Critters doing something

I'm probably the last person in the world to be giving advice about wildlife photography! I mean, as a generalist travel photographer, I just tend to point at whatever moves with a long lens when I see it. OK, maybe I'm oversimplifying it a bit but wildlife photography really is an incredibly difficult specialty all to itself.

That being said I often find that pictures of animals are a lot more interesting if they're actually doing something. Straight portraits become a bit tedious after the 50th shot of an otherwise undistinguished giraffe.

Unless she's bending down to drink. By the time I took this photograph I had been in Africa for about 8 months and had not seen a single giraffe drinking.

It was late evening at Etosha National Park in Namibia and it was getting towards pack up and go home time (the campsite gates close at sundown). A couple of giraffes wandered up to this waterhole and I was quite excited because obvious they were coming for a drink.

So I sat there and waited while they looked around for any predators before nervously making their way down to take a sip. And there was my giraffe perfectly reflected in the still water of the waterhole. It was worth the 8 months wait. Very ungainly, but at the same time graceful. No special technique here, just a 75-300mm zoom, focus and wait.