This year we have had unseasonably late rains - and lots of it. As a result the grass has not only got very long but has twice produced beautiful inflorescence. During this flowering there is an incredible amount of pollen given off and on a very still afternoon with a low sun angle you sometimes can see little puffs of "smoke" coming off the grass inflorescence.

While watching a journey of giraffe feeding I noticed both this phenomenon and that a very young giraffe was walking directly into the sun. This animal, combined with the pollen and the low angle of the sun, looked amazing. Now how to capture the image?

I used my 70-200mm lens and closed the aperture right down to f14. This would allow for lots of depth. I over-exposed the shot by 1/3 to allow for the camera reading straight into the strong light. Using an ISO of 200 and a speed of 1/1600 I took a few snaps. When snapping straight into the sun you need to be careful not to get any lens flare: light coming into the lens from the side would create a strange halo effect.

Happy snapping,

Rod Wyndham

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