Photography

Waves of 110-degree heat rolled off the barren, dusty alley I’d taken as a shortcut. A teacher on sabbatical in Egypt in 1990, I was heading toward a mosque whose white minaret rose above all the other buildings. I was alone, and the alley was eerily empty — no cars, no people, not even a chicken.

Suddenly, three women totally covered in black appeared from a side street and turned toward me, framed by the white mosque behind them. Wow! My photographer’s heart thumped.

15 days, 14 nights, July 25-Aug. 8, 2021. Led by photographers Barry and Cathy Beck. Group limit, 12. Luxury tented lodging. Highlights: Transfer from Nairobi, KENYA, to camp in Masai Mara Nat’l Reserve, home to zebras, cheetahs, elephants/in TANZANIA, camp in Serengeti Nat’l Park for birds, crocodiles, Great Migration/tree-climbing lions in Lake Manyara Nat’l Park/Ngoron goro Crater. $22,735 ppdo. Single supp., $13,550. Frontiers Travel (Gibsonia, PA; 800/245-1950, www.frontierstravel.com).

The London Metropolitan Police announced on Jan. 24 that parts of the city would be outfitted with facial-recognition cameras, with rollout expected to be completed by the end of February.

According to the police, signs will be posted at all cameras indicating that they are facial-recognition cameras, and they will be operated five to six hours at a time. The software used compares the faces on camera only with faces of wanted criminals; it does not identify all individuals scanned.

8-day, 7-night photo tour in southern ITALY. Departures Oct. 4 & Nov. 29, 2020 & Jan. 31, March 28 & Oct. 31, 2021. Highlights: In Catania, Piazza Duomo Catania/villages around Mt. Etna/island of Isola Bella/in Taormina, Teatro Greco, Riviera dei Limoni/in Siracusa province, Piazza Duomo, city of Noto/Baroque towns of Modica, Ragusa. €3,150 (near $3,469) ppdo. Single supp., €500 ($551). Focus on Sicilia (Sicily, Italy; info@focusonsicilia.com, www.focusonsicilia.com).

On the 4-day guided experience “Mother & Newborn Cubs,” guests (6 maximum) will have the chance to photograph bear families in Slovenia’s Loka Valley while safe in a bear blind. Slovenia is home to about 560 Eurasian brown bears, which can reach more than 1,000 pounds and over 8 feet in length.

The town of Acquentico, in Imperia province, northwestern Italy, put temporary speed cameras up near a pedestrian crossing on the SS28 Nord highway in late October. Within two weeks, 58,568 speeding infractions were recorded. (The town has a population of 120.) The success of the cameras has caused the town council to install permanent cameras. The speed limit within the town is 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour.