If there is one picture I keep coming back to, it’s this one.  Feeding Kangaroos at the Parndana Wildlife Park on Kangaroo Island was one the best experiences in my life, but I present this picture not only for that reason.  When I first thought of the photo topic ‘travel photography’ I wasn’t sure what direction to go.  However, I knew that the meaning behind travel photography was deeper than simply images of myself taking pictures (my first idea).  As I thought about it, I realized that to travel is to mix among foreign cultures and inhabitants and then, furthermore, to do travel photography is to try and capture a bit of that experience and attempt to bring that back to one’s own people.  The picture above exemplifies this captured exploration in two ways.

First, as I travel into new places, I bring things from my culture with me; maybe it’s my style of dress in a much more fashionable city, maybe it’s a craving for Mexican queso on the glaciers of Iceland, or maybe it’s a video camera into a pack of hungry Kangaroos.  This kangaroo’s curiosity, symbolizes the struggle for understanding as two people meet.

Secondly, there is something special captured in this particular kangaroo’s earnest attempt to interact with my foreign device, when everything else anyone had in their hands was food.  I like to think that the look on his face and the angle at which he approaches the lens gives me a smile not only as the reflection of a memory, but because it feels alive and real.  If you’ve met me or been in my circle, I’ve probably tried to give this picture to you, I think it can make anyone happy.  I brought that back.

In the very least, I love kangaroos and really just about any animal.  Maybe this picture is a metaphor or maybe it’s just a funny looking animal that I find as adorable as any Hugh Grant movie.  Either way, I had to go seek out the experience to capture it.