I would like to coin a new acronym: NASBIC

I am currently sitting in the Amsterdam airport, waiting for my flight to board, as we make the long flight home to San Francisco. It has been an amazing couple of weeks in Tanzania, and I am excited to share the images and stories of this trip with you in upcoming blog posts.

During our safari, I came up with a new acronym that I thought I would share with you all. The acronym is NASBIC (pronounced "NAZ BICK"). As we traveled with our photo group throughout Tanzania, there were many times when we came across an interesting scene, but for one reason or another, it was not photo worthy.

At first, I would tell the people in our three Land Cruisers that it would interesting to watch but not worth shooting. And then I started repeating "Not a shot, but it's cool". After many days of repeating this, I shortened this and just said "NASBIC" and everyone knew what I was saying.

Now...you might be wondering what makes an interesting scene not photo worthy. There were times when we would leave camp before sunrise and there was not enough light to capture a worthy photo. There were other times when our subject was in deep shade or hidden amongst distracting foliage. After seeing countless lions, we even got complacent enough to ignore groups of lions who were laying on their backs in the shade of trees. Interesting? Yes. But definitely not a shot, after we had seen so many other photos of active lions.

We had a great time watching the migration of the wildebeest and zebra, but due to the combination of sun and shade, this was a NASBIC moment.

Here is a photo of a baboon in the Serengeti. What makes this a NASBIC moment was the fact that the animal and background were too similar in color. Since the baboon blends into the background so much, it is hard for the viewer to find the subject.

Here is a photo of a baby zebra who was jumping around and playing. I had a good time watching this activity, but there was a lot of brush in the way, which made it tough to get a clean shot.

There were other times when the subject was just too far to get a decent photo. This example shows a Serval Cat that was really far from our vehicle. I took this photo at 560mm and it is still so small in the frame that the photo isn't really worth saving. Sure, I could crop way in on the photo (and I might), but it will not be a great shot.

I think you get the idea now. There are just times in life when we come across something really interesting, but it can not be captured well in camera. Those are NASBIC moments.

So there...this is my attempt to coin a new term. Next time you and your photo friends are out shooting and you have a similar moment, feel free to tell them NASBIC. :)

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