Drink early, drink often…
On location at Mana Pools, Zimbabwe
This is my last blog post of 2024, so here’s a quick review of the year.
Trips
Dark Waters
I didn’t quite spend a whole year in Africa (!), but with a little help from a successful remortgage and a hefty bank loan, I managed to pay three visits to my favourite safari destinations (Kicheche and Muchenje) and stay in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe for the very first time.
All in all, I went on five photographic trips (plus a long weekend in Aarhus with my friend Jason!). Each lasted two weeks except for Botswana (three) and South Africa (one):
Kicheche, Kenya (January)
Muchenje, Botswana (May) and Greater Kruger, South Africa (June)
South Luangwa, Zambia (July-August)
Mana Pools, Zimbabwe (September-October)
Kicheche, Kenya (December).
Kicheche Mara Camp & Valley Camp, Kenya
It's All Downhill From Here
Ever since I saw five kills in a week on my first trip in 2018, Kicheche has been my go-to place for photographing cheetahs. My guide has always been Paul Goldstein, an experienced wildlife photographer who part-owns the camps.
I’ve been to all three in the Masai Mara (Bush, Mara and Valley Camps), and I hope to visit Kicheche Laikipia in 2025 to see the rhinos—with a possible side-trip to Laikipia Wilderness for the black leopard!
I’ve seen at least one cheetah kill every time I’ve visited Kicheche, and my trip in January was no exception. Nashipae managed to bring down a female impala, and I was able to get a long sequence of shots during the chase, including this one (see above).
Unfortunately, the thornbushes got in the way of the actual takedown, but I was pleased with the shots I took. Cheetah kills are so rare that I was happy just to be able to see one—let alone photograph it successfully!
Muchenje, Botswana
Dust Bird
I've visited Muchenje Safari Lodge three times as the ‘resident photographer’. Each time, I’ve done a barter deal with one of the co-owners, Shaun, so I’ve enjoyed free accommodation for three weeks (and even free flights!) in exchange for copies of my pictures—some of which are now hanging on the walls of the rooms.
The great appeal of Botswana is the water. Muchenje is on the banks of the Chobe River, so it’s possible to go on boat rides as well as game drives. That means you can fill your day with one safari adventure after another, with a game drive in the morning followed by a boat ride and picnic lunch on the river and, finally, another game drive on the way home.
Botswana is great for elephants, and Chobe has the highest population in the whole country. I’m not a huge fan of photographing elephants, but I do make an exception for playful calves and dust or mud baths!
There aren’t any cheetahs or rhinos in Chobe, so you won’t see the whole Big Five, but leopard sightings are possible—if you’re lucky! The first time I went in 2022, I didn’t see a single one, but I’ve seen plenty since then.
In addition, the boat rides give you a different perspective. You see things you might not normally see on safari, such as buffaloes and elephants grazing on the island of Sedudu and the wide selection of birdlife. Fortunately, the boat rides low enough in the water that you can easily get down to eye level. I took this shot of a water thick-knee (see above) by lying on the front deck and resting my 600mm lens on the bow of the boat!
Greater Kruger, South Africa
Red Run
Gallery: link
Blog: link, link, link, link
It had bothered me for a while that I’d never been to South Africa. I’d been to almost all the other traditional safari destinations, including Botswana, Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania, but not South Africa. So I decided to make it happen.
In the end, it was more luck than judgment. I’d planned to go in September, but when my flight home from Botswana was cancelled, I decided to take advantage of the unexpected opportunity.
BA put me up in the Birchwood Hotel in Johannesburg, so it was easy to ask the Transport Manager about getting a ride to Kruger National Park and booking a few lodges. In the end, he was kind enough to do everything himself! Thanks, Evans…
It was a very last-minute trip, so I was surprised how easy it was to find accommodation—although there was a horrible misunderstanding at Simbavati when I arrived to find they didn’t have a booking for me!
