Hippos in Tanzania

Hippos typically open their huge mouths as wide as possible as a sign of dominance and aggression. I captured this in Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania, before I went digital. I used a medium format film camera, the Mamiya RZ 67, and a 500mm telephoto. The fastest shutter speed available on that camera was 1/400th of a second, so this limited me with regard to sharpness when photographing any kind of action. I tried and tried to photograph birds, but I never got a bird in flight picture that was sharp. With animals like hippos, elephants, Cape buffalo, and even the big cats, however, I was able to take sharp pictures even if there was a certain amount of action. My settings for this shot were unrecorded, but they were probably 1/400 and f/5.6. For all of my wildlife photography back then, I used Fujichrome Provia 100. The 6x7cm transparency was scanned by an Imacon scanner to create a digital file.