Day 16 –Mashatu Main Camp / Rattray’s on Mala Mala, South Africa

This morning’s game drive was a short one, because we needed to get back to camp, pack, eat breakfast, drive to the airstrip and head for Mala Mala. I primarily photographed adult baboons with their young, and I have to be honest that it was a challenging task. I wanted to take advantage of a unique lighting situation, where the baboons were in the bright daylight and just behind them there was complete shadow. This was a great lighting situation, as it made it easier to highlight what the actual subject of the scene was. It was a near miss for me, as I could never seem to get all of the 3 adults and 3 young to look towards the camera, or at least near the camera.

We made our 12pm plane flights to Mala Mala, via Polokwane for immigration, and the flights and immigration took about 2.5 hours. When we arrived at Mala Mala, my friend and ranger Matt Meyer was waiting for us on the airstrip. Mala Mala has a wonderful airstrip that is paved, so light jets to bush planes can all service the camps here.

We drove the short drive to Rattray’s on Mala Mala, our camp for the next 4 nights, and quickly checked in. We were assigned our rooms, dropped off our bags and met back in the common area. Food was ready for us, but we had to respectfully pass and get into the Land Rovers for some wildlife. Mala Mala is one of my favorite locations in all of Africa for predators, specifically leopards and lions. Mala Mala is a well-run game reserve, and offroading is a necessary part of the experience here. The rangers are extremely professional, and many of them are avid photographers themselves. We are working with Matt, Donald, Gordon and Dean for the next 4 days, and all of them are great guys and photographers.

Upon leaving camp, we heard of an adult female leopard near Mala Mala Main Camp, so we knew exactly where to go. We met up with her and only had 10 minutes of shooting before we snapped something underneath our vehicle. It was our tie rod, which wasn’t a big deal at all, but we were disabled nonetheless.   We had driven over a really nasty iron wood stump, and we had to have another vehicle brought out to us. John loaned us his Rover for the afternoon, and by the time we moved our belongings the leopard had pretty much moved on into the dense brush. It wasn’t a big deal, because I knew that we would have more opportunities over the next 4 days.

On our way back to camp, we stopped for sparring giraffes and a pair of white rhino. Not bad for a 2 hour game drive, eh? J

Dinner was in the outdoor boma, and the fire tonight was absolutely stellar. Tonights’ dinner was made up of kudu, roasted veggies, roasted tomato & basil soup with ice cream for desert. Not exactly diet material, but I think I can cope.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Overlook with the Sand River

Our first leopard at Mala Mala

Sparring Giraffes

..and our first rhino

Day 15 –Mashatu Main Camp, Botswana

This morning’s game drive was mostly filled with trying to focus on the more elusive subjects, such as red-billed quelea, eland and kudu. On the surface these subjects seem quite easy to photograph, however it is quite difficult to get unique and creative photos of them. My attempts didn’t really work, but good photographs with unique behavior takes time.

I often see safari vehicles passing by subjects that can yield excellent images, and all too often these vehicles move along in search of big cats. Heck, I love leopards, lions and cheetahs just like anybody else, however looking over plains game, birds and everything in between is a huge mistake. Another huge mistake is to be impatient at a sighting and wanting to move on. Good photographs are created, not captured by doing quick drive-by type shooting. One needs to take the time to capture images that stir the soul, and that is the biggest secret that will help any nature photographer.

After our mid-day lecture and critique session, we headed out of camp towards the river system that flows through Mashatu. As we arrived at the river, we immediately noticed a large elephant herd filling up their bellies with fresh water. Cha-ching! Each member of the herd made its way down towards the water, and after finishing you could see the happiness in all of them as they played and sparred along the water’s edge. We didn’t need to move the vehicle for a while, and just enjoyed watching all of the fun going on down below. We positioned the vehicle on a ridge above the river, which had a great view of the action down below.

When the light started to fade, we worked some of the open fields in search of paw prints, and we located a single female lioness within a few minutes. She was out on her own, and the light was fading quickly when we located her. As like most lions in the daytime, she was lying down and napping. As the setting sun went over a hill, we were able to at least grab a few shots of the warm light on her face. I absolutely love the last minutes of light in the day, which can be very warm and direct. This warm light is something that I always try to use to my advantage, however it isn’t always there when I need it, or I don’t have a good subject to photograph in the warm light.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Our overlook for the elephants, before they arrived en masse

A more closeup view when the elephants arrived

Elephants drinking in the river

Elephants drinking in the river

Elephants drinking in the river

Frolicking and playing

A lioness to end the day...

Day 14 –Mashatu Main Camp, Botswana

Today was a bit colder than the past two weeks, and I needed to bundle up a bit to stay warm. It was the first day that the gloves and winter hat came out, and I suspect it was the first time that the temperature flirted with the 30’sF. It felt good, actually, as I have been suffering through the Texas summer heat for the past few months, and the cool morning really makes me forget about 100F days.

