Antarctica 2016 - By Shem Compion (Part 1 of 2)

When you are surrounded by icebergs, glaciers and mountains that dwarf the size of any human built structure on earth you know you are in Antarctica. The sheer enormity of this wilderness prompts an immediate rethinking of your significance on this world.

Then to top it all you take the first cruise down the Lamaire channel for all boats this season on one of the most beautiful days I have ever witnessed in the Polar Regions and all you can do is gasp. Penguins on icebergs scaled by massive glaciers, refection’s so pure you can see your face in them and a sky so clear every photo has a beautiful sun burst in it. Antarctica is a place that never disappoints yet when the sun comes out it shows why it is one of the world’s most amazing destinations. It simply blows you away with its stellar beauty.

A visit to Antarctica would not be complete without visiting a penguin colony; a few times over. It is no secret that the Adelie penguins are my favourite. Their looks, antics and charisma make them perfect photo subjects. Fortunately we had some great opportunities with them and their chicks. Travelling later in the season meant we saw the birds later in the breeding season. The Adelie chicks were huge balls of fluff that were not interacting with the parents and made for some special images. It took a while, but eventually we got the perfect images of these birds and their chicks.

Coming back from Antarctica I have this sensation that the trip was not actually real. Civilisation hits you like a bolt from the blue and all of a sudden you are caught up in life. Yet every few minutes I think back to the dream that was Antarctica and smile inwardly, knowing it was not a dream, it was real.

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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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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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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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Mashatu Vlei - C4 Mobile Hide

 

After almost a month of no rain during our supposed ‘rainy season’ here at Mashatu Game Reserve, an interesting window of bird photography opportunity presented itself. The water in the vlei area of Mashatu, close to the Limpopo River had just enough volume to make for a perfect environment for a variety of waders.

On a game drive one day we drove past what looked like it would be an ideal spot to set up a mobile hide and test out what the waders had to offer us photographically. With the tent erected the afternoon before, we set off at 4am towards the vlei, the idea being to be ready and set up inside the tent before the waders began about their daily activities.

Unfortunately for us the sun decided to disappear behind thick cloud on the consecutive mornings of our attempt to capture the waders in first light. Nonetheless, despite the not ideal lighting conditions the waders still came to the party and this is what we managed to capture of them whilst lying on our bellies.

 Wherever you are situated in the world, it is always possible to seek out photographic opportunity whether it is a water bath in your backyard that attracts a certain bird or a staged macro scene of an interesting insect you came about in your flat. Get creative, keep shooting and you might be surprised with what you come out with!

 

Mobile tent (with a few adjustments) on the waters edge

 

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The Hide's Gone Cuckoo

Over the past 2 weeks here at Mashatu Game Reserve, there has been a huge influx in bird species as all the migratory birds start returning for the season. This change has brought the underground hide some special new faces in the form of a variety of cuckoo species. Knowing that this festival of cuckoos at the hide has a very fragile time limit, photographers visiting the hide have been going wild at the opportunity. As soon as the first solid rain falls arrive in the area the concentration of cuckoos will disperse around the reserve.

This far spotted at the hide: Klaas’s Cuckoo, African Cuckoo, Diderick Cuckoo, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Levaillant’s Cuckoo and Jacobin Cuckoo.

Heard at the hide, but not yet seen:  Red-chested Cuckoo

Also seen at the hide:  Burchell’s and Senegal Coucal.

 

Great Spotted Cuckoo take off

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August Winds

The August winds have once again brought change to underground hide.  New mammals, birds and herds have made regular visits to the hide this month making for an interesting viewing experience to all those who have visited the hide.

Kurrichane Thrush
 

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Birds of the Underground Hide

Although summer feels as though it is centuries away as well as the beautiful migrant birds that come with it, the bird life at the underground hide has been outstanding in the past few months.  Our “seen at the underground hide” bird list for the year has reached approximately 60 species, and is growing every day.

