Don & Sharon have travelled with me several times in the last 5 years, exploring all of Zambia, some of Zimbabwe and – most recently – Uganda and Kenya. We will meet again in December when we travel to Botswana to explore the Okavango Delta at the start of the rainy season.

Don kindly wrote a short piece as a report from our trip to East Africa in June this year to go alongside a selection of his images. He’s a dedicated learner, absorbing and implementing all my advice and, rightly, occasionally challenging me about it. The result is that his images have improved dramatically since his first trip with me in 2019 which is highly rewarding.

On this trip, we enjoyed some ‘traditional’ safari photography in Kenya, but we also entered the dark forests of Uganda in search of primates and birds, which challenges all photographers; the fact that he’s turned out a quality, diverse portfolio like the one below is impressive.

Congratulations Don, thank you for sharing your images, and I look forward to Botswana next month. Let’s see if any of us progress far enough to qualify for sundowners.

But first, let’s hear from Don:

“We had been planning this trip to Uganda for some time, predominately to see the gorillas, and we were not disappointed. Ed had prepared in advance (as usual!!) and the choice of destinations, camps and local guides ensured that we had excellent opportunities to get the photographs we were so looking forward to capturing. Although the gorillas were at the top of the list prior to departure, it was probably the encounters with the prehistoric looking Shoebills that was the highlight.

We followed up Uganda with Kenya, again with an objective – to photograph Giza, the black leopard  of Laikipia. She proved to be somewhat elusive, but on our very last evening she graced us with an appearance. I was very lucky to be in the perfect position to get a great shot as she passed our vehicle.

I also managed to get some bird photographs – previously classified as beyond my photographic ability. They tend to hide in trees, want to sit amongst distracting branches, and fly away at the most inopportune time! However, with Ed’s tuition (and a little help from our other guest JE – thanks!) my skills have improved and I am quite happy with a number of my bird photos.

Our third trip with Ed, and definitely not our last – I need to come back, not just to improve my photographic ability, but in the optimistic hope I may get to experience something called “sundowners”.”