Why go to Botswana in March? Look at these green backgrounds and beautiful clouds! I just returned home from a month in one of my favorite shooting locations on the planet…Botswana. This year was another amazing adventure full of amazing wildlife, beautiful weather and scenery, and unlimited photography opportunities.

My trip started with a 4 day stay at Jack’s Camp in the Kalahari Desert. Our main focus here was the “star power” of those little lovable creatures know as Meerkats. Jack’s camp has several habituated families of these photographic little animals which allowed us to basically get right inside their family groups and photograph all their behavior with a wide angle lens! It is so fun to work with animals who are not afraid of you and who allow such intimate photography.

Then we were off to the jewel of Botswana….the Okavango Delta. Here we spent are beautiful days photographing Lions, Leopard, Elephants, Zebra, Giraffe, Birds, Warthogs, Hippos, Impala, etc…etc. One of the most memorable experiences we had was watching and photographing our three Cheetah brothers. I have been watching this coalition of male Cheetahs for the last 8 years! They are amazing.

We also had a great thrill with Wild Hunting dogs throughout the trip. Between my two groups, we had three different packs of Wild Dogs. These endangered canines are the reason I started coming to Botswana, which is one of the last strongholds for this amazing predator. We were lucky enough to see a lot of interesting behavior including their complex greeting antics as well as witnessing several kills.

We ended this year’s trip at a place I have been wanting to visit for 7 years…Duba Plains. This area is the location where photographer/film maker couple Beverly and Dereck Joubert  worked on their amazing project documenting the Lions who kill Cape Buffalos. The thought of seeing Lions hunting Cape Buffalo has been in my mind ever since seeing their amazing photographs and film footage. Well…I finally made it to Duba, and it didn’t disappoint!  We were lucky enough to witness this epic struggle between predator and huge herbivore (Lion and Buffalo) first hand when nearly a dozen lions hunted and killed an adult Cape Buffalo!!! This was probably the most amazing thing I had ever seen in all my many years of watching wildlife. Anyway….next year is surely going to be another great year for wildlife viewing and photography….Take a little time off and join me in Botswana!

After our main 5 day workshop, we headed up the coast to the Lookout Inn for our Scarlet Macaw extension. Sometimes things just seem to go right…really right! We had a fruiting date palm right next to our lodge that just started to become ripe enough for the groups of spectacular Scarlet Macaws to take notice. We spent two days photographing fly ins—feeding, fighting, and general action at that palm tree—sometimes having 7 macaws on the fruit cluster at one time!

So…successful Scarlet Macaw extension…CHECK!

Then it was time to drive up out of the lowland Rainforest and into the cool, cloud forests of the Talamanca mountains for our quest for the amazing Resplendent Quetzal. Did we get great photos of this amazing bird…why, of course! We have never missed….knock on wood. Everyone enjoyed our time photographing the Quetzals as well as the many hours photographing the many…many hummingbirds that surround our mountain lodge.

I don’t think I will ever get tired of leading this photography workshop to Costa Rica….it is always fun…always productive, and a great location for doing interesting rainforest photography!

Check out a small sampling of the images from the Toft Photo Rainforests of Costa Rica Workshop. I hope to see you next year.

-Roy

This year Toft Photo hosted two full Pantanal trips and the experience and photographic results were amazing! As I have stated in past recent trip reports, the Pantanal is one of the richest ecosystems and one of the best photographic destinations that I can think of. The abundance and diversity of animal/bird life combined with the relative ease of access and photography make this trip a must for any nature photographer. Let me give you a quick rundown of the two trips:

We arrived into the Pantanal with group one and spent the first afternoon on the Pixaim River photographing the huge variety of birds, caimans, capybaras, and other creatures found in great numbers here. All the wildlife in this region is very approachable, which makes the photography terrific. Five different species of Kingfisher are found on the river and often times we glide up to within 20 feet of them at eye level! Some of my favorite subjects this year on the Pixain were Giant Otters, Agami Heron, Green & Rufous Kingfisher, Jabiru Storks, black-tailed Marmosets, and families of Capybara.

After a very productive couple days on the Pixaim River, it was time to head further south to the Cuiaba River and our houseboat, where we would be searching for the mighty Jaguar. After 4 trips to Brazil I finally experienced one of their cold fronts that I have heard so much about. Our first three days on the Cuiaba River, the temps had dropped from around 85 degrees F to 55 F. Even though it was a bit chilly, we had fun photographing many different groups of Giant Otter, birds, Capybara, Caimans….and yes, our first Jaguar! Our first Jaguar came on our second morning on the river. After getting a radio call of the sighting, we all headed to where the most photographed wild Jaguar in the world was resting on the river bank. His name is Wilson. I first saw Wilson in 2009 when I came to investigate this new Jaguar phenomena on the Cuiaba River. Wilson was my first wild Jaguar! We saw him on the river bank and then watched him swim across the mighty Cuiaba on that morning 2 years ago. Something was different this year however. Wilson was not looking so good. He had several large gashes on his face from fighting with other Jaguars and he sported a radio collar. Now, I won’t take time in this trip report to talk about my feeling about radio collars but I can tell you, Wilson looked a lot happier and much more majestic two years ago!

