Trogon Photo Tours

This month's newsletter features photography at Zimanga Game Reserve in South Africa.  It's one of the top wildlife photography locations in Africa with blinds designed by Bence Mate.  We visited it for the first time during our South Africa tour this past October.  It didn't disappoint and is now always on our schedule for South Africa Photo Tours.  It includes info about the various blinds there and the photo equipment and settings used on shots.  

Blue Waxbill photographed October 2018 by Nate Chappell at the Mkombe Blind, Zimanga Game Reserve, South Africa.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4 1/1600 at F6.3, iso 1250, Av mode with evaluative metering at -0.3, Tripod, Gimbal Head.  Zimanga provides good tripods and gimbal heads in all of their blinds.  The first blind my group photographed at was the Mkombe Blind which is set up for morning sessions with the sun at your back.  This particular blind was especially good for finches, waxbills and weavers.  The blinds are made with specially designed high quality glass between you and the birds and wildlife, this lessons the amount of noise the birds and wildlife hear, on the down side you lose about 1 stop of light.  

Yellow-fronted Canary photographed October 2018 by Nate Chappell at the Mkombe Blind, Zimanga Game Reserve, South Africa.  Canon 1DX II, 500F4, 1/1000 at F6.3, iso 1600, evaluative metering at -0.3, Tripod, Gimbal Head.  The small bird blinds are designed as narrow chutes of water rather than round pools such as they have at the ranches in South Texas.  We cut a perch and placed it just above the pool to make this image, the birds didn't seem used to perches being put out like this and this was the only one which used our perch but large numbers of birds bathed and drank at this blind. 

White-backed Vultures photographed October 2018 by Nate Chappell at the Scavenger hide, Zimanga Game Reserve, South Africa.  Canon 5D4 100-400 Canon at 300mm, 1/1000 F8, iso 800, Av mode, evaluative metering at -0.3, handheld.  The Scavenger Hide was our second hide and my personal favorite.  Carrion is put out in a hole in the ground and a variety of birds including these vultures, Wooly-necked Storks, Pied Crows, a Tawny Eagle, Black Kites and several Black-backed Jackals came in along with Hornbills and some other small birds.  I had my 500F4 on the tripod and I was shooting the 100-400 handheld.  I think in all of the blinds there you want both a zoom and your prime.  For example this shot is almost full frame and was just at 300mm. 

Black-backed Jackal photographed at the Scavenger Hide, Canon 5D4, 500F4 1/800 F7.1, iso 800, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, Tripod, Gimbal Head.  The blinds give you great low angle opportunities.  This mother Jackal which had a den nearby and carried off several large portions of carrion walking straight past us a few times. 

Black Crake photographed October 2018 at the Lagoon Hide, Zimanga Game Reserve, South Africa.  Canon 5D4, 100-400 at 400mm, 1/200 at F5.6, iso 2000, Av mode, evaluative metering -0.7, handheld.  Before the trip I was most excited about the Lagoon Hide as I had seen some amazing award winning images from that particular blind taken by other photographers.  It has a great perspective putting you essentially sitting below water level of the lagoon and right at eye level with the birds.  But we didn't have a great deal of luck with large interesting species such as Fish Eagles or Goliath Herons and we didn't have very good luck with the weather as it was overcast and dark both mornings we visited it.  This Black Crake which is a tiny little rail was probably the highlight.  There were plenty of African Jacanas and a Little Egret was around most of the time.  In the early morning and late afternoon they turn on some floodlights which help to supplement the natural light at this blind.  You cannot use flash as it would just reflect against the glass, but these floodlights give a bit of a flashed effect and were on during this shot as the rail  walked towards one of the lights.  This is the main reason I was at -0.7 despite it being a cloudy morning. 

Pied Kingfisher photographed October 2018 by Nate Chappell at the Lagoon Hide, Zimanga Game Reserve, South Africa.  Canon 5D4, 100-400 at 400mm 1/80 at F6.3, iso 2000, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, handheld. One of the unique features of the Lagoon Hide is you can photograph from both sides, that is out the front window and what is in effect the back window.  So while we were set up for morning light looking the other direction since it was an overcast day we would occasionally check what was behind us (there is a curtain over the windows of the side that you aren't planning to use).  This Pied Kingfisher regularly stayed on that other side and we managed some images of him by taking the curtains back for a time.   Without the benefit of a side light on this side I was at 0 on a cloudy day on this black and white bird. 

Cape Buffaloes photographed October 2018 by Charles Gangas at the Umgadi Overnight Hide, Zimanga, South Africa.  Nikon D500, 24-70 lens at 70mm 1/80 at F4, iso 2500, Av mode, matrix metering at 0, Tripod, Gimbal Head.  Chuck and 2 of the participants decided to do one of the overnight hides at Zimanga.  They are floodlit but again because of the glass, flash is not effective so the result is low shutter speeds at fairly high isos.  Despite there being beds in the hide, no one got much sleep as they didn't want to miss anything.  Besides these Cape Buffalo which came in the highlight was a Spotted Eagle Owl which kept them company much of the night, catching moths. 

Spotted Eagle Owl photographed October 2018 by Charles Gangas at Umgodi Overnight Hide, Zimanga, South Africa.  Nikon D500, Nikon 24-70 at 70mm 1/160 at F4, iso 2500, Av mode, matrix metering at 0, Tripod, Gimbal Head.  Here is the above mentioned Eagle Owl feeding on a moth.  

Crested Francolin photographed October 2018 by Nate Chappell at the Bhejane Hide, Zimanga Game Reserve, South Africa.  Canon 5D4 500F4 1/250 at F5, iso 1600, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, Tripod, Gimbal Head.  This was the last hide that we visited, it was another small bird hide, this time in more of a woodland area than the previous small bird hide.  It was a favorite of game birds and doves the day we were there.  It was also overcast and cool so no birds were bathing.  They put seed out on the sides of the blind but the problem was often the edge of the pond was above the surrounding ground leading to shots of just the top half of birds.  So I ended up turning a lot of the images into portraits such as this one. 

Giraffe photographed October 2018 at Zimanga Lodge by Charles Gangas.  Nikon D500, 500F4 1/320 at F5.6, iso 1600, Av mode, matrix metering at 0, handheld.  Game drives are also part of the experience at Zimanga and offer a wide variety of mammals and birds.  While I have focused on the blinds and photography at Zimanga I would add that the accommodations and particularly the food was top notch, one of the best lodges that I have stayed at.  The hides provide many opportunities to get unique and spectacular images.