I always really look forward to my Emerald Season safaris. It’s a beautiful time of year, there are lots of great subjects around – including breeding birds as well as all the usual sightings we enjoy in the Luangwa – and the cool temperatures give a long window of safari time in the mornings.
My group of 4 had all travelled with me, or met me while in the Luangwa, so it was great to see them all again. There were a great range of interests, from butterflies, through whistling-ducks to storks and big cats, which kept things interesting and entertaining! We had a lot of fun as well as enjoying some of Luangwa’s great wildlife.
As always, what follows is a pictorial review of the tour, with images in the order taken rather than sorted categorically or by style. We enjoyed some really wonderful days where the light, the behaviours and the timing lined up to give us lots of opportunities. Other days were quieter and we enjoyed whatever came along. As I say in my introductory briefing “photo safaris are about good light and great behaviour, not about particular species” so when these days come along, we take what opportunities arise and play with the light however we can.
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One of the advantages of the central area of the park is that the game is more accustomed to vehicles than in other seasonal areas where safaris are only conducted in the dry season. Therefore, it’s possible to get very close to wildlife and enjoy supreme close ups!
Crisp, clear Emerald Season light.
Shooting against the light with a distinctive recognisable shape can work well.
I like that the v-shape of dark green grass mirrors the shape of the calf’s ears.
Not an ideal composition with the 3rd impala emerging from the left, but this was a good training session in shooting directly towards the last of the sunlight just before it drops below the horizon.
Pre-sunrise, using a raised road to look across at a giraffe and create a richly-coloured image in the morning blue-hour.
It took a couple of days, but eventually we tracked down this lion pride which has 9 young cubs all of a similar age. On this occasion, they had just finished eating a zebra and were stuffed full and not in the mood for playing…
…except when their mother rose to come and drink water, and they all piled on top of her!
It may be “just antelope” but when the light is as good as this, any subject becomes beautiful. I like to try to find great compositions even for the everyday subjects; in this case, the sprays of green vegetation in front of the puku give depth to the image, and the dark ground behind them makes them stand out against their surroundings.
We were fortunate to find a large group of elephants crossing through the forest one afternoon. This bull tailed them creating a great chance for a monochrome image.
Very early morning, against the dark shadows of the bushes behind, we spent time trying to capture the spray of hippos breaching regularly as they often do before settling down for the day.
Rim-lighting is a great technique to work on at this time of year when the light is clear and colourful at sunset.
Playing with focus and depth of field.
We caught up with the lion pride for a second time. They were returning to the thickets after feeding on a small antelope and we found them as they settled in the shade of a large sausage tree.
We enjoyed a wonderful hour with them a they settled, played and groomed each other, before starting to snooze for the day.
A close-up of a Grey Go-away bird feeding on a Balanites fruit.
Emerald Season mornings…
Agitated birds led me to this small rock python resting along a Combretum branch. Whether it was waiting to catch some warmth from the sun, or hoping to snag a passing bird, wasn’t clear!
Superb sunset with beautiful reflections, cloud formations and colour.
It’s rare to have a chance to get close to Southern Ground Hornbills. They are shy birds, accustomed to foraging on the ground and therefore to keeping their distance from potential predators. These two were breaking and collecting branches, indicating a keenness to build a nest and then started an endearing period of allo-grooming. It was a privilege to watch them as their reducing numbers are closely linked to their slow breeding rate and it would be good to know that there’s another successful pair in the area.
Stopping for tea break under a large baobab tree.
Very early one morning, antelope alarm calls showed me to a leopard moving through the grass. She was being escorted by the antelope until she had moved off their patch. Once she had gained the privacy of a nearby drainage channel, she emerged once more and we spent about 30 minutes with her.
I always aim to have a good subject in my sights for the sunrise. I’d love it to be a lion with a big mane, backlit in the sunrise, but that’s not always going to happen. But sunrise will always happen so I make sure that we have a great subject, whether that’s impala sparring….
….or puku looking suspiciously at us.
Sometimes a well-placed silhouette conveys a subject just as well as a well-lit portrait.
Taking a moment to listen to the bush in the early morning. In the cold air, sound travels a long way and distant distress calls can guide us to predators which are still on the move. The drying channels of the Katete River are a welcome distraction while we listen.
Towards the end of the trip, we came upon a fantastic sighting. One of the 5 leopards which can be found across the river from Nkwali Camp had killed a baboon. Her son, nearly 3 at this stage, is still keen to share in his mother’s hard work and was competing for the prize. In the morning, we watched them chasing each other and then disappearing into the thickets (no photos!) but the afternoon was a different story….
…amazing light, behaviour and images!
Seldom seen on the Valley floor; a Cuckoo hawk perhaps trying to expel something indigestible.
On quiet afternoons, we sat with hunting bee-eaters, waiting for them to return to their hunting perch after an aerial sortie….
..and trying to capture images of a shy kudu….
…or waiting for hippos to yawn in the sunset!
I always love to finish on a great final drive, but who knows what nature has in mind! So I was thrilled to find recent wild dog tracks on the road. I pointed them out to my group, explaining why I thought they were very fresh. No more than 300m further on we found the pack socialising after feeding on an antelope. It wasn’t a huge kill but enough to mean that they didn’t need to hunt again….
…and we watched as they played, chased and then settled down.
Nearby, a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl was grunting in territorial display. When we tracked it down, I was thrilled to see that it had caught a guinea fowl and was mantling over it.
Elephant jewellery
A pair of Lilac-breasted Rollers gave us a chance to talk about how to get two subjects in focus when they are not in the same focal plane.
And, we ended with coffee-break with a view of elephants, giraffe and zebras.
Thank you to Andre, David, Penny & Jenny for being a wonderful group and for enjoying it all. We had a lot of laughs, quite a few jokes (some good, some terrible) and an unhealthy amount of chat about computer operating systems (mostly Andre & David!) Hope to see you all again soon.
Using the intervalometer on the EOS R5, and a sturdy tripod, I made this image as a composite of 120 shots taken over an hour at Luangwa Wafwa lagoon.
Thank you to all of you for reading to the end. Always appreciate your support. If you would like to share an adventure like this with me, please get in touch about my Emerald Season Luangwa and Emerald Season Lower Zambezi safaris for 2024 and beyond.
