Parallel Lines

PARALLEL LINES
Lewa, Kenya - 2018

We travelled to Lewa Downs, specifically to work with the Grevy’s Zebra. Their stripes are narrower and less continuous than the common zebras and in my view they win the aesthetics awards. There are not many Grevy’s left in the wild - maybe less than 3000 and Lewa is my preferred location to work with them. At the margin - and so much in this job is at the margin - the zebra in Lewa are less skittish than I find elsewhere and this allows some degree of proximity. It is probably just the fact that there is a decent amount of traffic in Lewa and the zebra are not spooked by vehicles per se.

It is still a real challenge to get a strong abstract image, because there is no way the cameraman can leave his or her vehicle - they will bolt and unless the zebra are on raised ground versus the jeep, it is hard not to be marginally shooting down on them - which I never like.

Lewa offers chances, but it is intense work and ideally the sun should be low - which limits the time slots to about two hours a day.

They are very beautiful mammals - that is a given. The rest is down to luck and persistence.
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