Black & White Elephant Bull Stand Off

We are now in the middle of summer (November – February) and during this season many different sized, as well as different aged elephant bulls roam the property. The reason we have the ability to see such great specimens is because Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve is situated within the Southern section of the Sabi Sand Game Reserve and is open to the Kruger National Park making this reserve a wildlife haven for many great species to freely move into, out or even create home ranges or territories on our property.

During this time, elephant bulls usually start heading into or are in musth. Now “musth” is a word we use to define the periodic condition a male elephant enters into when he has a rise in reproductive hormones such as testosterone. In this image, this was one of five male elephants that I had seen in the same area, all interacting with one another in an orderly manner, however, only two of the five were in the beginning of musth. Male elephants in musth will then follow breeding herds of elephants potentially trying to interact and mate with females that are in oestrus, an exciting time to watch the dynamics and behaviour of all elephants on the reserve.

Equipment Used

• Camera – Canon 7D mk ii
• Lens and Focal length – Canon-EF100-400mm f-4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 115mm

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO – 250
• Aperture – f 4,5
• Shutter – 1/1600

Editing used on this image

For such image, creating a black and white image is quite applicable. To get the contrast of various shades using the sunlight as well as the texture of the animals hide, the contours of the surface area of the animal and the surrounding vegetation, increasing of highlights, lowering of whites, increasing of shadows and adding a little clarity to such image was used to get to the editing required.