Your big cat photography workshop starts by departing Johannesburg from the small and private Airlink terminal, where you can sip a cappuccino and enjoy the lounge snacks. You will be met at the start of this South Africa photo safari leg by your host, professional wildlife photographer Greg du Toit. A short one hour flight will take you to the world-renowned Mala Mala Game Reserve for your Mala Mala photo safari to begin. The airstrip is just a 5 minute drive from Mala Mala’s Sable Camp, your home for the next 4 nights.

Mala Mala was one of the first properties in South Africa to stop hunting, converting over to photographic safaris back in the sixties. For over half a century now, Mala Mala has been a mainstay of the South Africa photo safari circuit and is an absolute photographic mecca. The campgrounds are stunning, offering wide vistas of the African bush and many antelope wonder through the grounds unperturbed. Your Big 5 photo safari sometimes starts with you spotting members of the Big 5 from the camp and leopards regularly pass through during the night. Thankfully you will be sound asleep when they do!

The rooms on your South Africa photo safari all have air-conditioning and there is complimentary wireless internet connectivity (albeit a bit slow). Drinks and water are supplied free of charge and there is a bar fridge in your room, which is stocked upon your request. Your room is luxurious, complete with his and hers closets, a lounge, indoor and outside showers plus a bath. Your room on this Mala Mala photo safari also has a desk and charging station for you to download and review your photographs.

See pictures of your camp here.

On this Mala Mala photo safari you wake at 05h30 and depart camp in the dark at 06h00 (while all the other guests are still asleep). We will search for predators based on tracks and the sightings from the previous night and you will be deep in the African bush by the time the sun rises at 06h35. The first part of the morning will be spent with the predators or other members of the Big 5. Mala Mala is one of the best African photo safari destinations for leopards and it is not unusual to photograph seven or more different individual leopards on this big cat photo safari. Sublime predator photography is the order of the day until the light becomes too harsh. Once light levels are too high to create dramatic low-light imagery, we will move onto trying to capture birds in flight before we stop for a scrumptious bush breakfast picnic on your South Africa photo safari. Returning to camp by midday, you will then have time to download your images. For those avid photographers with big memory cards, the aloe flowers in the camp are flowering this time of year and there is wonderful bird photography to be done right in camp.

Lunch will commence at 13h00, after which Greg will present a ‘bush school’ masterclass on pertinent photographic topics that will help you to capitalise on the unique wildlife opportunities on this Big 5 photo safari. He travels with an entire workshop on his MacBook and depending on your level and interests, will present a course that is relevant to your personal photographic needs.

The subjects Greg will address on this Mala Mala photo safari, using his own imagery as examples, will range from camera settings (aperture, shutter, ISO, white balance, exposure comp, metering and histograms) through to how to use your flash skillfully and how to shoot wildlife in action and in low-light. Topics that will be covered on this big cat photography workshop will also include ‘elements of composition’ and how to customise your focus settings. He will also show you his personal workflow and post processing technique. There will of course be ample time for you to ask questions and to address areas of your own concern and to ask for a critique on your own images. In this way, you can learn from your own experiences and develop your own unique signature style.

This in-the-field big cat photography workshop will help you take your imagery to the next level. A masterclass on how to photograph leopards at night and motion blur photography with flash, is a highlight of the workshop component of this Mala Mala photo safari.

Your afternoon safari drive commences each afternoon at 15h00. The safari drives are conducted in the Land Rover Puma safari trucks and these vehicles offer the most comfortable safari drive, with coiled suspension in the front and the rear. The safari trucks are completely open with no roof, which provides for maximum photographic freedom to photograph leopards up in trees. Having a private vehicle all to ourselves, will ensure that you are able to exercise the freedom needed to obtain exceptional images. With only 3 photographers on the safari truck, you will have an entire row to yourself, enabling you to shoot out both the left and the right on this big cat photo safari.

While your driver guide expertly tracks the predators for the evening shoot, there will be time to double check your camera settings and to make sure that you are ready to expertly capture the predator action to follow. With your own professional wildlife photographer in the front of the vehicle, you will receive expert and personalised tuition including exact settings and creative insights, and he will ensure that you are best positioned for the light and wildlife action. You will of course be able to ask questions at will, as the whole purpose of this Africa photo safari is to ensure that you expand your personal photographic portfolio and horizons.

