Ramblings From the Bush & Beyond

Back to Bots!

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 08:58:03 +0800

We’re going back to Botswana in February for 10 days! While not as long as our 2 1/2 week safari in 2007, we are really looking forward to not just being back in Bots but being back in the same season as our very first safari which kicked off this passion back in 2004. We will revisit the Okavango Delta, Selinda and Linyanti, but this will be our first time in the Kalahari.

A lot has changed in the 3+ years since our last Bots safari. When we last visited the Linyanti, the Savuti Channel was dry and parched. Indeed, it had been dry for nearly 30 years – Derek & Beverly Joubert’s Nat Geo film “The Stolen River” famously documented when the river mysteriously dried up in 1981; thousands of animals perished as a result of this dramatic shift in the ecosystem. Now, after nearly 3 decades of dormancy, the Savuti River is once again alive and the vegetation and animal life are thriving. The river stretches over 100km. It originates in the Zibadianja Lagoon, passes through the Magwikhwe Sand Ridge and has reached the Savute Marsh in the Chobe National Park.

That said, we will be starting our safari in a desert! We will begin in a remote part of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which has some of the best summer wildlife game viewing in Africa (Feb will be summer in the southern hemisphere). It is the home of the legendary Kalahari black-maned lion and has some of the best cheetah viewing. But, the reserve is the largest conservation area in Bots and one of the largest in the world (5 million hectares or 12 million acres) so the lions and cheetahs will have plenty of space to hide from us!

We will next travel north to the Okavango Delta. We will be staying at Chitabe (where we also stayed in 2007), which is located in a 28,000 hectare photographic reserve. We had excellent leopard and elephant sightings in 2007, but we are keeping our fingers crossed for wild dog: the Botswana Wild Dog Research Project takes place in that general area.

Our final stop of the safari will be the 135,000 hectare Selinda Reserve, which borders the Okavango Delta and the Linyanti, We will be staying at Selinda Camp, which is on the banks of the eastern Selinda Spillway, the waterway that links the Okavango Delta with the Linyanti and Kwando marshes, rivers and floodplain. The water can flow in both directions, depending on where the water level is higher. There is a resident pack of wild dogs in the area, but we are looking forward to some great general game viewing, as well as sitting on the terrace of the camp and watching the animals come and go along the spillway!

We will end our trip with a week in the wine lands outside Cape Town, which we last visited back in 2005 after our Zim-Zam canoe and walking safari.

As always, we approach this safari with a mixture of confidence that we have done our home work and the uncertainty of simply not being to predict what nature will offer us! We are readying our gear and clearing our calendar but ultimately we will have to go back to Africa with an open mind and simply discover what lies in store!

Our home (and photos!) featured in Post Magazine

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 15:04:55 +0800

While not strictly speaking about photography, we were pleased that our photos (and our website) received a bit of publicity when our home was featured last month in the Sunday Post magazine. We decided that we wanted to use our own photos rather than purchased art where possible and a couple (“Lioness Scoping out Zebra” and “Zebra Crossing the Mara River” were included in the spread. These photos were taken on our Tanzania 2008 safari.

Was this our most well-rounded safari yet?

Sun, 2 May 2010 11:15:04 +0800

Our whirlwind 8-night safari to Kenya and Tanzania in late February delivered the Great Migration and more! More than just seeing a huge abundance of nature’s herbivores and predators we were treated to many really special scenes of nature in action.

Our top sightings included (in order of appearance):
1. Leopard exploding through the bush to kill a young Water Buck in Lake Nakuru
2. Billowing hot springs and thousands of pink Flamingoes at Lake Bogoria
3. Spectacle of hundreds of thousands of White Storks at Lake Ndutu
4. Huge male tusker (Bull Elephant with large tusks) driving away 3 Cheetah
5. New-born Wildebeest struggling with its placenta then taking its first steps
6. Golden Jackals howling and driving 3 Cheetahs off their kill
7. 3 kills in 30 minutes by a coalition of 3 Cheetahs (including a head-on chase!)
8. Lion cubs sparring at sundown
9. Pride of 10 skittish nomadic Lions in unfamiliar territory in Loliondo
10. Mating pair of Leopard, with a Zebra kill stashed up in a tree

There was more – scenes of life and death, of order and chaos and of struggle and of natural beauty that are what make the African wilderness so captivating.

