Serengeti Calving Season 2016 - By Andre Cloete

A selection of images by trip host Andre Cloete, from our first week of the Serengeti calving season safari 2016.

Some feedback from Andre, "Staying in our private camp set up just for our group of photographers, we were able to be right in amongst the migration herds. This meant full on calving action from early dawn light each day. It also meant predatory action with the predators coming into to catch the young wildebeest."

The trip was perfectly timed with the arrival of the wildebeest herds, making for an action packed first safari.

We are looking forward to seeing what next weeks Serengeti adventure bring...

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Guest Image Gallery, Iceland 2016 - By Anita Keet

Anita recently travelled with C4 Photo safaris to the wonderful wonderland of Iceland. Under the experienced landscape photographic guidance of tour hosts Isak Pretorius and Hougaard Mala, Anita and the rest of the group had the opportunity to capture the mythical landscapes of Iceland at its very best.

Here is a collection of fantastic images by Anita, her interpretations of Iceland’s endless beauty:

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Antarctica 2016 - By Shem Compion (Part 2 of 2)

Part 2, of Shem Compion’s Antarctica 2016 image gallery. If you would like to take photographic journey with us, take a look at our website for 2016 destinations!

C4 Photo Safaris

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Guest Gallery, Premier Predator Tour, June 2015 - By Joy Thomas

In June 2015, Joy Thomas joined award winning photographer, Greg du Toit on a C4 Photo Safari Premier Predator Tour. The tour saw the small and exclusive group of 3 clients travel to Mashatu Game Reserve, Mala Mala Game Reserve and finally end off at Tswalu Kalahari.

What a fantastic combination of wildlife destinations, which are all hugely active wilderness areas, each holding their very own uniqueness and highlights.

Thank you to Joy, for sharing your beautiful collection of images from this evidentially successful tour with Greg du Toit and C4 Photo Safaris!

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C4 Photo Hides October - By Trevor Kleyn

Recently, photo guide Trevor Kleyn spent some time manning the C4 Photo Hides. We have come to realise that October, being the buffer month between winter and summer, is the month that the wildlife pluck up the courage to get themselves properly involved at the waterholes. To escape the soaring temperatures of the day elephant, warthog and hyena spend  allot of their day submerged in the water, we also have unusual sightings such as monitor lizards and mongoose who eventually have to ditch their fear of being out in the open all for a sip of water.

Here are a few images from Trevor Kleyn of some of the interesting sightings he had from the hides over the 2 weeks he spent at Mashatu Game Reserve.

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C4 Photo Vehicle Experience, Part 1 - By Kyle de Nobrega

Just a few days back Mashatu resident photographer Kyle de Nobrega hosted guests on the C4 photo vehicle for an awesome four day experience.

The four days where jam packed with world class sightings and photographic opportunity. Everything from mating lions, new born hyena relocation, multiple leopard sightings and two great mornings spent in the C4 hides including birds and elephants galore.

Here is part one of a two part series of images by Kyle taken over the four days spent on the C4 photo vehicle:

Mating lions

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Matabole Hide, Guest Image Gallery - By Karin Braby

Mashatu Game Reserve guest Karin Braby shares some amazing snaps from her outstanding morning spent in the C4 Matabole Hide this month. Karin and friends were treated to an array of mammal species at the hide, starting off with a blood strewn hyena that was in desperate need of some water to wash down his indulgent night. As the clouds cleared up the ellies took centre stage streaming in, in the hundreds for the rest of the morning.

Thank you to Karin for sharing some of her incredible shots from the morning with us.

 

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First Day Of The Best Month!

August is by far our favourite month at the C4 Hides. Animal activity has really been picking up around the waterhole, with daily visits from the elephants and an array of bird species visiting for their daily drinks.

Yes, we are only one day into the month, but take a look at the awesome sightings the first day of August has already provided us with...

 

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An Underground Image Gallery - By Trevor Kleyn

Recently, photographic guide Trevor Kleyn spent some time at Mashatu Game Reserve manning C4’s Hides. With the reserve rapidly drying up, Trevor along with groups visiting the hides got to witness some great wild life action. Here are a couple of shots from Trevor’s time with us underground.

Impala trying to penetrate through the wall of banded mongoose for a drink of water

 

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First Day Back In Hiding - By Kyle de Nobrega

What a way to begin a new working cycle back in the hides. Yesterday morning Kyle de Nobrega, our resident photographer at Mashatu Game Reserve, had one cracker of morning in the Matabole Hide. Kyle was joined by guest Willem Kok, between the two of them they could barely contain their excitement as they encountered intimate visits from 5 hyena, a large herd of elephants as well as 3 separate bulls. Not to mention the extremely active birdlife which kept their camera’s clicking all morning.

