28 May 2018

Chance favors the prepared mind

This is one of my favorite images from a recent trip to Tanzania. Shots like this don’t “just happen” well… sometimes they do, but more often than not they are anticipated and planned for. In the instance of this image, we had this herd of Zebra feeding before this beautiful African landscape, with a group of three Giraffe off to camera right.

I could see that the Giraffe were going to move through the scene in front of us to get to another group of Acacias where the rest of the herd was feeding. I told everyone in the vehicle with me to frame the scene, stop down to f11 and shoot as the Giraffes entered the gap in the Zebra herd. The first Giraffe moved through the scene without ever getting in the right spot but the second Giraffe… He went exactly where I hoped he would go! I fired off ten frames with my motor drive on high and one of those was perfect; the frame you see here.

Nature photography is a dynamic pursuit with a lot of moving parts. I like to think of it as a chess game. As photographers we need to be aware of everything that is going on around us. We need to anticipate and prepare for what might happen. -Chance favors the prepared mind-

Good Luck and Good Light!

Steve