Beverly Hills lawyer Murray Fischer was a reluctant partner to fulfill his wife’s dream of going on a safari. But when Fischer and his wife, Bunni, spent three weeks in Africa in late October, he was pleasantly surprised.

Fischer was relieved when he got to the base camp in the Okavango Delta. “The accommodations were quite luxurious: air-conditioned huts with comfortable beds, showers and sitting rooms.”

But the biggest surprise came when he saw billionaire Ted Turner in one of the hut sitting rooms. The safari camp owner was trying to convince Turner to commit money to save threatened species there.

Turner and his girlfriend spent four days with the safari participants, going out with them on their twice-daily jeep trips through the wild. Once Turner realized the Fischers hailed from Beverly Hills, he made a special effort to get to know them.

“I thought he would have kept more to himself. But he was very down to earth and we had many meaningful discussions,” said Fischer.

Fischer, who’s also a board member of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, said he wouldn’t mind returning for another safari, except “it takes forever to get there: long plane flights and long drives.”

Camera-Shy Buildings

Land-use attorneys Mark Armbruster, William Delvac and Dale Goldsmith formed their own firm last year, but it wasn’t until this July that they decided how to decorate their Brentwood office.

Their idea seemed simple enough: They’d line the office with photos of buildings they had a hand in shaping.

So the law firm, Armbruster Goldsmith & Delvac LLP, hired architecture photographer Tavo Olmos and gave him a list of about 25 structures to shoot. But it wasn’t so simple. When Olmos arrived at the Home Depot Center and unpacked his tripod, security guards quickly approached and instructed him to leave.

“It didn’t occur to us at the time that our clients would be so camera shy,” said Goldsmith.

But much the same happened at Dodger Stadium and at a private school, the Center for Early Education. So the lawyers dialed up their clients and got approval for the stadium, while Olmos shot the school from the street. The photographer got all his shots, save one.

Home Depot Center was left out “so as not to delay the overall installation,” said Goldsmith.

The final photos were installed last week, he said. And they’re much more appropriate: They replaced prints Goldsmith had bought from a home décor retailer.

Staff reporters Howard Fine and Max Zimbert contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].