Mother and newborn giraffe

So many times you can be on safari in Africa and nothing is going your way. You can have great lighting with no animals in view or lots of animals with harsh lighting. In this shot, everything came together perfectly. The one-week old giraffe calf was nursing as an approaching storm darkened the sky dramatically, and the late afternoon sun provided edge lighting that created just enough contrast with the sky. It was an exciting moment. The combination of sunset lighting with a dark, stormy sky is simply magical. After the calf was finished drinking, with complete innocence it bounded enthusiastically over to my vehicle, stood about 10 feet away and looked at us like, “I wonder what kind of animal this is,” and then it ran back to its mother for security. My settings were 1/250, f/8, and 100 ISO, and I used a 70-200mm telephoto for the shot. My next photo tour to Africa begins on March 22, 2026.