This image is one of my favourite images from my 10 years in the Luangwa. We had spent a long time with this particular buffalo herd as the crossed a dusty plain on their way to the river. We knew they were heading to drink, but that it would take some time before they got there. We enjoyed taking low-level photos of dusty feet, and we also tried some creative shots; I remember well suggesting that we set a very slow shutter speed of 1 second, resting the camera so that it wouldn’t move, and then tripping the shutter when one buffalo was looking towards us, and all the others were moving either side of it. We didn’t have a lot of luck, but it was fun to try!
Anyhow, after the herd melted into the bushes along the river, we moved off to photograph some hippos from a view-point on the river bank. While we were watching them, the buffalo herd began to appear on the bank, slightly around a bend and far in the distance. I was using a 500mm lens, mounted on a Canon 1D Mk IV which has a small sensor, so my focal length was effectively 650mm. Even with that magnification, the buffalo were very small in my frame!
But, with the camera to my eye, a beautiful scene began to resolve itself, with buffaloes appearing from the left, coming to drink in the centre, and then leaving to the right. The sky above was very bleached out, so I framed the scene with a lot of sandbar below, knowing that I would crop that off, but that it would not throw off my exposure. I also noted the beautiful gully leading away from the sand in the background which added more interest.
As I watched, 3 buffaloes approached the water together and I knew that was the moment I wanted. I snapped the shutter before they all dropped their heads into the water. I took several other shots, but as more buffalo arrived the scene became too chaotic and the effect was lost. This moment was the one.
