ENTRY DESCRIPTION
I sat for most of the day perched at water level on the bank of the ephemeral Boteti River. I photographed animal after animal as they came down to drink at this oasis in the desert. The sun started to disappear behind the horizon and a small group of bull Elephants ran down quench their thirst after searching for food in the arid surroundings.

The river is flowing again after a 17 year drought and these Elephants are part of a growing population in the Makgadikgadi, in their search for food water and space. Elephants are under pressure all around the world from habitat loss, poaching, badly managed hunting practices, desertification and persecution from farmers who compete for shared resources.

Image shot on 1/2500 sec, f/10, ISO 200, at a focal length of 251mm

AUTHOR
Daniel Dugmore was born in Southampton, England in 1991. He was introduced to photography in the Makgadikgadi Pans whilst visiting family in Botswana. By the age of 16 he was rarely seen outside without his trusty little Canon Powershot. Daniel emigrated to Botswana when he was 21 to pursue his passion of safari guiding and conservation photography.
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In 2015 Daniel’s appetite for adventure took him to Angola in search of the Eastern source of the Okavango Delta. The mission was to canoe from the Eastern source of the Okavango to where its waters seep into the Kalahari sand in the Makgadikgadi. Unable to navigate the myriad of land mines he was forced to begin the river descent in the upper the catchment of the Okavango in Cuito Cuanavale. The team raised several thousand pounds for the charity Rhinos Without Borders and travelled a distance of over 1,700km in 68 days.
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More recently Daniel has been working on a series of creative promotional videos with The Marine Megafauna Foundation, an international organisation who protect marine life in the Americas, the Western Indian Ocean and South East Asia.
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After travelling Africa and living in Botswana for 5 years working in the safari and nature photography industries Daniel moved to England to study photography formally in London. He now leads bespoke and set-date wildlife photography workshops in Africa and uses his award winning imagery to inspire his audience to engage with the natural world and the vulnerable cultures living within it.

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