Wildlife photographer Bill Stripling shows the Nikon F3 body with 500 mm lens he used to photograph animals in Africa. (Melanie Duncan ThortisThe Vicksburg Post)

[1/2/04]An interest in wildlife photography began for Bill Stripling with a simple camera set up outside his house and a string tied to the shutter leading inside.

Now, Stripling’s photos of African wildlife decorate the walls of his home and are in an exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Natural History in Jackson.

His show of 30 photos of five African wild cats opened in the museum library Aug. 1 and will remain until spring.

Although the photos are of professional quality, Stripling says he’s an amateur with a camera. He came to Vicksburg in 1979 to work as a contracts attorney for the Mississippi River Commission. He retired in June 2000.

Stripling was in grade school, he said, when he began photographing birds with a simple folding camera set up on a tripod in his yard.

“I had it set so I could take pictures by pulling on a long string,” he said.

When he was in high school in the 1950s, he got his first good camera, a Rolleiflex. Since that time, Stripling has graduated to 35mm cameras and today uses a collection of Nikon equipment.

When he first began photographing wildlife, he said he would process his own film. Today, he has the negatives processed by a commercial processor but does all his own printing on equipment in his garage.

Gesturing around his den in Openwood Plantation, Stripling said most of his photos were taken years ago when photographers had no choice other than film. His last trip was in 2000 and the digital age of photography was just dawning.

Explaining his process, Stripling said he makes contact prints from the negatives. After studying the images, he makes 5-by-8-inch prints so he can judge an image better before deciding if it is worth making into a larger print.

Although he has photographed wildlife in this country and others, it is Africa that has caught Stripling’s imagination.

“Africa is kind of the ultimate spot for wildlife,” he said. “The stuff there is just unbelievable.”

All of his African and other foreign travel has been on his own, first on regular tours and then on tours especially set up for photography. Most of his trips have been to east Africa, Kenya and Tanzania.

“But, I’ve also been to Namibia and Botswana,” he said.

There is an element of danger. “One time I was photographing some rhino, that one right there on the corner there,” he said pointing out a particular photo on his wall showing a head-on shot of the animal.

He said he was in the passenger seat of the right-hand drive safari car.

“I was down on the floor, shooting through (the driver’s window). He was watching very carefully. He says, Hold on. We got to move,'” Stripling said.

When the driver pulled up, the rhino charged behind the car.

“They don’t see very well and he missed us,” he added.

Of all the African game, Stripling said his favorites are the leopards, second only to the African lion in size.

Although shelf upon shelf and wall after wall in his home are filled with images of wildlife, the collection will soon be augmented. This summer, Stripling plans a trip to Namibia and Botswana and one this fall to Kenya.