Grey-Go-Away



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C4 Hides Update

The C4 hides at Mashatu Game Reserve are in full swing at the moment. The elephant hide has been teeming with bird life, everything ranging from guinea-fowls to fire-finches and parrots. As the great Matabole River slowly dries up the mammals on the reserve – especially the elephants – are becoming more and more dependent on the waterhole as their permanent source of water. Regular visitors this past month include impala, baboons, elephants and warthog, the more occasional visitor’s include vervet monkeys, eland, hyena, banded mongoose and lion.

Mashatu's towering giants having a drink at the elephant hide

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Mashatu Trip Report - Part 1

The name “Mashatu” originated from the local people describing the area’s Nyala berry trees and the danger of big snakes lurking in them. On the recent C4 Images and Safaris photographic workshop at Mashatu, I was wondering if this name didn’t have to do with leopards instead. The sightings we had of leopards were plentiful, exquisite and a privilege to see so much of their behaviour -something that I will remember this trip by... This tour was lead by Isak Pretorius. All text and images by Isak.

The group of photographers on our trip was very keen on exploring all genres of nature photography. It was a joy to work with them and we fed off each other’s energy doing everything from standard wildlife portraits, wide angle portraits, slow shutter speed motion blur, zoom blur, landscapes, backlit, flash photography, star photography and star trails. Of course it makes life very easy when a reserve like Mashatu offer these opportunities in bucket loads and we have a guide like Daniel who is just as keen about us “getting the shots”. The highlight of our trip was an incident between a leopard and baboons and although it was a great photographic opportunity it was probably a “once in a lifetime” natural history moment that we will never forget. Read more about this in the breakdown of our game drives below.

Game drive 1, Saturday afternoon: A bit of drizzle could not dampen our enthusiasm and at 3:30pm we were off on our first game drive. Not far into the drive we stumbled upon a familiar face. It was the young male leopard we had seen earlier in the year, famous for the incident where he had been inquisitive about a porcupine. He is probably the most beautiful leopard I’ve seen – perfect skin, and getting quite muscular now, with loads of character. He did not disappoint! We found him on the bank of the Nyaswe River grooming himself and getting into the most interesting positions physically – something the most flexible athlete could not do. After the grooming session he walked around looking for impala and climed into a couple of trees to gain vantage point. This turned out to be a mistake as he had wondered into another big male leopard’s territory who spotted the intruder in one of the trees. The young male got chased away by the other bigger male and soon both of them disappeared over a hill. Not far from that we came across a female leopard with a freshly caught impala which was to big to get into a tree. She was sitting under a lead wood tree trying to eat some of the impala to reduce the weight to drag it into the tree. A few attempts to get the impala into the tree failed and then she lost the kill to the big male leopard that also tried to get it into the tree but failed. He then dragged the kill to a nearby bush and that was the end of an exciting first game drive.

Game drive 2, Sunday morning: We woke up with the sound of raindrops falling on dry leaves, but luckily photographers is a different species altogether and with raincoats on we left camp excited about the opportunities that rainy weather brings. We found some rain soaked impalas standing under a tree and made the most of ground hornbills and painted snipes in a dry riverbed before there was a break in the clouds. Our gamble with the weather paid off when we found the young male leopard in a Mashatu tree trying to stay dry. This ended off our game drive on a high note.

Game drive 3, Sunday afternoon: After the first of our afternoon workshops on digital workflow and Lightroom, and a piece of Magret’s famous lemon meringue pie, our afternoon drive commenced. Spring has sprung at Mashatu and the creative juices got flowing when we photographed newly sprouted mopane leaves backlit against the sun and the shadow of a hill. Other highlights of the game drive included following a large flock of redbilled queleas and a klipspringer. We were photographing the klipspringer in beautiful soft light when he started staring intensely in one direction and making alarm calls. Our guide, Daniel, had not finished his sentence telling us that this is typical behaviour when a klipspringer sees a predator, when down the hill came a leopard walking straight towards us and climbing into the tree next to us. The game drive finished with drinks at a sloping hill with a beautiful baobab tree where we did a star trail.

