{"id":20303,"date":"2026-07-26T06:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T18:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=20303"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:31:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T06:31:46","slug":"day-3-hippos-elephants-and-low-rollers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/20303","title":{"rendered":"Day 3 – Hippos, Elephants and Low Rollers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Hippo<\/a>
Hippo resting in a waterhole. Harsh middle of the day light not ideal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After we lost contact with the wild dogs<\/a>, we took a break at a waterhole before exploring further. This gave an opportunity for some hippo images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After sunrise, the low warm light is soon lost meaning most of the day we had only harsh unflattering light. This can be a useful time to look for textural images that translate better into monochrome than as colour. Hippos with their textured skin and bristles are perfect candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Hippo<\/a>
Hippo – monochrome image accentuates texture despite harsh middle of the day sunlight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Moving on we encountered a group of Marabou storks at rest with Egyptian geese in a patch of flooded grassland.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Marabou<\/a>
Marabou stork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Aiming back for camp in the midday heat we found a large bull elephant keeping cool by spraying mud over his back. My overwhelming recollecting on viewing these images is of the baking heat and the envy I felt for the elephant enjoying his shower. One of our treats was a cool shower fully clothed at midday as this gave us some refreshing, albeit temporary evaporative cooling as our clothes dried.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Male<\/a>
Male elephant spraying mud over his back to cool off<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This elephant behaviour gave the opportunity to try some slow shutter images to capture the movement of the sprayed mud.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Slow<\/a>
Slow shutter (1\/40s)image of elephant spraying mud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Lilac-breasted rollers are common, colourful and dramatic so make great subjects. On low perches they offer much nicer opportunities than on high perches so low rollers were much more appealing to us than high rollers and we tried our luck any time the opportunity arose.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Lilac-breasted<\/a>
Lilac-breasted roller in low roller mode<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Returning to camp for lunch we recharged batteries and did our best to hide from the heat for a while. I found it hard to switch off from all the opportunities so spent quite a bit of time photographing the birds around camp beneath the shady shelter of the tree canopy. As the sun began to nudge down toward the horizon we set off again in search of subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Verraux’s Eagle owl with typical pink eyelids was suffering in the heat, gular fluttering in the shade and beautifully camouflaged among the branches.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Verraux's<\/a>
Verraux’s Eagle owl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As the sun nudged down to the horizon it threw some lovely warm light across the water as a cooperative hippo rose through the greenery. No need for a monochrome version with this one.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Hippo<\/a>
Hippo in sunset light<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Photos with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 180-600mm f5.6-6.3 VR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After we lost contact with the wild dogs, we took a break at a waterhole before exploring further. This gave an opportunity for some hippo images. After sunrise, the low warm light is soon lost meaning most of the day we had only harsh unflattering light. This can be a useful time to look for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Day 3 - Hippos, Elephants and Low Rollers. Exploring into the heat of the day after our encounter with wild dogs","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[982,1397,18,19,1001],"tags":[26,25,1391,784,1415,1417,1416,1399,1184,221,983,609,190,971,779],"class_list":["post-20303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography","category-botswana","category-mammals","category-travel","category-wildlife","tag-bird-photography","tag-birds","tag-botswana","tag-elephant","tag-hippo","tag-lilac-breasted-roller","tag-marabou-stork","tag-moremi-game-reserve","tag-nikkor-z-180-600","tag-nikon","tag-nikon-z9","tag-nikonnz","tag-photography","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-photography","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\nDay 3 - Hippos, Elephants and Low Rollers - WildLight Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Day 3 - Hippos, Elephants and Low Rollers. 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Unless you're a Southern Yellow-billed hornbill. This bird foraging around camp explored a passing elephant's contribution and extracted some morsels before moving on. 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Having grown up in South Africa and visited many game reserves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tents forming our bush camp","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Botswana-IMG_8854.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Botswana-IMG_8854.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Botswana-IMG_8854.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Botswana-IMG_8854.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20324,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/20324","url_meta":{"origin":20303,"position":3},"title":"Small Dramas – Slender Mongoose","author":"tony","date":"August 2, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Slender mongoose on the hunt Heading back toward camp for lunch on day 3 we noticed a Burchell's Starling loudly calling in a small tree next to the track. Oblivious to our proximity it was clearly alarmed by something so we stopped to search for the source of the drama.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Slender mongoose","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SlenderMongoose-20250913-NZ9_8699-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SlenderMongoose-20250913-NZ9_8699-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SlenderMongoose-20250913-NZ9_8699-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SlenderMongoose-20250913-NZ9_8699-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20337,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/20337","url_meta":{"origin":20303,"position":4},"title":"Camp Birds – Moremi Game Reserve","author":"tony","date":"October 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Southern Red-billed hornbill foraging around camp Down time during the middle of the day, after lunch, was an opportunity to rest, download images from the morning shoot, recharge batteries and try and get some respite from the heat before the afternoon drive. I found it hard to ignore the bird\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-billed spurfowl foraging in the leaf litter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Red-billedSpurfowl-20250914-NZ9_9462-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Red-billedSpurfowl-20250914-NZ9_9462-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Red-billedSpurfowl-20250914-NZ9_9462-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Red-billedSpurfowl-20250914-NZ9_9462-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19504,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/19504","url_meta":{"origin":20303,"position":5},"title":"Nikon Z9 Firmware 5.3 Surpasses Nikon Z8 for Birds and Wildlife Photography","author":"tony","date":"December 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Nikon Z9 Firmware 5.3 Surpasses Nikon Z8 for Birds and Wildlife Photography - Nikon Z flagship squeezes pst the Z8 to the front of the queue again.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Little Black Shag","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LittleBlackShag-20251218-NZ9_1665-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LittleBlackShag-20251218-NZ9_1665-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LittleBlackShag-20251218-NZ9_1665-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LittleBlackShag-20251218-NZ9_1665-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Hippo-20250913-NZ9_7132-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}