Michael Wilkins
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Two impala rams face each other on a grassy ridgeline beneath a deep blue summer sky.

The Standoff

Pumba Game Reserve, Eastern Cape, South Africa · December 2022

1D X Mark II, 400 millimetres, f 5.6, 1/500 of a second, ISO 100

Horn to horn on the high ground.

Two rams met on the ridgeline and stood measuring each other, horns matched like brackets. From lower on the slope I could put them clean against the sky — no bush, no clutter, just the two shapes and the space between them, which is what the encounter was actually about. They held the pose longer than I deserved.

Part of Pumba, a series.