– Not far from the Wildebeest taking its first steps was another fawn on the verge of starvation, bleating pitifully for the mother it had been separated from in the commotion of the migration and who, the odds were, would not find again in time

– On the shores of Lake Masek was a graveyard of Wildebeest bones where thousands had gotten hopelessly mired in the mud and perished between the water they needed to quench their thirst and the dry land they needed to return to in order to survive

– Egyptian Geese (with goslings) squabbling noisily amid a flurry of wings and feathers in a territorial dispute in a small lake in Loliondo

– A den of around 11 Hyena included several cubs playing who, in spite of their young age, were already exerting dominance over the low ranking adults assigned to watch over them

– A full, 180-degree rainbow (with a partial double rainbow) that stretched in a perfect arc from land, through the sky and back down to land again

– A Giraffe perfectly silhouetted against the setting sun during our last sunset of the safari

And, of course, we were well taken care of throughout the safari – the camps were comfortable, the food was hearty and the guiding was particularly good, all well overseen by Peter, William and Sammy at Loldia House and Emmanuel, Hamish, Babu and Yahawa at Serengeti Safari Camp and Loliondo Nduara.

We’ve posted a selection of photos from this safari in our gallery.

And, for those so inclined, here is a tally of our sightings by the numbers:
- 30 Lions
- 3 Leopards (1 kill)
- 7 Cheetahs (3 kills)
- 2 rare Striped Hyena plus more Spotted Hyena than we were able to count
- 7 Rhinos (5 White, 2 Black)
- Easily 100 Ostrich
- Thousands of Zebra and Thomson’s Gazelle
- Countless Wildebeest
- Countless White Stork

Once again, we’re left with the question... when will we return again to Africa...

Chinese New Year in Kenya & Tanzania!

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:39:06 +0800

We are heading off to East Africa next week and will be on safari for 9 days!

We’ll start off with a couple of days in Kenya – chilling at Loldia House by Lake Naivasha and enjoying Peter’s great hospitality again; shooting (photographing...) the flamingoes at Lake Nakuru; and savoring the fine dining at House of W.A.I.N.E. in Nairobi.

But, this trip is all about timing... and it isn’t about Chinese New Year (which we’ll spend in the middle of the Serengeti)... it’s about the calving season. And, even then, it isn’t really about the calves....

Let me explain: the 1-million-plus wildebeest that take part in the annual Great Migration across Tanzania’s Serengeti and Kenya’s Masai Mara give birth around the time that they arrive at the lush grasslands in the Southern Serengeti in Jan-Feb each year.

Having 300,000 calves – a conspicuously lighter shade of brown than their mothers – born within just a few weeks of each other is quite a sight, as the plains suddenly abound with new life. The calves stumble often in their early days, they run more slowly than the adults and they can sometimes be oblivious to danger....

... And danger never lurks very far....

... Hiding in the tall grass... crouched in ambush behind a shrub... streaking in for the kill at 100 kph... or even charging as a pack.

Lions. Leopards. Cheetahs. Wild Dog. These are the top predators of the Serengeti, and we’re expecting them to go into a frenzy when the calves begin to drop. We last saw the calving in Feb 2007 and the Cheetah and Wild Dog didn’t disappoint, treating us to 3 kills. The Lions and Leopards were, however, somewhat shy and we hope to see much more of them this time!

What about the calves? While many are lost to the predators, the number is quite small in relation to the total. In fact, synchronizing the birth of the calves within such a short span of time actually ensures that more survive as the predators are often overwhelmed! It is a short period of easy feasting in an otherwise difficult existence.

We hope to have a selection of our photos posted in March! Stay tuned!

From the bush to the society pages...

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 22:53:10 +0800

Going on a safari is a privilege and admittedly the camps we like are quite comfortable, but we did not expect to get featured in the luxury issue of a society magazine! Stranger things have happened (like coming across a pair of clumsy AND shy mating Giraffes at Mombo...) but when Metro Society offered a 12-page feature, we jumped at the opportunity.

