Hello - My name is Merrilee MacLean, and with this website I am celebrating two of my favorite activities, travel and photography.  My love of travel started with a choir tour to Scandinavia in high school, expanded when I was an overseas student in what used to be Yugoslavia in the early 70's, followed by an eight month backpacking trip throughout eastern and western Europe in the late 70's.  Forty years later, I still have a fascination with the joy of traveling, learning about different cultures and exploring the history of people and places so diverse from our own.  With my camera I find that I look more closely, and experience what life is really like in these wonderful, different locales.  Following my interest in European history, most of my photographs are from my travels there, however, other locations are represented as well.   In all cases, the photos I take try to represent not mere buildings or landscapes or people, but a sense of place.

I have extended my love of photography to include wildlife, including shooting (only with a camera) the polar bears in Churchill several years ago.  Most recently (in September and October of 2016), I spent a month photographing the amazing game in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.  From cute leopard cubs, to graceful giraffes, to happy hippos, who would disappear into the water and then laugh at me when they came back up away from my camera, sharing the images of these magnificent animals is a true joy.  Both the polar bears and many of the animals of South Africa are endangered, and it is a privilege to be able to see them in their natural habitat, on their terms, not ours.

Over the years I have enjoyed displaying my photographs locally, and have donated them for  a variety of charity auctions, where they have been well received.  My photos have also accompanied travel articles that I have written for newspapers and been used for promotional materials for Lewis and Clark College and Chateau Haut Garrigue, a winery in the Dordogne region of France.  The response has been so favorable that I have finally decided to market them more broadly, through this website.

I do hope you enjoy the photos and encourage you to add them to your private collection.   Purchasing prints is easy - just click on the "Buy" link on any photo in the Gallery and a professional photo lab, Bay Photo, will make and ship your print.  You can also order framing, matting, etc.  The photos can provide an armchair view of some of the most magnificent sites in the world, without the long flights or the occasional challenges that travel presents. 

If you have any questions about any of the photos, or my travels, please feel free to contact me at merrileemaclean@gmail.com.  There is also a handy "contact me" link on the top right hand of the website.

Merrilee