Game drive 4, Monday morning: At camp there was talk about a pride of lions in the Southern part of the reserve and that became our objective for the game drive. After photographing some of the usual stuff on our way there, we found the lions doing what they do best… lying around! A few portrait shots later we were off and stumbled upon a breeding herd of elephants. The elephants at Mashatu are the most tranquil elephants you'll find anywhere. We positioned ourselves a hundred meters or so away from, but right in the way of the moving herd. The elephants walked past us, only meters from the vehicle. This is photography bliss! We found several herds moving in an easterly direction and after getting all the standard shots it gave us the opportunity to try several different kind of shots as well… low angle wide shots, motion blur and zoom blur.

Read part 2 of the Photo Workshop feedback here.
Or view a video taken whilst on workshop in Mashatu here.

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A Cold Season is Upon Us

The first of the cold fronts have swept across southern Africa, prompting me to once again, write about light- and of course how it affects a Photographic Safari.

As the dry season approaches, all the vegetation loses its green colour and browns become a predominant part of the landscape. However, this does not affect the light- or the quality thereof. The quality of the light is caused by atmospheric dust.
As the landscape dries off, so more dust is kicked up into the atmosphere. This dust lies close to the earths surface and the important part: it filters out the green and blue wave lengths (shorter wavelengths) and only red comes through, leaving us with the classic soft and warm colours of the dry season.
Now we know why cities with serious pollution issues have the beautifully red sunsets: all the pollution filters out the light! So pollution is good for one thing…

The dusty conditions of the dry season mean you can photograph into the sun.

And how does this affect Photography? Well, in the dry season, the sun sets as a red orb, allowing you to photograph into the sun, and use it as a part of the image. Also, the soft warm colours work very well against the backdrop of soft browns and yellows- all colours that compliment each other. Photographing here is beautiful mixture of pastel browns. It makes for very effective and striking photos.
The rainy season though, is another matter. Rain washes the atmosphere clean of the dust and thus all the light rays can reach us, the photographers. This means that the soft colours are gone, replaced by a stronger, more direct light. How does this affect photography? Well, due to the vegetation being nice and green, this season actually works quite well, as the greens reflect the direct light quite well. Clear skies, or skies with large thunderclouds also lend a dramatic air to images, so making this season an excellent time for Landscape Photography.

The dry browns yellows of the dry season (combined with frost) make for a great background to subjects when photographing.

I hope this explains a bit more about our seasonal variations and how both of them are actually good seasons for Photography and a Photo Safari!

Have a look at our photo workshops to see where and in what season we are out and about photographing.

Good wet season light, clouds and rainbows make elephants stand out that much more in amongst the green vegetation.

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Archives

Botswana Tour Trip Report, December 2009 - Part 2
Botswana Tour Trip Report, December 2009 -Part 1
C4 Delta Safari December 2009
Masai Mara Tour Report Back - November Tour
The Chiefs Island Experience - Isak Pretorius
Chiefs Island Trip Report - Part 2
Chiefs Island Trip Report - Part 1
Mashatu Trip Report - Part 2
Mashatu Trip Report - Part 1
National Geographic/Getaway Digital Photography Workshop
Masai Mara Video
Masai Mara Photo Tour
Trip Report, Part 2
Trip Report
Elephant Charging Wild Dogs
Mashatu Workshop, 6 - 10 August 2009
Namibia, a Dersert Tour - Part 2
Namibia, a Desert Tour - Part 1
National Geographic/Getaway Wildlife Photo Workshop
Photo Workshop, 12 - 16 June 2009
Photo Workshop Report Back, Mashatu Game Reserve
Leopard and Porcupine Interaction Video
Guiding Your Photo Workshop
Safari Season
Photo Workshop Report
Photo Workshop Video
The Flirts of our 2009 Photo Workshops
Spreading our Wings
Supporting Your Photography
Kalahari Excitement
Photo Workshop
More Workshops
Okovango Birds
The Great White Shark
A Cold Season is Upon Us
Moonscapes and Silhouettes
A Wet and Dry Season
Kalahari Splendour
More Reconnaisance
Flowers of Namaqualand
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