Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 11

This morning we drove in one huge circle around the edge of the Singita area and we eventually picked up the tracks of 3 adult female lionesses and a single adult male. We knew direction and approximate time of the tracks, so it was a matter of time before we were able to find them. We had them walking down a road, and from a photographic standpoint I don’t prefer to have man made objects in my photographs, so we positioned our Land Rover parallel to the road so we could photograph the walking lions without any hint of a road. What made the composition better was that there was tall grass in the foreground, and that created depth to the scene. The challenge with the setup was how to focus on the lions, as the foreground grass was the only thing we could get a clean autofocus point on. Not to fret, as it is easy to tweak the focus manually and use an f-stop to make sure we had enough depth of field just in case of error. I recommended f/8 to f/14, and it seemed to work out.

Eventually the lions took a long drink, and the only way we could position the vehicle was to have them looking to the side, parallel to us. Since lions don’t like mud, we had a good idea where they would eventually place themselves for a drink. Almost the entire edge of the water was covered in mud, so it made it easy to predict where the lions would drink from.

Lion At The Waterhole

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1600 @ f/5.6, ISO 400

In the afternoon we had an excess of riches. We ‘had’ to decide between mating leopards (the same we had photographed a day ago) and the mother leopard and her two cubs. Both sightings were within 500 meters of each other, so we just went to the location of the mating leopards first. The leopards weren’t as easy to photograph this time, due to the area of thick bush they were in, but I used the opportunity to shoot video just so I could have audio of the affair. After a 6 matings we were anxious to get ourselves to Hlabankuzi and her two cubs, so we drove out and headed towards the Sand River’s edge.

Renee and Deven

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/200 @ f/7.1, ISO 400

On the way to the river we noticed some tracks on the road that were out of place, and eventually figured out that Hlabankuzi had made a kill near the road and had dragged the carcass down to the sandy part of the river. Score! We found her with her cubs on the carcass, but they were in an extremely dense bush and we couldn’t see much. We waited until one of them appeared, and eventually Hlabankuzi dragged the remaining impala carcass down the road and up into a huge jackalberry tree.

The light had already faded, but we sat and watched one of her cubs climb up into the tree and enjoy the meal by herself. The irony of the moment was that the kill was sitting on top of a leopard orchid, which was growing wild on top of a low branch in the tree. A leopard on top of a leopard orchid. Poetic. I pushed the D4 to ISO 12,800 before we needed to leave them to dine. Hlabankuzi had left the jackalberry tree to go and fetch cub number two, and we needed to respect the rule that nobody should spend time with a leopard cub without the presence of the mother, so we drove back to camp in the dark. On the way back we saw yet another leopard and 2 more cubs, so today we had seven unique leopards in the span of only one hour. What an awesome way to end the last full day of safari for my safari group.

Tomorrow I will have to say goodbye to my group, as I have another safari group arriving. I know we are going to have another 8 days of fantastic sightings, even if we don’t see a single leopard, lion or cheetah. The general game has been excellent, and I anticipate more of the same in the week ahead.

Ravenscourt Female Leopard

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1250 @ f/4, ISO 5000

Ravenscourt Female Leopard and One of Her Cubs With a Kill

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1250 @ f/3.2, ISO 6400

Leopard Cub

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/100 @ f/2.8, ISO 12,800, hand-held

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 10

Some people have emailed me and have confronted me on my opinions of the D800 versus D4 camera bodies, and I just want to be on record that my needs and desires might be completely different to others who use these tools. I am actually a good candidate for medium format digital equipment, as I don’t think that I need high frames per second as much as I need larger file sizes for bigger print reproductions. Your needs might be different than mine, and I don’t pretend to think my needs are similar or dissimilar to others. The D4 is a great camera and I just prefer the D800 over it. It’s just that simple.

Yellow Billed Horn Bill

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1600 @ f/5, ISO 500

What about the Canon 5DMk3? Well, a few of my travelers have that camera on this trip and from what I see it is also an excellent camera. The autofocus is in a completely different league than that of the 5DMk2, and for that reason I can easily recommend it to wildlife photographers. Even though Nikon stole some thunder with the D800, the 5DMk3 is a much more capable camera than the camera that came before it. Since we don’t have the 1Dx out in the marketplace as of this blog post, I have absolutely no idea which one I would choose if I were still shooting with Canon. It is likely that I will rent an entire Canon kit for my pair of Botswana safaris this November, and I will be in a better position to have some opinions on the matter.

