Camera: Canon EOS-1D X Mark III

Lens: EF 15 mm f/2.8

Aperture: f/2.8

Shutter speed: 10 seconds

ISO: 3200

Description: A Masai Man Stands Gardant at Dawn Pondering the Cosmos and What the Future Holds for His Motherland.

Story from behind the lens: This photo was mostly about risk. The most amusing risk was managing hypothermia as we slithered on our bellies over dew-soaked grass on a nippy March morning. A grumpy pair of Cape buffalo bulls had been seen to stir the dirt in the area the previous sunrise. We designated a lookout to continuously scour the neighbourhood while we were focused on shooting. That was the most significant risk to our welfare by far.

The surest risk we had to manage was in exposing our egos to a serious bruising. This genre was pretty new to me; technically and creatively. A long-exposure, staged scene containing an obliging subject, in near-darkness, with my lens pointed skyward was the diametric opposite of 99% of the safari photography I'd previously experienced.

Because of our fervent desire to limit the possibility of an encounter with the aforementioned Dagga Boys, we allowed ourselves less than 10 minutes of shooting. This was precious little time to select a spot, improvise a tripod, compose our scene, direct our model, fire test shots, curse our poor choice of settings, fly through a series of exposure and compositional adjustments, snap a few more shots so quickly we didn't even have time to review them again. And dive back into the safety of our truck.