Botswana beyond belief!!

Botswana continues to be one of my favorite premier photographic safari destinations not only due to the low vehicle occupancy allowing higher quality sightings and photographic opportunities, but the uniqueness of each location. As many of you already know, I have been on back-to-back safaris this season and almost non-stop since July 2021. Therefore, I will ONLY touch on a FEW highlights as my time for editing is almost none!

I posted a two-part longer report last year. Links are at the bottom of this post.

INTO THE NIGHT

Our first location, in a private concession, allows off-road driving (respectfully for better positioning) and has been chosen because it allows us to do night photography. This year was just over the top! The first night we had a beautiful young leopard all to ourselves, which makes it much easier to work as a team creating sidelights for each other. On the way back to our luxury camp we came across a hyena. The next night we stumbled across a pride of lions and the next night the female brought the cubs to drink!

To better your odds for predator night, photography is to find them before sunset and follow them. Photographing at night is challenging, but easier than one may think. This is when fast glass (2.8 or 4.0 fixed) is key! I wrote an important blog post a while back about the biggest benefit of fast glass – speed of focus. You can read about it here. The basic start setting is manual, wide open, 1/500 shutter, 2,500 – 3,200 ISO. However, having two vehicles with experienced guides on the importance of side-lighting will bring the biggest success.

On our last morning, we found the cubs before sunrise; again, we were the only two vehicles. Mom was on the move and the cubs were frisky and full of energy. She remained on the move as the sun began to rise and continued through the first beautiful light of the day; the cubs continued their playtime. At this point, only one other vehicle joined us. Not having to fight for position played a big part in the success of easily creating stunning images.

Next, we headed to a much drier climate, usually for great low-angle elephant photography, but again this year we were quite distracted with great cat sightings in a barren environment. Last year I photographed in color, but this year I went 100% IR. We were not able to lay on the ground this year for the elephants because a large pride of lions surrounded the waterhole for the entire three days! However, we still had beautiful opportunities with the large herds!

MOST EXTRAORDINARY

Just minutes into our first game drive, we came across three wild dogs resting in the shade. We then learned that there was a mother leopard with cubs (8-10 months old) 50 yards away and that they had stolen a kill from the wild dogs! We spent the next hour with the leopards. One of the cubs wandered off on his own into the tall grasses which are perfect for IR 400 2.8 creative photography. He started to go back and so we followed him.

BUT!!! just as we stopped our vehicle the three wild dogs came out of nowhere at full charge; NEVER have I seen three big cats run up some fragile trees at lighting speed while at the same time my clients in the other vehicle flung themselves across the vehicle into the further seats and ducked because they thought the dogs were going to fly right through the vehicle! No, I don’t think that any of us got images (the camera and lens in my hand were a 400 fixed on my IR Z7) or videos of the sudden crazy action, but what we did get are amazing memories of an experience of a lifetime!

Our last location is always special and a highlight in Africa – staying on the Chobe River in an exclusive houseboat pulling our ultramodern photo boat.

DONATING TO THE RIVER GODS … AGAIN!

Lately, I have been chatting a lot about the impact of eye-level photography. We came across this croc resting on the banks of the Chobe with his mouth wide open for cooling. After several minutes of photography, one of us had the clever idea of flipping out the back screen on the camera, leaning over the boat and holding the camera just above the water to be at eye level to get the reflection. Kerplunk was the noise I heard. It was strange to hear this as I noticed that nothing fell from my camera. 10 minutes later I discovered an empty pocket where my Ray Ban Sunglasses used to be! Well, it is not my first donation and probably won’t be my last!

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT

Why the hot and dry season – Elephant crossings of course! The Chobe River continues to be one of my favorite experiences in all of Africa for SO MANY reasons. However, watching and photographing elephants as they cross the river and dust is phenomenal. This year was no exception.