Elephant dreams, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006 photo

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Two: On Safari -- expressing the essence of nature > Elephant dreams, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006

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10-JAN-2006

Elephant dreams, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006

An elephant family, caught in the glare of our spotlight, becomes a dream like image when the camera is using a one second exposure. Since the elephants were standing still, I deliberately moved the camera vertically at the moment of this one second exposure, hoping to expand the size of the huge tusks. The resulting slab like tusks, coming out of the mysterious darkness at right, become the focal point.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1s f/3.6 at 61.9mm iso200 hide exif

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	10-Jan-2006 11:33:57
Make	Panasonic
Model	DMC-FZ30
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	61.9 mm
Exposure Time	1.00 sec
Aperture	f/3.6
ISO Equivalent	200
Exposure Bias	-0.66
White Balance	incandescent (3)
Metering Mode	multi spot (3)
JPEG Quality	(6)
Exposure Program	program (2)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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Phil Douglis		24-Jan-2006 22:10
Thanks so much, Kal, for this interpretation.The prospect of extinction is never very far from the surface in Africa. In the last thirty years, fifty per cent of its elephants have vanished. In this park alone, eighty five per cent have been wiped out. This trembling image could well function as a potential eulogy.

Kal Khogali		24-Jan-2006 11:38
The descent in to pure darkness transforms this image to an even greater level...in a sense a metaphor for potential disappearnace and extinction....

Phil Douglis		24-Jan-2006 03:05
Zandra, at last! Good to hear from you. I was thinking of you when I made this -- I know how much you like dream images, and this was certainly in that category. I agree -- there is much tension in here, and it was a shock to gather a family of elephants in our spotlight. We did not expect to see them, either. Creepy or not, this image works on the imagination as no other in this gallery. Scary? Perhaps. Mysterious? Definitely.

Guest		23-Jan-2006 20:50
First of all let me welcome you back home and say, wow you are so lucky to have been on a safari. It is a great experience. I wish i have had my camera wheni was in Souht Africa. Thsi is by far my favorite in this gallery Phil. It is abstracted, it has tenstion, movlent, exitment...and...it is unnusual. Most times these kind of night shots tend to show lions, hyenas, as your other photos but elephants are some what unexpected and that for me is very appealing. They look like ghost figures. Somethign taken from a dream, twilight zoone or Arcive X goes on a safari. It triggers the imagination. You dont know the mood of this herd, if they are real or an illusion. A bit creepy but yet appealing. It is the un know which makes it creapy, or shuld i say scary. As so many things in life...the unknow can be scary.

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