Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia all come together in one spectacularly watery spot near where the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers. I am told that it is the only place in the world where four countries meet and I just cant get enough of it. I find that April is a really comfortable time to travel with warm temperatures and great rates for families. So we arranged a family holiday fo rme Jenni, Liam and Dane (now 7 and and also my parents Liz and Derrick.  Jenni is now working for Wilderness Safaris as their Marketing Manager and our first stop was their camp, Toka Leya, which is upstream from the falls.  It turned out to have fantastic staff (no surprise in Zambia) and our kids were soon loving the place. Most of our days were spent boating up the Zambezi but we also visited the Falls. It was in full flood and spectacular. I don’t usually give product punts but my Thinktank Hydrophobia Aquatic Housing  allowed me to keep on shooting in totally, wet conditions and its a real must for anyone thinking about shooting in the rain. Apparently there are 1,5 million litres a second going over the lip of the falls and not one drop got onto my camera! Over the river and into Namibia we stayed at Impalila which is a fishing camp where we were able to satiate Liam’s desire for catching tiger fish as well as enjoy the tranquility of one of the quietest parts of the Chobe area. Over the years the Chobe waterfront has become very busy and its not uncommon to see four or five boats on one stretch of the river at one time. We visited Chobe Game Lodge which is the only camp situated inside the park and has a blissful two nights stay enjoying superb water and game activities. Chobe Game Lodge has a sister camp called Savannah which offers boat based activities and there will be an announcement of a really great value workshop to that destination in the near future.

After a week doing the Argus Cycle Tour, reuniting with  family, catching up with clients in Cape Town, photographing a wedding  and putting the finishing touches to my new title on Classic Safari Camps, I headed back — for the second time in March — to the Luangwa Valley. What an amazing opportunity for me to catch up on my favorite place in the green and to meet up with some more old friends.  Siddarth and Swati from Singapore, who I met in Botswana in 2011, had invited their friends Preeti and Pressanth from Durban, and the final member was Tourgay — a Turkish/American engineering professor whose wit and dry humor kept us in very good spirits through the whole trip. I must say that meeting and being with interesting people is a real highlight of being a photographic guide.

Our trip got off to a rocking start from day one. Near Two Baobabs en route to Chichele  a  female leopard was crouching in the undergrowth. Jacob Shawa did some deft maneuvers of the vehicle and we were all soon getting some great shots despite the gloomy conditions.

A photo tip: When shooting in low light do not be afraid to push up your ISO to 2000 or more to record the action and get a fast shutter speed. The ability to shoot in low light with no flash is the real bonus of modern day digital cameras cameras. Also remember to use spot metering and also to slightly underexpose bright animals in dark conditions.

We returned to the leopard the following morning. After two hours of patient observation we watched her carry an impala carcass up onto a fallen tree — the opportunities were outstanding and we all got some great shots and were happy to leave her in peace to finish her meal.

The remaining three days at Nkwali were excellent with elephants and lions providing us with great opportunities –  and it was great to see Preeti’s grin grew wider and wider with every game drive.

On day four we met with Daudi Ndlovu who is the manager at Nsefu Camp and headed upstream by boat with him to the remote Nsefu sector. For the next three nights we did not see any other people aside from the team that run the camp and our small group! What bliss.

At this time of year its not possible to go on game drives at Nsefu (the cotton soil is very sticky when wet) and activities were by boat and also on foot. At this time of year the stork colony is very productive and we headed off on our first morning to watch them. There had been some heavy rain the previous night and we all ended up pretty muddied up. But even so it was well worth the effort.

On the river we spent most afternoons along the Mwamba River — a narrow river that feeds the Luangwa.  We had yawning hippos, zebra against grey skies and a staggering double rainbow that arched right across the sky…. Our hearts were in our mouths.

“It could not get better,” I thought as we made our way back up the Mwamba River one evening as giant clouds ballooned in the sky. But it did. As large drops of rain started to pepper the stream we caught sight of a large male leopard taking refuge from the rain and superbly draped over an old fig that hung right over the river. What a sight.

After three exceptional nights at Nsefu we returned to Luangwa House and our final game drive with Jacob. “Should we watch sunset from Chichele Hill, or should we visit the lions near Luangwa Wafwa?” we pondered. We decided on the latter and what a good decision it was. Not only did we get some good mating action with lions but we saw yet another leopard.

Photo tip. When photographing animals at night try shooting with the light of the spotlight. If there are more than two vehicles at the sighting then switch off your own lights try and get side lighting from the other vehicle spotlight. It creates much more atmospheric images than front on lighting. You will of course need very high ISO.

The next photo workshop is scheduled for October 2012 and there are still places for March 2013. This is no longer the secret season, so its best to book early to get a spot.

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Was this my 10th or 11th Emerald Season safari? Either way it was  great to be back in my favourite valley at this time of year.  Jacob who has an easy going manner, really understands photography and has a deep baritone laugh that seems to echo off the Muchinga  Escarpment like a lion’s roar was our guide which was a really great start.  Making the trip even more special was the fact that four of the five clients had been on a previous safari with me. Barbara, Ritchie, MJ and Janine met me in Lusaka wearing T-shirt printed with: “Hey, Camera boy, Can you make me look like Brad Pritt”. The memory of the tipsy South African wide boy who challenged me with the question on a previous trip in Botswana left us in stitches. Alexander from Austria also joined the group and he was the most wonderful addition being proficient not only in medical matters (he is a doctor) but also knowing all sorts about computers and how they work.
The highlights for me of this trip was the great light, wonderful giraffe, zebra and elephants — and fantastic leopard. March is supposed to be wet. But this first week was dryer than usual and while this meant that we were able to enjoy sunny days on safari and see unusually large numbers of impala, big herds of giraffe, zebra, buffalo, elephants, waterbuck and myriad birds  against the summer green backdrop.
The Emerald Season safari combines a river trip and on day four we headed north for 40 kilometers or so  up the wildly meandering Luangwa River passing hippos, lazy crocs and innumerable fish eagles. Eventually we reached Nsefu Camp, the first camp in the valley and my favorite for its wilderness atmosphere. Daudi “the president”  took us to the Nsefu stork colony and we stood below  bird-laden trees  shooting madly as the yellow-billed storks streamed in carrying building material.  We also explored up the Mwamba River where yawning hippos and spectacular scenery awaited us.

