onward | Todd Slawson Photos

Onward

A Photobook by R. Todd Slawson

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Welcome to Onward – my fifth photobook. I am glad you have found the QR code on the inside cover. Now you can verify if you have correctly guessed the subject of each photograph and its location. I also try to provide some detail on each photo and sometimes additional photographs and a link to more information.

Onward features seventy-five photos from ten states and seven countries. My five photobooks showcased 436 photographs from nineteen states and twenty-one countries. I find beauty in the animals and birds in this world plus the majestic landscapes and simple patterns in nature. I enjoy capturing things from unique perspectives. I hope you enjoy this year’s photos and stories of my adventures.

I was fortunate this past year (2024) to have exhibited my photographs in the Rueben Saunders Gallery in Wichita, Kansas, where I was raised. I want to thank those who made it such a great success. Many of my large works on metal were purchased to go into offices. This was my first exhibit ever and it turned me from a hobby photographer into a professional photographer even though I still consider it a hobby. I still exhibit at Rueben Saunders Gallery so if you are in the area, please stop in to visit them. Otherwise, many of my photographs can be viewed at www.toddslawson.com. If you are interested in purchasing any please email me at tslawson@slawson.com.

Let’s begin the journey together and onward.

Cover: Two blonde, coastal brown bear cubs in Katmai National Park in Alaska. You will see more of them later.

Page 1: This Coastal Brown Bear (basically a bigger grizzly bear) in Hidden Harbor in Alaska is about to pounce on a salmon in the stream. Hidden Harbor is in Katmai National Park. We slept on a boat and took the skiff to shore at low tide to watch the bears feed on the spawning salmon entering the streams. It is September and winter is coming so the bears need to put on weight quickly for the long hibernation ahead. The bears wander the stream hoping to spot a salmon swimming by and then chase it through the stream and trap in under their massive paws. However, the right position on the bank allows them to see into the water better. This guy has found a salmon and is entering the stream to begin the “cat and mouse” game.

Sometimes, when in deeper water, the bear will stand up to get a better view of the salmon.

You will see several more photos from my Alaska trip in Onward.

Pages 2 and 3. The April 2024 solar eclipse was my second one. I love them. I watched it in Marion, Illinois at the airport along with many others that flew in just for this event. It is one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. I put together a collage of photos throughout the eclipse cycle for your viewing. When the eclipse becomes total and the last ray of sunlight is blocked, it gets about 3 shades darker and colder. On the horizon in all directions is an eerie glow of golden light like a sunset. I cannot wait for the next one in 2026.

Pages 4 and 5. Both photos are of Mount Fiji in Japan. In the first one, I found a Thai Buddhist monk in the parking lot and enticed him to be in my photo. He was happy to be my model and it turned out well. In the second photo, I climbed up to the Chureito Pagoda and placed it in the photo. A long climb, but well worth it. https://www.kanpai-japan.com/fujiyoshida/chureito-pagoda-arakurayama-sengen

Pages 6 and 7. Not all animals in Africa are cute and photogenic. The warthog, hyena, hippo, crocodile and cape buffalo are prime examples. I tried to do my best with this mud-covered cape buffalo in the Masai Mara in southern Kenya. These guys wallow in the mud to remove ticks and other parasites. It also helps to keep them cool. Their horns are called bosses and provide a hard boney shield across their entire head to defend themselves against predators and also to butt heads with others in the herd to determine the pecking order. In North America, animals like deer, elk and moose have antlers but African animals have horns instead. Antlers are shed each year and new larger antlers grown back each season. Horns are permanent but do grow. African animals would not survive long without the horns to help defend themselves – thus they are not shed. Also the buffaloes of North America are not buffaloes but rather Bison and not related to the water buffaloes or cape buffaloes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_buffalo

Page 8. This black and white photo of a male lion in the Masai Mara Preserve of Kenya is named “The King.” It is one of my favorites and sold many times at the gallery this year. He is staring right into your eyes. What’s for dinner?

