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Top 100: Panning for Gold I took this shot on a trip to Kicheche Camps in the Masai Mara. This is my favourite place in Africa for cheetah hunts, and I've seen at least one kill every time I've been there—and five in a week on my first visit! One of the reasons I was pleased with this shot was that it was almost the first time I've dared to slow pan a cheetah in full flight. Slow pans are potentially rewarding, but the hit rate is very low, so it's a high-risk option. In fact, I recently saw...

Top 100: Eye of the Rhino The best place I've ever been for rhinos is either Etosha or Ol Jogi. In Etosha National Park, we saw 17 rhinos in two days! In Ol Jogi Wildlife Conservancy, I saw black and white rhinos every single day I was there. I took this shot at Ol Jogi. The rhino was sidelit, which gave me the opportunity to play around with the image in Lightroom to create dark shadows and bright highlights—a kind of 'chiaroscuro'. I should also mention one important lesson I learned when...

African elephant stands lifting leaves with trunk #elephant #africanelephant #africanbushelephant #manapools #zimbabwe

African elephant searches for food on ground #elephant #africanelephant #africanbushelephant #manapools #zimbabwe

Two male topis butting heads on savanna #topi #fight #playfight #masaimara #kenya

Top 100: Eye of the Rhino The best place I've ever been for rhinos is either Etosha or Ol Jogi. In Etosha National Park, we saw 17 rhinos in two days! In Ol Jogi Wildlife Conservancy, I saw black and white rhinos every single day I was there. I took this shot at Ol Jogi. The rhino was sidelit, which gave me the opportunity to play around with the image in Lightroom to create dark shadows and bright highlights—a kind of 'chiaroscuro'. I should also mention one important lesson I learned when...

Top 100: Bath Time Photographers have to struggle constantly for novelty, originality and uniqueness—and it's not easy! Sometimes, you need a little bit of luck and a willingness to take a risk. When I went to Tadoba for the first time with Paul Goldstein, I overheard him advising a guest to underexpose slightly to avoid clipping the whites on the chest and head of a tiger. I didn't hear the context, but I thought, "Go big or go home!" The next time I saw a tiger, she was cooling off in...

Leopard stretches and jumps down from tree #leopard #leopardess #femaleleopard #masaimara #kenya

Top 100: Oh! It's often said that the camera never lies, but when it comes to wildlife photography, that's about as far from the truth as it's possible to get! One example of photographic deception is pictures of yawning animals, which often look as though they're snarling or, in the case of this baboon, taken by surprise. Hey, I'm not saying it's wrong to photograph yawning animals. In fact, it's a very useful tool, but it's important to be honest—whether you're taking pictures or just...

Top 100: Little Brown Job Every now and then, a wildlife photographer might take pictures of animals and birds that aren't exactly, er, wild. Opinions differ on this, but I think it's fine to photograph species in zoos or safari parks—as long as you don't try to 'pass off' your images as something they're not. In this case, I was at a Battle of Hastings reenactment when I happened to see a falconry display. When the falconer had finished, he tethered his birds on the grass to feed and water...

Shot of the Week: P-P-Pick up a Penguin A gentoo penguin crosses a snowy slope, holding out its flipper for balance. It has a white body, black flippers and a black head with a white patch, black eyes and a black and orange beak. Shot with a Sony ⍺1, a 400mm lens and a 1.4x teleconverter at Portal Point in Charlotte Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula in December 2021. ISO 160, 560mm, f/4, 1/3200, 1 EV #shotoftheweek #gentoopenguin #penguin #antarctica #antarctic #onsafariwithnickdale

Top 100: Bateleur Beauty Every now and again, Mother Nature presents you with a great photo opportunity. This one came when we drove up to a lion kill in Chobe National Park, Botswana. There were a couple of lions lying down feeding on an antelope, but the main attraction was a beautiful bateleur eagle, perched on a six-foot stump, just patiently waiting its turn! I'd seen plenty of bateleurs before, but this was the closest I'd ever come to one. They're gorgeous birds, with colours and...

Top 100: "Tiger, tiger, burning bright…" I've been to India a few times with Paul Goldstein, but the most important lesson he taught me happened by accident! I overheard him warning a guest to underexpose his shots slightly—probably because he didn't want him clipping his highlights due to the white patches on the tiger's chest. I didn't hear any of the context, but it was a hot day without a cloud in the sky under the midday sun, so I thought, "Go big or go home!" I underexposed the...

Shot of the Week: Crash Dive A grey-headed kingfisher flies past a bush spreading its wings. It has blue and black wings, a grey and brown body and a red beak. Shot with a Nikon Z8 and a 600mm lens in Naboisho Conservancy, Kenya, in December 2024. ISO 160, 600mm, f/5.6, 1/4000, -1 EV #shotoftheweek #GreyHeadedKingfisher #kingfisher #masaimara #kenya #onsafariwithnickdale https://www.nickdalephotography.com

Shot of the Week: Crash Dive A grey-headed kingfisher flies past a bush spreading its wings. It has blue and black wings, a grey and brown body and a red beak. Shot with a Nikon Z8 and a 600mm lens in Naboisho Conservancy, Kenya, in December 2024. ISO 160, 600mm, f/5.6, 1/4000, -1 EV #shotoftheweek #GreyHeadedKingfisher #kingfisher #masaimara #kenya #onsafariwithnickdale https://www.nickdalephotography.com