Mana Pools in my eyes

[Wild Dogger]

I am just two weekd back from my 10 days trip to Mana Pools.
I stayed 5 nights each at Zambezi Expeditions Camp and Kanga Camp.
I am going to first share some of the pictures and want to ressume my trip at the end.
Someone told me on this trip:
You don´t go to Mana Pools for close ups of animals.
You go to Mana for photographing animals in this stunning landscape.
So right!
So I am going to start of with landscape orientated shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

Wow!

So many wonderful shots!

[wilddog]

The photos really capture the essence of Mana.

[Wild Dogger]

My main reason for going to Mana Pools was the possibility to approach African Wild Dogs on foot to hopefully be able to capture some nice low angle shots of these amazing predators.
Luckily I had multiple good sightings.































These are some shots of the first encounter on the second morning.

[ElenaH]

WoW Great Low-angle images (not only of dogs) This is why I also love Mana Pools! You can go out of the car and on your belly.

Very nice! 

As if I were there. 

[Miss Biscuit]

Love the landscape shots! Just stunning. And I love the dogs shot from the lower level, great perspective,

[michael-ibk]

Great photos Thomas, quintessential Mana Pools!

[Atravelynn]

The classic Mana Pools landscape plus the playful dogs and the animals in the landscape.  You did it!  Well, you and your little bear friend did it.  Wow.

[Alex The Lion]

A nice set of images @Wild Dogger

 

Out of interest, how close are you to the Dogs and what lenses are you using in that instance?

[Wild Dogger]

2 minutes ago, Alex The Lion said:

A nice set of images @Wild Dogger

 

Out of interest, how close are you to the Dogs and what lenses are you using in that instance?

I am really not good in guessing distances. According to the exif for the playing dogs it says 42.3m, the backlight dogs were 31.9 m away.
I don´t know how reliable that is.
I was shooting the playing dogs with ef 300mm LIS 2.8 + 1.4 teleconverter and the backlight dogs without tc. The first, the pack and the backlight shots were only marginal cropped.
300mm is long enough, with the tc I lost some shots as the dogs were playing wild and "jumped" out of the frame, which would not happened without.
 

[Wild Dogger]

Some more Painted Dogs (honestly, I like to call them African Wild Dogs)


Canon R5, EF300mm 2.8.LIS USM MK2 @f3.5 ISO16000 1/500sec, EAV +1


Canon R5, EF300mm 2.8.LIS USM MK2 @f2.8 ISO5000 1/500sec, EAV +1/3


Canon R5, EF300mm 2.8.LIS USM MK2 @f2.8 ISO500 1/800sec, EAV +1


Canon R5, EF300mm 2.8.LIS USM MK2 @f2.8 ISO500 1/800sec, EAV +1


Canon R5, EF300mm 2.8.LIS USM MK2 @f2.8 ISO500 1/1600sec, EAV +1/3


Canon R5, EF300mm 2.8.LIS USM MK2 @f2.8 ISO640 1/1600sec, EAV +1/3

[Peter Connan]

They are beautiful through your lens!

[offshorebirder]

Fantastic light on the Wild Dogs @Wild Dogger - I especially like the images of them playing together.

[Alex The Lion]

2 hours ago, Wild Dogger said:

I am really not good in guessing distances. According to the exif for the playing dogs it says 42.3m, the backlight dogs were 31.9 m away.
I don´t know how reliable that is.
I was shooting the playing dogs with ef 300mm LIS 2.8 + 1.4 teleconverter and the backlight dogs without tc. The first, the pack and the backlight shots were only marginal cropped.
300mm is long enough, with the tc I lost some shots as the dogs were playing wild and "jumped" out of the frame, which would not happened without.
 

 

Thanks. Always tricky when you are stuck with a fixed lens!

 

Was it easy to follow the dogs and getting follow up sightings once they had moved off?

 

Looking at the terrain and the small stumps, it looks like it was tricky to get fully on your stomach to take photos?

[Wild Dogger]

 

39 minutes ago, Alex The Lion said:

 

Thanks. Always tricky when you are stuck with a fixed lens!

 

Was it easy to follow the dogs and getting follow up sightings once they had moved off?

 

Looking at the terrain and the small stumps, it looks like it was tricky to get fully on your stomach to take photos?

I love my 300 mm lens.

Honestly I was not laying flat on the ground. I was just sitting.
The dogs were mostly on a bit of an elevated level which helped.
And we really had not to follow them long distances.
When we saw them they were relatively close to the road and had already hunted.
When they were up to hunt again, we tried to follow them but that was a fruitless operation.

[ElenaH]

22 hours ago, Wild Dogger said:

I am really not good in guessing distances. According to the exif for the playing dogs it says 42.3m, the backlight dogs were 31.9 m away.
I don´t know how reliable that is.
I was shooting the playing dogs with ef 300mm LIS 2.8 + 1.4 teleconverter and the backlight dogs without tc. The first, the pack and the backlight shots were only marginal cropped.
300mm is long enough, with the tc I lost some shots as the dogs were playing wild and "jumped" out of the frame, which would not happened without.

