Dust explosion

One quiet morning, I stopped for coffee at one of the more-visited dams in MalaMala. At first there were only a few Cape turtle doves at the water’s edge, but then several grey shapes emerged from the treeline.

After drinking their fill, the elephants walked towards a patch of sand next to the vehicle and started dust-bathing.

The sun was in an awkward spot for a conventional photograph, so I went in close and tried to focus on the dust being expelled from one of the elephant’s trunks.

HOW? Canon EOS 5D Mark II; 300 mm lens; shutter speed 1/6400 second; aperture f4.5; ISO 320.