I stayed at several lodges just outside the Kruger National Park:
Kambaku was outside the Kruger National Park, but my game drives were inside. That was a misunderstanding—and a mistake. The national park was chock-full of trees, and as soon as I passed through the main gate, I couldn’t believe it was possible to be a wildlife photographer there!
Like Kings Camp, though, Kambaku had a hide, and I was able to spend many comfortable hours taking pictures of all the game that visited the waterholes—including six white rhinos!
The lesson I took from South Africa was that it was a matter of quality over quantity. I didn’t get many sightings, but I still saw plenty of lions, leopards and African wild dogs.
South Luangwa, Zambia
Going for Gold
Gallery: link
Blog: link, link, link, link, link, link
After seeing so many leopards and wild dogs in South Africa, I decided to book a trip to South Luangwa to do the same. Unfortunately, I didn’t see as many as I’d hoped, and the whole experience was a bit of a letdown.
I didn’t get on with the staff at Mfuwe, and I had so few sightings that, on a couple of game drives, I didn’t see a single animal or take a single photograph!
Having said that, I did see African wild dogs on two or three occasions, so it was nice to be able to add a few portraits and videos to my collection.
Mana Pools, Zimbabwe
Alone
Until this year, I’d never really heard anything about Mana Pools. However, all that changed when I met a nice chap at one of the lodges in South Luangwa. He told me all about the place and persuaded me that it was the perfect location for wildlife photography as you could walk with the animals—rather than being stuck in a safari truck!
He even told me the name of a guy who had been running walking safaris there for 40 years called Stretch Ferreira. What a name! On the spur of the moment, I decided to book a trip.
In the end, I have to admit that it was a disappointment. Stretch and the rest of the staff were a good laugh and certainly knew their stuff, but there were too many elephants and too few leopards, lions, cheetahs and African wild dogs.
I was lucky to get a sighting of a leopard on my last night, but it happened just after sunset, so it was hard to take great pictures. This one made me smile (see above), but I’ve had to downgrade it from five stars to four because of the light. Shame…
Kicheche Bush Camp & Valley Camp, Kenya
Panning for Gold
It’s always dangerous to go back to your favourite places, and I left Kicheche a little disappointed. I did see a couple of cheetah kills, but they were in the far distance, and I didn’t manage to take any photographs of the actual takedowns. The best I could manage was this slow pan of a cheetah chasing a warthog (see above).
Apart from that, it was nice to see a lioness carrying a cub in her mouth and a serval jumping across a wide river. I’d never seen either of those before. However, there were very few birds to photograph and almost no lilac-breasted rollers, so I didn’t even get many chances to take bird-in-flight shots.
New Camera & Lens
My new Nikon Z8
When it comes to equipment, my big news is that I swapped one of my ⍺1 camera bodies, my two teleconverters and my 12-24mm, 400mm and 600mm lenses for a new Nikon Z8 with a NIKKOR Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S lens. The main reasons were to benefit from pre-release capture and the built-in 1.4x teleconverter.
Since then, Sony has brought out the ⍺1 II, which now has pre-capture. However, there’s still no Sony telephoto lens with a built-in teleconverter, and until that changes, I’m happy using my Z8.
Using pre-release capture and the built-in teleconverter is very easy. In fact, my biggest problem now is that I forget my settings and end up using the wrong frame rate or focal length!
That should change in time, but I do hope Nikon releases another firmware update so that I can use pre-release capture with Raw files rather than just JPEGs. Come on, guys…
Workshops & Lessons
Andrew’s winning shot of a migrant hawker
I managed to do two photography workshops this year with Handmade Workshops at the London Wetland Centre: one in February and one in September. I'll be doing a couple more on Saturday 25 January and Saturday 22 March. If you want to come along, you can find out all the details on my Events page.
In addition, I taught a few private clients over the course of a few weekends. I always enjoy helping other photographers get to grips with the subject, so I’m glad to have been able to do that so often in the past year.
Awards
Golden Goodbye
One of the problems with being a wildlife photographer is that it’s very hard to boast of my success. I’ve won over 500 awards, but the only one anyone has ever heard of is the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year!
