I was in Liuwa Plain, a remote National Park in the west of Zambia. One of the aims of my trip was to photograph hyenas using a variety of techniques including remote-control cameras and some prototype Camtraptions camera traps.
To show hyenas in their element, I wanted to photograph them at night. The stars in the African night sky are spectacular and I wanted to try to include them in my image.
For this shot, I used my remote-control “BeetleCam” to position my camera on the ground, looking up at the hyena with the sky behind. This is a single exposure. I lit the hyena with two off-camera flashes at the start of the exposure and used a relatively long shutter speed to expose the stars. It didn’t matter if the hyena moved after the initial flash because there was no moonlight to cause ghosting.
You can see more images from my African wildlife at night series in my blog post: Photographing Wildlife at Night in Liuwa Plain.
The photo was captured with a Canon 5D Mark III and 15-35mm F2. 8 II at 16mm, 16s, F4. 5, and ISO 5000, using Nikon SB-28 flashes and Camtraptions wireless flash triggers.
Will Burrard-Lucas is a wildlife photographer from the UK and founder of Camtraptions. You can view more of his work on his website or by following him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
. dpreview.com2017-9-3 17:00