Night Wildlife Photography - Black Rhinos
A dip into the night activity of a remarkable waterhole found here in Etosha National Park, Namibia by wildlife photographer Mark A Fernley.
The Hot Spot!
Namibia - a country that has very little people and an incredible amount of wildlife. This unique country receives very little rainfall each year and reaches dyer temperatures (40-50°C), however, wildlife seems to beat all odds.
Located in the northern region of the country, you will find Etosha National Park, a particularly harsh environment where animals are at the fait of humanity. With such incredibly dry conditions, the national park is left with almost no naturally occurring water during the dry season. This means that the authorities have to pump water from underground springs for the animals to make it through these difficult times.
Now, if you have ever photographed in these conditions, you know the complications you can run into. The main ones being the following:
- Camera Gear Overheating: Risk of damaging equipment including batteries and memory card issues.
- Heat Waves: You will notice that when temperatures start to rise, your images will become soft. This is due to the heat waves that appear once the temperatures increase. In Etosha National Park specifically, these heat waves start to appear sometimes as early as just 10am and last until around 4pm, making very little time for photography during the daylight hours. This is why I started photographing wildlife at night.
Located in the south of Etosha, you will find a waterhole that is thriving with wildlife - all day and all night. During the day, you get all of your common Southern African wildlife such as giraffe, zebra, springbok, wildebeests, etc. But at night, the more sky species come to drink to avoid the heat of the day and conflict with other animals.
This waterhole in particular is extremely unique due to its night time visitors: BLACK RHINOS.
Now, when I say rhinos, I don't mean that there is just a slight chance of seeing a rhino (which is usually the case due to their rarity). I personally have spotted 14 Black Rhinos have been spotted at this waterhole within just one hour, making this location THE BEST PLACE to photograph Black Rhinos - and yes, AT NIGHT!
So, you may be asking, how do you photograph wildlife at night? Do the shots really turn out as effective as you'd like? Do they meet your expectations as a professional photographer? Well, your answer is YES, and I am here to share with you exactly how it is done.
How I do it!
Now, most waterholes are well lit at night with orange lights, as these are less harsh on the animal's eyes in comparison to florescent lighting. The lights here in Etosha are great, illuminating the waterhole enough for you to be able to see the animals effectively, without disturbing the natural habits of the wildlife.
This waterhole has an incredible viewing angle of about 150° meaning that spectators can see wildlife coming from every direction in front of the viewing point. With this waterhole is quite large, the far side is not very well lit so this means that wildlife has to come pretty close for the photograph to come out as well as I'd like. Avoiding the far side of the waterhole, I set my gear up right in front of the waterhole, where the lighting is strong enough and the barrier is quite low, gaining a better perspective. But this also meant that I had to be very patient, as the Rhinos had to come between the waterhole and me, where the lighting was stronger on their bodies, exemplifying their textures.
The set up: Night photography requires high quality kit that can perform well in low lighting. This is my go to kit for photographing wildlife after dark.
- CAMERA BODY: Canon EOS R5
- LENS: Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS II USM
- TRIPOD: Rock Solid Alpha XL Mark III - Carbon Tripod
- GIMBAL HEAD
Once I got into position, I then started getting my settings ready as I waited for the rhinos to come to me. When shooting at night, your setting have to be perfect. An ISO that is too high will create grain that is unrepairable, whereas a shutter speed that is too slow will create motion blur that is also not ideal.
I set my aperture to its maximum ability which is f/4 to soak in as much light as possible and create a smooth and shallow depth of field.
My shutter speed was set to 1/120th of a second to contribute to capture more light, but also keep it quick enough to still capture a sharp image. As rhinos are slow moving, there is no motion blur.
And lastly, we have the ISO - set to 10,000. This may seem high, but the top mirrorless cameras such as the Canon R5, Nikon Z9, or the Sony A1 deal with noise far better than the DSLRs.
My position of choice all comes down to the fact that I am using a 500mm prime lens. This means that I am not able to zoom in/out so my position has to be spot on to allow the rhinos to fill the frame.
Visiting this location, I have plenty of experience photographing rhinos at night, so I knew exactly where I needed to be. I could anticipate where each individual rhino would come to drink.
After several hours of patiently waiting, the first Black Rhino arrived and made its way into the light nearest me.
As the rhinos approached, I had to wait for the individuals to stand still to ensure crustal clear results. Luckily enough, each rhino took a drink of water and then looked up, standing still as can be as if they were in a trance. I managed to capture many shots of several individuals as they gathered in small numbers around this active waterhole every night. Each shot was taken side on to capture a rather contemporary look that best enhances the impressive horns of these mammals. Along side this, a black background helps to improve and enhance the modern architectural structure of these magnificent animals.
If you have enjoyed what you have read, please subscribe to our online wildlife photography magazine where you can learn the lightroom post processing techniques for the enhancement of night wildlife photography. Also you can enjoy more wildlife photography stories written by our photo hosts along with other wildlife photographers from around the globe. Bring their adventures to your device!
留言