The editors wanted to feature a unique luxury honeymoon so our article focused on our first safari, to Botswana, the one that ignited our passion for Africa. We spent 9 memorable, life-altering nights at Savuti Camp in the Linyanti, Tubu Tree Camp in the Jao concession and the incomparable Mombo Camp in the Okavango Delta. This was followed by 5 nights in Cape Town and the wine lands of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch. Even today, the memories of that first safari are vivid and seemingly indelible... and we relished revisiting them for this article.

A link to the article can be found here or through our Press page. And, the mating Giraffes are caught in the act in a 3 shot sequence halfway through this photo gallery.

Photos from our Zambia safari now posted

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:33:40 +0800

It took a while to get through them all, but we’ve just finished sorting through and editing the pictures from last month’s safari to Zambia (more pre-trip details on the 3 national parks and the various camps we visited are here). A selection of photos are now posted in our new online Zambia 2009 gallery.

It is hard to choose a highlight from this trip... This was meant to be a return to Leopard country, a chance to improve on the lack of sightings from our previous safari to Zambia. And so, we were very excited to get some classic Leopard-in-tree photos of Zero Zero (the Leopardess in the photo above) as well as photos of an adult male on patrol.

But, the Lions did their best to steal the show. Usually lethargic, they treated us to several excellent action-filled sightings, from stalking and chasing Waterbuck and Puku to a mother gently (and successfully) coaxing her 3 young cubs (~2-3 month old) to swim across a lagoon.

And, on top of that, the national parks of Zambia made quite an impression on us. After two weeks there, we won’t claim to be experts but at the same time we saw so many different facets of South Luangwa, Kafue and the Lower Zambezi that have us wondering... when will we go back again?

So many safaris, so little time (and money!). We have some options for future safaris that we are now thinking through. But, in the more immediate term, we’re going to work on a more complete trip report. And, after that, we have video footage to review which may result in a video or two getting added to this site and to YouTube!

Lion photos published in Wilderness Safaris newsletter

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:31:22 +0800

We had some very special Lion sightings last month while at Shumba Camp in Kafue National Park in Zambia! It is not unusual to see Lions snoozing during the daytime (they are most active at night and near dawn/dusk) and we have had our share of dull Lion sightings in the past. On this particular visit to Kafue, though, the Lions were in great form and we managed to see a hunt and chase then, the next day, a Lioness and 3 cubs swimming across the wetlands. You can see the little cub gritting its teeth as it swam across!

Our Lion sightings - and 4 our Lion pictures - were featured in Shumba Camp’s June 2009 newsletter. You can link directly to the newsletter on the Wilderness Safaris website or on another page on our website.

Back from Zambia!

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:19:15 +0800

We returned yesterday from 2 weeks in the bush! The Leopards of South Luangwa did not disappoint nor did the Lions of the Busanga Pride in Kafue. In the Lower Zambezi we canoed and boated past more Hippos than we could possibly count (shades of our 2005 canoe safari down the Zambezi River) as well as many large Nile Crocodiles...

Several of the camps were great as well (can’t help but savor the safari lifestyle whenever possible!) – not just the camps themselves but the staff who made us feel at home and well taken care of. We were certainly (too) well fed!

Our bags have been unpacked, gear cleaned and stored and we’ve downloaded about 2,500 photos and some video footage to our computer and have started to sort & edit. We hope to have a selection of photos on this site by mid/late July.

Stay tuned!

Zambia safari next month!

Wed, 13 May 2009 11:49:44 +0800

After much planning, we are going to Zambia for a 13 day / 12 night safari next month. Of the 12 safari nights, we’ll spend 7 in South Luangwa, 2 in Kafue and 3 in Lower Zambezi. We’ll have the usual overnight in Joburg at the tail end of the safari.

South Luangwa is a large 9,050 sq. km national park located at the end of the Great Rift Valley. The Luangwa River is its lifeblood – wildlife becomes highly concentrated during the dry season – and 3 of the 4 camps we are staying in (Kalamu Lagoon, Tena Tena and Kaingo) are all along or near its banks, while Mfuwe Lodge is in an area that is said to be very prolific. There are said to be 60 animal and over 400 bird species in the park, including Thornicroft Giraffe and Cookson’s Wildebeest (unique to Luangwa) as well as Crawshay’s Zebra. The Leopard sightings are also legendary but on our last Zambia safari (May 2006) we managed to miss them all! We hope our luck changes! In our defense, we did see Wild Dog the last time.

