Two weeks in Tanzania. Three camps. One goal: spend real time with Africa's big cats.

Early October put us at Nimiri Plains in the Serengeti, The Highlands overlooking Ngorongoro Crater, and Little Chem Chem in the Tarangire region. Each camp offered different terrain and different opportunities. The plains delivered cheetahs. The crater brought leopards. The acacia woodlands gave us elephants by the dozens.

The cheetah encounter stands out: we watched a coalition hunt, play, and interact for hours. Not a quick sighting, but real time observing how they move and communicate. At Ngorongoro, we found a mother leopard with her nearly grown cub. They weren't hiding in thick brush or racing across the landscape. They were simply there, close enough to see every spot and whisker. At Little Chem Chem, bull elephants gathered at the watering hole each afternoon. Watching them drink, cool off, and establish hierarchy never got old.

I shot 25,000 images on this trip. These 20+ photographs are what survived the edit. Lions, cheetahs, leopards, zebras, elephants, birds. Some images capture action. Others capture stillness. All of them represent moments that made this trip worth the planning, the travel, and the early mornings.

Tanzania delivered what I came for: time with the big cats and the chance to document them doing what they do. No rush. No checklist. Just patience and presence.