We took a different approach to game viewing this morning, in that we relied on sounds that we had heard when we were having our morning coffee. There were a few lion roars in the distance, and we trained on where they were coming from and when we jumped into the rovers we drove in that direction. The approach paid off about an hour or so later, and we found a large male lion and a younger female lion who appeared to be in their mating period. Within 15 minutes their mating ritual began, and I felt like I could hear Barry White singing in the background. J But seriously, mating lions are often a challenge to photograph, primarily because you can never know ahead of time where their two bodies will face, and you never have enough time to reposition a vehicle for a head-on shot. It takes patience and perseverance to nail that kind of shot.

The rest of the morning game drive consisted of photographing running and jumping impala, and we worked with different shutter speeds to try and get either tack sharp photos or blurred photos. Unfortunately all of my favorite jumping shots happened above a vehicle path, and I just cannot reconcile what I wanted to see with the actual results. Oh well. I will try harder next time.

The afternoon game drive was filled with driving along the Majale river bed, which yielded amazing elephants and bee-eaters who were nesting.

Our Mashatu guides and trackers offer some comedy relief

Day 13 –Mashatu Main Camp, Botswana

Ok, I must say it in advance that today was all about elephants. Yes, there is excellent general game here at Mashatu, but today was all about elephants. The elephants here are extremely relaxed, and this makes for excellent photography. We spent a great amount of time with one family of elephants, and they were so relaxed around us that they actually fell asleep. Half of the herd fell asleep while standing up, and the other half actually laid down on the ground and started to slumber. One male stood only 5 feet from my lens and started sleeping within minutes of our arrival. It was just amazing to witness such large animals in such a relaxed state.

I took the opportunity to use my 200-400mm and isolate parts of this male, and this was a fun exercise to try and compose intimate compositions. I am not confident that many of the photographs worked out, but it was fun to at least try to get out of my normal way of shooting. I am trying to photograph in a different way on this trip, as I need to get out my shell a bit. My photographs haven’t been up to my standards in a while, and I need to try and break out a bit. Jessica Mitford once wrote a book on writing, and she talked about how writers need to ‘murder their darlings’. Writers have pet phrases that they try and fit into their writings, and they actually hold writers back from growing in their craft. As a photographer I am trying to learn this approach, and I am trying to murder my own darlings on this safari. I may not be successful, but I am hoping that I will at least learn more about creativity in the process. Since I am here in Africa often, I have the luxury of being able to try new things. Let’s hope I both learn something as well as come home with some newer looking images.

This afternoon we tracked two leopards, a mother and her sub adult son. Only 1 vehicle had shots of the mother, however most everybody else was able to shoot the male up in a tree. I didn’t take any photographs this afternoon, and spent the time working with my vehicle mates on exposure and composition. I also took the time to just think about my own compositions, and have come up with some new ideas that I will put into practice on future game drives.

After a nice sundowner drink, we all headed back to camp, cleaned up and met at the bar before dinner. Dinner was under the stars in the boma, set amongst a roaring fire in the middle of the enclosure. The Mashatu staff sang a few joyous songs for us, and many in the group retired back to their rooms by 9:00. Jet lag really hits hard for the first few days, and I was tired for other reasons.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Day 12 – Johannesburg / Mashatu Main Camp, Botswana

We took a private charter from Joburg today, and we had one airplane for us and one for all of our luggage. This allowed us to bring more than 90 pounds of luggage per person, without all of the stress and headaches. The flight was only 1:15, and we were on the ground in the game reserve by the early afternoon. We met our guides, sorted our luggage, waved goodbye to the pilots and headed towards camp within minutes of our arrival. We checked into our rooms, freshened up and met back for high tea. Afterwards we headed out for our afternoon game drive.

Mashatu is all about elephants, and let me tell you we hit the mother load this afternoon. What a fantastic afternoon, filled with multiple families of elephants. The light was nice and warm, and we sat and watched families of elephants come up from the riverbed, towards our vehicles.

Walking elephants can be visually less than exciting, so I decided to work on some blurred panning shots a bit. Since the sun set at 5:30-ish, we didn’t do anything else other than spend time with the elephants this afternoon. After photographing the elephants, our vehicles met up at the top of a hill and watched the darkening sky get darker, at the same time laughing and talking over gin and tonics, wine and beer. For some on the trip it is their first time in Africa, and I can see that they are enjoying themselves right off the bat. Troy, who works for Gura Gear as well as myself, had a huge grin on his face. I think he is hooked, and perhaps he will be able to join me on future safaris. Troy is shooting video on this trip, but primarily for marketing purposes. We want to show potential travelers what it is like out on safari, from what we do, where we stay, what people are photographing and also to convey the overall feeling of an African photo safari with me or with one of the other photographers who also lead safaris with me.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Days 10 and 11 – Botswana Safari Summary and 2 days off

I am back in Johannesburg, and I have two days off to reflect on my past safari in Botswana, as well as to do laundry, sleep ‘late’ (to 7am), check up on emails and to hang out with friends. Here are some random thoughts about the safari:

There were 6 Canon shooters and 7 Nikon shooters on the safari, and by far the most popular lenses were the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR, the Canon 500mm f/4 and the Canon 100-400mm. This is a common theme on most of my safaris in southern Africa, and my east African safaris typically have a higher number of 500mm and 600mm lenses. The most popular cameras were the Canon 5DMk2 and the Nikon D3 or D3s. Over the past 2 years I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people who are shooting with Nikon gear, and it is great to see people using Nikon again. Nikon really lost its way for a few years, and I really think that they are offering great equipment for the nature photographer, and I switched back at the end of 2008 because of two reasons: a very good low light solution with the D3 and D700 cameras, as well as the 200-400mm f/4 VR lens.

