Stars in stripes

It’s wonderful when the planets line up and you have perfect light and a great sighting. That happened when we were in the underground photographic hide, eye level with the water, in the late afternoon golden hour, and these zebras plucked up the courage to come and drink.

As a wildlife photographer or artist of any sort you are always learning, always developing your style. I keep notes of my learnings and try to trigger them off in my head while dialling in the settings on my camera before the fleeting moment is lost.

For a scene like this what you need to remember is to focus on the eye of the animal closest to you and allow enough depth of field (your f-stop) to keep the rest of the subjects in enough focus too. Of course these ‘rules’ can be broken with beautiful effect.

Here a red-billed oxpecker combs through the ear of a zebra as the two of them wet their muzzles. Four line up in perfect fleeting formation.