When you're on safari in Africa and you encounter warthogs, they are always running away from the vehicle. In other words, you can only get a shot of their rear with their tail pointed skyward. It's very hard to get a shot of their face, and even harder to get a low-angled perspective like this. The only way I was able to get this picture was from a blind at a waterhole. The animals can't see the photographers because we're shooting from behind a one-way glass, and the blind is constructed such that it's subterranean. You are seated in a comfortable chair at water level. The animals are, literally, 10 feet away. I took this with a 200mm focal length, and the settings were 1/640, f/5.0, and 2000 ISO. The glass causes about a one f/stop light loss, but it's necessary so the animals feel comfortable in coming so close. I'm sure it was warthogs that inspired the phrase, A face only a mother could love! My next photo tour in which my group will shoot from a blind like this is in Kenya, March 2026.
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