The weather on the safari was much warmer than anticipated, and most days had a range of around 55F to 85F, which is quite warm for the wintertime. Most days were overcast, which can be a great thing if shooting all day is a goal, however you do give up the warm light at the beginning and end of each day. I have said it before that in my perfect world I would have direct, warm light for the first 90 minutes and last 90 minutes of the day, and overcast and cloudy light for the middle of the day.

Over the past 12 months I have given away all of my slow 4GB and 8GB compact flash cards to my guides as part of their gratuity, so all of my CF cards are now 8GB and 16GB in size. The problem is that I have not moved forward with any new cards and on this safari I had to download my images each day. Typically I will have enough CF cards to last for up to 3 weeks of shooting, and I would download to my laptop when I had the time. On this safari I had to download daily, as well as run 2 different backups each and every day. It isn’t a big deal, but I was busy doing other hospitality related tasks and it meant that my bedtime was pushed much later than normal.

The wildlife on this safari was absolutely fantastic (as usual), and my favorite wildlife moment was our time spent with the African wild dogs. Our watching the dogs hunt, kill, eat and play was my highlight of the year so far. I am turning into more of a birder (yikes!) and I really sank my teeth into better identification of species as well as better photographs. I have been a casual and opportunistic bird photographer in the past, and I have found myself going out to specifically work on my bird photographs as of late. I have been hesitant to post bird photographs in the past, primarily because the birding community is much more aware of deficiencies in the technical aspects of photographs, rather than their creative merits, and I haven’t wanted to mix my own creative view of the world with the those who look for technical deficiencies as their primary form of amusement. Yes, this is a shot across the bow of some bird photographers, and I do wish the bird photography community as a whole would embrace more creative looking photographs and not dwell on errant perches and not-so-perfect feathers. / end rant.

Overall I am extremely happy with the images that I came away with from this safari, and I think my best images will likely be those of leopards. There are a few images that are of portfolio quality, and I will process and post them online when I return back home.

I am looking forward to my next safari in Botswana and South Africa, which I have called my African Wildlife Photography Boot Camp. The safari is designed to be a combination of rich photography with structured education. We will be based out of two different camps: Mashatu Main Camp in the Tuli block of Botswana, and also Rattray’s on Mala Mala in the Sabi Sands in South Africa. We will combine morning and afternoon game drives with mid-day lectures, critiques and slideshows. The goal is for my participants to come back with a better understanding of African wildlife photography, as well as photographs that stir the soul. We will have 4 nights at each camp, and will be utilizing private chartered aircraft (2 of them) in order to be able to carry a ton of gear. Many safaris drive between locations, which loses precious time, and many use normal aircraft, which constricts the amount of weight one can carry. I like to not miss game drives, and I also like to bring the most appropriate camera gear with me, and these private chartered airplanes help facilitate both.

My setup: a D700, D300, 200-400mm and 70-200mm

My connection to the world, the Hughes 9201 Inmarsat BGAN hardware

The mother gunship :-)

...and good guides make all of the difference

Day 9 –Savuti Camp / Maun / Johannesburg

This morning some people decided to sleep in, as it was our last day out on safari. As a result, some of the vehicles had fewer spots taken, and we headed again towards the west, along the Savuti Channel. Kane and I decided we would try to locate the 3 lions from yesterday afternoon, and it took all of about 5 seconds to locate them once we had made it to the backflow area of the channel. They weren’t too interested in doing much, however they did make a half-hearted attempt at stalking some impala in the mopane. We took the opportunity to disengage and go looking for some nice landscapes in the warm morning light. The skies were a bit overcast, so it didn’t make for much. I love these types of casual game drives, as the pressure is off after having an extraordinarily successful safari.

We headed back to camp and arrived at 9am, which allowed for people to go back to their tents, pack their bags and get ready for the journey back to Johannesburg. We made it early to the airstrip and I promptly realized that my duffle bag was not present, so a mad dash back to camp to pick it up was in order. Close call. The bag made it to the airstrip before the 2^nd airplane arrived, so no time was lost.

Nothing really exciting happened for the rest of the day, I must say, and that is a good thing. 2 days off and safari #2 begins. I look forward to both the chilling out as well as some more safari days!

I will write up a quick summary for tomorrow’s blog post, but for now it is time to call it a day.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

The Savuti Channel, filled up with water. This is one of the new bridges that have been built in the concession to make it easier for game drive vehicles to cross to the other side

Another view of the Savuti Channel

James Weis, Lets, Kane and Goodman

Joan and Joe

Lisa's big smile from ear to ear

Day 8 - Savuti Camp additional photo