Zebra Foal

To me a zebra is one of the most photogenic subjects on the African plains and an absolute icon of the continent, so why wouldn't it feature as my pic of the week?

No safari portfolio should be complete without a zebra image and this little foal just took my eye. It was a very overcast morning and after recent rains, the grasslands were perfectly saturated to complement the contrast of the zebra’s stripes.

I have always loved playing with the effects of “Depth of Field” and to me this is what makes the image. The defocused stripes of the rump creates wonderful lead in lines to the focal point, being the zebra’s eyes. The defocused grassland in the background, once more gives the focal point more sharpness. I also particularly love the punk hairstyle in the mane giving this little one a vast amount of attitude.

Equipment used

• Camera - Nikon D4S
• Lens and Focal length - Nikkor 200-400mm F4 VRII @400mm

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO – 2500
• Aperture –f4.0
• Shutter – 1/640

Editing used on this image

Once again, I like to use little in the way of editing but would rather get it right in camera first. With the simplicity of this image and all the major work having already been done in getting the focus right, all that was left to do was to increase the vibrance and the saturation to bring out the green hue of the grasslands. The only thing left to do was to push the whites and darkening the blacks to provide a beautiful contrast in the stripes.

Don't always focus on the Big 5, give the iconic ones a go. Not only are they more numerous but they are extremely photogenic and use a zebra’s natural lines to bring in lead in lines drawing people into your focal point.