sits between Mt Meru (15,000 ft) which is taller than any mountain in Colorado and Mt Kilimanjaro (19,300 ft) which is roughly a mile higher than any mountain in Colorado. Here we will photograph the black colobus monkey, buffalo, giraffe, and many other African species of birds and mammals.

Getting up early can be rewarding. I shot Detroit at dawn the other day while waiting on a client who wanted their photo taken in front of the Detroit skyline. Awesome morning as you can see.
Image Available Here

If you cant make my exhibit at the Troy Library this month, check out http://tinyurl.com/InShow1. The shots that didn’t quite make the show are here http://tinyurl.com/NoShow1.

…there is a photogenic gem just minutes from the city that is more rolling than most of northern Michigan, and has a unique look and feel due to the hundreds of horse farms in the area. Read Article Here

I’m pleased to announce a series of classroom and field photography workshops in Michigan. Oct 10, a 4 hour field workshop titled ‘Colors of Metamora’ is in beautiful rolling Metamora, Michigan. Classroom workshops are on October 1, 8, 15 and 22 from 7:00 to 8:30pm at the Boys & Girls Club in Troy at 3670 John R. Rd (north of Big Beaver). For more info Workshops

Photography is often described as ‘painting with light’. Ever wonder why some of your photographs turn out as if you were a professional and others look terrible? …. Read More

I am pleased to announce that I’m a reporter for Examiner.com, a nationwide news organization. I’m the Detroit Travel Photography Examiner. See my 1st article ‘Africa is not scary’. Examiners get compensated based on the number of views of an article, so click HERE.

Interview of William Cowger by Michigan Entrepreneur TV on the business of running photo safaris. The interview is split into 3 x 10 minute segments. The full interview will air on Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Twp Public Access Channel 15 on Aug 11th at 11AM and Aug 13 at 7PM. Air times for Troy and Rochester are yet to be released.

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Tomorrow at 11AM I am being interviewed by Michigan Entrepreneur TV. Stations and air schedule is yet to be determined.

I have never had a more emotional wildlife experience in all of my years of going on safaris. In Feb 2008, we encountered a cheetah mother with 4 adult male cubs near Ndutu Lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) in the Serengeti eco-system. That in itself is an amazing occurance since only 1 out of 20 cheetahs survive to adulthood. A mother that raises 4 cubs to adult size is remarkable and something our guides had never seen in their combined 70 years of experience. For a couple days we kept track of what they were up to by checking out their territory early in the morning and late in the afternoon. We watched mom teaching them to hunt and watched them play.

In February 2009 I immediately asked about and searched out the brothers. We found that one of the brothers had disappeared and they of course by this time the remaining three were on their own ( we were not able to locate the mother). They provided me with another unique experience by climbing trees to search the landscape for prey. I had never see or heard of cheetahs in trees (they have dog like paws), but they provided me with shots on successive days in trees that were accessible for their limited climbing ability. 

In May 2009 upon arrival at Ndutu, I again asked about and sought out the brothers. I was truly excited when we finally located them on the second day, but my excitement turned to shock and amazement as they chose our visit as the time for 2 of the brothers to turn on the third. In successively more violent attacks, it appeared as though they were trying to kill him. The fury, wailing, and intensity was more reality than I, my fellow travelers and even our guides were able to handle. In the end, we intervened by running the attackers off the severely injured brother. We have no idea if they came back later to finish him off or if the victim could survive the injuries, and were at at total loss at what we had witnessed.

Through our guides, we later learned from a researcher that has followed the brothers from birth that in fact they were not brothers. Two of the original cubs were from another mother, and the mother we met in Feb 2008, raised them and her own 2 as her own. The researcher said that it is not uncommon for male cheetahs to bond when young and then separate at early adulthood. The separation is often violent and sometimes ends in death. I will continue to inquire to find out if the injured cheetah survived. I have video of some of the attacks that will be posted soon.