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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Pantanal Photo Tour 2015

After a recent scouting trip to the Pantanal in Brazil we are now proud to announce our first safari to South America!

The Pantanal is a magical destination of excellent bird life, amazing mammals and of course their apex predator, the Jaguar.

We will be spending time in some of the best locations for each species and ending off with 4 nights on the Jaguar floating hotel right in the heart of Jaguar country.
Join us on this fantastic journey to a wetland that is three times as large as the Okavango Delta, and with more species!

For more information please visit Pantanal Photo Tour

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Photographic Workshops at Mashatu.

Photographic workshops at Mashatu never fail to deliver great experiences and heart stopping photographic opportunities for our clients. We recently hosted a Workshop at Mashatu (24-28 July) with Heinrich and Trevor as the guides and had some great feedback from our clients.

Dewald van Brenda had this to say: 

"I was on the latest trip at Mashatu and I want to thank C4 Images & Safaris for most likely the best trip to the bush I have ever had. What made it so great was Heinrich and Trevor's willingness to help and answer all our questions with their extensive knowledge. C4 Images & Safaris can be proud of the work they do..."

Here are some images taken by Trevor Kleyn and please visit our website for additional information on the Photographic Workshops.

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Client feedback on our Premier Predator Tour...

Tom and Pam Holmes recently joined Greg Du Toit on C4 Images & Safaris, Premier Predator Tour and had this to say about their experience:

"Our safari exceeded our expectations! Greg Du Toits companionship, leadership instruction was outstanding. It was clear that he engaged the best drivers in Bashi and Roan. They amazed us in their ability to find wildlife the lengths to which they go to ensure we were in the right spot. We appreciated Gregs bush school where he reiterated basic photography techniques. Gregs reminders of the starting point settings while on location was also very helpful. We also had great fun photographing predators by spotlight flash. Greg even taught us to photograph the night sky. Mashatu and Mala Mala were outstanding in all aspects. The variety quantity of wildlife could not be bettered! We greatly appreciated Vernon Swanepoel in Sossusvlei. Vernon is very adept at dealing with the park bureaucracy. He also willingly shared his in depth knowledge of natural human history. At the end of 3 days we had our fill of dune photography from the road so on the 4th day we took two walks into the dunes for a closer look. This was fun showed a very different side of the Namib Valley. We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of wildlife we saw in the dunes oryx, jackal, springbok, ostrich many bird species. We even saw a bat eared fox family an aardwolf. Of course the photo opportunities were much better on safari. Shems recommendations assistance for our independent travel were invaluable. He even helped us obtain a rented ball head because Pam left hers at home. If hopefully when we return to Africa, we will certainly choose C4 Images & Safaris and Greg Du Toit again."

 - Tom & Pam Holmes -

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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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C4 Workshop, 11-15 June 2014

C4 Photo Workshops are the best ways to improve your skills as a photographer. These are 3/4 night excursions with the emphasis solely on improving your photography skills. Each Photo Workshop is chosen for its location and timed for the best wildlife viewing and with award winning photographers tutoring you, resulting in better skills, technique and great imagery.

We hosted a workshop at Mashatu, Botswana a few weeks back and were excited to see some of the great imagery that our clients and guides where show casing after the Workshop... Here are some examples of one of our guides Trevor Kleyn experience at Mashatu during this Workshop.

For more info on each workshop destination and why we choose them click here. To view a video on our Mashatu Photo Workshops click here.

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First visitor of the season

After many days of hard work the notorious underground elephant hide was back in action, and oh boy did the elephants waste no time getting their trunks straight back into the delicious clear water of its waterhole. 

As we sat quietly for the first time in the hide discussing the long journey we had been through to get to this very point, a herd 30 strong slowly started appearing from every angle that the eye could see. At first we had no idea where to point our cameras as we were in complete sensory overload mode, but slowly as the adrenaline calmed and we lifted our jaws back off the floor the camera shutters started clicking away. 

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Clients photographs from Premiere Predator Tour

Clients of C4 Images and Safaris have returned from an exciting Premier Predator Tour in April and had beautiful sightings and photographs to show for it and with guide as Greg du Toit you can expect nothing less than perfect.

All the Premier Predator Tours for the rest of 2014 and 2015 are fully booked with the exception of Premier Predator Tour in November 2015 where we have space for three photographers to experience the breathing taking beauty and amazing photography which is associated with these Tours. The Premier Predator Tour takes place in Botswana and South Africa. Please feel free to contact us for any additional information and have look at some of Teresa and Willem's photographs taking at the latest Premier Tour in April.

All photographs taking by Teresa Nel.

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An update on the relocated Cheetah with the C4 Images and Safaris collar

In a previous blog post of ours on the “Relocation of Cheetah with C4 Images and Safaris collar” C4 Images and Safaris received a call to place the collar on a wild female cheetah which was found roaming on farmland in the North West Province. Conservation authorities believed the cheetah to be in danger and she was relocated to Pilanesberg to bolster the existing cheetah population in the reserve.

The GPS collar enables monitoring of her 4 times a day and capture good data on her progress within the park. Since the relocation of the cheetah, she has been exploring the park mainly in the central part of the lake area in the valley grasslands. This great news as the valleys are located very close to roads and this may count in her favour as it may boast to friendly tourist behaviour and with her habituation in whole.

 A map of the areas she has been roaming in, tracked via the GPS collar.

We couldn't be more exhilarated about the great progress she has been making and we couldn't be more humble by the fact that C4 Images and Safaris could be part of this great opportunity to help and support Wildlife conservation. We will be keeping a close eye on her and update on her progress.

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Mashatu Feedback

All images by Isak Pretorius

C4 guide Isak Pretorius has just returned from 2 back-to-back sold out Mashatu workshops.

It was a great success with plenty of sightings as one can only expect from Mashatu.

All of C4's Mashatu workshops for the year are fully booked with the exception of 11-15 June which has 2 more places available. Book your place now to avoid missing out.

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