Black and White or Colour? The photographer’s dilemma.
Recently I was asked via Instagram why I don’t shoot more black and white images. Most of the images in my recent photography exhibition were black and white. Some photographers stick with one genre in their work. For me the choice to process an image in black and white comes with experimentation post processing. What is my intention? How can I best convey the mood, the emotion? Here’s the story behind my decision to choose black and white for this image of a magnificent bull elephant from Amboseli.
Even from a distance the bull stood out as he marched ahead of an elephant clan. I smelled his musty odour as he got closer. “He’s in musth,” said Pilipili, “do you see how wet his back legs are?” The bull had a definite swagger to his step. He held his head up high, his massive ears fanning in and out in sync with each step. He dribbled urine constantly – that was the source of the smell.
I’d never seen a bull in musth before. Since then, I’ve learned more about it (see green penis syndrome blog). What caught my attention was the attitude of this elephant. He radiated confidence. He was on a mission to find a female in estrus. Sometimes bulls in musth can be onery, their testosterone levels increase 60x during the 2-3 month period they are in musth. A 12,000 lb. grumpy bull elephant deserves respect and should be given lots of space. This fellow appeared calm and non-aggressive.
II was mesmerized by the swing of his huge trunk as his head rocked back and forth marking time with each step. I tried to time my shutter finger with the fanning of his ears, the swing of the trunk and the lift of his foot.
It’s interesting how a split second delivers different images. The position of the trunk, the gaze of the elephant, the lift of the foot. I kept on firing off shots hoping for the best.
I didn’t know what I had until I downloaded my images later that night. There was one frame where the bull looked at me, his trunk in a graceful curl, his foot just stepping down – that was the shot!
My challenge in wildlife photography is to capture the emotion and energy of the moment. The image that comes out of the camera as a raw file looks flat despite the subject. My aim is to make an image that encourages the viewer to pause and look again. When I converted the image to black and white, I was able to add more drama to the scene. I felt this was a better representation of the energy the bull radiated.
When I took this image in January 2020 Amboseli was experiencing a long rainy season. The region was green and lush. The animals were fat, and happy. I imagine this bull found a few receptive females to mate with. Those babies would have been born after 22 months gestation into a vastly different environment. The region has not had any significant rain for two years. Many of the babies conceived during a time of plenty won’t survive today because of the drought.
Last week my friend, Winnie Kiiru, told me an elephant in Amboseli injured a woman in the local community. The drought has heightened human wildlife conflict. The Maasai are struggling to feed themselves and their livestock. Elephants are so desperate for food; crop raiding has increased. The communities are threatening to kill the elephants in retaliation. The Big Life Foundation’s rangers are doing all they can to protect the elephants and provide food supplements for the people. The seasonal rains are due to begin soon, let’s hope they come this year and the elephants have a chance to survive another season.