The Fairy Tale

LARGE - Edition of 12
Unframed - 56" x 97"
Framed - 71" x 112"

STANDARD - Edition of 12
Unframed - 37" x 64"
Framed - 52" x 79"

I have no other elephant shot in my files even remotely similar to this one. Yellow fever trees were often found in swampy mosquito-ridden regions of Africa, and early white settlers associated them with malaria. More recently, Rudyard Kipling drew attention to them in his Just So Stories—in “The Elephant’s Child,” set along the Limpopo River, he talks of the abundance of fever trees.

In early morning light, the trees glowed, creating an ethereal effect, especially when grouped in a forest of their own. And then the magic came with the arrival of the elephant, Tim. It could not have been better. My only issue was thinking fast enough to have the right lens and composition—he was not going to wait around for me. Focus either deliberately includes or excludes, and on this occasion I needed as much of this fairy tale to be as pin sharp as possible.

Switching to manual focus is not something to be nervous about. A camera is just a piece of metal; it has no soul or brain. Autofocus would not like what was in the frame here. The key subject must be sharp, and while I know what it is, there is every chance the camera would not.

I started in photography before autofocus was invented, so switching
to manual is something I do regularly. As for the camera telling me what my exposure settings should be, well, I don’t think I have ever paid heed to that in
the last 20 years. Exposure modes such as S, A, and P mean nothing to me. I always shoot on M—“doors to manual” is almost a company slogan.

~ David Yarrow