NOVEMBER 2011 – A fresh footprint of a lion at the Bushwise private game reserve in South Africa. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
The night before we had arrived in Hoedspruit, a town near Kruger National Park in South Africa. Here, we would visit my sister-in-law and her friend who had completed their 6 month courses for field guiding in the bush. Now their heads were free for a distraction by us, and we were eager to see how they had spent the past hald year.
They waited outside the Bushwise private game reserve to lead us to their current home. When we arrived, they opened the large front gate to the reserve (which is entirely fenced) and we greeted each other, happy that we had managed the journey pretty well so far.
Then Stefan pointed to a footprint in the wet soil, saying: “Uh, look, a footprint of a lion. It’s pretty fresh, maybe just a couple of hours.” – And we knew we had arrived in Africa. We were not scared at all, because we felt in good hands, but still a weird feeling remained. If this footprint was fresh, there is a slight chance that we were being watched by the animal belonging to this footprint.
In any event, it would be the beginning of a long, adventurous trip through southern Africa.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date & Time | 22-NOV-2011, 11:47 |
| Location | Bushwise, South Africa |
| Camera | Canon EOS-1D Mark III |
| Lens | Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM |
| ISO | 500 |
| Exposure | 1/400 sec at f/7.1 |
| 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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