Heads down, bodies bunched together and charging forward: five rhinos at a Kenyan game reserve – and a few very quick-thinking cattle egrets – reminded the Indian wildlife photographer duo of a rugby forward pack. Now this image has won a major international photography award.
In the end, the egrets managed to escape with barely a moment to spare.
Titled The Rugby Players, the black-and-white image was shot by Preeti and Prashant Chacko, also known as @composingthewild. The photograph has won the Epson Digital Art Prize at the 2026 Epson International Pano Awards, which is the world's biggest competition dedicated to panoramic photography.
Epson Digital Art Prize
"Southern white rhinos are, in their normal state, are surprisingly unthreatening - calm grazers who move around at a leisurely pace," explain Preeti and Prashant Chacko.
"One morning at Solio Game Reserve in Kenya we were photographing a group of 8 rhinos with a few cattle egrets walking among them, a rare sighting in most other national parks.
"Something suddenly shifted and five of the rhinos broke into a run."
The duo suddenly understood why a group of rhinos is known as a crash when five of the animals broke into a run.
"Neither of us has ever played rugby, but from the point of view of the egrets this is how we imagine a forward pack must look, heads down and all that weight already committed.
"Seeing these many rhinos together is already rare and seeing them run together at another species is rarer still.
"At Solio Game Reserve, where Kenya's rhino population has been painstakingly rebuilt without any de-horning even an accidental moment of chaos feels like a miracle."
The Epson International Pano Awards
Founded in 2019, the Epson International Pano Awards remain the world's largest competition devoted exclusively to panoramic photography.
The 2026 edition drew thousands of entries across Nature/Landscape, Built Environment, VR/360° and Aerial categories, celebrating both professional and amateur photographers. Explore the 2026 winning gallery by visiting the Pano Awards website.
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