23rd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Travel
Run

After several minutes of the entire giraffe herd staring me down as I knelt in the red earth to capture them from a low angle, they suddenly took off—moving in their strange, slow-motion gallop. A flurry of dust and rectangle-shaped fur filled the air, and within moments, they were gone in the bush.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 09.2023
Date Uploaded: 12.2025
Photo Location: undisclosed, South Africa
Copyright: © Wiktoria West