“Greg, turn around!”: The photographer told how he was ridiculed online because of the imaginary failure
Photographer and WWF UK Senior Producer Greg Armfield described how one photo of a mating rhinoceros turned him into a target for ridicule and criticism.
(Total 4 photos)
The picture was taken during an expedition to Kenya in November 2015. A group of photographers traveled to Nairobi National Park to document a day in the life of Harrison Kamande, head of Kenya's wildlife patrol.
The working day started at 7 am. Photographers arrived at the park and witnessed a rare mating scene of rhinos. They were able to get close enough to the animals because they are not aggressive during mating, and filmed for about 45 minutes.
“On the Facebook page, I posted some photos that I took during this shoot. But the reality is that once you've shot a thousand mating shots of black rhinos - and they've been doing this for quite some time - it gets a little boring," says Greg Armfield.
After filming the rhinos, Armfield turned his back on them and began filming Harrison and his crew. At this time, one of the photographer's colleagues captured him against the backdrop of animals.
The Briton himself saw the frame only five days later, when he returned home. The film crew was processing the collected material and came across a photo that was shown to Armfield. He found the picture both funny and educational, allowing him to look "behind the scenes" of the process, after which the photo was sent to journalists.
Armfield was ridiculed and criticized by some of the major publications that posted this picture. The Daily Mail accused him of missing everything, Metro jokingly suggested that the hero of the photo turn around.
The Brit received a lot of comments from friends and strangers, most of whom asked how he managed to miss everything. Among the commentators were those who did not doubt that the image was created in Photoshop. However, according to Armfield, he does not remember how the picture was ridiculed in the press, but he remembers the experience.
Harrison promised him that if the female eventually had a baby, the little rhinoceros would be named Greg.
Keywords: Kenya | Criticism | Rhinos | Snapshot | Photographer