SECOND ZAMBIA PHOTO TRIP
By STEVE PRICE

This past September I returned to Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park to complete the photography and research on my assignment to produce a coffee-table book describing this remarkable park and its wildlife. This time I stayed in the park for five weeks, returning home in late October.

In contrast to my earlier trip to South Luangwa in March/April/May when the weather was cooler, more humid, and punctuated with rain, this time conditions were extremely hot (104 degrees F in the shade) and dry. Rain fell once in late September (much earlier than usual), but this was the height of the dry season. The rainy season should begin again in November.

Once again I spent the majority of my time in Lion Camp, a safari camp under construction and tentatively set to open to the public by June, 2006. Also staying at Lion Camp were Peter Lamberti and his video film crew from Johannesburg, South Africa; Lamberti is internationally-known for his wildlife films, which are shown in this country on both the National Geographic and Discovery channels. His team was shooting footage for a film titled “Lords of the Luangwa,” that will chronicle the conflicts between the park’s lions, hippos, and crocodiles.

Frans Lanting and his wife Christine, on assignment for National Geographic Magazine, were also in South Luangwa during much of my stay, and I was privileged to get to know Frans and work beside him. Most of us in the wildlife photography business consider him the best in the world; he’s been shooting for National Geographic for 25 years and his photography has drawn international acclaim. The Geographic has scheduled his story on the Luangwa Valley for later in 2006, and Christine’s article on the Valley’s safari business for a 2007 issue of National Geographic Traveler.

Photography Notes: On my previous trip I shot film primarily but this time I shot digital. Working mainly with a Nikon D2X, I backed it up with my older Fuji S2Pro; with both I shot in RAW format exclusively. I did shoot 35 rolls of Fuji Provia film, but after becoming familiar with the D2X, it was awfully hard to use film. In pure RAW mode, the D2X produces a file of just under 20 megabytes per image, which, in the hands of a good PhotoShop technician translates into unbelievably sharp, color-rich images. All told, this time I shot at least 5,000 more photos, to go with the 5,500 from my first trip. As I have written before, I have been a Nikon user since 1975, and after several months of using the D2X hard, I can honestly say this is the digital camera we Nikon shooters have been waiting for. The motor drive capability alone saved more than one photo opportunity in South Luangwa.

Adventures: Because it was the dry season and all the water in the backcountry had dried, the area around Lion Camp had attracted much more wildlife than was present in the spring. Lamberti, Lanting, and I concentrated our attention on two different lion prides totaling nearly 20 animals, plus occasionally filming additional lions intruding into the area from across the Luangwa River (now shallow enough to wade). I personally worked more with leopards, as my guide and I were able to identify four separate animals and outline their hunting areas.

Due to the heat (and the bright sunlight that wiped out prime photo light), we normally left camp about 5:30 a.m. and returned by 10 a.m. We then went back out between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. and stayed out until 8 or 8:30 p.m. and occasionally later. The majority of big cat activity took place at night and because South Luangwa allows night filming and the use of spotlights, we were able to follow them virtually every night.

I personally was able to film leopards hunting and downing impala as well as guinea fowl, and lions taking down impala and buffalo. Take my word for it, the first thing you realize when you’re trying to film this type of activity is that it happens very, very fast (much faster than on television) and over a larger area. Capturing a leopard leaping into the air and literally catching a flying guinea fowl in darkness was one of the most challenging shots – and yes, luckiest – shots I’ve ever made.

The photo on the website was taken by pre-focusing the camera on a spot on the ground then waiting and hoping my finger was quick enough to fire the flash, that the guinea fowl moved across that spot, that the animal was in the frame when he leaped, and finally, that the cat was in focus. I actually saw a leopard leaping into the air after guinea fowl four times, but photos of three of those leaps are total failures because of the timing of my flash or the direction of the cat’s leap. Remember, this is happening in the darkness and all you truly see is a blur of movement because it’s so fast.

During my earlier trip, much of the big cat activity actually took place far south of Lion Camp where conditions were more favorable. During the dry season, however, the area immediately around Lion Camp was by far the best, which is why Lamberti has been coming to this place to make movies since 1986. We were able to spend literally hours every day with the cats, during which time we got to know their individual personalities and they also became somewhat accustomed to us. As word of our filming success slowly spread through the park, we began to see more safari vehicles making the long drive (nearly three hours) to our area from the southern part of the park 30 miles away.

What is amazing is that when either the lions or leopards were actually hunting, they paid no attention to our presence. On one occasion a leopard brought down an impala not 10 feet from our parked truck. Another leopard climbed a tree and started pulling at a carcass it had hung there three days before – in bright sunshine one morning and just 20 feet from us!

I had done a lot of walking on my first trip but because it was not productive photographically, everything this time was done from open Toyota or Land Rover trucks. Although I always carried my tripod in the vehicle, I rarely used it, relying instead on a beanbag draped over the dashboard. I had the 500mm lens on one camera, an 80-200mm zoom on another, and a 24-120mm zoom lens on a third camera, and all were always within reach. A wider lens would have been nice (especially with the digital cameras) on occasion, and I’ll have one when I do go back.

Final Thoughts: There is no question that right now the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia is one of the premier places in Africa to do wildlife photography, especially for lion and leopard, but also for elephant, hippo, and nearly 100 other species. The prime months to go are August, September, and October, when it is hot and dry. The park has not yet been “discovered” by the rest of the world, but that will surely change in the next few years. My guide and I spent many days afield in which we never saw another safari camp vehicle, not even from Lion Camp.