We will stop for a quick comfort break at around 5pm (depending on sightings), where you will stretch your legs and enjoy a sun-downer, another fine South Africa photo safari tradition. This will also facilitate an opportunity to check that your camera settings are all correct for the nocturnal predator action to follow. You will then enjoy a night safari as you follow leopards and other nocturnal predators. There is always a chance of seeing a kill on a Mala Mala photo safari and the predators do most of their hunting at night. On this South Africa photo safari, Greg will share his secret manual recipe with you for photographing predators at night and using a spotlight. There is also a great hyena den site which means that you have an opportunity to photograph all of Africa’s big predators.

You return to camp for dinner at 8pm where we will meet in the bar for pre-dinner drinks and safari banter. From there, we will move into the ‘boma’ for dinner where you will dine alfresco under the African stars. There will of course be lots more talk about photography as we reminisce on the day’s sightings. An after dinner tea or coffee will see you turn in for the night. For those not wanting to stay up late at dinner, there is the option of room service on this South Africa photo safari.

This South Africa photo safari leg of the workshop guarantees that you will return home with exceptional predator images in the bag as a Mala Mala photo safari offers you the Big 5 and not in a touristy way either. Only Mala Mala vehicles traverse in the central game viewing area and this means that on most of our sightings we will be the only vehicle there and at the very most, there will only be another two vehicles on a sighting with us. You will therefore not get the clutter of vehicles that you find in other parts of Africa making this one of the best African photo safaris you can do. Because June/July is a quieter time of year for tourists visiting, you will also enjoy long periods of time on sightings without needing to move out and make space for other cars. You will also enjoy spending time with Africa’s other splendid animals like giraffe, zebra, mongoose and warthog on this South Africa photo safari.

On the last morning of your Mala Mala photo safari Greg will take you to one of his favourite places in Africa for a sunrise coffee and after your last safari drive and breakfast, you depart for Botswana. The travel time is approximately 3 hours as we need to land to clear South Africa customs before carrying on to Botswana for the Mashatu photo safari. Arriving in Mashatu, you will be met by your Mashatu guide and a 30 minute transfer will take you into the heart of Botswana’s Northern Tuli Game Reserve. This little known corner of Botswana is also her best kept secret!

Once arriving at Mashatu’s exclusive and new Euphorbia Villas Lodge, you will settle in before heading out on your first Mashatu photo safari drive at 15h15. Photography will commence virtually immediately as your lodge is the closest to the central game viewing area. This Mashatu photo safari itinerary has been carefully designed so that you do not need to miss a safari drive on this transfer day and by using the closest lodge to the wildlife, you can get onto sightings first and enjoy the best light. Cocktails in the ‘bar with a view’, a scrumptious dinner and a cosy bed will bring an end to your first day.

Mashatu Game Reserve is an enchanting wilderness in south eastern Botswana. Situated at the confluence of Kipling’s ‘great grey green greasy‘ Limpopo and Shashe Rivers, this area is unlike any other in Africa. If you are looking for a different and exciting part of Africa to explore on an Africa photo safari, then look no further.

The ample plains on this Mashatu photo safari range from arid savannah, to riverine forests and sandstone outcrops. Dubbed the Land of Giants, Mashatu takes its name from the locally-sacrosanct Mashatu tree and the giants that roam the terrain. As one of the largest private game reserves in Southern Africa, Mashatu is a fitting setting for the world’s largest land mammal, the elephant. Mashatu is home to the largest herds of elephant on privately owned land on earth and it also provides sanctuary to the world’s tallest mammal (the giraffe); the world’s largest antelope (the eland); the world’s largest bird (the ostrich) and the world’s heaviest flying bird (the kori bustard). Add the lion, the king of the beasts, and the iconic baobab as well as a thriving population of leopard and cheetah, and you have a spectacular location for the best African photo safari.

