Botswana: Through the lens

In Africa, each sunrise and sunset brings a new opportunity. A new day. A new golden hour to capture the perfect image. And if it’s a photographic wonderland you’re dreaming of when the new dawn arrives or the day closes, it’s hard to beat Botswana, where the sun glows orange and the wildlife is abundant.

Your introduction to Botswana is sure to put you in the right frame of mind. Here at Wilderness DumaTau in Botswana’s untamed Linyanti discover a kingdom of elephants, a plethora of hippos, and mass herds of buffalo. Let these ginormous grey beasts fill your frame as you take the time to marvel at some of the world’s greatest creatures up close.  

Capture your imagination and the world around you as you explore the plains on a game drive, or discover the waterways by boat. Otherwise simply rest, floating on a deck in the marshland, as you wait to see who’ll show up next. This place, where people and animals share space, is the perfect opening to your Botswana safari and a great area to hone your shutter skills while watching the wildlife go by.

Owned by world-renowned photojournalist and filmmaker, Dave Hamman, and his wife Helene, Wilderness Chitabe places you right into the centre of the canvas. Here the guides have earned their own reputations for their striking wildlife photography, and every game drive or walking safari is an opportunity to learn from the best. Grab your camera for some of the best photo ops the Okavango Delta has to offer, with sightings of leopard, cheetah and wild dog so frequent that you’ll be forgiven for almost calling a lion or elephant sighting mundane. At night, train your eyes and your lens on sightings of smaller, lesser seen inhabitants of the bush, such as servals, owls, bushbabies, and porcupines. For the twitchers, martial eagles, woodland kingfishers, southern ground hornbills, wattled cranes, and more, offer ample opportunities to practice your bird photography.

Back at camp, take inspiration from Dave’s stunning wildlife photographs in your room and the common areas, and perhaps even get an opportunity to chat to the master himself. Here nothing is off the table. Go for a private drive where you can take your time getting the perfect shot, or gather round the communal dining table at the end of the day to chat and laugh over each other’s stories, sightings, and photos. It’s a place where the staff quickly become friends and family. A place to learn, to share, and to return to again and again.

Ending your stay at a water camp such as Wilderness Jao allows you to experience all that the Okavango Delta has to offer, adding a good deal of variation to your camera reel. Here the camp itself offers up many a photographic opportunity. Zoom in on the dappled light that highlights the channels and reeds, reflecting on the ripples as they bounce of the sculptural wood, steel and glass of the camp. Capture the finer things in life at the spa, library, art gallery or museum, complete with an imposing, actual giraffe skeleton.

When it comes time to focusing on the life around camp, go by boat for a fresh perspective on this dewy dreamland, experience life in slow-mo on a mokoro, or sleep out in the Star Bed with your camera resting on its tripod nearby to capture the night sky as you’ve never seen it before.