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 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.

Safari-time!

Ok, I am off for Africa soon, and I will be all over the place. Here are a few places where I will be:

• Chitabe Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana (1st camp on my first safari)
• Savuti Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana (2nd camp on my first safari)
• Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana (1st camp on my African Wildlife Photography Boot Camp)
• Rattray's on Mala Mala, South Africa (2nd camp on my African Wildlife Photography Boot Camp)
• Tuningi Safari Lodge, Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa (to spend some time with friend Gerry van der Walt)

Unlike like most of my past safaris, I will be taking a few days off in between my first and second safari, and it will be rest that will be well used. I will have a BGAN satellite system on my safaris, which means I intend to update this blog frequently (daily?) from the bush. I did this a few months ago from Tanzania, however technology was easier there as I could update the blog from my Blackberry Bold mobile phone. I didn't upload any photos, though, as I was shooting film on that safari (long story).

The BGAN satellite is a very nifty piece of technology, as I can surf the web and send emails at 492kbps, which is plenty fast. The kicker is that it costs around $6 per megabyte, so I will only be using the system to read and send emails via a web page. I am renting the system from a friend, and this is a good way of figuring out if I should invest in the technology going forward.

If anybody has called Gura Gear or have sent us an email, you will likely be familiar with who Troy Covey is. Troy is my right hand man, and he will be coming on my second safari to shoot video. I am a video dummy, so Troy is coming to gather footage that we can use for marketing purposes. We want to convey what it is like to be on one of my photo safaris, as well as how people use our Gura Gear Kiboko bag. I know he is going to have to do tons of audio editing, as I tend to laugh a little too much. It is a personality flaw of mine, and now that I have admitted it I only have 11 more steps to go. :-)

Leslie will be joining me near the end of my second safari, and this will be the first time since 2004 that Leslie has been able to join me. Why the long wait? Let's just say that our having 2 boys in the span of 28 months can alter one's adventures in life. Leslie will be at Mala Mala and Madikwe with me, and I cannot tell you how happy this makes me to have her back on another adventure with me. Shared experiences is a good thing.

While in Madikwe, we will be spending some time with friend and photographer Gerry van der Walt, who runs Photo-Africa.com. I am not sure what kind of trouble we will find, but I am sure it will be fun whatever we end up doing. I just think that all Leslie wants to do is to sleep late and to not have little boys climbing all over her. At the same time I don't even know how to relax, as it isn't in my vocabulary. Relaxing usually means being out on game drives by myself with a guide and perhaps another friend or two.

I have tons to do before I leave next week, and near the top of that list is to update my 2011 safaris on andybiggs.com. I have a few more safaris to add, such as a June 2011 Tanzania trip with Chris Gamel, and an August Tanzania safari with Randy Hanna. If you haven't met Chris or Randy before, you should know that they are excellent trip leaders, photographers, instructors and all around good guys. I couldn't be more happy to be working side by side with them.