White Rhino

[Ken Watkins]

This Male is called Swaziland despite the fact that he came from KwaZulu Natal as part of South Africas first major reintroduction to countries that had been previously careless enough to lose their own. He is 47 and lives in Matopos NP, Zimbabwe a stronghold for both White and Black Rhino. As I have seen with my own eyes there are regular anti-poaching patrols with armed trackers, Zimbabwe now operates a shoot to kill policy for poachers. If you take one of these officers with you into the park you can get out of the vehicle to walk to the White Rhino (nobody is silly enough to do this with the Black Rhino).

Taken in Matopos NP, Zimbabwe, 26th June 2010, from a kneeling position around 10 metres from the Rhino.

EOS 1D MkIII

28-300mm at 120mm

F8, ISO 400, 1/320

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Ken, can you check on the EXIF data when it was taken please ie time wise? The web display looks OK, but in PS it says it's an RGB file and really does look quite red?

I like the angle of the Rhino and not having the small tree in the FG would have been better. The Rhino does need either a bit more USM, but I think you may need to look at the original.


kneeling position
Was that to pray or for the shot :D Very lucky Ken, seems you had some good encounters. ;)

TFS
Steve

[Harshad Barve]

Lovely head on pose Ken , I was quite sure about your successful trip of Zimbabwe


As I have seen with my own eyes there are regular anti-poaching patrols with armed trackers, Zimbabwe now operates a shoot to kill policy for poachers.

How I wish this can be applied in our forests too

TFS

[Ken Watkins]

Steve,

It was taken at 16.44, around half an hour before sunset (it is Winter here) and for a change we actually had a little golden light!

I agree about the tree, but he was not moving and nor was I. You know what they say about Rhino, always have a tree to climb:D

Both the TIFF and JPEG are sharp, quite what happens when they are uploaded to BPN is totally beyond me:confused:

Harshad,

Thanks I have a few reasonable Lion masters in the pipeline.

[Harshad Barve]

Thanks I have a few reasonable Lion masters in the pipeline. Can't wait to see them

[peter delaney]

lovely Rhino Ken, Matopos is one my favourite places to visit,

did you self drive to Zim or part of a tour ? be interested in news about travelling there at the moment... as I want to make a trip Hwange etc..

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice close shot Ken...agree it needs a bit of sharpening. I still need to visit Zim, only made a brief incursion to Vic Falls from Chobe in 1998...

[Hendri Venter]

Not much you could do about the tree. The sharpness looks OK for me. Great image Ken.