Longer Lashes Naturally

I've been wanting to get a shot like this for a long time, and I'vebeen trying for just as long, but it's not easy. The main problemobviously is that you have to first find an elephant with lashes thisincredibly long - not all elephants are the same and some even haverather short lashes. And when you find one, then the sun needs to bevery low, close to the horizon. These long lashes are the perfectnatural sunshades and keep any sunlight from directly hitting the eye,making the eyes either invisible or very dark - the low angle of thesun is necessary to illuminate the eye. And if those criteria are met,then you have to be able to get fairly close in order to actuallyphotograph the eye, and be fast enough to take the shot...

Most of the times the elephants I encountered were either too far awayto even try, the sun was too high, the lashes were short, or theelephant simply didn't want to get into the right position. Luckily,this one time everything came together. I had spotted the elephant inthe distance and I quickly moved into the same direction, trying tofind any elephant paths ahead of it. Elephants are creatures of habitand often use the same tracks to move from one place to the other.When I found one, I looked into the distance to see if the elephantwas more or less moving in my direction, and when it did, I positionedmy vehicle such that the light was coming from over my shoulder andthat there was enough room for the elephant to pass - you don't wantto be in the way of an elephant!

After a couple of minutes the elephant walked straight into mydirection, and when it walked passed my vehicle, it briefly stopped,and looked at me to check me out. I had just enough time to get the shot.

Hope you like it!

Nikon D2Xs, AF-S VR 70-200/2.8, 1/320 @ f/5.6, ISO 200, handheld,cropped to appr. 75%

It couldn't be better, even with Maybelline.... great shot and planning to set this up... Mike

 

Simply Amazing!

What a great shot! I looked at this for a long time and am amazed at the details. I dont understand why this hasn't had better ratings.... Very original and a winner!

 

Best regards, Pamela

I think your work is outstanding

Magnificent. Clearly one of the best photographs I saw in my life. The warm tones are good and depth of field is really nice.  Having the eyelash reaching  towards the bottom right corner is making a nice diagonal too. Congratulations on a brilliant photo.