Most of these photos were taken on recent trips to Kenya and Pantanal. The last trip to Kenya was three weeks of bumpy jeep rides, battling crickets, and seeing these stunning animals in nature.
My first traveling experience was as a fifteen-year-old run-away. With no money, I flew with a friend from our homes in Puerto Rico to New York City. It wasn’t the wisest thing to do, but life has its ways, and now here I am, retired.
Some years ago, I took a trip to Costa Rica with a point and shoot camera. I had no deep investment in photography at that time. What got me into photography was my first trip to Kenya. Throughout the years, as I have fallen more in love with wildlife photography, I’ve gotten better cameras and lenses. Coming home to New York City from that first trip to Kenya, I knew this was what I truly wanted to do—keep photographing these animals.
Though I’ve been to Africa some ten times, it is not the only place to get in touch with the beauty of creation. It was during Covid that I got into photographing birds in Central Park and learning about the amazing number of species and activities of the birds.
If I would have told my 15-year-old self who ran away from home, that many years later, she would get to experience the beauty that life has to offer, she would not have believed it. And for this ability to experience life’s beauty, I am grateful.
Amarylis Betancourt