Safari Updates

Andrew's News:We started with a wonderfully restful morning after all that excitement yesterday when Salayexe grabbed her kill in front of us ...                   Sparring Impala, a shy Steenbuck -                                                       - and curious Starlings kept us busy for much of the morning.   But the afternoon was quite different. After the new ODP Safari group arrived everyone was anxious to get started and what a packed afternoon we had!First, a large herd of elephant drinking at a small dam was followed by a mud bath. As the mud sprayed everywhere, including on themselves, at times it looked as though it was actually raining mud!Hearing noises nearby we went to investigate and found a bachelor herd of impala,...

Andrew's News:There was a tremendous commotion early this morning as we woke up and prepared to depart. The whole bushveld sounded alive ...We could hear Wild Dogs yipping incessantly, punctuated by lions roaring. At the same time leopard calls echoed across the valley in front of the lodge, and exited hyena were carrying on about something or other while the sounds of jackals mingled with all the above. The cacophony spurred us on and within minutes we were on the vehicles prioritising our first move, and wondering what event had sparked the din.We decided to follow the sounds of the Wild Dogs and headed in the direction of the now diminishing sounds. We followed their tracks and found 13 Wild Dogs. It was a great sighting, and the whole pack was still milling around. We searched but could not determine the cause of their disquiet.              ...

This is one of my favorite  backlit shots as it has a lovely mood to it . This image was taken on an ODP safari at Elephant Plains this year.   It was a backlit shot that I had been looking for for a long time. The reason it is so difficult to capture an image like this one is that the mood is created by the vapor that that is released as the lion breathes. Therefore, the night temperature has to be correct and the light conditions must be created appropriately to create this effect. This image was shot on a cold winters night and with the help of light provided by a second vehicle,  the vapor was emphasised, giving it that special mood that is seen here. The photograph was shot with nikon D3s, 800 ISO, 125/s, f/4 in manual mode ...

    "Sunset Leopard"   The image was taken on an ODP Elephant Plains safari in October this year.   It was an image that I had been waiting years for - a leopard descending a tree with a clear background, at dusk but still with good colour in the sky. That opportunity was afforded to me while hosting an ODP safari with perfect sunset conditions and a very obliging leopard keeping myself and my guests very happy.             The image was taken with a Nikon D3s, a 60-200mm f2.8 VR II lens.   Camera settings of 1/180s @ f6.7, iso 400, fill flash set to - 1 exposure compensation.   Regards Ben  ...

ODP Safaris offers exclusive photographic safaris at the luxurious Elephant Plains Game Lodge Situated In the World renowned Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve. Elephant Plains is situated on the dry Manyaleti riverbed, overlooking a large open area and popular water hole, this prime location within the unspoilt Sabi Sands Game Reserve, boasts one of the most bio dirverse wildlife populations in Africa, including no fewer than 500 bird species and 145 mammal species, this provides second to none wildlife viewing and unequaled photographic opportunities to photograph the "Big 5" and other wildlife. One of the main attractions on this safari are the big cats but specifically the leopards, the Sabi Sand Game Reserve is arguably the best location in the world to view these elusive animals. The Safari Includes Private Photographic Vehicle No more than 6 people per vehicle Two game drives daily 4 nights accommodation Three meals per day A professional photographic host per...

    On our last two days we had wonderful sightings of a massive rhino bull and on the last night we found the Ottowa males on main road in from Gowrie gate , they had made a buffalo kill some 30 meters of the road and were going to spend some time in the area it seemed . The final morning we headed out and fund Karulas cubs , the male was a little shy but the female got herself onto a termite mound and we had a wonderful photo shoot with her. All good things have to come to and end and we have reach the end of our 2011 Elephant plains photographic safaris till next year, the 2012 season is open for bookings with the first trip starting in april , If you cant wait that long thre is am awesome trip going to Ndutu ….the south...

After the first  few days of rainy weather behind us the African bush has graced us with perfect sunny days and excellent lighting conditions. On day three the highlight had to be that we were able to spend 2 hours with Salayexe one of the resident Leopards in her natural habitat. . Salayexe is a most beautiful 6-7 year old Leopard that our guides tracked down after lunch for us. We tenaciously tracked her for 30 minutes after which  she led us up to a sparsely leafed Marula tree. For the next 2 hours she posed for all of us to take photos of her to our heart's content, or as the memory cards capacity could cope with...... all for the exclusive benefit of the ODP clients. The high light of this shoot will have to be the low light pics after sun down. Most manage to capture Salayexe yawning exposing all the...

We are now two days into our new ODP Photographic Safari at Elephant Plains and what fun we have had in that time. Yesterday afternoon and evening  we had a great photo shoot with a pride of five lioness which we found during our afternoon drive and then followed into the evening, giving us further opportunity to practice our night time photography using spotlights as a light source. The lioness were excellent subjects; stalking prey, playing with each other, chasing birds, mutual grooming...... this kept us and our cameras very busy. This morning greeted us with a beautiful African sunrise and was soon complimented with a sighting of a a female leopard and two nine month old cubs. The cubs were very playful with lots of stalking, tree climbing and general misbehaviour - all within a few metres of our vehicle that was expertly positioned by our very competent driver ! Needles...

  © hilton kotze After a glorious sunrise with lovely early morning light we came across a young male lion walking up one of the boundry roads looking for the rest of his pride after a disruption of the pride during a fight with invading males. We were able to position ourselves to take advantage of this wonderful photographic opportunity.   Feeling rested after a belly filling delicious lunch, and a group photoshop session, we set off for more adventures on our afternoon drive. Our expectations were soon met with a slow shutter speed panning exercise with running Impala, soon to be exceeded by a beautiful female leopard posing a few metres from our vehicles. We continued our photography of this cat into dusk using our spotlights allowing for unique nighttime images. All in all it was a good photographic success !   Ben and Hilton for ODP Safaris at Elephant...

The morning drive started off once again very well in great weather and some fantastic light. Not long after leaving the lodge we found lion tracks and started tracking, while on the tracks we came across 5 hyaena walking along the same tracks as the lions which made us think the lions had make a kill and the hyaenas are on the scent. After about half an hour of tracking and following the hyaenas we found the Tsalala pride of lions and as soon as they got wind of the hyaenas following them we had a great sightng of lions chasing hyaneas but no photographic opportunities arose. However shortly after dispersing the hyaenas they made their way into a large open area and proceeded to chase each other around and play as young sub adults do, this produced some fantastic photographic opportunities in some amazing light! After leaving the lions, we...