Immerse in the wild welcomes you to a full-screen, high quality wildlife photography viewing experience. You are invited to click on any photo to view additional information including the photographer’s name, camera settings, photo title, and a brief description.
Small And Mighty
The Maasai Mara ecosystem is periodically renewed through controlled burns, and during my recent visit to Kenya, the resulting smoke became an obsession. These enormous, billowing plumes added an overwhelming sense of scale, providing the perfect dramatic background for the wildlife. My guide and I sought an animal to silhouette against the towering smoke. While we initially looked for a giraffe or an elephant, the moment I saw these zebras along the horizon, I knew the search was over. The relatively small stature of the zebras, juxtaposed with the gigantic smoke plumes delivered the "epic" feeling I was after.
Because this image is about the shape of the zebras, and the size and texture of the smoke, I chose a black and white conversion, which allowed me to simplify the image, drawing attention to the scale of the smoke.
1/500 • f/10 • ISO 80 • Sony A1ii • 300mm • Sony 300mm GM f/2.8
Starbound Swallow
Photographer: Gurnit Atwal
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1/6400 • f/18 • ISO 1250 • Sony A1ii • 122mm • Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II
I often joke that swallows move at "warp speed," seeing them more as space travellers than birds. This inspired a photographic project: capturing a swallow in a scene resembling outer space. I found my location at an urban park marina bridge. By intentionally underexposing the reflective water, the sun’s reflection became a giant star, while specs of plastic and plant life transformed into pinprick stars, creating the perfect cosmic backdrop.
The conceptual simplicity—capturing a swallow flying directly into the sun's reflection with a black background—was severely complicated by two factors: the swallows' extreme speed and a persistent Toronto heatwave. To achieve the perfect shot in-camera, I committed to spending hours daily, during the sun’s peak, battling the heat for over a month. Though I was ready to quit many evenings, I was inevitably back the next day. After weeks of effort, everything finally aligned. The iridescent colours on the Barn Swallow’s wings were the final, stunning detail, perfectly completing the vision by resembling the mythical Bifrost bridge, a perfect metaphor for the seemingly instantaneous nature of a swallow’s flight.
