There are three planes of focus in this shot -- the tree, the giraffes, and the distant elements, the lone tree, the two hot air balloons, and the sky. Since it was important all three of these planes be in focus, I didn't zoom in for a tighter composition. The longer the focal length, the less depth of field you have. I used a 100-400mm Canon zoom for this picture, and the lens was set to 106mm. My settings were 1/1600, f/14, and 800 ISO. In retrospect, I could have cut the shutter down to 1/800 to give me an aperture of f/20, but it turns out that the f/14 choice was fine. The sun is close to the center of the frame, and that meant it would have a significant impact on exposure. I checked the LCD monitor on the back of the camera to judge the exposure and didn't make any adjustments. I liked the underexposure dictated by the built in meter because it underscored the nice graphics of the silhouetted subjects. This is sunrise.
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