Photographs from Mike Stanley's two trips to South Africa's Kruger National Park will be exhibited at the University of South Carolina Aiken's Etherredge Center this month.

"It's the best of both trips," said Mr. Stanley, the chief of ophthalmic photography at the Medical College of Georgia Hospital and Clinics, who visited the park in June 2005 and last June.

After he and his wife, Henriette, were married in 2004, the couple decided to take a trip to her South African homeland for him to meet her family. While there, they visited the park.

"I've never done wildlife photography," he said.

At Kruger National Park, the rules are simple -- don't get out of your car and stay on the paved roads, he said.

Staying in his car was not a problem for Mr. Stanley, who had images from the 1962 John Wayne film Hatari flash through his mind. There is a scene in the film of a rhino goring one of the characters, Little Wolf.

Even while following the rules, Mr. Stanley, who lives in Grovetown, captured an array of animal images.

"We had a lion walk by the car," he said.

In some photographs, the animals seem to stare at the camera as if posing.

"You just don't know. Something may cross in front of you," he said.

At other times the animals weren't as cooperative. "Sometimes they were facing away. You just really don't know. A lot of it is just luck," he said.

In addition to close-ups of animals, the exhibit will include photographs of the park's landscape.

"My favorites show a little bit of land as well as the animals," he said. "Kruger Park -- I find it a fascinating place."

The Aiken exhibit will be Mr. Stanley's first outside the hospital in many years. His works are often displayed as part of the hospital's healing-arts program.

An ophthalmic photographer at MCG for almost 23 years, Mr. Stanley has won numerous awards for his work through the Ophthalmic Photographers Society.

The USC Aiken exhibit will run from today through Jan. 30.