Page 9. I love simple photos, and this is one of them. This person is crossing the Manambolo River in west central Madagascar. He uses the long pole to propel him to the other side just like the gondoliers of Venice. The canoe is a carved out tree trunk. Picture below.

Madagascar is a very poor country but the people are very friendly. This area of the Manambolo River is where the national highway crosses but there is no bridge. Instead, the cars and trucks have to be loaded on a barge and people pull it across the river using the cable that is strung between the two sides. As it approaches the bank, a person jumps into the crocodile infested waters to guide the barge into the correct unloading configuration. You thought you had a tough job.

Pages 10 and 11. This is a view of Wanaka Lake on the southern island of New Zealand. The glacier fed lakes of the southern island are the prettiest in the world. Great view on top of this hill.

Pages 12 and 13. These two zebras were actually fighting in the early morning light in Kenya’s Masai Mara Preserve. However, this picture looks like one is planting a kiss on the neck of the other. The episode provided many great photos for me.

On the opposite page are two other zebras. I love this photo in black and white and the two different views of the zebra as they graze on the prairie.

Pages 14 and 15. This is a black and white photo of a sand filled room in the abandoned mining town of Kolmanskop in western Namibia. The Germans had built an entire town in this desert area to harvest the diamonds here which were actually scattered on the ground. After that, the town was no longer needed and was abandoned in the 1950s and the sand is slowly reclaiming it.

Pages 16 and 17. The northern shore of Madagascar is beautiful with amazing beaches and water plus lemurs dancing all over the resorts. A morning tour boat ride passed several fishing boats which I thought were very picturesque. There are no engines on these guys and they appear to be made with the natural resources that Madagascar provided. Being well out in the water in the early morning hours, the fishermen most likely lived aboard these boats in tight conditions.

Pages 18 and 19. These are endangered New Zealand fairy terns on the north island of New Zealand. When I was there in 2023, there were only 12 breeding pairs and less than 50 left in the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_fairy_tern

Pages 20 and 21. These four photos are a collection of four things I found to be pretty in their simplicity. From left to right. A) This is polytrichastrum longisetum which is a moss that I found in Scotland in a wetlands area. B) This vine in Hawaii I found growing on the side of a building. I liked it because it looks like the leaves were just laid out and there is no vine but there is and it is well hidden. From what I can find it is a Scindapsus vine native the Philippines. C) This is simply dew droplets on a plant in New Zealand. I just like water droplets on leaves and plants for some reason. D) This is not a plant at all but rather colored incense bundles in a market in Vietnam.

Pages 22 and 23. This is Lake Matheson on the south island of New Zealand with a reflection of the Southern Alps and Fox Glacier.

Pages 24 and 25. These are the tallest giraffes in the world and are the Masai Giraffes aka Kilimanjaro giraffes. They have a unique pattern that starts at their hooves and stops at the head. They are only in the Masai Mara of southern Kenya and northern Tanazia.

Pages 26 and 27. These are the Omarama Clay Cliffs in the southern island of New Zealand by Waitaki. These tall pinnacles and deep, narrow ravines oddly stick out of the neighboring landscape. They were formed over a million years ago and are made up of layers of gravel and silt.

Page 28. This is a land crab in the northern part of Madagascar. I found a couple of them and next thing I know I was surrounded by a whole colony of them. Good thing they do not move quickly. They are about 10” across.

Page 29. This is a brown lemur in Madagascar. There are over 100 varieties of lemurs on that 1,000 mile long island. I only saw about 10 of them. This is the only place where lemurs exist. Here are a couple more photos of brown lemurs.

Pages 30 and 31. This is one of my favorite pictures in Onward. These elephants are marching back to Tanzania for the night across the dry seasonal lakebed of Amboseli National Park in Kenya. The trailing cow is warning me not to mess with the herd as they cross in front of me. I am sitting on the lake bed and some of the elephants crossed within 20 yards of me.