Here are a few of Kyle’s shots from the morning, most of which were captured using SIGMA’s brand new 150-600mm Sports lens, which has proven to be nothing short of fantastic!

 

 

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Svalbard Photo Tour - By Astrid Bluemel

MS Stockholm

We’ve arrived in Longyearben on Svalbard. This island, which is about the size of Ireland, and at latitude 78°N, is only 1338km from the North Pole! We are here to photograph polar bears.

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Courageous Cub – By Loi Nguyen

 

A few days before my departure for a 4 night stay at Mashatu Game Reserve, I saw on a Facebook posting of this very special cheetah family with four sub adult cubs. The cubs where about 15 months old and looked healthy. I was so excited and hoped that they would stay around for my visit as part of a photography workshop led by Greg du Toit. As it turned out, we saw the family every single day, although they were mostly relaxing in the company of each other for the first two days. Not discouraged, we kept checking on them on the third day and witnessed a failed attempt of a hunt. Exhausted, Mama retreated to the shade of a bush and was comforted by her cubs.

We were about to leave them when a large troop of baboons began to come into view. The family hastily retreated and one of the cubs took off, but the remaining 3 cub’s buddle with their Mama at the base of the bush. We feared the worst.

 

Cheetah family surrounded by baboons.

 

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Iceland Photo Safari 2016

Iceland is one of the world most popular landscape photography destinations, and for a very good reason! Situated in the icy North Atlantic, one is surrounded by frozen waterfalls, lagoons and beaches strewn with icebergs, glaciers, glacier caves and so much more. Perhaps the most magical attraction of this far north destination is having the opportunity to witness and photograph the Northern lights, one of the nature’s magnificent wonders.

The trip will be hosted by Iceland and landscape photography expert Hougaard Milan, and C4 Photo Safaris’ award winning photographer Isak Pretorius. Hougaard has previously spent time in Iceland, exploring and scouting out only the best photographic spots and accommodation the country has to offer. This photo safari is one of ultimate convenience, photographers will travel in comfort and the group size will be limited to 10 participants to allow for individual creative freedom.

Come and join us in the breathtaking landscapes of Iceland, and stand the possibility to capture some shots like these...

 For more information on this photo safari follow the link below:

Iceland Photo Safari 2016

 

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A Productive Morning at the Hide

After a night of strong winds, we were unsure of what the morning would hold for our regular Matabole Hide session. We set off from the lodge before dawn into the crisp morning air, all wrapped up for our 30min drive towards the hide. As the sun slowly rose where excited to see the many puffs of scattered cloud cover slowly illuminate creating a fantastic backdrop to what we hoped would be a great hide session.

On arrival to the hide we set up our camera gear, we even experimented with a more artist approach to shooting with a Go Pro that we had lodged inside the waterhole. All set up and ready to go, and right on queue an elephant bull arrived. The bull gave us a good show before meandering off back into the Mopane. He most certainly set the tone for the morning with great birds following pursuit, as well as, herds of impala, a troop of baboons, a terrapin and a shy squirrel.

Feeling very content with our morning spent at the hide, we decided to head back to camp for brunch. Jokingly we mentioned between us that all we needed to top off an already top class morning in the bush would be a leopard ... and in true Mashatu style a leopard we did see!

 

Clouds making a perfect backdrop for the morning activity

 

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A Detour to the Matabole Hide - By Kyle de Nobrega

After an early rise at 5am, it wasn’t long before we heard the distant sounds of Hyena and lions calling whilst having a well needed morning cup of coffee. The calling was different, it was intense and clearly not for territorial reasons.

We where planning on heading to the underground hide for the morning but we decided it worthwhile to bypass where the commotion was going on and see what was out there.

We followed the audible commotion for a while before we found what it was all about. A clan of Hyenas where challenging 2 young male lions over the remains of an impala ram kill, yet another victim of the Impala rut. There wasn’t much left and we were lucky enough to catch the last bit of action. The sun was just about to rise and we positioned ourselves according to the lions and hyena, and the approaching golden light. As classic Masahtu has it, there wasn’t a tree or shrub in our way and we had the 2 young males walk past us, shortly followed by 13 hyena unsatisfied with the scraps they were left.

After almost an hour of interaction, the rising sun set the tone of calmness once again. With adrenaline flowing in full force, we retreated to the hide to absorb what we had just witnessed. With a cup of coffee in hand we browsed through the images we had just got on our ‘short’ little detour to the hide.

The good old saying of ‘Mashatu always delivers’ never seems to fail.

