Recently I was on safari in Udawalawe national park in Sri Lanka. Fresh off a safari in Mineverya National park to shoot “The Gathering” (a late dry season event where several hundred elephants congregate around the waterholes) I wasn’t expecting the same level of excitement today. With denser bush land wildlife was a little harder to find, and there had been heavy rain making it difficult to navigate the trails inside the park. As we passed around a blind corner and outcrop we were suddenly confronted with a bull elephant. He was as as surprised as we were to have his mud bath rudely interrupted. Our heart skipped a beat –  the proximity was so close it was inside the focusing distance of my telephoto lens! I scrambled back to get a lock on him and captured a series of images that felt like we could literally touch him – one of those rare moments when you were part of the action not just observing it. This was one of a number of truly moving moments we shared watching the elephants that day in the wild.