TITLE: Drooling Over Me

The Mara oozes moments to be captured, from big cats and live-action to the migration herds. It’s sometimes easy to forget the tranquillity of the savannah plains and the calmer species. One such moment was this; whilst spending time with a tower of giraffes, I noticed one staring in my direction with something dangling from her mouth that I could make out with the dark background. Upon closer inspection post taking the photo, it was her drool; possibly over me. 

AUTHOR: Amish Chhagan (Spain)

Growing up in Zambia, I was fortunate to get numerous opportunities to explore the flora and fauna of this spectacular region of Africa. Between the metropolitan capital city of Lusaka, where I grew up, and the numerous trips to various national parks in Southern Africa, I appreciated the glaring contrasts at a young age; ecological, physical and visual - the latter being my area of focus. The serenity of these vast lands and the excitement of spotting wildlife often transpired within me; more so when I found photography (or when photography found me).

Over the years of hopping between concrete and savannahs, it has become painfully obvious how human exploits are diminishing the beauty of wildlife ecosystems with each passing day. It is unfortunate that this entire sophisticated network is at the mercy of us and our actions. This gives me a bigger sense of responsibility as a human and photographer to use my work to showcase the beauty of the once abundant wildlife we had on the planet. My role as a wildlife photographer exists because there are beautiful and spectacular moments to capture in the wild, but therein exists an important duty to show my continued support for promoting conservation.