Pages 32 and 33. These two coastal brown bears were in Katmai National Park in Alaska just north of Kodiak Island. I am amazed how many photos I have of animals crossing their legs. It makes for a cute photo. The photo on the right is a bear chasing a salmon up the stream. Winter is coming and she will probably eat thirty salmon in a day, fattening up for the winter. It makes for a great photo when they are coming right at me. I am sitting on a sand bar next to the stream at low tide. Many times during the visit, the bears would cross over the sandbar within 10’ of me. The guide has no gun or pepper spray since they are not interested in us with the salmon so abundant. Just stay put and do not panic.

Pages 34 and 35. These tribal men of the Masai in Kenya. I am amazed that they lead their cattle many miles to water every day and back. Only one person leads them armed with a spear. The lions and leopards do not bother them.

Pages 36 and 37. These seven pictures are of four different birds. The yellow bird on the upper left is a yellow throated longclaw. That sounds like it should be a pirate’s name. The other three photos on the left page are of a lilac breasted roller in Kenya. This bird has 16 colors and are very pretty in flight as one can see. The yellow and green bird is a common bee eater. It is a very pretty and small bird that eats bees and dragonflies. I like the photo of it looking directly at me. The photo on the far right is a crested drongo from Madagascar.

Pages 38 and 39. I have named this photo “Two Dunes”. It is of Dune 41 (left) and Dune 43 (right) in the Namib Desert of Namibia. These dunes are 1,000’ tall and the Namib Desert is the oldest desert in the world. It is also one of the driest places on earth. It rained the winter before we arrived but before that it had not rained in eleven years. The only animals we saw were the oryx and the jackal. When I took this photo I had been standing there for about three hours waiting for the sun to get low and for the light on the two dunes to be perfect.

Pages 40 and 41. These two photos are of the same coastal brown bear family in Katmai National Park in Alaska. One might think these are actually black bears and not a coastal brown bear which is essentially a grizzly bear but they are not black bears. The cubs are first year cubs. I named the right photo “Family Portrait.”

Pages 42 and 43. I took this photo from a plane flying over southern Wyoming in the winter. The snow has filled the crevices of the landscape adding highlight to the ravines. I love the patterns in nature.

Pages 44 and 45. These two photos are of canola fields in North Dakota in July when they are at full bloom with their tiny yellow flowers. This is just west of Minot. The glacial scour when the ice fields retreated caused many ponds in the fields and they make for interesting photos. The photo on the left is from a drone and the photo on the right is taken from the road.

Pages 46 and 47. These two photos are of harvested wheat fields. The left one is in the Palouse Valley in eastern Washington State. The topography makes for interesting field development. The farm equipment here is specially designed to handle the topography. The photo on the right was taken in North Dakota. By contrast to the first photo, this field is flat but the harvest pattern back and forth leaves interesting stripes just like mowing a yard does.

Pages 48 and 49. These two photos are of the same two sets of cubs in Katmai National Park in Alaska. They are coastal brown bears but are more of a cinnamon color. They are “summer” cubs, about 2 months old.

Pages 50 and 51. This is the Hogwarts Express that left King’s Cross Station from Platform nine and three quarters. Actually it is the Jacobite Train that leaves Port Williams in Scotland for a ninety minute journey. It, however, was the train that was filmed for the Harry Potter movies and it is filled with young children excited to experience the journey.

Pages 52 and 53. These two boats were in Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam. It is a UNESCO site for its natural beauty of all the islands. The boat on the left sells snacks to the passengers on the boats staying overnight in the bay. The boat on the right appears to be a fishing boat of some sort.

Pages 54 and 55. These are the same two cubs from a couple pages ago taking a nap with their mom. Note the cub in the middle that wedged its head in the gap. Katmai National Park in Alaska.