Kafue is the oldest national park in Zambia and also the largest (at 22,400 sq. km, it is one of the largest in Africa). We’ll be staying at Shumba Camp in the famed Busanga Plains in the northwest sector of Kafue, which is considered one of Zambia’s most important wetlands. There are around 390 species of birds as well as abundant plains game and predators.

Lower Zambezi is a 4,092 sq. km. national park on the Zambian side of the Zambezi River (which we canoed and camped in the adjacent Mana Pools NP in Aug 2005). Most game is concentrated along the river and correspondingly our 3 camps (Sausage Tree, Chiawa and Kulefu) are on the river.

Zambia (South Luangwa in particular) is where walking safaris originated and we are looking forward to many great walks in addition to the usual 4x4 drives. In addition, Kaingo Camp has Elephant and Hippo hides, which will put us up close & personal.

We are still planning the types of shots we wish to take (to the extent that these things can be planned!). But, high on the list are Leopard in trees and social interactions among the big cats and Elephants plus of course stalks/chases/kills! Given the location of our camps, water should feature prominently in our photos. We experimented with motion panning quite a bit in Tanzania in July 2008 and we’ll do more of that in Zambia.

In terms of gear, we will experiment with using a full-frame camera (Canon 5D mark 2) as the primary body, and have gotten a 2x extender to help give the necessary reach, though we will only use it in good lighting. The 2nd body will have a 1.6x crop sensor (Canon 50D), which will be used if the game are too distant and would require too much cropping with the 5D. We will miss the excellent AF and overall robust construction of the 1D mark 3 but are hoping to take advantage of the higher resolution and shallower depth of field of the 5D mark 2.

We may also decide to leave the laptop at home, both to lighten the load as well as encourage us to maximize the time spent enjoying the camps as opposed to editing pictures... but that will require us to triple the capacity of our memory cards!

We hope to upload a selection of photos to our gallery by mid/late July. We’ll keep you posted!

Our article on Savuti Camp published

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:45:41 +0800

We are excited that a article we wrote on Savuti Camp, entitled A Jewel in the Wild, has just been published in Folie à Deux, a finalist for the 2008 weblog award for travel blogs! Jen Laceda started Folie à Deux in 2007 and has been prolific at writing about her travels and dream holidays, with a flair for words that has earned her a large following with those who share her wanderlust and passion for discovery.

Link to article in Folie a Deux

You can also see scans of the article and a link to larger pictures here.

Savuti Camp is located in the Linyanti Concession in Northeastern Botswana and is one of our favorite safari camps in Africa! We first visited in January 2004 and returned again in August 2007. Each time we have been impressed by the pristine wildness of the area as well as the charm and homeyness of Savuti Camp itself. Though the camp was remodeled in early 2007 it is still one of our favorite places to stay while on safari.

If you’re interested in seeing other pictures taken while on safari in Botswana, please have a look at our Botswana 2004, Botswana 2006 and Botswana 2007 galleries.

The Canon Boys

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:24:45 +0800

Our photo gear has evolved over the years as our knowledge, skill and passion developed. Given that I began shooting Canon SLRs over 30 years ago, it was natural to again choose Canon when entering the dSLR world. Our current gear is listed here. Some of my old friends and fellow photo enthusiasts share similar preferences. We share our findings on different gear and have even shared Canon gear on occasion. When we go on safari together, the assembled mass of gear can raise the eyebrows of the airport security check-in staff and pilots of the small prop planes that take us from camp to camp. On our Botswana 2007 safari our other companions began to call us the Canon Boys.

