Local photographer travels globe to capture wildlife on film.
In a split second, Ron Phillips captured a sight on film that speaks a thousand words about the survival of the fittest in Africa's vast wilderness. Phillips and his companions were on a photography safari in Masai Mara National Park in Kenya, watching a group of seven male lions, some hidden in the brush and possibly eating on a carcass while others lounged nearby. Armed with his camera in the safety of a safari vehicle, Phillips quickly turned to the source of the noise and clicked, freezing in time a photograph of two lions fighting with all the viciousness of wild animals who live a precarious existence. The fight only lasted nine seconds. But Phillips walked away from it with a photograph that earned him 1999's Photograph of the Year award from world-renowned photographer, author and travel guide Joe McDonald.