Bonamanzi Photographic Workshop.
Bonamanzi Photographic Workshop.
I’m uploading this from Rhino River Lodge near Mkuze in KwaZulu Natal. It’s taking ages (there’s no 3G out here in the bush) but, here’s the thing: Just a few years ago this would not have been possible. The wonders of technology. I just love it!!!
Wow, what fun we had. Pat and I left Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park where we’d been trying to photograph wild dogs with little success and headed for Bonamanzi, a smallish private nature reserve just outside Hluhluwe village in Zululand. After setting up our gear in the conference centre that was to be our base for the next few days we headed down to the reception area to await our guests. The were some from previous workshops – Mariaan and Olaf (all the way from Holland) and Viv Proudfoot (a wonderful fine artist based in Hilton in KwaZulu Natal) as well as some new faces. All in all 14 people arrived – a little over subscribes but, the more the merrier…
Right from the outset there was a wonderful atmosphere and even Eddie jumping onto the wrong game drive vehicle (not his fault, you understand) early on Friday morning and almost spending the day looking at wild animals in Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park did little to dampen the spirits.
Way before sunrise on Saturday morning we headed over to False Bay Park – Part of Lake St Lucia in the Isimangaliso Wetland Park and had a great (if cloudy) morning shooting gulls flying about. And then a rainbow appeared in the early light that more than made up for the grey day. The highlight though, was the visit to the Endomeni Cat Project where we spent the afternoon doing pix of Cheetah, African Wild Cat, Serval and Caracal. The cheetah were fine – we got great images shooting through the large mesh fence. The wild cats were, with one exception, pretty relaxed and so we (three at a time) got into the enclosure with them. The serval too, were very accepting of our presence in their territory but somehow no one seemed keen to get in with the caracal. Have a look at the pic below and you’ll know why! Us photographers are not stupid, you know!!!
As per usual we had our little competition at the end of the workshop. The finalists can be seen here and the winners (yes, we chickened out and awarded 3 first prizes – hey, it’s our competition – we can do what we like.) are below in no particular order.
And remember: If you’d like to know more about our workshops, either the photographic ones are one of the many other types of workshop that we run please visit www.africaimagery.com or www.oldcanvasexpeditions.com.
By Fran Simmons
By Viv Proudfoot
Greg Shackleford
