Timing on Mother Zebra’s milk

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Masai Mara, Kenya The zebra mother will generally have 1 foal a year, and can have one at any time. Even though the foal may begin eating grass after a few days it generally takes a year to wean them off of mothers milk. Given the similar size of these two and the rarity of twins my local guide said it’s likely this foal is from another mother.

Photographic details: I took many photos of this because I wanted to capture a few things and needed the right timing for everything to line up. The constant swish of the mothers tail often had it flying out of the frame; instead of the tail being flat and facing down I waited for it to swish up to the left to capture that interesting curl. At the same time photographers always want the eyes, here I have not only the mothers eye, but that of both the foals as well. Many photos were taken, but this is the only one that made the cut. I often pay attention to the rule of thirds, but this time with the way the mother and the foal fit in a ying and yang kind of way I have a fair bit of symmetry. Artistically speaking, when you have symmetry like this you have licence to start centering your subjects and you get to throw the rule of thirds away.

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Related: I've got 8 people signed on for my Kenya & Tanzania Photo Safari in January, there is guaranteed window room for everyone and I've got a few spots left! http://www.kylefoto.com/photographic-african-safaris/

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