 

 

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Mashatu Photo Workshop, April 2 - May 3 : By Isak Pretorius

Safari Diary - 29 April 2015

Photo Workshop, Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana

We were so inspired by our photos and the potential at the bee-eater hide that we decided to give it another try this morning. The dark background, golden side-lighting and action created stunning photos. A coffee break under a big Mashatu tree concluded both the morning drive as well as the first photo workshop. We to...ok our guests back to the border and picked up the new guests for the second workshop. During the afternoon drive our original plan was to have a look at the lions feeding on the elephant carcass. Instead, we found a leopard and spent the whole drive with her as she climbed a few trees, walked around, drank water and finally disappeared into the thicket. This was a fantastic start to the second workshop and the bar had been raised very high.

 

 

Leopard | 1/50sec at f/4.5, ISO 2500 | Canon EOS-1D Mark IV + EF200-400mmf/4L IS USM | Shutter priority, -1 EV

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Patagonia Photo Tour 2015

Hougaard Malan has just returned back from an unbelievable two weeks safari with clients in Patagonia.

Situated on the outer fringe of the Antarctic Circle, Patagonia remains one of the most remote and unspoilt wilderness destinations of the world. The sheer grandeur of Patagonia’s landscapes is what magnetises photographers towards it as a world class photographic destination. The landscape of  ice-capped mountains towering 3500m above sea level, surrounded by Magellan Beech forests hosting a pallet of autumn colours and not to mention the cascading waterfalls and crystal blue lakes, create a platform for some of the most picturesque landscape images a photographer could ask for.

Our recent Patagonia landscape photo safari,  co-hosted by C4 Photo Safaris and Capture Earth was one of ideal weather conditions that allowed for some amazing images. The beech trees painted the mountains with their thousand colours and the clear crisp evenings and mornings highlighted the clouds and reflections with dashes of pink and orange.

C4 Photo Safaris will be running another Patagonia landscape tour in April 2017. We will keep you posted. Enjoy the beautiful images below with lovely Autumn colours due to the exellent timing of our tour.

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Guest Image Gallery, Serengeti and Mahale Mountains: By Randall Bacon

 

Recently returned from the Serengeti and the Mahale Mountains is guest traveller Randall Bacon. Randall along with fellow travellers and photographers, where guided and hosted by top wildlife photographer Greg du Toit. The group’s first stop on the trip was the Serengeti, in search of the large migrating herds of wildebeest who at this time of year have begun their calving process. Unfortunately, the group didn’t catch the migration but where still treated to fantastic predator sightings on a daily basis.  Thereafter, the group continued to a remote destination on the eastern banks of Lake Tanganyika, Mahale Mountain. The area offers a unique experience, of exploring the pristine indigenous forests in search of the shy Mahale chimps. The team where extremely successful in capture some incredible shots from both of these Tanzanian wilderness areas, thank you to Randall for sharing a few of your top shots from the trip.

 

 

 

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C4 Photo Hide Update

What a start to the photographic season in the C4 Hides at Mashatu Game Reserve. After scoping out a colony of White-fronted Bee-eaters hard at work digging away at the banks of the Majalie River, we rushed back to camp to collect the mobile hide. We gave the birds 2 days to get used to the big green ‘box-like’ object above their colony before setting off before sunrise to capture these beautifully coloured creatures in first light.

Unfortunately the morning was overcast, but this ended up working in our favour as we had more time to spend with the birds before the harsh light of the day kicked in. After 10mins of not one bird in sight and a slightly dampened faith that the colony had taken to us, the first bird arrived. Thereafter the performance continued until our batteries where dead and memory card where full up.

Being co-operative breeders the juvenile birds from the first clutches of the season, where hard at work digging holes and collecting food for their families within the colony. The juveniles make for perfect subjects as they are almost oblivious to the photographers and the tent, allowing the photographers to get close to them.

During the course of our action packed morning we had multiple visitors including, Laughing Dove, Meve’s Starling, African Hoopoe and Carmine Bee-eaters, not to forget mating White-fronted Bee-eaters!

White-fronted Bee-eater

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Leopard Encounter at the C4 Valley Hide

The privilege of spending hours each day out in the field observing and photographing wildlife is something that cannot really compare to anything else for us.

Throughout all the years there will always be moments that are more vivid in your memory and others almost forgotten completely. Certain experiences stand out more so than others and every now and then, you get very lucky with something phenomenal.

This particular afternoon we set out to go and have a look on the new Valley Hide. On our way to the hide we spotted a relatively young female leopard who was a little skittish and was headed in the direction of the hide. After seeing tracks on many occasions of a female leopard that had come down to the waterhole for a drink, we where certain that she was going to go for a drink.

We quickly got into the hide and set up beanbags and pillows as a small barrier to block our presence and waited for almost an hour before we saw her strolling along towards us over the horizon.

This truly was a moment that got the adrenaline pumping. Words cannot describe the feeling one has when being in the presence of a leopard that is so close to you and so curious, so hopefully the video speaks for itself in how beautiful and rare this moment was.

Leopard Encounter

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