BOTSWANA

Botswana is widely regarded as the world's top wildlife photography destination. Thanks to vast expanses of pristine African bush and an incredible variety and density of wildlife. Combined with a forward thinking government which prioritised conservation and low-impact, high-value tourism decades ago, it is now the ultimate destination for photographing African wildlife.

Join us for this exciting new 11-night itinerary that combines two of Botswana's ultimate photo-destinations; the okavango delta and mashatu. The okavango is renowned as one of the best places on the planet to see animals in their natural habitats, a thriving wetland with an incredibly dense concentration of anmimals. Mashatu is a massive 80,000 acre private reserve teeming with everything from Leopard and Elephants to rare predators, grazing species and birds.

We’ve visited Botswana before and it was by far the most photographically productive wildlife experience we’ve ever had. For this tour we’ve added the Okavango Delta to the already wonderful Mashatu to create an incredibly complete wildlife photography tour which we believe combines the absolute best that Africa has to offer.

We will be taking 11 participants with 3 guides - Andy Mumford, Hougaard Malan and renowned African wildlife photographer Shem Compian, which allows us to split all shooting into three groups of four, each with a guide. This guarantees small groups that get lots of 1-on-1 attention from the guides, plenty of space in each vehicle to shoot unobstructed from, and also flexibility to tailor everything we do to different needs/desires on what to shoot.

In the Okavango Delta we’ll have an entire lodge booked out exclusively for our group in the Khwai Private Reserve. This gives us complete freedom to choose how we spend our time, and while we’re here we’ll do at least one session in a mokoro, a wooden dug out canoe which will take us across the waters, as well as regular morning and afternoon drives. There’ll also be an option to do a doors-off helicopter flight to capture unique aerial perspectives of the animals as they walk through the wetlands.

Mashatu is also a private reserve and while there, we’ll have four private vehicles allowing each guest to get their own row in the vehicle and photograph on both sides. This also means that on each drive you can choose which animal you want to go looking for; elephant, leopard or birds, etc and then we can split the group up according to those wishes. We’ll also have access to Lala Limpopo Hide, Mashatu's fully fitted-out flagship photography hide where guests will get to spend the night and capture the animals as they come to the waterhole to drink.

A strong focus on all our workshops is on the quality of experience. Our tours are designed to ensure that you can focus on photography while we take care of everything else. On this tour we stay in some of Botswana’s most beautiful safari lodges, where the food and the stay add another level to the photographic experience, But of course you come for the photography, and so the tour is structured to maximize your opportunities to get great images whilst improving your skills as a photographer. We work with the best local guides who’ve lived and worked in these parks and reserves all their lives, and not only have an incredible depth of knowledge of the place, but also are used to working with photographers, and so understand how to place the vehicles to ensure you get the best shots. We want you to go home having had the best experience possible, created memories that you’ll keep forever, and of course captured images that you’ll be proud of for years and years to come.

 PRICE    

$19,900 Price per person for sharing a room throughout the tour. This is limited to 4 people and dependent on there being someone else also willing to share.

$23,500 Partial Single room

On this tour we also offer partial single supplement. Little Sable in the Okavango Delta is a relatively small and exclusive lodge with only 8 cabins. However 2 of those cabins are are large family cabins which have 2 private bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms. This means you essentially have a shared living area, but your own private room and bathroom, and so we can offer participants the opportunity to pay a slightly less expensive single supplement, where you will be sharing in this family room for the 4 nights of the tour that we are in Little Sable in the Okavango Delta, and have your own private room in all the other accommodations including Mashatu. This is limited to 4 participants.

$23,900 Full single room supplement

Due to limited accommodation at Little Sable only three full single room supplements (single room in ALL accommodations) are available.

Note, we do not put any mark up on single supplements.

GROUP SIZE

11

EXPERIENCE

Amateur, enthusiast and semi-pro photographers.  

PHYSICAL DIFFICULTY

Easy, although participants should be prepared to deal with heat

SOME OF THE PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES COVERED

- Understanding the light and choosing the best settings to capture wildlife

- Composition for wildlife. Capturing compelling images of animals

- Wildlife photography. Creating a connection with the subject

- Lens choice. Choosing between tighter portraits of wider focal lengths to include the environment

- Focusing and ensuring you get sharp images

- Post processing - getting the best out of your images with contrast and colour.

Is Botswana Safe? 

Botswana is one of the safest countries in Africa with very little petty or violent crime.

Do I need a VISA to enter Botswana?
No western countries require a visa to enter Botswana.

Will I have cellphone reception or wifi?

There is good Wifi at Little Sable and Mashatu

What about medicines, diseases and vaccinations?
Mashatu is a low-risk malaria area. We are visiting after the rainy season, which makes it even lower-risk. All of that being said, we recommend you consult a your doctor for a professional recommendation.

Will there be fresh water available?
Bottled drinking water is included at all destinations.

Will I be able to purchase snacks?
You can do so in Johannesburg or Maun. During our stay in the Delta and Mashatu, whilst we can’t buy snacks, food is almost always available in the lodge.

