Favourite Photos: The Big Five

Wildlife

1 Mar

I have a problem. My problem is that I rarely like wildlife photographs by anyone else. The first time I went round the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum, I only liked 12 out of 150 photos!

Do you ever feel like that? I certainly do, and I’m not entirely sure what the problem is. If the shots simply weren’t very good compared to my own, I’d win every photo contest in sight!

However, I think part of the problem is that wildlife photographers don’t necessarily publish their best work—or it’s hard to find. There might be a confidentiality clause in a client contract or some other reason why it isn’t on display for all to see.

Whatever the reason, I’ve always tried to make it as easy as possible for the general public to see my masterpieces! I have four galleries with nine images in each that I hope provoke excitement, relaxation, tenderness and wonder. I also have two additional galleries for my Top 100 Colour and Top 100 Mono images.

At this point, I should explain that this week’s article was supposed to be on when to shoot stills and video. I wrote the entire post, but it failed to save properly, so I thought I’d lost it. In fact, I’d already written a post on exactly the same topic with exactly the same URL, so it was a complete waste of time!

I didn’t want to spend hours and hours writing an entirely new post, so I thought I’d just give you a quick look at my favourite images of the Big Five.

Enjoy…

The Lion

*"No means no!"*
Shot with a Nikon D810 and an 80-400mm lens in the Serengeti in Tanzania in March 2019.
ISO 180, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/500, 0 EV

The Leopard

*Olympia*
Shot with a Nikon D850 and an 800mm lens in the Masai Mara in Kenya in July 2018.
ISO 800, 800mm, f/5.6, 1/250, -1 EV

The African Bush Elephant

*Dustbuster*
Shot with a Nikon D810 and an 80-400mm lens in Chobe National Park in Botswana in April 2016.
ISO 140, 85mm, f/8, 1/500, 0 EV

The Black (or White) Rhino

*Eye of the Rhino*
Shot with a Sony ⍺1, a 600mm lens and a 1.4x teleconverter at Ol Jogi, Kenya, in April 2022.
ISO 800, 840mm, f/5.6, 1/320, 0 EV

The African (or Cape) Buffalo

*Horn of Africa*
Shot with a Nikon D850 and an 800mm lens at Kicheche Bush Camp in Kenya in January 2021.
ISO 90, 800mm, f/5.6, 1/1000, -1 EV

If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.

If you’d like to book a lesson or order an online photography course, please visit my Lessons and Courses pages.

photographywildlife photographybig fivelionleopardrhinoelephantAfrican elephantAfrican bush elephantblack rhinowhite rhinobuffaloAfrican buffaloCape buffaloAfrican savanna elephant

Nick Dale

I read English at Oxford before beginning a career as a strategy consultant in London. After a spell as Project Manager, I left to set up various businesses, including raising $5m in funding as Development Director for www.military.com in San Francisco, building a £1m property portfolio in Notting Hill and the Alps and financing the first two albums by Eden James, an Australian singer-songwriter who has now won record deals with Sony and EMI and reached number one in Greece with his first single Cherub Feathers. In 1998, I had lunch with a friend of mine who had an apartment in the Alps and ended up renting the place for the whole season. That was probably the only real decision I’ve ever made in my life! After ‘retiring’ at the age of 29, I spent seven years skiing and playing golf in France, Belgium, America and Australia before returning to London to settle down and start a family. That hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve now decided to focus on ‘quality of life’. That means trying to maximise my enjoyment rather than my salary. As I love teaching, I spend a few hours a week as a private tutor in south-west London and on assignment in places as far afield as Hong Kong and Bodrum. In my spare time, I enjoy playing tennis, writing, acting, photography, dancing, skiing and coaching golf. I still have all the same problems as everyone else, but at least I never get up in the morning wishing I didn’t have to go to work!

http://www.nickdalephotography.com