On our fourth day, the cold front had passed and we were treated to a wonderful Jaguar named Lighting. I should mention here that every Jaguar photographed is run through the photo database of known Jaguars, so a record can be made of the whereabouts, physical condition, etc., of each cat can be recorded. “Lightning” was a new Jaguar for this year. This is something that interests me; that it is not just the same small group of cats that are seen over and over again every year around the Cuiaba River. In fact, there were more “new cats” this year seen than documented return cats. Ok, back to Lightning…this male Jaguar was amazing! Huge, beautiful, and not nervous about photographers in boats watching his every move. The photo session that Lightning gave us that afternoon was the best I have experienced. We spent several hours watching/photographing the amazing cat as he relaxed on the river bank, walked down to the river to drink, walked along the white sandy beach….even when he spent a couple seconds playing with a large apple snail shell! Just fantastic! We continued to see/photograph Lightning throughout group #1′s stay and even saw him again with group #2. Two other Jaguars were also seen and photographed during our group one but nothing came close to our session with Lightning.

Ok, so besides everyone from both groups getting to see and photograph wild Jaguars, we had exceptional Giant Otter sessions with both groups. I remember one morning spent in a small, picturesque, black water tributary where we had an entire family of 6 Giant Otters fishing and feeding. We must have burned through 10 gigs of memory as Otter after Otter pulled these large fish out of the water onto logs and proceeded to gorge themselves! These same small river systems were also great for displaying Caimans this year. Almost every morning, we could drift our boats around 10 foot Caimans as they made water dance off their backs….this is hard to describe….but you would hear sonic booms from the Caimans and then see them posturing with their heads and tails out of the water….then the water on their backs would start to dance from the vibrating Caiman –– just amazing!

Recent_Trip_2011_Brazil – Images by Roy Toft Photo Safaris

I have been photographing brown bears for over 16 years now. I’ve been on countless trips and have been to almost every well-known location for brown bears in North America. Without a doubt, your Eagles and Bears of Katmai Coast Photo Tour offers the BEST opportunity for brown bear photography in North America, possibly the world. In addition to the bears, the day we spent with the huge raft of sea otters was absolutely unparalleled and certainly is one of the highlights of my photographic experiences. Not to mention the seals, whales, porpoise, Steller sea lions, bald eagles (both in flight and chicks in the nest), countless seabirds and spectacular scenery. I believe that Geographic Harbor is one of the most beautiful and stunning spots in North America. The experience on the boat was fantastic with a top-notch Captain, Crew and a most amazing cook. I didn’t think it was possible to eat too much fresh Alaskan crab and halibut, but we came close on this trip…

Having done quite a few trips with Toft Photo Tours, it is amazing how you always seem to have such a great mix of wonderful people. And this trip was no exception. The camaraderie and friendships that develop among your groups never ceases to amaze me and on every Toft Photo Tour I go on, I meet the nicest people and always end up developing new, long-term friendships.

Your easy manner, leadership and instruction in the field and during breaks is what sets you apart from any other Photography Tour Company. I am looking forward to many future trips with you.

Steve Freno

I am an intermediate level photographer recently returning from Roy Toft’s Katmai peninsula, Alaska trip photographing bears and other wildlife. I have attended several photo workshops in the past but this one was far superior to anything I could have imagined. It was perfect from start to finish. My friends could not believe my images were real – this was a trip of a lifetime! With Roy’s expertise, I learned a lot about my camera, vision and composition. I highly recommend this trip to anyone at any level.

Ellie Nichols
Annapolis, MD

Recent_Trip_2011_Eagles-Bears – Images by Roy Toft Photo Safaris

For more information on our 2012 Katmai Coast Photo Tour trip, visit the Eagles and Bears – Alaska Tours & Workshop page.