What food can I expect?
Food in South Africa and Botswana is primarily British-influenced. There won't be anything too exotic or scary. The lodges and camps we use can cater to all allergies and dietary preferences. .

Are there any luggage restrictions?
Yes - as we take a charter flight to get from Maun the Delta, each participant will be limited to just 20kg (44lb) of luggage, including camera gear.

Do I need to bring spending money along?
Not really - you can pay for everything with a card or tap-to-pay.
Tipping
It is customary in Botswana to tip porters and guides. We recommend a tip of at least $100-$300 (in total for the crew/staff) at each destination, so you can budget around $500 for tips.

Do I need a laptop?
Yes, we strongly recommend bringing a laptop or tablet to check photos during the trip. There’ll be time on most of the days to download and review photos.

A dSLR or mirrorless camera

We recommend cameras of the latest generation as they tend to have the best auto focus systems, which really can make a difference when capturing wildlife, particularly for things like ensuring focus remains on the animal's eye when tracking or in tricky images where there are other elements like foliage close to the animal's face.

Lenses

When it comes to wildlife, a long lens is absolutely critical. It is no longer so important to have a fast super tele like a 400mm f/2.8 or 500mm f/4 as camera's low-light abilities have improved so much. A good super-tele zoom like Sony's 200-600mm/ Nikon's 180-600mm/ Canon 100-500mm/ Fuji 100-400mm is sufficient.

This needs to be paired with a fast standard telephoto like a 70-200mm for full frame users or 50-140mm for Fuji XT users.

A wide angle is also useful if we see elephant photos in the hides (yip, you'll be that close)

Cleaning

Botswana is dusty, but not sandy.  A blower and a paintbrush will help you keep your gear spotless during the trip.

Tripod?

We’ll be shooting from vehicles and so a tripod is useless - you can leave it at home. Some people like to use monopods, but the vehicles have beanbags, and often mono-pods just get in the way. As most images are shot with a fast shutter speed to ensure there’s no movement blur from the animal, and as we’re often constantly moving, it’s almost always easier to shoot handheld.

In the hides table mounted ballheads and beanbags are provided.

Backpack?

Usually this is also an essential, but not so much with a wildlife safari. As we’ll always be in vehicles, carrying your gear isn’t really an issue, and you’ll always have a seat to put your jacket down on, so if you prefer a shoulder bag then thats fine

 ANDY MUMFORD is a Lisbon based professional landscape and travel photographer. Andy grew up in the UK loving nature and travel and took up landscape photography over fifteen years ago. Since then he has travelled extensively photographing all over the world and his photography and articles have featured in publications and books worldwide. He is a passionate photographer teacher and has been leading both group and one-to-one workshops for over five years.

He is a Fuji X Photographer and a brand ambassador for Fujifilm in Portugal, although he also has extensive experience with Nikon and Canon cameras.

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Shem Compion is an adventurer, nature photographer, creative, author and photography hide builder, gleaned from years observing birds from self-constructed hides in his back garden. His passion is to share his love of the natural world with other people. He is one of the few remaining professionals making a full time living from his passion for wildlife and nature photography. He celebrates creative photography by exploring every aspect of the natural world, making him one of the most diverse and celebrated natural history photographers, whose work has been awarded and published all over the world.  Born in Africa, Shem travels the world to share his images, his knowledge and his deep natural history experience with other people.

​In 2005 Shem co-founded C4 Photo Safaris and has been leading and hosting photo safaris ever since. He is a first class naturalist and credits this as being the essential ingredient for successful wildlife photography. His talents have been tapped by the likes of the BBC Natural history Unit in Planet Earth series in the Great Plains series featuring lions hunting elephants in the Savuti, Botswana. He has worked with many celebrated wildlife and travel photographers including Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, Jonathan and Angela Scott and Tom Mangelsen.

www.shemimages.com

Hougaard Malan is an award winning South African photographer who has been guiding and organising photo tours to Nambia for a decade. He has taken people from every corner of the planet to every corner of Namibia. His own photos of Namibia have won him awards like the 2016 International Landscape Photograph of the Year and his clients have also won numerous awards with the photos captured on his tours. All the images on this page were captured by Hougaard.

Hougaard believes the essence of a landscape photograph is allowing the viewer to experience that place without ever being there. When the light, clouds and land combine to produce scenes so beautiful that they etch a profound place in viewers’ memories, and witnessing such moments unfold over earth’s most beautiful landscapes is, for me, one of the highlights of living.

Hougaard’s work has been published in countless media all over the world, from books and magazines to calendars and coffee table books by the likes of National Geographic. Licensing and commission clients include global and local corporates like Samsung, Toyota, SAB Inbev, FNB, Standard Bank and Europcar.

www.hougaardmalan.com

REGISTRATION 

To register for the workshop we require a $4500 deposit.  Please complete the form below to sign up or for more information, and please read the Terms & Conditions by clicking on the link below.