Near one of the finest game-viewing areas in the whole Valley – a place we call Luangwa Wafwa – there is a forest of leadwood trees, many of which have been standing for several hundred years.
There is something ancient and beautiful about this particular area of forest, and I always point it out to my guests, not that they would have missed it anyway! At a certain time in the morning, the light coming through these trees generates a blue tinge and it is uniquely “Luangwa”.
Landscape images of those leadwood trees, while beautiful, always lacked something to give perspective. I knew that a herd of elephants would be a stunning foreground subject in that forest. But, when I did find a herd of elephants passing through that forest one day, the resulting images lacked impact because the elephants were spread out and scattered in a way that conflicted with the regular pattern of the trees.
It was several more years before I had a chance to get the image that I’d been thinking about for so long – a single elephant passing through that beautiful scene.
