• After 30 years in information technology, William Cowger established a professional photography business, Acacia Photography, in 1999. Since 2005, he's been taking two or three groups a year on photo safaris to Tanzania. Photo by Courtesy of William Cowger
• An unusually aggressive elephant cow in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of Tanzania, charges Cowger's car on a 2007 tour. Photo by Courtesy of William Cowger
• A Female lion chases a gazelle toward a mate who made the kill. Photo taken on a 2005 tour. Photo by Courtesy of William Cowger
• A Cheetah unsuccessfully chases a Thompson's gazelle. Photo taken on a 2006 tour.Photo by Courtesy of William Cowger
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William Cowger hunts and shoots large game. As owner of Acacia Photography Inc., he leads photographers on game drives through Tanzania in East Africa.

On a May 2006 safari, Cowger, 62, experienced a dream come true. He saw and photographed a lion in a tree — something he’d never done in his four and a half years living in Africa or his many visits.

“Our driver took us straight there — right through a herd of 30-plus elephants,” Cowger wrote in his blog. “There was a female in the tree and two males in the grass below. One of the males got up and looked longingly at his mate in the tree for several minutes. Then, as if a movie director shouted ‘Action,’ the male made its way to the tree and started to climb. We were so close that I had to drop my camera with the telephoto attached and pick up the body with the wider lens on it.

“No sooner had the dominant male climbed the tree when the other younger male decided to climb to a different branch. Once up there, he laid his head to sleep. The wonder of the Lake Manyara tree climbing lions had played itself out for us. I put the camera down and just watched. It was no longer about getting the best shot, but absorbing the experience.”

From dream to biz plan

Cowger’s life abounds with dreams come true.

He dreamed of seeing the world, and in 1973 transferred to the South Africa office of Burroughs Corp. He worked there as an information-technology consultant until 1977.

After more than 30 years in information technology, including 13 years at the helm of a consulting company he co-founded, Cowger dreamed of being a professional photographer and having the Acacia tree, native to Africa, as his business icon. In 1999, Cowger founded Acacia Photography, based out of his Troy home.

An avid traveler, Cowger visited Spain in 2001 and returned with photos aplenty. One of them sold for $18,000 to an Atlanta company, hired to decorate Marriott hotels in Spain.

“That’s where I got the idea I could actually get paid for this,” Cowger said. “I put together a five-year business plan in order to go full time.”

The initial plan involved selling nature photography, portraits — anything people would buy, Cowger said. It didn’t include what now dominates Cowger’s dreams — photo safaris to Tanzania. He took his first group there in 2005 and has averaged two or three safaris a year since then. He does commercial photography when he’s home.

The trips, geared toward photographers but appealing to many, include 12 days traversing wildlife-rich areas such as Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Lake Manyara National Park. At Cowger’s direction, licensed national park guides drive safari-goers through the African wilderness.

Cowger’s guests travel in four-wheel-drive vehicles with pop-up roofs that afford a full view of the wildlife, plus protection from sun and danger. The cars hold eight people, but Cowger allows only four per vehicle for maximum comfort and room for equipment.

Cowger said he gets a third of his safari clients from the Web, a third from photography presentations and photo exhibits, and a third from word-of-mouth. His February 2009 trip sold out at 11 people plus himself, and his May 2009 trip has only three available slots.

Cowger said he prices the safaris to pay himself well in addition to covering accommodations, food, airfare and payment for the guides. February 2009 safari costs ran $7,000 to $7,500 per person, including airfare.

“They can go on their own cheaper,” Cowger said. “They may find an hour drive before they see anything.”

“He gets you to the right place at the right time,” said Lynne Kogel, a retired Wayne State University professor and amateur photographer, who took Cowger’s February 2009 trip. “We only drove a few minutes from where we were sleeping to see the wildebeests. I got a photo of hundreds of wildebeests by a watering hole. We went by the same watering hole the next day and there were none.”

Cowger lived in Africa for four and a half years and has visited often, but he credits his well-trained guides for the trip’s prime photo opportunities.

“(Africa is) one of the few places in the world that I rely on someone else’s expertise,” he said. “Lions sleep 20 hours a day. I swear (the guides) can tell by the way the eyelid goes up whether it’s the end or the beginning of the nap.”

The safaris also afford exposure to Cowger’s expertise, which he shares through photography workshops and onsite guidance during the trip. He even fixed a safari guest’s camera, Kogel said.

The safaris make up the bulk of Acacia’s revenue, Cowger said. He requires a 50 percent refundable deposit upon booking and full payment without refund 120 days before the travel date.

Last year, Acacia’s safari revenue topped out at $138,000. As of March this year, it was already at $135,000. The annual revenue increase is largely due to travel and commodity price increases, Cowger said, but the safaris are currently the most promising of Acacia’s revenue sources.

Steep competition

While Cowger’s competitors aren’t plentiful, they are formidable. Houston photographer Andy Biggs, also a former software guru, leads up to six African safaris a year to Tanzania, Botswana, Kenya and Namibia, and hires photographers to lead additional safaris.

“This is what I do full time,” Biggs said. “I spend two to three months a year out in the bush.”

Biggs estimates there are 10 to 12 other photographers who focus solely on African safaris, but said he’s the leader in number of safaris and the only one who doesn’t supplement with other photography work.

“Most people who do this full time run two to three safaris a year and they do something else.”

The secret to Biggs’ success? He’s a specialist in Africa, he said. He even speaks Swahili.

His advice to Cowger, who has expressed interest in doing safaris full time: “He should probably show nothing but African wildlife on his site,” Biggs said. “It’s a double-edged sword, because if you do that you might turn your back on other business,” Biggs acknowledged.

Biggs embarked on his safaris part time in 2002 and went full time in 2005, he said. “I had the luxury of having a full-time software job” while I built my business, he said. “I had something like four weeks off for vacation. I used 100 percent of that time to run two safaris each year ... until 2005, and then it spiked to six safaris each year.

“When I was running two safaris at the beginning, they made up about 20 percent of my total income. Now they make up 90 percent, with the remaining 10 percent being made up of print sales and image licensing to companies such as Banana Republic.”

Biggs’ safari prices are double what Cowger charges, yet he fills trips entirely through word-of-mouth, he said. “I’ve built up a really loyal following of travelers.”

Today's dreams

These days, Cowger dreams of southern France and Tuscany. “This is really a stepping stone,” he said of the African safaris. He wants to expand his photo trips to other places once he learns enough about the sites.

Cowger is targeting travel agencies as business partners and continues to market his safaris through presentations, the Internet and networking organizations such as the Troy Chamber of Commerce.

With 19 African safaris and years of dreaming under his belt, Cowger doesn’t see an end in sight. “I’ll never get tired of this,” he said. He’ll be at it “at least as long as I can hold a camera and still travel.”

In a blog entry, Cowger wrote: “The photographs … provide me with a record of memories that first of all no one would believe if I couldn’t show them, and second fill me with awe and love for the wildlife that has managed to survive against all odds in this developing world. The memories last a lifetime, but the feelings they engender are even more special. They fuel my soul.