Rhino charge

There are time s when I wonder if I made the right decision in becoming a wildlife photographer. These times tend be life or death situations. Having a leopard stalk me at my tent, a nomadic lion jumping next to me …charged by elephants, showering with a boomslang and this particular time having an angry two tonne of black rhino bearing down on me.

I normally hear my mothers voice at these times ” You’r going get get eatin by lion or trampled by a elephant and all  for a photograph”  “are you mad or what and you gave up that good job in Tokyo  ”

And so here I was in Madikwe game reserve with my two ranger friends out for a quite mornings shoot . When out of nowhere this angry mother and calf decide to charge right at us.

At times like this my adrenalin kicks in … Which is good thing but you have to be able to control it… So I kept saying my usual mantra in situations like this . …

“Don’t mess it up”

So I leaned over the side wedged in between the seat and railing of the open 4×4 to get a nice low angle , controlled my breathing checked my settings and started shooting.

It was an amazing site watching this prehistoric beast in full charge, all four feet off the ground with leaves still in her mouth.

As The rhino got closer and closer and we all realized she was not going to stop so just as she was a few meters from hitting us, we started shouting/screaming and banging the doors as loud as possible . It worked she pulled off to the left in a trail of dust with baby in tow.

To say I was on a high would be an understatement ,but as all photographers do, the first thing I did  was checked to see if I got my shot.
I did!