On our Botswana 2007 safari we shot 2 1D mark 3s, 1 5D, 3 400Ds, 1 300 f2.8L, 2 300 f4Ls, 1 70-200 f2.8Ls, 2 70-200 f4Ls, 3 24-105 f4Ls, 1 17-40 f4L, 1 16-35 f2.8L, a 15mm fisheye and used several extenders and flashes. While this mini-arsenal of camera gear (which by the way isn’t unusual for a repeat safari enthusiast) didn’t guarantee anything other than depleted bank accounts and sore backs, it did help to capture high quality shots in some difficult situations (e.g. heavily back-lit Leopard cub in a distant tree) where gear could have been a limiting factor.

The above photo of the Canon Boys was taken at Jacana Camp in the Jao Concession of the Okavango Delta of Botswana by Mist Photography (www.mist.com), who are excellent high-end wedding photographers but have shot wildlife as well. While Mist’s home market in the United States, they have shot weddings in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean as well.

Photos from our Tanzania safari now posted

Sun, 3 Aug 2008 22:06:58 +0800

It took a while to sort through the 1,500+ pictures and narrow down to a selection for our gallery. And, after the first couple rounds of culls were made came hours in the “digital darkroom” and some tough choices.... But we’ve now chosen a selection of <90 pictures that we feel start to capture the essence of this safari.

You can link to our gallery by clicking here. Enjoy!

We have also posted a video of the Mara River crossing.

Tanzania 2008 - Crossings Galore & More!

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:22:57 +0800

We just returned today from a great 14 day safari to Tanzania! This was our 2nd safari to Tanzania (our first was in Feb 2007) and this time we spent 5 nights in the Serengeti, 3 nights in Ruaha National Park and 2 nights at Ngorongoro Crater, as well as a couple of nights in Dar Es Salaam and Arusha while in transit. Update: a selection of photos are posted here and a video here.

While never an exact science given the vagaries of weather and animal (mis)behavior, we timed our safari with the great migration in hope of seeing a river crossing. The Western Corridor of the Serengeti dried out faster than expected so literally just 2 days before our departure we moved our camp site from Simiti in the Western Corridor to Togora and Bologonja in the Northern Serengeti. This proved to be a good move. We witnessed our first crossing of the Mara River literally seconds after arriving at its banks and watched in awe as thousands of Wildebeest and Zebra thundered and splashed across for nearly 15 minutes. The next day we were fortunate enough to witness 2 more crossings, this time with the animals crossing towards us! We had heard of photographers spending days at the river without a single crossing, so felt very fortunate to see 3 (though if we were to nit-pick the big Nile Crocs were AWOL during the crossings we witnessed!). While the crossings were the highlight of our time in the Serengeti, also had a sighting of a Roan Antelope - a very rare occurrence in that part of Tanzania.

This safari was our first to Ruaha National Park in Southern Tanzania. In contrast to the Serengeti, most of Ruaha is unexplored. We were fortunate to be staying at Jongomero Camp, which was the only camp in the area around the Jongomero River. Jongomero was an excellent camp, with perhaps the most well thought out tent layout we have experienced. The food at the camp was particularly good - light, healthy but very satisfying lunches, hearty gourmet style dinners that have clearly exceeded the usual standard for luxury safari dining. But safaris are about wildlife.... and Jongomero, by virtue of its isolation, felt very wild! There were simply no vehicles from other camps in the bush since there simply were no other camps nearby. We (but, in truth, our guide, Kimaro) worked hard for our sightings, checking spoor, listening for alarm calls and thinking hard about animal behavior. But Kimaro and Jongomero came through for us - very large journeys of Giraffe (15+), several Lion sightings (including a mating couple right in the middle of the road), 2 Leopard sightings (one of which ran right by the vehicle) and... believe it or not... on our final morning... 3 Wild Dog! This was literally the first time Wild Dog had been seen all season.

We ended this safari at Ngorongoro Crater. While we had apprehensions about the Crater, given reports of heavily crowded sightings, the sheer abundance of the wild life and the opportunity to get close-up photos were compelling. And, we had what we felt was an advantage: we were staying at Lemala Camp, a new luxury tented camp on the opposite ridge from the Crater Lodge. Lemala (and only 1 other camp) were near a 2nd, rarely used access road, which could get us down to the crater floor in just 10 minutes and start us on the opposite end of the crater from guests coming from the other side of the rim or from outside the crater. Leaving Lemala at 620am, we found we would not see another vehicle until 730am, giving us over an hour of private shooting.

