
Serengeti, Tanzania, Africa
Looking across the Serengeti we sat quietly looking at a group of a dozen giraffes, our guide indicated that these were females who usually group together for safety.
Suddenly a large giraffe bursts from the trees behind us and begins to make her way towards the herd. Another much smaller gangly figure awkwardly stumbles out into the open; for a moment my subconscious thought it made more sense to tell my brain that my tripod had sprung to life and jumped out of the back of the safari vehicle and ran across the Serengeti. Then I realized this energetic stick figure was a baby giraffe running around her mother and all over the grass like there was a party going on in her head that only she could hear.
I’m used to seeing these large animals move like they are a slow motion movie, to see one of these things dart around, buck and jump so quickly was both startling and delightful.
Final Image, click to see larger:
Photographic Details: I wanted to capture a bit of motion with these animals moving faster than usual, I slowed my shutter speed down to 1/160th of a second in hopes of getting a little motion blur on their legs and tails without getting too much blur on the bodies. I actually have some much more artistic versions of these images that I will be sharing in the coming weeks but I liked the energy of this one as it really shows how much spunk the baby has, which made us all giggle in the safari vehicle as we watched this unfold in front of us.
This also happened so fast that I forgot to lower my aperture to let more light in, I ended up underexposing. However with the magic of shooting in RAW mode I have a little wiggle room, I was able to correct my mistake and get the detail back by changing the exposure after the fact in Lightroom, we all make mistakes but with the right settings we can compensate for them, See the original image to compare!
Canon EOS 7D: 1/160s f/9.0 ISO100 150mm (35mm eq:240mm)
Original Image before exposure adjustment



+Kyle Marquardt What an awesome capture three cheers.
aweeeeeesomeeeeeeeeeeeee
That is a lovely shot!
photo ordinaire d'un safari PHOTO !
was this picture taken by you.
Nossa muito linda …
Excelente trabalho, bonita foto!
Great story and shot. I did checkout the before shot, what a difference post processing did to the image.
so beautiful… thank's..
hi baby .
amazing life!!
hi
Elegante !
Great capture…
Greater correction!
nice photo
There amzing creatures
Its really amazing
Any kind of baby is a charming shot, even a baby rhinoceros.
Very neat shot! So cute!
RAW photography is so forgiving. Thanks for your honesty +Kyle Marquardt . Great photo btw.
muito lindo
A beautiful photo Kyle makes my photos I took of Giraffes looks like a child took them. Your timing and composition was absolutely perfect.
So wonderful
awh<3
Gorgeous shot? Equipment?
africa? bela foto.
So cute""
beautiful!!
olá vc è americano?
Thank you very much for the story and for the details of the great shot!
that is amazing!
It's really amazing shot and so cute story.))) Thank you!
How precious! It's almost like you can picture yourself there…
Wow. Beautiful Picture
Beautiful animals,great picture.
Go little guy, GO! Hope you get to grow up big and strong
So beautiful and a nice capture! +Kyle Marquardt
Thats a beautiful moment
A beautiful site. I come from Kenya and used to see them all the time…..
awww
aww
cute
woe
que lindas jirafas
Giraffes are so bad-ass, how did I not notice this before? Probably cuz the only giraffe I knew was Geoffrey from Toys R Us /:
So well shot..its like a dreamy picture painted in a children's book and yet as realistic as nature wants it to be.
Did you notice if there was a vertical wound on the adult giraffe's right front shoulder? What I am seeing extends from where the birds are sitting down the right front shoulder perhaps 12 to 18 inches. Perhaps its just normal coloration, but I thought I'd ask. Thanks for posting this one. I really like it.
nice man
that is awesome!
วิ่งหนีอะไรกันหรือจ๊ะ สองแม่ลูก เร็ว ๆๆๆๆๆ
Awesome capture! It's been saved as my background on my work computer.
Nice shot!
Beautifully killed
UMM
I love it !!!!!!
+Bill Scott It's just a shadow from the wrinkle in her coat, she should use fabric softener next time she washes it
Thanks for the note Kyle. Glad it wasn't a wound. Thanks also for the description of the antics of the baby giraffe. Couldn't help but grin big time reading that. One more thing. Are giraffe's mammary glands in the front rather than the back? It appears that way in the photo, but that may be more loose skin folds too.
Fabulous! Love this and the Mother is shelter elephants. So much talent! Best Wishes, Jo.
Excellent work, +Kyle Marquardt!
Sensacional toma……………
Very very nice pic like a movie……………………………………
What a shot! wow!
Linda pic!
Que hermosa foto
….
Wonderful photo!
love animals,love nature.we are a prat of nature,not a city robot
Beautiful moment!
семья на прогулке ! )
d:- It's a relaxing view.)
this is really good shot with adequate depth.
Nice.
- Nice.
Beautiful composition and shot.
how do u manage 2 obey the rule of thirds EVERY single time? getting envious of your talent here…