Having grown up on the coast and being actively involved in its marine industry, I must confess I was really excited about spending time on one of the great rivers in Southern Africa. Not only sharing this with great guys and awesome photographers but also the fact that I can combine the love of water, nature, wildlife and photography.
Besides the obvious photographic excitement and opportunities that abound there, the following points stood out above the rest :
- Awesome friendly nature of the staff of Ichobezi Lodge and Houseboat from the first minute of our arrival to our departure.
- The epic and professional layout and equipment on the dedicated Wild Eye photography boat.
- Nothing but incredible knowledge and skills of Ernest and the crew on the boats
- The completely different options available from shooting positions and angles on the photographic boat
- The availability of smaller, privately guided boats if you wish to be alone and do some exploring…
- Fantastic food and ability of the crew to fulfil all culinary needs at any time during day.
- For me, the fact that we could share these moments with each other over some drinks while looking out over the Chobe…unbelievable!
Here are what I class as my favourite one’s from the trip:
Kingfisher Dawn
The dynamic range of my Canon 5 D MK 3 lead to me capturing this amazing image. The morning golden lightnearly silhouettes this Pied Kingfisher perfectly.
Discipline
This youngster was being addressed by his mother. It was amazing to sit and watch the interaction between these primates. Shallow DOF places the emphasis on the subjects.
Black Coucal
One of my personal highlights was to capture this image of this bird in mid flight after take off.
Protection
In a isolated channel many kilometres from the general access of other photographic Safari operators, this hippo guards her youngster from the pointing lenses.
Kudu Mayhem
We spent some time watching this young bull charge up and down along the river bank for what seemed like no point. I tried some motion blur images and am quite proud of this one.
It is extremely difficult to share the magic of the Chobe in such few words and images but join me and see for yourself.
Peace n Light. – AA