It is a very interesting information and I can confirm it. You are normally at 20-30m from the dogs becasue if you come closer they will go away and other people will not be happy about it. Or the dogs will growl.

 

Absolutelly stunning Photographs, Thomas! 

 

 

19 hours ago, Alex The Lion said:

Always tricky when you are stuck with a fixed lens!

 

Was it easy to follow the dogs and getting follow up sightings once they had moved off?

 

Looking at the terrain and the small stumps, it looks like it was tricky to get fully on your stomach to take photos?

I've been many times to Mana staying there for a long time. Professional wildlife photographers are using there 400mm (normally with f2.8) for wild dogs to get nice portraits. For playing dogs you sometimes need to zoom out to 300 or 200mm or change he lens.

We often followed the dogs. If you run with 400/2.8 then you are done and go on your belly anyway.  So, the 400/2.8 and 600/4 are heavy combinations and in Mana Pools the temperatures a bit higher than for example, in Hwange during September-October (Mana has a lower elevation) and temperatures can climb um to +42 in October and +38 in September. If you are in a good shape you cna follow the dogs, I think. My friend was running behind the dogs with 400/2.8. He mentioned that he was shaken too much after running with a heavy equipment and h took always a monopod. 

 

I normally lay down. If it is not on the shore of zambezi then it is a hard terrain. The stumps are not very many and you can always have a place to lay down beween them. The problem can be that sometimes you need to walk long distances to find the dogs.  But they have their favourite places and it makes easier to find them.

 

[Wild Dogger]

Another reason to go to Mana Pools was to hopefully see Elephants standing on their hint legs.
Well, it was "easier" then I thought.
I saw Boswell on the evening, when I arrived showing his ability.



The next day we found him again.
We were able to follow him long distance. Sometimes I had the feeling, he was waiting for us.

He is indeed an impressive Elephant.












We also saw another Elephant putting up a show.





Even when I saw "just" an Elephant, it was amazing.

[janzin]

Fabulous photos of the dogs and ellies! Gorgeous light! You are tempting me to go to Mana...although I don't think walking is really in the cards for us, which is why we haven't really considered it.

[Atravelynn]

Front seats for the ele show.  Wow!  Such strength and agility. And I complain about getting on my tiptoes to reach the back of the cupboard and instead enlist my husband.

Edited September 19, 2024 by Atravelynn

[Wild Dogger]

19 hours ago, janzin said:

Fabulous photos of the dogs and ellies! Gorgeous light! You are tempting me to go to Mana...although I don't think walking is really in the cards for us, which is why we haven't really considered it.

 

 

We really did not walk long distances. It was more of a leisurely walk. The longest walking distance might have been, when we followed Boswell for maybe 2 hours. But he took is time, so did we.

[Scooter]

Why,   isn't there an "absolutely-LOVE" button instead of just a "like" button lol.      I LOVE your images,   showing such sharp shots - within their natural environment.    

 

Was there much in the way of "people-traffic"??   Did you find sightings crowded on foot?   

[Wild Dogger]

59 minutes ago, Scooter said:

Why,   isn't there an "absolutely-LOVE" button instead of just a "like" button lol.      I LOVE your images,   showing such sharp shots - within their natural environment.    

 

Was there much in the way of "people-traffic"??   Did you find sightings crowded on foot?   

Thank you so much.
On the flood plains it almost was a circus.
I only saw as many vehicles on sightings in places like Kruger Nationalpark, Masai Mara and Serengeti.
I often heard people taking about Mana being one of the last real wild places.
Well, on the flood plains I did not have that feeling. "Inland" it might be a different story.
We had one Wild Dog sighting on our own. When we left, others dropped in.
The first sighting we started of with just 6 and ended up with almost 20 people.
On one wild dog sighting late in the afternoon I counted 12 cars.
But: I still liked it most of the time. 

[Wild Dogger]

Now it´s time for the lions.
On the flood plains the sightings were rare.
We only approached lion on foot on the first day.
Unfortunately this sighting was blown by one crazy very well-known camp owner and guide.
He stepped into the sighting like a clown, wearing crazy sunglasses and talking very loud, while all others remained quiet.
The result was, that the lions felt uncomfortable and left.
Thanks for nothing Father Mana.

 

The most sightings we had in the Kanga Concession.
The pride there consisted of, I think, 21 lions.

[AKR1]

@Wild Dogger

Incredible images in beautiful light with extraordinary shooting angles on foot. 
Thanks for sharing these. 

[AKR1]

45 minutes ago, Wild Dogger said:

Thank you so much.
On the flood plains it almost was a circus.
I only saw as many vehicles on sightings in places like Kruger Nationalpark, Masai Mara and Serengeti.
I often heard people taking about Mana being one of the last real wild places.
Well, on the flood plains I did not have that feeling. "Inland" it might be a different story.
We had one Wild Dog sighting on our own. When we left, others dropped in.
The first sighting we started of with just 6 and ended up with almost 20 people.
On one wild dog sighting late in the afternoon I counted 12 cars.
But: I still liked it most of the time. 

Had no idea Mana Pools was so crowded.