Rodney Nombekana: How love for big cats and leopard ‘legend’ sparked this wildlife photographer’s career
Rodney Nombekana, a hunting guide who prides herself on providing visitors with a camera roll of Kruger’s reasons to love wildlife, says: “Our animals basically make it a point to be photographed. Wild animals become fashionable.” “That way, they not only appreciate wildlife, but also participate in preserving our natural world.”
“It happened by chance that a leopard was sitting on a beautiful rock in the sunset, and I took out my mobile phone and took a picture of this leopard,” Nombekana said. “When I got home, I looked at the photo and I realized that it would be beautiful if taken with the right camera.”
So Nombekana bought a starter camera kit. As with the leopard, he finds himself drawn to photographing big cats – a passion he says may have been rooted in his childhood in the countryside of the Eastern Cape.
“The village elders always told us about the leopard,” he explained. “It’s always been a myth that there’s an animal called a leopard. We’ve never actually seen it. I’ve always dreamed of actually seeing a leopard in the wild and when The first time I saw a leopard, it was unbelievable.”
Look through the gallery above to see how the leopard and other big cats have continued to hold a special meaning to Nombekana.
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