Close and Personal with Etosha's Wildlife

Find out what our leading wildlife photographer Mark A Fernley is getting up to outside of our photography tours. Read about his photography journey to photograph the wildlife of Etosha National Park, located in North Namibia.

When driving through the barren, yet biodiverse land of Etosha National Park, wildlife can get rather close and personal at times. From the common meat eaters to the majestic giants of the land, close-up shots can truly express their emotional value. Wildlife photographers all dream of getting that perfect headshot during a photoshoot, and in addition, I enjoy focusing my attention on skin textures and shapes that an animal can provide for an image. Again, using my Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sport Lens fully stretched out to 600 fixed to the Canon 5D Mark IV, I was able to get close enough to get such close-up shots. In particular, the Black Rhino side head shot brought out great detail; we all like to get a close-up shot of those stunning horns and I was fascinated by its skin texture. The sun at an angle provided me with great skin wrinkle contrast. The skin almost tells its own story of how these animals lead hard lives in this harsh world of survival. When it came to photographing skin textures on an African mammal, I was fortunate to get close enough to a herd of Elephants interacting with each other at a large waterhole in the West of Etosha. This large herd provided me with a great opportunity to capture the cracks and turns in the skin. In a noticeably short period in time, as the sun shone side on to the skin, I was able to capture the images I wanted. With only the skin, part of a tusk, and no background, I was able to capture a rather memorably special image. The dark, dramatic shadows portray the hard life of an elephant, their emotions to one another, and their life in the African World.

Join Mark A Fernley with Untamed Photography Tours during our wildlife photography workshops, tours and safaris in our unique wildlife locations around the world. From the depths of the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest through the dry flatlands of Africa and into the secret forests of India, Untamed Photography Tours is here to help you gain wildlife images of all kind that will make you stand out from the crowd.