Michael Wilkins
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A nyala bull in profile emerges from a black background, spiral horns and white face markings catching thin light.

Nyala from the Dark

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

1D X Mark II, 214 millimetres, f 5, 1/1000 of a second, ISO 10000

A forest animal, lit like one.

Nyala keep to the forest edge, half in shadow by choice, so this is how I wanted one photographed — most of the animal given back to the dark. Exposing for the lit side of his face dropped everything else away and left the essentials: the spiral of horn, the chestnut ears, the white chalk marks along his flank.

Part of Pumba, a series.