Desert Choreography
by Marsel van Oosten
As a wildlife photographer we only have very limited influence on our subjects and the circumstances, and for me that is what makes it so addictive - you never know what you're going to get, and you keep wanting to go back for more and better.
For most of the subjects that I shoot, I have the perfect image already inside my head, I just have to try to get it on camera. Knowing your subject and being at the right spot at the right time is part of the work, but unfortunately with wildlife you also have to be incredibly lucky.
And lucky I was when I was flying in a microlight over the giant red sand dunes of Sossusvlei during the Namibia Untamed tour. We were heading back to the lodge when I suddenly saw this small herd of oryx running right in front of us on a giant sand dune. I always have two bodies with a 24-70 and 70-200 when I'm in a microlight, because you simply cannot change lenses in an open airplane. I quickly grabbed the D3 with the 70-200 and shot a short burst before we had passed them. It was over in seconds. When I looked at the images back in our camp, I couldn't believe my eyes - the near perfect choreography. I could have never previsualized an image like this, simply because it would seem absurd to think it would be possible.
Nikon D3, AF-S VR 70-200/2.8, 1/3200 @ f/5.6, ISO 800, handheld
Comments
45 commentsThis is a stunning image. My dad pointed me to your website a while ago and I've been admiring your pictures and trying to learn from them. I love this one!
Edwin
This image is such an iconic one, mainly due to the fact that most aerials would have a stable wildlife subject, the capture of action from air is amazing. The reds and the far and near all in good focus grabs your eyeballs. Thankfully the shadows on this one does not play a part.
Thank you for showing such inspirational work and looking forward to seeing more, both here and over at your website, which I've just begun to looking through today :^)
Kind regards,
Ashley
Jagdeep Rajput
We all share the same planet and it's unevitable that we run into each other from time to time. No matter how much care I take to not spook an animal, there is no way I can prevent that from happening. Me walking in the dunes would have had the exact same effect on this small herd. The oryx that live this far into the dunes don't get into contact with humans, so any human activity makes them run. And you've seen the oryx in Etosha - they couldn't care less about people.
The reason I spend some words on this, is that I got an email the other day from someone who was concerned about the lion in my charging lion shot - it obviously got spooked by my camera, so I had disturbed the animal in its natural behavior, and therefore the sender did not approve of my methods.
I replied with more or less the same words; it was not my intention to disturb the animal, it simply happened. Nothing more, nothing less. I did something that was different from what this particular lion was used to, it probably also had a bad day, and that's it. If you spend a lot of time among wild animals, you will disturb them all the time. Birds flying away, antelopes running in all directions, elephants flapping their ears because you're on the same road, etc. Probably the only place where your presence won't scare any animals, is in the zoo, because they have learned to ignore you.
In january I was in Libya (no, I didn't start the revolution) and during one of my hikes in a very remote part of the desert I ran into a mountain goat, an incredibly beautiful mountain goat. I probably gave it the biggest fright of its life as it kept running for ever, until I couldn't even see it anymore. Should I feel guilty? Of course not. On my way back to the camp I walked into another one, same result. There is no way to prevent this sort of thing from happening, especially not when you go off the beaten track or behave differently from the herd.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that although I always try not to spook an animal, I'm realistic enough to realize that it's impossible to prevent it from happening, and, that the next time a baboon tries to break into my tent I will do my best to give it the scare of a lifetime.
Sorry about the rant.
First off - I must say that this is an absolutely beautiful image - real eye candy. There's virtually nothing in it I would suggest changing. Well done.
Very coincidentally, just this week I was asked to review a proposed set of bear-viewing (and bear photography) guidelines (and laws) to a place I regularly visit. One of the guidelines was tight regulation of the use of both fixed-wing and helicopters to view and/or photograph bears. The guideline pushed the lowest allowable elevation to 4,000 feet, and only allowed a single pass while traversing the area. The reason I mention this is that it is well known that low-flying planes disturb and stress wildlife. I have on numerous occasions been floating in a Zodiac near sleeping bears and, on one occasion, near a female who was nursing a cub right in front of it when a bear-viewing fixed-wing plane flew over at elevations of approximately 1,000 feet. The chaos among the bears on the ground was unbelievable. The point here is that while it's true everything we do has SOME impact or disturbance on an animal, there are many things that are much more likely than others to cause major stress and/or alarm with most wildlife. In fact the "everything we do causes some alarm or stress" argument can be used to justify virtually ANY behaviour of a photographer (taken to its extreme one could argue that the animal is likely to die sometime anyway, so why not....).
It is with this context (two days of pouring over guidelines designed to minimize disturbance to wildlife) that I looked at this image and must admit I had the same question as Vincent. To me it's pretty easy to avoid engaging in acts that are so well known to disturb animals that there are laws against them in many places.
That all said (MY rant!
I suggest that if we wish to take this discussion further we move it either to the newly created Wildlife Forum OR the Hot Topics Forum.
Finally - I want to reiterate there is one thing there is NO debate on - this is a fantastic image and in PURELY photographic terms one of my favourite images of any of your's I have seen posted on NPN.
Cheers...
Brad
Thanks for moving the discussion over to the Wildlife Forum - better there and to keep the comments here more closely aligned to admiring the beauty of this image with no further distractions!
Cheers...
Brad
Oscar
Ken Archer
Sandy
The setting, the subjects and their motion. Everything is in place. Doesn't get any better !
Herb