As far as sightings go, we had a hunting male leopard on some warthogs (unsuccessful hunt for him), a large male lion who was intent on finding other lions to socialize with and the finale for the day was…….drum roll please…….a mating pair of leopards. We had the most amazing afternoon, as we sat and watched the mating pair for at least 8 copulations. On one occasion the male mounted the female about 2 meters from my front seat in the Land Rover. Mating leopards are fascinating to watch, as the female instigates the action and the male follows suit. The male will bite the back of the female as a sign of domination and the female will growl back as the end nears. This action happened 8 times before the light faded and we needed to head back to camp. It had been a few years since I had seen mating leopards, and the sights and sounds were jaw dropping. Nature really has a way of impressing me.

Mating Leopards In The Road

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/200 @ f/5, ISO 2500 (not enough shutter speed!)

Mating Pair Of Leopards

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/500 @ f/3.2, ISO 2500

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1250 @ f/4.5, ISO 400

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 9

Ok. All I want to talk about today was our experience with a mother leopard and her two four-month old cubs. Nothing else even came close to that kind of quality of sighting, well, except the mother/daughter rhinos that walked up to the edge of our vehicle in the afternoon. J

We had heard of the Ravenscourt female leopard and her two young cubs, and there had been a sighting of hear earlier in the morning on a fresh impala kill in the grass. We made our way to the edge of the Sand River where she had been seen, and it took some time to figure out where she might be. We were successful locating the impala kill, but initially we didn’t find any signs of the three leopards. We found them playing in a very thick area of the bush, and for the next 90 minutes we had one of the most wonderful viewings of a young family at play. The 4-month old brother and sister cubs ran circles around their mother, they played in the low branches of the trees and chased each other around our vehicle. The dappled light made for difficult exposures, as well as the erratic movement, but I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time.

Leopard Cub In A Tree

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/800 @ f/5.6, ISO 3200. Hand Held

From a technique standpoint, I had to rely on autofocus with manual focus tweaks. The foreground grass was often in the way, and I just couldn’t rely on autofocus to do everything for me. I also tried to stop down to get more depth of field as a precaution, as I would have hated to shoot at f/2.8 or f/4 and not have their eyes sharp.

I have been on many many safaris in the past 10 years, and this sighting was difficult to top. Leopards are incredible. Leopard cubs are incredible times ten. Or one thousand. Or more. Yes, I have seen leopard cubs in the past, as in last week, but this one stands on top of all others, due to the length of time, the behaviors witnessed and our ability to see it all clearly only a few feet from us.

Leopard Cubs Playing

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/400 @ f/4.5, ISO 1000

Leopard Cub

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/500 @/f4.5, ISO 1600

Wade With A Smile (Leopard Cubs Will Do that To A Person)

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/500 @ f/5.6, ISO 2500

Ok, I will talk about another great sighting today: rhinos next to our vehicle. Not just rhinos, but a mother and her young calf. At one point the calf came up and sniffed the edge of our rear tire, and when we lightly giggled he got started and walked off.

One must always remember that a slow day in the bush beats the best day in an office, and the best day in the bush has no equal. Today has no equal.  

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 8

Ok, let’s talk a little bit about camera gear and techie nerdy stuff. I have following gear with me:

• Nikon D4
• Nikon D800
• Nikon 16-35mm f/4
• Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII
• Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VRII
• Nikon 1.4x TC

I have the D800 on the 300mm f/2.8 and the D4 on the 70-200mm. The reasoning is that things that move quickly will be more likely to be closer and thus need better autofocus and more frames per second with the shutter. It’s not like the D800 is a piece of junk, but the D4 really is a more professional wildlife camera. When I am reviewing my images I am emotionally responding to the D800 more favorably, primarily because of the humongous file sizes. If I need to crop I don’t feel bad about losing some pixels. Let’s be frank: cropping a 36mp raw file to a ‘puny’ 25mp isn’t a big deal at all. I love the D4, but I would be more likely to come here again with a pair of D800/D800e bodies than to have a D800/D800e and a D4. My print sales business does better when I am able to feel comfortable about printing off 20x30, 24x36 and 40x60 canvas. It’s the 40x60 canvas prints that make up much of my print sales these days.

As far as today went, we had awesome leopard sightings of the Kashane male leopard, as we picked him up three times in the same day. We had a surprise bush breakfast that completely came as a surprise to the group, and it was great to see huge smiles on their faces from the unexpected treat.

