Greg du Toit
Dusk to Dawn
Wildlife silhouette photography is very popular in general but African wildlife silhouettes are perhaps the most popular of all and especially a giraffe silhouette! This gallery contains exclusively silhouette photography and specifically wildlife silhouettes from Africa.
Wildlife silhouette photography works because the human eye is very complex and the human brain very advanced in terms of its ability to process light and imagery. This results in us seeing a world that is visually busy and very different to silhouette photography. What the camera has the power to do through both silhouette photography and silhouette photos, is to simply declutter our world. By leaving only the outline of the subject in my African wildlife silhouettes, your focus shifts to the animal itself.
This Dusk to Dawn gallery of African wildlife silhouettes featured on the BBC News and there is perhaps nothing more quintessential to Africa wildlife photography than African wildlife silhouettes and especially a giraffe silhouette or an elephant silhouette. I invite you now to browse this collection of African wildlife silhouette photography.
See my African wildlife silhouette photography on BBC News.
Hwange Lioness - This lioness was trying to dig a warthog out of its burrow. Although not succeeding, the feline kicked up a considerable plume of dust in the process. The setting sun and bushveld grass completed the golden scene (Zimbabwe).
A Family Portrait - Possessing a very fast metabolism, the best time to photograph meerkats is late in the afternoon, when they sit in front of the entrance of their burrow, soaking up the last rays of the day (Kalahari Desert, South Africa).
Dik-dik Dusk - It was late into the evening when we rounded a corner and saw this dik-dik standing on a ridge, framed by bushes - a brilliant silhouette. It's in moments like this that I fall in love with Africa, again and again (Ruaha, Tanzania).
Light and Shade - In Tanzania's Ruaha National Park, a young buffalo calf runs to catch up with the herd.
Leopard's Breath - On a dusty winter's night in South Africa's lowveld, a leopard exhales. Some photos I never forget taking, this is one of them (Mala Mala).
Buffalo and Oxpeckers - In southern Tanzania, the dry season is hot and dusty. I wait at a pan for weeks to capture this shy herd of Cape buffalo coming in for a drink. The dust, heat, twittering oxpeckers, backlight and bovids all mix, creating a scene that is wholly African and utterly intoxicating (Ruaha National Park).
A portrait of Mr T - There once was a lion that went by the name Mr T, due to his mohawk hairstyle. Mr T roamed far and wide as part of the notorious Mapogo coalition in South Afrca's Sabi Sand Game Reserve. I loved this lion and this was the last portrait I took of him and suitably from behind, to show off his splendid morning hairdo.
Hippo Cauldron - Lying next to a pool on a remote stretch of Tanzania's Great Ruaha River, a hippo surfaces in the red glow of dawn. The water turned lava-like, the entire scene a bubbling cauldron. Photographed on Kodak E100VS film.
Bat Blizzard - A dawn I will never forget. Millions of fruit bats, each with a wingspan over one metre, return from a night of foraging in the Congo. This bat blizzard literally blocked out the sun in Zambia's Kasanka National Park.
Hyena Sunrise - As the sun rose over Botswana's Okavango Delta, I took this moody portrait of a hyena, just as she was finishing quenching a thirst. The red rising sun is reflected in the pool of water.
Wild Dog Dusk - As another day ends in the Zambezi Valley, an African wild dog passes in front of the sun.
African Scops Owl - One of the smallest owls in Africa, seen here lit by a torch from the side (Elephant Plains, South Africa).
Elephant Reflecting - A bull elephant pauses for a moment of contemplation, standing in the Zambezi River of Zimbabwe's Mana Pools.
Elephant on Fire - In Kenya's Amboseli National Park an elephant drinks quietly at a waterhole, grass fires rage and the sun sets in the background.
Elephant Sunrise - In the blue smoke, the result of underground fires, an elephant sniffs the dawn, in Botswana's Okavango Delta. Photographing through the bushes, I offer you a glimpse into one of Africa's last great wildernesses.
The Crossing - A lone bull elephant crosses the mighty Zambezi River at dusk, pausing momentarily with an egret on his back, allowing me to capture this tranquil scene (Mana Pools, Zimbabwe).
A Zebra and Seven Oxpeckers - I was racing back to camp in Kenya's Masai Mara, when the sunset burst into life. Searching for a subject, it was only later that I noticed the seven oxpeckers enjoying the ride on the zebra's back.
Hippo Bubbles - Lying on the bank of the Great Ruaha River in Tanzania, I wait for a hippo to surface in my frame of bubbles. I also hope no crocodile is placing me in a frame of its own.
Giraffe Sunset - A giraffe and her baby walk over a rise, into the setting sun, in Kenya's Masai Mara.
Elephant and Calf - In Kenya's Masai Mara an elephant mother and her calf graze peacefully off into the sunset.
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