Pages 56 and 57. I like to take photos from different perspectives. These two sunflower photos are prime examples. The one on the left is photographed from behind while the one on the right has not bloomed yet but is still pretty.

Pages 58 and 59. This autumn photograph of the aspens in Colorado was taken on Kebler Pass. Notice the red leaves which one might think are a red oak or a maple but they are from aspens. This landscape not only had a stormy sky but also aspen trees that are red, yellow and also green ones that have not turned yet.

Pages 60 and 61. These two photos are from Japan. The left photo is a tiny green bird feeding on the nectar of the cherry blossoms. The bird is a Japanese white-eye or a Mejiro in Japanese. The right photo is a unique view of a Japanese Purple Chrysanthemum against the sky.

Pages 62 and 63. This is a photo of the sunrise in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. The bay has 3,000 islands and the most beautiful place I have ever been.

Pages 64 and 65. Both of these pictures are from Scotland in the Glencoe region. The stone pile with a marker in the left photo is actually not a gravesite but rather a tribute to mountaineers.

Pages 66 and 67. This is also on Kebler Pass in Colorado at sunset illuminating the fall aspens on a mountain side as a storm looms in the area.

Pages 68 and 69. One evening in Kenya’s Masai Mara Park, four cubs walked out from the thicket followed by their parents. The cubs proceeded to play in the evening light, as cubs do, making for great photos. The photo to the left is titled “Mother’s Love” and is a great loving moment between a cub and its mother. The photo on the right is three of the four cubs from that evening. They are actually behaving in this photo. Below are photos of when they were not.

Photos 70 and 71. These are the fairy circles of Namibia. They are between 5 to 35 feet in diameter. It is uncertain how they were formed and theories range from termites eating the roots to form the circles to grasses sacrificing some areas so other areas can have more water in this arid climate to methane gas releases to the footprints of God or even the spirits of the dead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_circle_(arid_grass_formation)

Pages 72 and 73. These two photos have starred sunbursts captured in the photos. The photo on the left is in the Catalina Mountains above Tucson, Arizona. The photo on right is the “Dancing Aspens” near Telluride, Colorado. These crooked aspens got their shape from being pushed over by an avalanche when they were smaller.

Pages 74 and 75. The light was hitting the mountains above Hidden Harbor in Alaska just right. The white/gray areas in the mountains are piles of ash from the eruption of the Novarupta-Katmai volcano in 1912. It was the largest volcano eruption in the 20th century including the Mt. St. Helen eruption in 1980.

Pages 76 and 77. These two photos are of highland cows and their calves in Scotland.

Pages 78 and 79. This is a morning landscape looking east from Mt. Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains in Arizona. The shades of purple outline the ridges of the mountainous landscape. You can see where the purple majesty words came from in the song America the Beautiful.

Pages 80 and 81. These two photos are from the Namib Desert in Namibia, Africa. The photo on the left is of Devil’s Pitchfork taken from a helicopter. Those dunes are one thousand feet high. The photo on the right is Sossusvlei which is a dried up lakebed surrounded by dunes. The dune in the background is sunlit but the dead trees and the dried lakebed is not. It makes for a surreal photo.

Pages 82 and 83. These longhorn cattle being paraded down 17th street in Denver for the opening of the National Stock Show. This black one was a head above the rest.

Pages 84 and 85. Here are four black and white photos from different places. From left to right. The cityscape is Osaka, Japan. Notice that the highways are built on top of each other. The oval leaf is from a Miconia Crenata plant in New Zealand. The spiraled vine is from the forests in Madagascar. The “X”s are on a wooden covered bridge in Vermont as the ceiling light is projecting a shadow of the cross timbers on the wooden floor.

Page 86. I try to end each book with a comic photo. This is my puppy Rollie. He is an Aussie Labradoodle which is a labradoodle with a spaniel mix. He is a great puppy but left alone he attacks the toilet paper. He tried to blame the cat on this mess but I was not buying it.