-Roy

Back to one of my favorite places to photograph on the planet! Botswana! I started off this trip by scouting a couple camps down in the Kalahari Desert. I’ve included a couple picture of the unique animals found there including the large desert antelope called a Gemsbok or Gemsbuck. Hard to find a better subject for a silhouette, with a regal, muscular body and those formable 3 foot horns! I also got very lucky to photograph a female lion carrying her 10 day old cub during a change in den sites…..that was at Tao Pan camp in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Now let’s get to my regular camps in the Okavango Delta and the Linyanti swamps area of Botswana. Both camps came through with Lions…Lions…Lions! We had lions nearly every day and not just sleeping lions. We had playful 7 month old cubs chasing their siblings and wrestling with their mothers. We had 6 different adult male lions on several kills including a Tsesabe, Red Lechwe, Giraffe, and even a Hippo! This was some of the best lion activity I have ever seen and photographed. We did get lucky with other cats as well….a huge male leopard allowed us to follow him for about an hour! This was not your normal run of the mill Leopard sighting….if there is such a thing. We also had a couple different Cheetahs, although we did not get a chance to watch a hunt this year by one of these speeders. Giraffe…Elephants, Zebra, and other African specialties kept us busy snapping pictures in between the predator sighting. One of my favorite subjects to photograph in Africa is the Hippos. I know that might sound strange to you, but they are so fun to watch. Even if all the hippos seem to be on the other side of the lake you park at, within 15-30 minutes you undoubtedly have all those huge heads headed your way to check you out! Then you get the full open mouth displays that never get old along with bickering and fights that break out from time to time. Park me at a hippo pool and I can be happy for hours.

Several clients and myself also did an extra trip to Hwange NP in Zimbabwe after the main Botswana trip. It was very tough for us to work in a National Park after being spoiled in Botswana’s private concessions…the main difficulty being the rule of staying on the roads. Of course this is necessary in a park that gets many visitors….it just makes it very difficult to be in the right spot for photography. We did spend time in our lodge’s (The Hide) small concession, just outside the park and was able to work a variety of good subjects including Giraffe, Bat-eared Fox, and Crowned Cranes.

Recent_Trip_2011_Botswana – Images by Roy Toft Photo Safaris

Thank you to all our lodges, drivers, and trackers who do their best to put us crazy photographers in the best possible position and who take care of us all…… while smiling and laughing! Also a big thanks to a wonderful group of mostly past clients who joined me on this big adventure….I hope you had a great time and came away with some wonderful images and memories!

-Roy

Another Toft Photo Rainforests of Costa Rica photo workshop in the Osa peninsula goes off smashingly! There is a very good reason I keep doing my Costa Rica workshop in early December as everything always turns out great! The reason being of course, the outstanding weather and animal activity! The rainy season did last a bit longer this year, but as usual, our group brought the drier weather and we were treated to perfect conditions for our photo workshop in the Osa.

Our usual photo subjects were plentiful and accommodating: White-faced Capuchin Monkeys, Spider Monkeys, Howler Monkeys, Squirrel Monkeys, Agoutis, Toucans, Red-eyed Tree Frogs, Poison Dart Frogs, Scarlet Macaws, and a variety of other tropical birds and critters. Some of the more unusual photo opportunities were the +2 hours we all spent with the mother Three Toed Sloth with very young baby! This was the best photo session of this species that I personally have ever had (remember, I have been coming to Costa Rica and the Osa for over 20 years)!

Another great moment we had during the main workshop was the opportunity to watch and photograph a large group of Scarlet Macaws as they fed on ripe Palm fruit. Everyone was amazed at how close we were able to get to the feeding macaws as they flew in and out of the large Palm tree. At any one point, I would estimate that there were 15-20 macaws in and around the Palm tree! Some of my best images of the Macaw feast were shot with my 70-200mm lens….now that’s close! Other good sighting were a Tayra (large tropical weasel), Collared Peccaries, Tamandua (ant eater), and a 7 foot long Tropical Rat Snake.

Beyond the wonderful wildlife we always get in the Osa, our lodges and lodge hosts were excellent as usual! A big thank you to Bosque del Cabo and staff as well as the Lookout Inn and staff (on our optional Scarlet Macaw Costa Rica photo workshop), and the Savegre Mountain Lodge (on our optional Quetzal and Hummingbird workshop) for making our stays so wonderful.

I also want to mention what a great group of workshop participants we had this year. Every workshop and tour is much more successful when it consists of interesting and wonderful people, and that was most definitely the case for this year’s Costa Rica workshop…thank you all!!

(Some of the images were provided courtesy Andres Garcia Lachner, Ryen Toft, and Annie Libby)

Roy

Ever since I was a young boy, I have wanted to visit Papua New Guinea. No other place on earth has Birds of Paradise (BOP’s), so many interesting indigenous cultures, or seemed as wild and RAW as PNG. I finally visited this huge Island off the north coast of Australia this last October, and although few places can live up to the images forged in one’s imagination after 40 years of dreaming, I’m very happy I was finally able to see the real Papua New Guinea.

