Eye of the Rhino

This week I’ve got something special to share with you… and it took a lot of throw-away images before I got this keeper.

SETTINGS: 1/800 sec shutter speed on a 600mm lens (150-600mm) in shutter priority mode with aperture and ISO in auto. ISO ended up being 400.

Why it’s important: What I love about this image is the play between light and shadows on the face of this White Rhino, the low angle it was shot at and the extreme close proximity to this iconic African Big Five mammal that has almost been hunted to extinction. This is by far the closest I’ve ever been to a wild rhino and it was very exciting!

I like how her shoulder and leg are framing the image on the left, leading the viewer towards her eye and then up her horn. I’ve also remove any colour distractions making this image monochrome (black-and-white) which I feel gives it more of a fine-art feeling.

STORY BEHIND THIS IMAGE: This time last year, I was in Africa, leading my Bootcamp Photo Safari. We were situated in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve, nestled on the edge of the Kruger National Park in South Africa - a place I knew well from my youth.

One frosty morning, our crew embarked on a game drive in our open safari vehicle. We bounced and groaned over the uneven terrain, eagerly anticipating any sightings of game. Suddenly, our guide received an urgent message over his radio, indicating the presence of something significant and thrilling. Despite our insistent questioning, he remained tight-lipped and continued speaking in his local African dialect to keep us tourists in the dark.

Over the past few days, I had managed to decipher a few words in the dialect, such as "leopard" and "lion." However, they avoided mentioning "rhino" on the radio, since there was a risk that poachers could intercept the transmission and locate the animal. The Sabi Sands region is home to a squad of private anti-poaching personnel, who are highly skilled at protecting these endangered creatures.

After several nerve-wracking moments, we finally arrived at the scene, where our tracker, perched on the front of our vehicle, spotted a herd of rhinos grazing in a dense thicket to the left.

At first, the rush of adrenaline filled me with excitement - seeing this rare animal in the wild. How lucky we were to experience rhino so close!

But it quickly gave way to frustration.

The issue was that the embankment on our side was quite high, resulting in a low angle and a cluttered view through the tall grass and foliage. I attempted to take some photographs, but the shots were ruined by the distracting elements in the foreground, there was no way I could get a clean shot.

Eventually, the rhinos turned away from our vehicle and disappeared deeper into the thicket, out of view. I put down my camera and raised my binoculars to enjoy the magnificent sight of these wild beasts grazing with their young in amongst the thick bush.

“Sometimes us photographers forget to just observe and appreciate what’s happening around us!”

Our guide then drove our vehicle uphill, spun it around, and we began to coast slowly downhill. Finally, we reached a spot where I could see the rhinos clearly, but they were in the shade, making for a lacklustre image. I do like how the Red-billed Oxpecker is perched on the Rhino’s head.

I kept my camera trained on the rhinos, waiting and hoping that they would move into a sunnier spot. Suddenly, the female rhino turned away from us and started to amble away while grazing.

Had I missed my one chance?

But then, she slowly moved into a patch of sunlight and turned her head to the right. I spotted the glint of light in her eye and snapped a few shots, making sure to keep her eye in sharp focus.

Finally, I captured the shot I had been hoping for.

POST PROCESSING: After running my RAW image through Topaz photo AI to sharpen and remove any noise, I then opened this image in Lightroom. The first thing I did was cropped off a bit on the right to remove that black blob - removing any distractions.

Global Adjustments: Then I toned my image by reducing the highlights and the shadows always watching the histogram to make sure most of the tones were in the darker part of the histogram.

“I love my black and white images to have very deep blacks with very few highlights and whites. It’s just the style I prefer”

Local adjustments: This is where I removed any distractions and enhanced the focal point in my image. Using the masking tool I reduced the exposure, and some of the tones on the rhino’s shoulder because it’s not my main point of interest in this image, and I want to use the rhinos leg and shoulder as a frame on the left of the image, leading my viewer to it's eye.

More distractions: I noticed that shooting through the grass creates this hazy look especially closer to the ground so I used the brush tool to Dehaze parts of my image.

And in this particular case I did not need to do any work to the animals eye - it was already tack-sharp with beautiful catch-lights.

BIG LESSON: Patience is key when photographing wildlife. You may be close to something but don’t have a clean shot and that’s ok. This happens often and all you can do is be patient and wait for your subject to move, or you can slowly move yourself to a better position if it’s safe and possible.

Also don’t forget to enjoy the moment - you’re in the wild with friends.

Stay inspired.

Brent

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