Gene
Covey has always been an avid outdoor
enthusiast.
Together with his wife Teri, the Coveys have traveled
extensively. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio,
Gene graduated college with a Biology degree.
After graduation from the Ohio State University
School of Dentistry in 1977, Gene entered the
US Army and was
stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado.
It was the Colorado mountains where his passion
for the outdoors started.
In 1980, Gene and Teri,
along with their three sons,
moved east to Manchester,
New Hampshire where Gene
opened his general
dentistry practice. Vacations always
had a outdoor theme -
whether it be a tennis camp in South
Carolina, windsurfing
in Aruba, skiing in Colorado, hiking in Glacier National
Park, or mountain biking in Moab, Utah.
Gene became serious about taking
quality photos after he
took
a point and shoot photo of his 2 year old
granddaughter’s
joyful face as she wore her Disney
Princess dress at
Christmas. Sadly the
photo was blurry
and the memory
was lost. He
resolved to never miss
another
one theses
unique moments
and began
taking photography workshops
with some of the
leading
wildlife photographers in the US.
Upon
retiring from Dentistry in 2007 at age 55,
Teri and Gene traveled
extensively. The photos
on this site are but a few of the
thousands taken
since 2006.
There
are no guarantees when you go to an
exotic location
to capture photos of wild
animals. Some days in the field
are non-stop
action and some days are dead.
I noticed that whenever we had a particularly
dull day
on a photo safari, the guide would be
down and
disappointed. Slow days never got me down, however,
because I figured any day in the wild outdoors“
Sure Beats Working”. No stress,
no phones, no
responsibilities, no schedules to keep. To Gene and Teri,
any day in the outdoors
is better than any day working.
In November 2008, Gene spent 10 days in Zimbabwe as part of a three week African
safari.
His local guide, Nick Murray, from Vundu Camp, would ask Gene how he was doing
in the
120 plus degree heat as they walked for miles tracking lions and wild dogs or
paddled for
hours on the Zambezi River avoiding hippos and crocs and photographing elephants
from
as close as two feet away. Gene always replied, “Sure Beats Working.” After
10 days being
with Nick and telling him about his travels, Nick suggested Gene write a book
about his
adventures. Writing a book sounded like a good idea, so Gene asked Nick if he
knew a
Swahili word for adventure that could be used as the title for the book. Nick
said,
“
forget about the Swahili word and just call the book ‘Sure Beats Working’!”
That was the start of the website called SureBeatsWorkingPhotos.com,
the adventure book, and the photo book.
Thanks for visiting our website, we hope you enjoy these photos.