This bizarre frame - captured by a watering hole on the North east side of Amboseli dry lake - was taken with a 28mm lens placed with on a remote controlled camera. There is no doubt that it was a low percentage idea because my focal point really required a huge giraffe within no more than 3 meters of the camera, otherwise a 28mm is all to loose a lens to use against a flat backdrop of an arid desert . I chose my focal point because I wanted a low chance of a big shot rather than a good chance of a boring shot. That has to be the way in 2019
Giraffes are also very skittsh and even setting up the camera is an issue if they are within 400 yards . They don’t like human presence and why indeed should they?
Over the years we have failed with giraffe, but in August 2019, one unbelievable piece of luck resulted in this image. When I looked into the camera’s screen from the then deserted watering hole. i could not believe it and I just hoped that the focus was pin sharp - not easy when the head of the giraffe is much further away from the camera than the hoofs.
The focus was fine although I have no other photograph from the series. By the time the giraffe arrived the sun was getting low - and the camera was pointing that way, so this was not an easy file to work with - I wanted detail in both the giraffe and the sky.
The end result is surreal and then the next problem was to find a name. Our team threw ideas around in the jeep in Kenya and when we came with “Keeping up with the Crouches”, we knew we had it. Of course it is a nod to a tall British footballer and overseas audiences will no doubt be confused, but Peter and Abbey Crouch are delighted with the name and they do indeed have four children.
37” x 43“ Unframed
52” x 58“ Framed
Edition of 12
56” x 65“ Unframed
71” x 80“ Framed
Edition of 12