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Photo Safari Report: Mike White | Marula Lodge & Zikomo Safari Lodge | 15 – 22 July 2017
It's always a pleasure to have a repeat visitor on safari; not only is it great that someone enjoyed South Luangwa so much that they wish to return, but it's fun to pick up where you left off and continue exploring different areas and new photographic techniques! I welcomed Mike White - from the UK - back to Luangwa last week, where we stayed in two camps in different parts of the National Park. Mike is [...]
Tour Info: Why book a photographic guide for your safari?
The safari guides in South Luangwa are famed across the continent for their knowledge of the bush, their understanding of mammal behaviour, their ability to locate and identify hundreds of bird species and the skill with which they share this with their guests. This has given the Luangwa its well-deserved reputation as a wildlife hotspot to rival any other on the continent. Photographing zebra on a photo safari in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. Booking [...]
Tour Info: Upcoming Photo-Tours in Nsefu Sector
Safari Season is upon us! I will be in the bush for all but about 7 nights of the next 4 months! While I will miss my family, I am so excited to be out in the wild doing what I love. For those who are joining me on safari, I am looking forward to getting started. My first trip is to the famous Nsefu Sector of the South Luangwa, known for its density of wildlife, [...]
Know your African Wildlife: Oxpeckers
There are two species of Oxpeckers; Luangwa is home to both the Red-billed and the Yellow-billed varieties. In Luangwa, as their name suggests, they can be found 'pecking' at bovine mammals such as buffalo. But they are also regularly found on giraffe, eland, zebra, warthog, impala, hippo and kudu where they glean parasites - such as ticks, fleas and lice - from their hides. These starling-relatives are highly adapted to their role: broad scissor-like bills facilitate [...]
Amazing Prizes to be Won….in aid of Conservation South Luangwa
We are fortunate to have Conservation South Luangwa - a Zambian NGO - working to protect the future of the Luangwa ecosystem. Their efforts are crucial in sustaining wildlife resources, preventing poaching, mitigating human-wildlife conflict and supporting the tourism activities which rely on the National Park. You can read about their activities in the latest CSL Newsletter - June 2017 which was recently published. In association with the Africa Hope Fund, they are holding a charity [...]
Wildlife: Hippos in the murky lagoons
As the dry season takes hold, and the hippos munch through all the vegetation in the lagoons, the bloom of weed below the surface gives the water a temporary green tinge. A large bull hippo eyes me up from the murky waters of a muddy lagoon in South Luangwa, Zambia.
Photo Safari Skills: Why do my photos come out too dark/light?
We've all experienced it: you look through your camera, compose a beautiful scene, snap the shutter....and are disappointed with the result that appears on the back of the camera! Of course, this can happen for a number of reasons, but I am going to look at one of the most common in this blog: the problem of under- or over-exposed images, images which are darker or lighter than you intended. It's actually remarkable that your camera [...]
Photoshoots: Charlotte & Kevin’s Wedding
For example......last week, I was invited to photograph the bush wedding of a British couple who have certainly found their own Sacred Coombe* in the Luangwa. It is always a pleasure to be part of a wedding and help celebrate such a happy day - and so it was with Charlotte & Kev. They have been visiting the Valley for several years and got engaged at one of the BushCamp Company's beautiful camps a few years [...]
Know your African Wildlife: Hippos
If you don't bump into monkeys around your camp, hippos may be the first wildlife you encounter on arrival in Luangwa. From your safari camp, you will likely have wide views of the river; and in Luangwa, wherever there is water, there will be hippos! Hippos are unmistakable; apart from rhinos, which are sadly no longer found in Luangwa, they do not resemble any other African mammal. They have large heads ending in a wide, blunt [...]
Photo Safari Skills: Panoramas
The idea of a panorama is to take multiple overlapping images of a scene and then stitch the edges together using software to generate one large photo of the whole scene. In the past, this used to be a very tricky technique which involved clever use of layers and transformations in Adobe Photoshop. The latest editions of Lightroom now contain this functionality within the program itself - more on this later. So, when might you want [...]
The Top 5 Wildlife Attractions of the South Luangwa National Park
As the sun breaks the dry-season horizon, its warm pink glow floods the grey dawn. Diurnal birds, emerging from night-time refuges, call to stake their territorial claim and advise would-be competitors that they’ve survived the night. Having scoured the dry land for forage, hippos return as late as they dare to the safety of the river, submerging to a chorus of honking calls. Elephants, which have been feeding beyond the park’s natural river boundary, return with [...]
Wildlife: Going back through the archives
It's often worth re-visiting old images. Not only is it a wonderful trip down memory lane, it often unearths some gems that you might have overlooked in the haste of processing through hundreds of images from a trip. I was recently scouring my libraries for a particular client request and I came across some beautiful images that I had not used for anything before. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed finding [...]
EDWARD SELFE
I organise & run photographic safaris in the finest wildlife areas on Earth since.
