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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Two: On Safari -- expressing the essence of nature > Hippo tracks, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
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08-JAN-2006

Hippo tracks, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006

The hippo footprint is easy to spot -- not as big as an elephant's, yet featuring four toes. Hippos came up at night to feed near both of our camps. While having dinner at our Puku Ridge tented camp, we watched a huge hippo graze its way into the bushes just outside of our dining room. Hippos may look gentle and slow, but if provoked, they can behave violently. We held our breaths as it disappeared into the night. This image does not show the huge beast. Instead it uses abstraction to imply its ponderous presence. The tracks stimulate the imagination, causing us to imagine the hippo as a somewhat prehistoric beast, seeing it in our mind’s eye moving through the muddy ground before us. I use perspective control to emphasize the size of a hippo’s foot by employing a semi-wideangle 35mm focal length. It makes the tracks closest to us very large, and they gradually dwindle in size in comparison as they recede into the background.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/50s f/2.8 at 7.4mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis16-Jun-2007 05:47
Yes, Sun Han -- this image does invite us to follow. But we always must ask ourselves if the journey would be worth it.
Guest 16-Jun-2007 04:58
the steps still fresh, to follow or not to follow, this is a question
Phil Douglis25-Jan-2006 04:49
Glad to get your imagination going on this one, Alister. As I shot this image, I was thinking of dinosaurs and fossils, too.
alibenn25-Jan-2006 01:16
Very simple yet evocative....reminds me of the fossilised Dinosaur footprints one sees from time to time...Who knows...if the conditions are right, maybe these footprints will re-appear in 100 million years..discovered by some future inhabitants of our little blue planet...to ponder and reconstruct the likeness of another long-extinct species....
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