I won’t publish my full list of 2019 favorites online for a couple more weeks, but I’m happy to share one of them here. This shot was taken during my February Tanzania tour.
Often times, I include images in my year-end list that reflect memorable moments or have some personal meaning. This was one of those situations when I finally felt I’d accomplished a goal I’d been striving for over the course of several years (last year, as an example, it was finally getting a decent shot of the somewhat common Black-billed Magpie!). Prior to this morning, I’d really come up short when it come to photographing some of those “classic” African sunrises and/or sunsets. I’ve been to Africa numerous times, but I never seem to be in the right place or have the right timing to capture subjects in prime golden light.
So yeah, this scene is a bit clichéd, but I was delighted to finally check it off my wish list. On this morning in Ndutu, we knew we were in for a good sunrise, but it was challenging finding a good subject to put in the foreground. We passed some other vehicles stationed at the most picturesque acacia trees, but the best thing we could find for a while was a perched vulture. Until I looked behind us and saw a patch of low fog blanketing the open grassland… with a herd of wildebeest and zebras walking through it.
So we repositioned ourselves on the other side of the herd and had a great sunrise wildlife shoot (with bonus bat-eared foxes appearing before the atmosphere completely dissipated).
Canon 1DX
Canon 100-400mm
ISO 400
1/1600th
f/7.1
Max