This extraordinary place possesses an ecological diversity that is uncommon in other reserves. Mashatu is not just a great location for a big cat photography workshop, but it is also home to the more uncommon and smaller predators including the honey badger, bat-eared fox, African wild cat, genet, porcupine and black-backed jackal. That’s right, this Mashatu photo safari does not just include Africa’s large predators but its smaller ones too!

Mashatu is also a bird paradise and plays host to more than 350 bird species. The photographic opportunities at the drying river pools are splendid. There is also a large breeding colony of bee-eaters that will challenge the reflexes of even the most experienced photographers.

Mashatu’s Euphorbia Villas lodge is the most intimate and luxurious lodge on the reserve and is your home on this Mashatu photo safari. With only 8 luxury suites the camp enjoys an incredible view over the endless Botswana bush. Set on the edge of a cliff and surrounded by Euphorbia and Baobab, the habitat around your camp is perfect for leopards, Africa’s most enigmatic predator. As you relax in the lounge in your room, looking out over the African savannah, your city stresses will literally dissolve away!

Your Mashatu photo safari routine takes the same shape and form as it did in Mala Mala, except that the scenery and photo opportunities will be totally different as you explore the wilderness in an open Toyota safari truck. With the dry season starting to take effect, the colours of Mashatu have changed to orange, interspersed with soft greens, which all makes for excellent backgrounds to your photographs. Along the rivers however, it remains very green and it is not uncommon to find a leopard reclining in one of the large Mashatu trees. This is an awesome photo to add to your portfolio! Predator viewing is at its best at this time of year and the soft sun’s rays of the winter make lion, leopard and cheetah really glow.

On this Mashatu photo safari there is an underground hide, designed and built especially for photographers. From this hide you will get a low angle perspective on your subjects and, combined with your regular safari drives, you will assemble a dynamic collection of incredible photographs. The hide offers incredible elephant viewing and some of the best elephant photography in Africa!

It also offers a plethora of other photographic opportunities like having the world’s largest antelope, the eland, drinking at eye level. Eye-level shots of a leopard drinking at the hide are also a possibility on this big cat photography workshop and to help you get this shot, we have booked an evening hide session. This underground and eye level hide makes this Mashatu photo safari an even more unique and incredible photographic experience. June/July is a great time for the hide as the waterhole is not overrun yet with elephants, meaning that a host of other animal species are also drinking and this is great news for your Africa portfolio!

Special note: We have added the option for you to spend a night at Mashatu sleeping out beneath a huge Mashatu tree and in a remote part of the reserve. Sleeping out in the African wilderness is an incredible experience to do on a Africa photo safari and will not only allow you to listen to the enchanting night sounds but sleeping out will also give you the opportunity to photograph the most incredible Baobab landscape. This baobab grows high up on a sandstone outcrop and is one of the best kept secrets of a Mashatu photo safari. The view from up there will undoubtedly touch your soul! The sleep out also gives you access to photograph Africa’s ultimate eagle, the Verreaux’s Eagle, which nests on a cliff close to our camp. We will take an early morning walk to get there and if you are wanting to experience walking in the wild on your Africa photo safari, then this sleep-out is for you!

*Please note that this Mashatu photo safari sleep out activity is only booked on request and all 3 participants need to agree to doing it. Please enquire when making your booking about adding this to your itinerary.

After a last morning of eye level photography in the underground hide on your Mashatu photo safari, you return to camp for brunch after which you will catch a 90 minute flight back to Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg, for your onward travel home. Transfers and overnight hotel bookings can be arranged depending on your travel schedule. This is the official end of the big cat photography workshop.

For those wanting to continue on with your Africa photo safari there are these exciting extensions on offer to make your safari the ‘best Africa photo safari‘. These extensions include the Okavango Delta, Mana Pools, Skeleton Coast and a Meerkat photo safari. Add any one or combination of these extensions to your predator workshop and make this the best private Africa photo safari experience!

Please note that we only get back into Johannesburg after the Mashatu photo safari leg in the evening, so if your homeward flight is before 9pm, it will be necessary for you to overnight in Johannesburg and these arrangements can be made for you when booking.

Browse the portfolio of photographs below, all taken at Mala Mala and Mashatu on this Big 5 photo safari. Click own any image to enlarge.