A Bush Breakfast

Nikon D4, 24-70mm f/2.8, 1/250 @ f/8, ISO 320

Kashane Male Leopard In The Tall Grass

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/500 @ f/4.5, ISO 200

Kashane Male Leopard

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/320 @ f/4.5, ISO 800

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sand Safari Report - Day 7

I think this morning was probably the coldest morning so far on the trip, and I suspect it hovered around 40F just after sunrise. It wasn’t extremely cold, but it does get chilly in an open Land Rover when driving 30mph down a remote road. Our best sighting / experience for the morning had to be a mother rhino and her month-old calf. The little guy had more attitude than anything else. He would eat, challenge our vehicle, go back to eating and then challenge us yet again. When I say challenge I really mean that he would run towards the vehicle with grass in his mouth, stick his head up and turn around quickly to go back to grazing with his mother. It was the cutest darned thing one could ask for.

Since they were grazing in an open field away from a nearby road, we were obviously driving offroad. The problem was that the field was littered with large rocks and boulders, and eventually one ended up underneath our axel. That rock prevented us from moving forward, and took a while to get unstuck. Well, the rhinos were close by and we ended up shooting from outside of the vehicle, hand-held. It’s a cool experience to photograph rhinos from on foot, however this wasn’t what I had in mind this time around. Perhaps we will do a proper on-foot rhino tracking outing before this safari ends. I think my guests would really enjoy it.

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/320 @ f/8, ISO 320

I continued my fascination with oxpeckers, and we took the time to stop at a large herd of buffalo to photograph them and their constant companions, the oxpeckers. Oxpeckers have a fun personality to watch and photograph, and when one waits to see these unique behaviors one can be rewarded with interesting interaction.

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/160 @ f/5.6, ISO 320

I feel like today we hit our stride, and had some great sightings to be happy with. It’s always a difficult thing for me and the guides who help us out, because we sort of live and die by the quality of sightings that we have. If the sightings are good we are patted on the back and if they don’t live up to expectations we are on the losing end of the stick. What I have to do as a safari leader is to shape expectations on what we can and might see and try to instill in people a realization that nature is beautiful in more ways than how the BBC, National Geographic and Discovery channels portray. In other words a successful game drive doesn’t always have to be about big cats. I hope that my guests go away from each game drive with an experience and knowledge of something they didn’t know about beforehand. It could be about a species of tree, unique mating behavior of a small-ish mammal or a survival strategy of a social weaver bird. Nature is awesome if we take the time to notice.

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1000 @ f/6.3, ISO 320

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sands Safari Report - Day 6

I am on a tight schedule today, so this post will be on the short side.

May through October are my favorite months to be in the Sabi Sands, primarily due to the combination of cool weather and lack of rain. Right now it is early June and the vegetation is beginning to dry out a bit and the weather is cooling down as we approach winter. Another reason why I enjoy this time of the year here is also that the days are shorter, and that means that the warm light is longer at the beginning and end of each day, due to the angle of sun in the sky. This is great for photographers, as we need all of the help we can get with regards to warm light.

We photographed a beautiful female leopard on south and north sides of the Sabi River, and some of us captured her jumping over rocks to get from the south bank to the north bank. We could tell that she was hunting, as her behavior on the north side was indicating that she needed and wanted food. We lost her for a bit in the dense brush, but we picked her up again after 30 minutes of heavy tracking. My preference is to photograph leopards walking towards the vehicle, and we only had one opportunity to do this before we disengaged to head back towards camp. The afternoon was filled with many sightings, and the one we spent the most time with was a pride of sleeping lions. They were in the tall grass, asleep, and never lifted up their heads during our two hours of sitting and waiting. After the sun had set we decided to leave.

Female Leopard On The Hunt

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/2000 @ f/4.5, ISO 400

Close Encounter

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, Hand Held

Betty, Barry and Leon

Nikon D4, 24-70mm f/2.8, 1/250 @ f/7.1, ISO 250

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sands Safari Report - Day 5

We were up at 5:30, a quick coffee and tea at 6 and we were out before sunrise. I loved the cool morning, as it is hot back at home and I am already tired of 70+F temps at night. We had some amazing sightings of elephant and giraffe this morning, and we took the time to try and get the best shots possible. Drive-by photography rarely pays off in the safari world, and the best photographs take time to unfold. I love photographing anything that is in front of me, and giraffes and elephants are actually my favorite subjects. They can be the most challenging for me, and think that is part of the fun.

Giraffes are difficult from a composition standpoint. What to include? Head? Head and neck? Whole body? Vertical or horizontal? So many options and my choices rarely seem to have me happy in the end. I put my camera down for much of the day, as I wanted to spend time working with people on the rear autofocus button on their cameras, as well as discussions about composition, metering and storytelling.

