Camera: Sony ILCE-1

Lens: Sony 400mm f2.8 G OSS

Aperture: f5.6

Shutter speed: 1/640s

ISO: 250

Description: Elephant using trunk to shower itself with mud

Story from behind the lens: We were fortunate to see a family group of elephants converge on a few water holes in the open grassland. After drinking water, several started to spray themselves with mud from the edge of the water hole. It seemed like they were having fun cooling off! Choosing shutter speed and aperture was a judgment call - I needed enough speed AND depth of field to make the mud spurts sharp, while keeping the ISO low enough to capture the full range of light in this midday image. It seems that this compromise worked.