Forest Hill woman gets wild pic in Serengeti.
Brenda Rusnak's photograph of a leopard fleeing a lion on the Serengeti was selected the National Geographic magazine editor's choice for August 2010.
Photo/BRENDA RUSNAK
"I showed our guide (the photo) and he told me that I needed to submit it to National Geographic..." - Brenda Rusnak
It was a "stroke of luck" shot that made National Geographic and will likely cause jealous lifetime photographers to gnash their teeth and roar.
Forest Hill resident and apparently amateur shutterbug Brenda Rusnak captured the magnificent and unusual scene on the Serengeti: a leopard bounding atop a tree, with the lightness of a character from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as it escapes from the roaring lion a branch below that has laid claim to the leopard's quarry - a freshly killed gazelle.
"Our guide was telling us that lions do not climb trees when suddenly he said, 'Oh my God, I think the lion is going to jump. Quick! Get your camera ready,'" Rusnak said.
But getting a "quick" shot was not easy.
Rusnak's camera battery had already died earlier that day and she had forgotten her spare battery and recharger in the Masai Mara in Kenya.
"But about an hour before I took this picture, I realized that if I popped my battery out of my camera, rubbed it on my clothing and then popped it back in my camera I could get a few pictures," said Rusnak, who had bought her Nikon 5000 just before her family trip to Africa ("In fact, I read the instruction booklet on the plane ride," she noted).
The trick worked and Rusnak's photographic timing was impeccable, if not more than a little lucky.
"I showed our guide (the photo) and he told me that I needed to submit it to National Geographic because in his 25 years as a safari guide he had never seen a lion climb a tree," she said. The advice paid off, and Rusnak's photo was selected as the magazine's editor's choice for its August issue.
The magazine reprint was the "icing on the cake" to a magical trip and year for Rusnak.
A physiotherapist by profession, Rusnak sold her healthcare company specializing in rehabilitation solutions for aging individuals to Centric Health in 2009. She now works as a consultant and hosts the blog www.thebestpart.ca
To celebrate the sale along with her 50th birthday and her 25th wedding anniversary, Rusnak and her husband and five children, aged 15 to 22, made the long journey to Kenya and Tanzania, without cellphones, computers and iPods.
"Africa is a very special place," Rusnak said. "It is one of the most beautiful places in the world and the African people are so genuinely kind."