We did get a report of an often-not-seen animal in the Sabi Sands, and that was of a cheetah out on the southern open planes. We hoofed it to the area and tracked the cheetah to a place where he was resting underneath a tree. The light was harsh, but our time with him was enjoyable because of the rarity of the sighting. One of the vehicles did get a great opportunity to photograph him later on as he jumped up onto a very narrow top of a termite mound. Very very cool.

We broke for a late brunch back at camp, and the staff had set up a really nice table for us out underneath a shade tree. Cold cereals, fruit, breads, cheese and eggs to order from the kitchen. It’s nice not to have to worry about my guests when we have such wonderful staff around.

We had tea at 2:30 and promptly left for our afternoon drive, and headed towards the Sand River in the northern part of Singita. We had a great sighting of a dominant male leopard of the area, and we followed him on one of the roads for quite some time. We drove behind him at a distance, as well as drove offroad to the side of him to capture him walking. The goal was to get some tall grass in the foreground as to make the road less obvious in the shots. He was walking more quickly than we could drive, as the terrain offroad was littered with large stones. Eventually he went off into the thick bush, and the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to intercept him on the other side of the thick bush. We lost him and never found him again, but we did get a great sighting nonetheless.

I feel like today was one of the better days I have had in a while, as a cheetah in the morning and a glorious male leopard in the afternoon is tough to beat.

Male Leopard

Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/400 @ f/8, ISO 250, Hand Held

Male Leopard, as seen from a moving vehicle

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/10 @ f/22, ISO 100

Chris, Barry and Scot

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/250 @ f/7.1, ISO 400

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.

Sabi Sands Safari Report - Day 4

Today was the last day of my pre-safari at Mala Mala, and we did things a little differently than the past few days. We wanted as much as possible to see the wild dogs at the den, so we knew we wouldn’t benefit by arriving first thing in the morning with the cold temperatures. We had our bags packed before sunrise, we ate breakfast and then we headed out for the long drive down to Charleston and the southern end of the reserve. This allowed the dogs to hopefully wake up and let the air warm up a bit before coming out. We had to transfer to Singita at 10am, so we only had about 30 minutes total at the den when we arrived there. I am glad that we planned the morning this way, because we had yet another chance to see these magnificent predators one last time. When we arrived we had either 5 or 6 adult dogs running around the vehicle, and it was difficult for me to count just how many unique individuals we had amongst us due to the dense brush. We head some fascinating vocalizations and when things died down we had to rush back to check out and head over to Singita.

I always have a great time at Mala Mala, and this short stay was no exception. I will be leading a private safari group to Mala Mala in 2013, and it might be on my public safari schedule as well. I am not sure, as my 2013 safaris aren’t set in stone yet.

At 10am we grabbed a vehicle and drove an hour west to Singita Castleton, where I will be spending the next 16 nights. Castleton is a small and comfortable camp in the Singita area of the Sabi Sands. Castleton has only 6 bedrooms and can accommodate up to 12 people, and that is the maximum. I like to take sole use of camps when I can, because this allows me and my safari groups to have flexible dining schedules based on what we are seeing out on game drives. If we are 2 hours late for lunch nobody will care. I love that kind of care-free feeling that my game drives are not based on set dining schedules. Wildlife photography comes first, and it’s not like we are going to starve if we adjust our dining schedule around a little bit.

We arrived at camp about 30 minutes before the bulk of my travelers arrived at the airstrip, so I had time to throw my bags into my room and book it to the airstrip. I chartered a Beech 1900 private airplane to bring in the rest of the safari group, which allowed for an extreme amount of weight allowance per person. The typical allowance is 44 pounds in southern Africa, which would include everything inclusive of camera equipment. Heck, my camera bags (A Gura Gear Kiboko and a Gura Gear Chobe) weigh close to that amount without even into my duffel bag with my clothing.

We said hello to everybody as they exited the plane, had cold water and wet towels for people to freshen up with, and we took off for Castleton. Everybody got settled in, had a nice lunch out in the garden and took off around 3pm for our afternoon game drive. The first game drive on any safari typically involves short distances, as we don’t want to miss all of the things that are new to people if it is their first time on safari. Zebras, rhino, giraffe, elephant, kudu, impala, countless bird species and wildebeest were on tap for the afternoon, followed by a stop for sundowner cocktails after the sun had set.

El Grupo

Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, 1/400 @ f/8, ISO 400

Camera bags on this safari are sponsored by Gura Gear, which I started in 2008. Check us out. We make the best camera bags on the planet.

Some of the gear on this safari has been provided by Borrowlenses.com. I rely on borrowlenses.com for both my own needs as well as my safari travelers’ needs. When we need big lenses, cameras or anything else photographic, we turn to borrowlenses.com to help out. They are the best resource in the industry for traveling photographers.