Golden Horizon

Golden Horizon is one of my favourite images to date for a variety of reasons. It was one of my first pre-visualised shots. Getting a sharp image of a giraffe with the sunset "surrounding" the animal. A lot of planning was involved regarding the location, because the environment where the image was taken does not always allow for a clean horizon. It took a total of 7 consecutive days to take this image. This was because the subject, the giraffe, had to be "at the right place at the right time", which was on a downward slope where I could still have the horizon in the image. One evening I set off to attempt the image once again, arrived at the scene about an hour before golden hour, and saw some giraffe that looked like they were in a decent enough area to pursue. As the sun began to set, I got out of the vehicle and started to get into position. I tried my best not to be noticed by the giraffe, but after numerous rolls and leopard crawls, I was spotted. "Not the best predator", I laughed at my futile attempts. What helped me a lot was the giraffe's curious nature. They will often stand and stare in an attempt to identify something. I started experimenting with different compositions, angles and settings. Eventually I got this image, and immediately knew that this was the image that I was going for. I continued photographing with a wide smile and a great sense of accomplishment.