South African photographer and conservationist, Chris Fallows, is so dedicated to his craft that his return on spending 100 days on location could be just a couple of pictures.
But as he puts it, "either I’m a terribly bad photographer or I have set the bar very high to try to create something truly exceptional."
And the judges of the fourteenth season of HIPA, themed 'Power', clearly agreed that it's the latter case.
Chris' photo of a herd of elephants in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya earned him the runner-up position in the General – Black & White category.
HIPA (the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award) crowned its winners at Dubai's Museum of the Future in late 2025.
It is the world's richest photography competition, with a prize pot of $1 million (£739,550 / AU$1,490,000); the grand prize winner takes home $200,000 (£152,000 / AU$307,000).
And Chris will be putting his winnings to very good use. A dedicated conservationist, he uses the proceeds from selling limited edition large-format fine-art prints of wildlife to buy up tracts of land in Namibia, to preserve a habitat for the animal population.
His win is all the more special because he rarely enters photography competitions. Most of his work revolves around selling prints of the planet's most iconic wildlife, which he has been photographing for 35 years.
"I'm best known for my photographs of great white sharks and marine animals but I also spend around 100 days every year in the wilds of Africa," he told me after the awards ceremony in Dubai.
"The focus of my work is not really trying to take wildlife photos but to create wildlife fine art. I place a huge amount of relevance on seeking out locations that allow me to bring in elements that create a particular mood.
"I've spent quite a few years living with the Maasai people surrounding Amboseli National Park in Kenya. If you're looking for a fine-art style and feel for elephant photos, I think this is the location on the planet.
"There’s a series of dry lakes in this region and my aim was to capture a big herd of elephants crossing them, with a visually minimalistic feel incorporating the elements of cracked earth and the stormy skies that build at certain times of the year.
"And having an iconic animal in the mix – one of the great tuskers, in this case an incredible female – makes bringing all these elements together in a single image even harder.
"After a considerable amount of time, probably a few years in terms of coming close, I eventually got this image with one of the great females of Amboseli leading a herd across these dry lakes with all the elements that make that environment so iconic. This was the fruits of sustained labor."
The story behind the shot
Captured with a Canon EOS R5 and a Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM, let’s go behind the scenes with Chris…
"I’m only a few meters away, probably about 8 meters [26 feet], at the front of a game drive vehicle," he explains, "using it as a hide and allowing the animal to be comfortable enough to come close."
"This dry lake is literally 15km [9.3 miles] wide and the elephants can choose to go wherever they like; they don't have to come forward.
"You need to know that you’re not disturbing those animals and they're choosing to come to you. Through experience, I know that in most cases like this they will tolerate you and in many cases are completely oblivious of you.
"It’s just a question of getting them comfortable and when you’re on the ground, you’re in a vulnerable position."
Unusually for a wildlife photographer, Chris doesn't tend to use long lenses, preferring to shoot wider so he can tell a story about the animal in its environment.
"The one aspect I emphasize more than any other is getting to know my subjects incredibly well. I get very close to them by reading body language and am very comfortable around big powerful animals.
"Hopefully that creates a different look and style. And often I like to shoot from a variety of angles that most people are not generally comfortable with, for example lying on the ground often in water."
And his choice of camera – a 45MP full-frame mirrorless – played a key role, too.
"What I really love about the Canon EOS R5 is its ability to move focus points to exactly where you want them across the frame.
"In the DSLR days we were limited to cross-type AF points, but one of the beauties of the R5 is that you can pull your focus point and be 100% spot on anywhere in the viewfinder. And the really large files with the R5 are fantastic for making fine-art prints, because I'm outputting photos at huge sizes."
For Chris, fine-art prints are synonymous with black-and-white, so he usually approaches his subjects with a monochrome mindset at the point of capture.
"I like to have subjects with significant amounts of contrast. I believe a minimalistic look and feel to an image will generally create a good result in black and white.
"Certain subjects are really strong for black-and-white photos. On the ocean, I like to shoot into a choppy sea state that gives that mood and really powerful feel when you apply black and white processing to it.
"I do shoot in color a little bit; typically I try to style my color work around a watercolor look and feel. But before going out and shooting in any environment, there's an artistic style and intention to all my work."
Given that he channels the profits of his fine-art print sales into buying up land to protect animal habitats, does Chris feel that conservation is in a good place right now?
"We really need to wake up," he says. "It's difficult for people sitting in New York, London or Dubai to understand what's coming their way.
"I don't want to speak as a prophet of doom but I have worked at the coalface [of conservation] for a very long time and I'm seeing unbelievable changes at a speed that's unprecedented on our planet.
"It doesn't matter how much money you have; try counting it while you're holding your breath. We rely on nature for all the food we eat, all the water we drink and the air that we breathe.
"I try to bring two things to my work: I try to reach large audiences to inspire millions of people about the beauty of our planet, and as an individual I give back through the sale of my fine-art work.
"Photography plays an important role and I'm very lucky: I've got a huge exhibition at Dubai International Airport – 50 meters of wall space, which a hundred million people see every year.
"There are two choices we can make. Either we let the warming of our planet continue and suffer the consequences; or we do everything we can to learn how to live sustainably and reap the benefits of living with, rather than conquering, the planet that we live on."
See more of Chris' work at his website and on his Instagram.
About the competition
The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) rewards excellence in still photographs and moving images and has a prize pot of $1,000,000 (£739,550 / AU$1,490,000), with the winner of the grand prize taking home $200,000 (£152,000 / AU$307,000). Free to enter, the theme of the 15th season is 'Family' and will open for entries early in 2026. Find out more at www.hipa.ae
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