Here's the story behind this shot: "The phantom"

What the heck is that... I asked myself as I was clicking the shutter.

We were following a pack of 30 wild dogs in Samburu, Kenya.

Instead of following these dogs like most others, we stayed at a distance and just guessed where they would be going and got ahead of them and waited.

As we were driving, Eric yelled in a low but excited voice, "look, look, striped hyena!"

I couldn't see nothing by looking around us. As he said it the second time, I finally saw him. He appeared from nowhere, and was calmly observing the distant pack of wild dogs.

His stripes reminded me of a zebra. No. A tiger. The white long fur was mesmerizing. He blended in the scene so perfectly like a painting in harmony. I was in awe.

Within a few seconds, he disappeared into the deep bush and was never seen again. I've only seen spotted hyena before, and didn't think that highly of hyena (too bad the lion king movie influence). I didn't even know of the species striped hyena before.

But once I saw it, I had to confess, I'm hooked. What a majestic species.

I can't believe I used the word beautiful to describe it. Even afterwards when I was photographing the wild dogs, I couldn't stop looking around to search for this beautiful hyena again but he was like a phantom. Gone.

Later I asked Eric. He said the species is relatively hard to see.

In his 15 years guiding, he has never photographed one, until this time!

Nikon D850, 400 2.8, f/2.8, 1/800s, ISO 640, manual and auto ISO + 1 stop. Since it's relatively low contrast in the scene so I used auto ISO. If you want to learn more about metering, definitely check out my free metering webinar on my website. I applied the method all the time in Kenya with great success. Edited with DTS.

Anyways, here are the 11 things I didn't know about rhinos.

#1. Endangered?

So I was partially right.

Black rhinos are critically endangered. 3 of the black rhino subspecies have been declared extinct. 🙁

White rhinos are doing a little bit better. There are two subspecies. The Southern white rhinos are doing okay, not endangered.

But the last male northern white rhino has just died. There are only two female northern white rhinos remaining (both captive, no more wild ones).

I asked Eric. He said it seemed that some sperms of that last male northern white rhino was preserved. Not sure if it could help.

#2. Ol Pejeta

There are rhinos in the Mara but they are harder to see.

In Ol Pejeta, however, there are patrols on foot who protect them from poaching, so one has a higher chance of seeing them.

In our two days there, we saw one black rhino, and 2 mother southern white rhinos both with one baby!

#3. No off-roading

We didn't see any rhinos for the first day except one after sunset. It was quite dark and he was running away from a herd of buffalos.

No off-roading is allowed in Ol Pejeta, so if the rhinos are not close to the road, it's impossible to see or photograph them.

And since there are patrols on foot, and lions and leopards usually don't like humans on foot (which is different from common belief), it's harder to see lions and leopards there. But one usually doesn't come here for lions and leopards.

#4. Sunset

They seem to like to come out in the meadow only in bright day light. When it's near sunset time, they walk back into the deep forest far away from the roads to sleep.

#5. Challenging to photograph

Since no off-roading is allowed, we are stuck on the road, meaning if they are far away, we can't get close. And the light angle is a bit problematic, giving the rhinos side-light in day time.

The light in Africa seems to be only good for a few minutes after sunrise and before sunset, so unless it's an overcast day, it is not easy to get shots with good direct light on them. And lots of heat shimmer there once the sun is out, making most of the shots unsharp.

#6. How to photograph rhino in Ol Pejeta

We finally saw a black rhino sleeping near the road the second day. The light was quite harsh and the rhino was sleeping the whole time but it's still a thrill to photograph the first wild rhino of my life.

They were indeed majestic, as if wearing a metal armor.

While photographing the black rhino, Eric suddenly said, "Look, there's another rhino further away."

I looked to my left, about half a mile away.

"Wait, is that a mother with a baby?"

"Yes I think so. Would you like to go?" Eric said.

"HELL YEAH. Go Go Go!"

It seemed that the mother and the baby were walking away by the time we saw them, and would soon disappear from the horizon (I will explain later what that means) so I kept my fingers crossed.

Once we got there, the sky turned overcast-- perfect for rhino photography. They were quite far away by then. My 400mm was not enough.

But it's not all bad about Ol Pejeta.

The meadows on both sides of the road are elevated with a small slope, with only very few short trees here and there, so the landscape is quite open.

When the animals are further away, there is one particular distance where the background will be pure sky.

If they come closer, the background would be half grass and half sky, which is no good because there would be a line in between.

If they are further away, then their feet will not be visible.

After all these complicated description I hope you are still with me.

What I meant was, the rhino mother and baby were walking at the perfect spot where the sky was the background and the light was nice and soft.

I immediately put my 2x teleconverter on to make it 800mm, the perfect distance for them.

#7. Baby

I never expected to see a wild rhino in my life.

My hands were shaking and my heart pounding when I saw a wild rhino baby.

They were real! And they were still alive, in the wilderness. How wonderful was that!

I really couldn't believe my eyes.

This cute little thing, full of energy, jumping and running around, digging up dust all over the place. Didn't care about this whole world.

They were so different from other wildlife babies.

I fell in love with this baby rhino immediately.