Our first day in the crater was a bit slow. While we did see a Cheetah and 4 Lion, they were far from the road (no off roading allowed in the crater) or were sleeping so soundly all you could see was a pile of fur.

Our 2nd day, however, started off with a bang, as we witnessed a stand-off between 3 Cape Buffalo and a weakened Lion cub (around 1 year old) in a shallow ravine. The cub may have been bitten by a snake, as it was walking weakly. While the Cape Buffalo were clearly agitated, it is a mystery why they did not charge this little Lion. Later that day we came across a family of Lion that were right by the road. Two male Lions we saw slumbering the day before were awake, showing their magnificent manes, which extended from their mid-section to high above their heads. They were joined by 2 Lionesses and 4 cubs. One of the cubs, however, was ill and was vomiting. The lioness was agitated by this and kept the cub separate from the other 3.

In all, on this safari, we saw around 30 Lion, 2 Leopard, 3 Cheetah, 2-3 Wild Dog, 3 Rhino, a large number of Elephants, Hippo, Cape Buffalo and Giraffe and, conceivably, hundreds of thousands of Wildebeest.

Update:

A selection of photos from this safari have now been posted here. We have finished editing a 4-minute video of a Mara River crossing and will publish other videos to the site as soon as possible.

Article on Namibia/S.A. published in Playboy

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:12:31 +0800

We’re very excited that a 9-page article of our May-Jun 2008 safari to Namibia and South Africa was published in the July 2008 issue of Playboy magazine. Along with our article, 25 photos were published (1 of which was a photo of us by our friend, Grant Atkinson) and we were mentioned on the cover, table of contents, playbill and list of contributors.

Leaving for Namibia & South Africa safari

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:35:34 +0800

We are leaving tomorrow for an 18 day safari that will take us to Namibia and South Africa. This will be a very different photo safari for us. Whereas our previous safaris were focused on land animals – particularly predators – this safari would be entirely different.

We will be starting off in Namibia, a land famous for its breathtaking and other-worldly landscapes. After an overnight stay in Windhoek (the capital of Namibia), we will spend 4 nights in the Skeleton Coast followed by 4 nights in the Sossusvlei area of the Namib Naukluft Mountains. Highlights of our trip are expected to be the shipwrecks and seal colonies along the Skeleton Coast, the Roaring Dunes, the local Himba Villages, the Red Dunes (especially Big Daddy) and, last but not least, a hot air balloon ride over the desert. As in many of our previous safaris, we’ll be staying in luxury camps of Wilderness Safaris, e.g. Skeleton Coast Camp, Sossusvlei Wilderness Camp and Little Kulala Camp (the last a premium 6-paw camp).

For the 2nd half of our trip we will be in the Wild Coast of South Africa to get as close as we dare (or are allowed) to what has come to be known as “the greatest shoal on earth”. Every year, millions of sardines migrate along the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa... followed by Humpback and Bryde’s Whales, Bronze Whaler Sharks, Penguins and Cape Gannetts. We will be staying at a friend’s cottage along the Wild Coast and will be taking photos from a small rubber Zodiac boat. We will have waterproof bags to protect our gear while we are going through the surf zone or when the waves are high, but using camera gear on a small boat in the open water poses risks... we hope the photos we return with are worth while!

Photos from Botswana 2007 safari posted

Wed, 3 Oct 2007 21:28:40 +0800

We’ve now posted a selection of photos from our August 2007 Botswana safari (click on the picture above). This was one of our more productive safaris – our guides found great sightings (where we were often the only vehicle) and in some cases the animals were so cooperative they almost seemed to be posing.

Several of the photos from this trip will be featured in our upcoming photo exhibit, entitled “Wild Africa: Animals & Landscapes,” which will be held from Oct 31 - Nov 10, 2007 at the Hong Kong Fringe Club. For more information, click here.

Back from Botswana!