It was a really great trip — and made even more special by the fact that I was with such great friends.

Back in Cape Town, by the way, it was onto my bike for the 110 kilometer Argus Cycle Tour on a sweltering and still day. It was my 15th ride (but none for 10 years) and I am afraid to say that my cramping legs knew the difference.

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One and a half hours up the windswept west coast from Cape Town (not far from my favourite little town of Paternoster) is a place called Shelley Point. I am not one for big hotels but Jen convinced me to go there for a night this weekend and we were were not sorry. There are specials at the hotel that start from R850 a night for a family of 4 and we found 5 star facilities, great service and facilities and that includes a massive slap up breakfast. We spent the day exploring the area (fantastic long beaches, lighthouses, fishing villages) and then retreated to the comforts of the hotel for lunches and relaxing. Sitting round the pool ordering Pina Coladas, beers and snacks from the excellent and very good value Cattle Baron Restaurant, we thought that this was a really good spot for a family get together or a retreat for young families with small kids. There are quite a few activities (tennis, golf, bowls, gym, spa) and there is a kiddy club and babysittters so parents can enjoy a quiet dinner. The rooms are double storey and extremely luxurious with airconditioning, two TVs and great bathrooms. OK, so it does not have girls with garlands and flowers andtropical waters but if you are wanting a Mauritius type experience close to home this is the nearest thing that I have found … and its really good value.  You will need to get over the fact that the hotel is in a gated complex but its quite nice not to have locals selling you crayfish on every turn and pillaging your possissions if you don’t lock the door as happens in Paternoster  Also the hotel does not have a beach location (its a 300 metre) walk but it looks out onto the golf course area and its actually quite pleasant not to be right in the salt and sea of this rather chilly and sometimes misty coastline. If you are going up to the West Coast best to check out the wind forecast.

Have just returned from Jacis Safari Camp doing some images for their newly developed Safari Lodge — which is all part of the Classic Safari Camps of Africa book that I am updating.  had some fun with my panoramic tripod head. These images were stitched using Photoshop CS5 and I think that it did a pretty good job. I lost the sky on the original image and did my best to blend in a new one taken that same evening. CS5 has some pretty fine selection and refine edges tools but its really tricky with the leaves. It looks a bit artificial but overall I think its a nice effect. A bit more work and it might be perfect.

If Okahirongo Elephant Camp in Kaokoland felt remote, then its sister camp Okahirongo River  was like travelling the end of the earth. It lies 200 kilometres deeper into Kaokoland along spectacularly rutted dirt roads that wend through a lunar landscape of gravel plains and mountains of mica schist streaked with quart and marble. Most guests fly into camp but we took the bumpy road and it was spectacular. The old red drum that marked the entrance to the Marienfluss Valley gave no clue to the grandeur that lay beyond. We were met by a soft yellow canvas of grass that was punctuated by wide fairy circles and which contrasted strongly with the jagged black peaks of the Hartmann’s Mountains that lay beyond. …. This text is in draft format and and an excerpt from an entry will be included in the new update of Classic Safari Camps of Africa which is to be published in 2012.

I am leading a best of Namibia photographic expedition to this region in June 2012

 
1. For static subjects use a tripod — and have a cable release or use the timer shutter release to trigger. Camera shake is a real issue with long exposures.
2. Your camera tends to overexpose in dark conditions as it wants to make dark things look like daylight. Sometimes manual exposure works best as it allows you to keep the darks dark.
3. Shoot in manual focus if autofocus cannot find anything to lock onto. Sometimes I use a torch to set focus before shooting.
4. Switch on noise reduction settings in your camera. This does add to card write times but improves quality of image.
5. Look for interesting light sources. Skies go vivid blue, tungsten yellow. These often are the key to interesting shots and will influence your composition
6. Use high ISO levels (up to 4000) to capture moving subjects. If shooting long exposures of stationary subjects keep ISO lower to cut down on noise.
7. Wider lenses will let in more light that telephoto. Also wider f-stop eg f2.8
8. Experiment and change settings. Low light photography can reveal very exciting results — and details not always apparent to the eye.
9. White balance cloudy setting will warm up very blue scenes which are common in dark conditions. But as you will be shooting in RAW this setting can be changed after the fact in post production.
10. Using a torch or spotlight can be useful for painting scenes. When doing painting make sure you have a decent exposure time and paint smoothly.

Am up in the Kaokoveld photographing Okahirongo Lodge for the new Classic Safari Camps of Africa book (due in 2012) and what a treat it is to photograph this stunning lodge. It is run and owned by two Italian women from Milan and as can be expected it has wonderful food and sophistication. Its remote up here in Purros and we have seen no other game drive vehicles nor tourists. Early this morning on a game drive we saw eight desert adapted elephants moving up the Hoarusib River. What a treat to get such great creatureswith such a stunning backdrop. Tomorrow we go on a six hour game drive to the Kunene River — and the stunning Marienfluss region.