DECEMBER 2011 – An elephant stands in a river arm of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
When staying at one of the lodges within the Okavango Delta in Botswana, you will get the chance to participate in two excursions per day that take you to the surroundings of your lodge. Usually these take place in the morning and in the late afternoon, and you’ve got time to relax during the heat of the noon and early afternoon.
We enjoyed these trips massively as you get really close to the wildlife but are protected by the experienced rangers that can identify critical situations much better than you ever could.
I took this photo during an evening excursion by motor boat. It was awesome to experience an elephant in his natural environment, undisturbed by anyone. Our small group just watched the elephant from the distance and listened to his breathing and munching.
Again, I was glad for the 100-400 mm zoom lens which behaved as a 130-520 mm zoom on my Canon 1D Mark III, compared to being mounted on a full frame body. Having said that, for this picture I used a focal length of just 105 mm (i.e., 135 mm on a full frame) because I wanted to also show the water of the river arm as well.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date & Time | 02-DEC-2011, 17:53 |
| Location | Gunn’s Camp, Botsuana |
| Camera | Canon EOS-1D Mark III |
| Lens | Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM |
| ISO | 800 |
| Exposure | 1/800 sec at f/5.6 |
| Digital Image Source Format | Canon Camera RAW (CR2) |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 3888 x 2592 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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