Having said that, it’s still nice to get a little recognition sometimes. I was very chuffed when Margot Raggett chose to include one of my photos in her Remembering Tigers book (see above). She even decided to put it on the back cover!
In addition, there was a launch party at the Royal Geographical Society’s building in South Kensington, London. I’d have been happy to go under the radar, but as soon as I arrived, someone asked me to sign a few books, and Margot herself told all the winning photographers to stand up and receive a round of applause from hundreds of guests!
The Pointer
My other major success came when a black-and-white version of The Pointer (see above) won Shoot The Frame’s Shoot The Wild photo contest. I’d been a finalist a few too many times, so it was nice to win it for the second time…
It was also nice to see a couple of my shots appear in The Daily Star and The Times News in Pictures section (here and here). I use a couple of agencies to place shots like these, but they don’t tell me in advance, so I sometimes find out accidentally—either when I see them myself or when one of my friends tells me by text!
You can see an up-to-date list of all my awards on the About page.
Print Sales
Teenage Kicks
It’s been a pretty slow year for print sales, unfortunately. I don’t know if that’s the result of the cost of living crisis in the UK or some other factor, but it’s been tough.
The only print I sold was Teenage Kicks (see above). I took the shot on my trip to Kicheche in December, and one of the guests I met over there bought it—which worked out nicely!
Stock Sales
Easy Does It
Fortunately, my stock sales are still growing. Eddie the Penguin has been downloaded 3,490 times, and Easy Does It (see above) has now overtaken Bear Gills as my second-most popular image with 879 downloads vs 505.
It’s a nice passive income stream, and, after giving Design Pics first refusal, I still upload 100 images every Friday to 10 microstock agencies, including Adobe, Getty and Shutterstock.
Writing
Wildlife Photographic article
As well as my Saturday blog posts on Capture the Moment!, I occasionally write for various online magazines, and I had a piece on Harnessing, Enhancing and Embracing Light published in issue 67 of Wildlife Photographic.
As well as my Saturday blog posts on Capture the Moment!, I occasionally write for various online magazines, and I had a piece on Harnessing, Enhancing and Embracing Light published in issue 67 of Wildlife Photographic.
I also regularly get a gallery of images published in PHOTOHOUSE magazine. It’s really more targeted at fashionistas than wildlife photographers, but I don’t mind…!
Social Media
Eddie the Penguin
As usual, I post my Shot of the Week on social media on Sunday mornings.
In addition, I post pictures and videos every morning on my social media accounts (except Flickr, Pinterest, Threads and Vero):
Facebook: facebook.com/nickdalephotography
Instagram: instagram.com/nickdalephotography
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ndale/
Pinterest: pinterest.com/nickdalephotography
Threads: threads.net/@nickdalephotography
TikTok: tiktok.com/@nickdalephotography
YouTube: youtube.com/@nickdalephotography
Verdict
Bear Gills
The year 2024 wasn’t very good for me in financial terms. I took a bath when I traded in my Sony ⍺1 camera and lenses, and I only sold one print. However, I was chuffed to bits to have one of my images included in the Remembering Tigers book, and I’ve quickly fallen in love with my new Nikon gear. Pre-release capture and the built-in teleconverter are real game-changers for bird-in-flight photography!
I spent the windfall from my remortgage and bank loan on a number of different photographic trips, but I have mixed feelings about those experiences. Yes, it was great to get away, and there’s nowhere I feel more comfortable than in the African wilderness.
However, I was a little disappointed with my wildlife sightings and, by extension, with the photos I took. I’d say they were good, but not great. And that’s a little upsetting. Whatever I’m doing, I always like to be making progress, so it’s hard when I feel like I’m only treading water.
To make matters worse, my huge cash pile is gone now (!), so I’ll have to save up for my next photographic expedition. I also need to email a few of the lodges that have offered me gigs as a resident photographer. If I can get a few free trips out of them, I should be able to get back in the game…
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.
If you’d like to book a lesson or order an online photography course, please visit my Lessons and Courses pages.