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:04:40 +0800

We just arrived from Botswana this morning. What a trip! We had great sightings and photo ops, which nicely complemented the sightings from our previous safari, to Tanzania in February this year. While we saw few Lion and no Leopard in Tanzania, we saw 33 Lion and 9 Leopard in Bots... including a Buffalo kill (by the Lion) and several Leopard cubs. We also saw hundreds of Elephant and perhaps over a thousand Cape Buffalo. Our rarest sightings were of an Aardwolf (which we were fortunate to spend over 20 minutes with) and a dying Bull Elephant.

We were able to get our 1D mark 3 just 2 days before our trip. It worked great throughout the trip and was used for the majority of our photos. Most photos were taken in AI Servo mode.

We working on editing photos for a gallery as well as identifying a few select pieces of video footage to upload. We’re also planning to post a more comprehensive trip report.

Stay posted!

Wild Africa! photo exhibit in Hong Kong (Oct 31 - Nov 10)

Sun, 5 Aug 2007 22:54:15 +0800

We will be having a photo exhibit at the historic Fringe Club in Hong Kong from Oct 31 - Nov 10, 2007!

Entitled Wild Africa, the exhibit will feature a selection of photos taken our previous safaris throughout Africa. The subjects will include landscapes, birdlife, large herbivores (Giraffe, Elephant, Cape Buffalo and Rhino), big cats (Lion, Leopard and Cheetah) and other predators (Wild Dog, Hyena). The animals will be shown in a range of natural animal behavior (nurturing, playfulness, contentment and predator & prey interaction).

The Fringe Club is an important part of Hong Kong’s contemporary arts scene and hosts two studio theaters, three exhibition areas (including a photography gallery), a pottery workshop and showroom, a rehearsal studio, as well as a restaurant, two bars and an outdoor cafe. In 2001 the Fringe Club was given the Heritage Award by the Government for its outstanding cultural use of space in this historical building.

For more details about the Fringe Club, please refer to their website.

Our exhibit will be located at the 2nd floor of the Fringe Club, in the Baileys at the Fringe fotogalerie. Safari Snap Shots supports Children in the Wilderness and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which will receive a portion of the proceeds from this exhibit.

We are very much looking forward to this exhibit and sharing our photos!

Coming soon: Botswana safari 2007

Sun, 5 Aug 2007 21:52:59 +0800

In just 6 days we’ll be leaving for what will be our longest and most anticipated safari! We’ll be away for 18 days in Botswana (apart from an overnight in Joburg) during the dry season, when animal concentration is arguably at its peak. The photo opportunities should be superb.

We’ll start off with 3 nights in Chitabe Camp in the Okavango Delta then spend 1 night at Victoria Falls in Zambia (our third visit) before embarking on an overland mobile safari through Botswana, starting in Chobe, then traversing through the breadth of the Linyanti before returning to the Okavango. After spending 2 days at a water camp we’ll fly to the northern Delta and spend 5 days in Duba Plains, a camp which is renowned for large prides of Lion that hunt Cape Buffalo during the daytime. This unique predation was the focus of Relentless Enemies, the National Geographic documentary developed with Dereck and Beverly Joubert.

As you can imagine, we’re eager to start the trip and have great anticipation for the sights and photos we hope to take... as well as the chance to simply be back in the bush and be closer to Nature.

Our bags are packed and our gear has been checked. All is ready, with one significant omission... our Canon 1D mark III has been back-ordered for 3 months. We are next on our dealer’s waiting list and are hopeful that it will come through in the next 6 days as this 2 1/2 week long safari will be an ideal work-out for this excellent camera. That said, we’ve certainly managed without the mark III in the past.

Older photo galleries being revised

Fri, 6 Apr 2007 15:28:38 +0800

We were recently browsing our photo archives and realized that there were several nice photos from our earlier safaris which had not been put online. We also have refined our photo editing style over the past years and decided that this was a good time to revise our earlier photo galleries, starting with the January 2004 Botswana safari, and working our way through to the May 2006 Botswana safari. The photo galleries for the December 2006 Kenya and February 2007 Tanzania safaris are already current.

The following galleries have been revised:

• Botswana (January 2004)
• South Africa (July 2004)
• Zim Zam (August 2005)

The remaining photo galleries will be revised in the following sequence:

• Zambia (April 2006)
• Botswana (May 2006)