A few years back I was guiding a safari for the TED conference, and helping teach the attendees about photography while giving lectures at night. We'd spend the days driving around the African wilds, photographing this and that, and all the while I was getting more comfortable with my surroundings. One day, while photographing some elephants that were a short way off, I decided the best vantage point was from the hood of our land rover.

Out of the bushes not 15 feet away, a huge elephant appears as if from thin air. I’d never thought of elephants as sneaky before this moment. I could hear the whispers of the clients, "BEN, get back in the car!" but I wasn't about to move. I had a second camera body with a wide angle on it, so I slowly raised it to get a shot as the elephant approached me and stood staring me eye to eye for just a few seconds. She swayed back and forth a few times, looked me up and down, and really seemed to ponder what I was up to. Satisfied, she turned and made her way back to the herd. I turned around with newfound humility and got back in the car.