My first two weeks were spent in the Highlands of the Enga province searching for the jewels among birds…….the Birds of Paradise. Nearly 40 species of this colorful family of birds are found in and around the island nation of PNG. I tried to keep my expectations in check when it came to actually photographing these rare and elusive birds, knowing that without tons of support, money, and time….I would most likely have to be satisfied with glimpses of these birds seen at great distances through my binoculars or spotting scope. As expected, the BOP’s were tough to find and photograph, this partially due to the fact that the male birds like to display on the tallest dead snag (some over 200 feet tall) in the forest! This doesn’t make for easy photography. This being said, I was able to see and photograph 7 different species of BOP’s during my first two weeks in the mountains…..not too bad!

The remaining 10 days of this trip was spent co-leading a group of photographers on a workshop lead by Michele Westmorland. The focus for this second part of the trip was more cultural and had us spending time in a couple other locations in PNG, such as the coastal town of Lae for the Morobe SingSing festival, the beautiful bays and waters of Cape Nelson, and Tufi in the southeast of PNG. I found the cultures of this island nation to be fascinating and would have loved to spend more time looking for and photographing more of the Birds of Paradise!

Brazil……Goooooooooooaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllll !!! Brazil may have went out early in the World Cup,  but they definitely won the championship when it comes to hosting us for my Jaguars and Pantanal 2010 trip and my Piaui pre and post trips. I really can’t say enough about the Pantanal. This habitat in Brazil is so rich with wildlife that we never got tired or bored of shooting 10-12 hours a day and filling up our hard drives with thousands of great images of Giant River Otters, 5 different Kingfishers, Herons, Egrets and Storks galore, Capybaras, Caimans, Hawks, Tapir, and of course the most charismatic subject of this trip…the mighty Jaguar!

Our trip started with people scrabbling for their photo gear on our first lunch stop driving into the Pantanal. With all of our camera gear still packed from the flights to Brazil, we stopped to eat lunch and were greeted by a beautiful Chestnut-eared Aracari (smallish Toucan) and a flock of Yellow-chevroned Parakeets feeding in the fruit tree next to the restaurant. Before lunch was over, we had all photographed Greater Rheas, Bare-faced Curassows, and nesting Hyacinth Macaws! We were off to a great start and things didn’t slow down the entire trip.

Besides Jaguars, I think our 10 different photo sessions with the endangered Giant River Otters were high on everyone’s lists for favorite Pantanal moments. Watching these predators swim, play, and hunt along the many rivers and tributaries is always a trip highlight. Another big highlight for me was photographing two Tapirs together on the river bank just before sunset on day 4. These huge amphibious, nocturnal mammals are harder to see and photograph than the Jaguars and to have two together with available light was a real gift. As all the great moments of this trip start to melt together in my mind, the Caiman spectacle we all witnessed on our last day in the Cuiaba River, still stands out as one of my favorites. Male Caimans do an amazing  behavior where they produce pulses of sound that resonate through the bottoms of the boats and finish the behavior with a body vibration that causes the water on their backs to dance in the air! This is something you have to see and feel to understand and appreciate……it was magical! Another first for me was photographing a Brazilian Porcupine. Most of us with bigger lenses were able to get good shots of this interesting little mammal as it moved around 15 meters up a tree.

Birds……birds…birds. Did I mention we photographed tons of birds? My favorites from the trip were Black-collared Hawks, pair of King Vultures, Grey-neck Wood Rails preening each other, nesting Hyacinth Macaws (7 feet off the ground!), the elusive, beautiful and sought after Agami Heron, Jabiru Storks with fish and against the full moon, Sun bittern with reflection, all five species of Kingfisher, and on and on.

Yes….we saw and photographed 3 Jaguars! Totally amazing! Please look at my Jaguars of 2010 images from this trip spent with the huge spotted cats.

After 1 1/2 days looking for Jaguars, we were definitely ready when the time came late in the afternoon on our third day. We had split our three boat group this afternoon to investigate three different rivers in hopes for a Jaguar sighting. The radio crackled with the news that one of our boats had a Jaguar! Within minutes we were all at the location and finally able to see our first Jaguar of the trip as she walked out of the bushes into the open at a distance of about 100 yards. Because of thick water hyacinth blocking our path, we were not able to maneuver the boat any closer. So we all enjoyed watching our first Jaguar with binoculars for over an hour and looked forward to our next sighting…..which we hoped would be much closer for photographs.

Our next sighting came early the next morning. Once again, we split our three boat convoy to start the jaguar search and luck was with my boat. At about 7:30 am we were slowly cruising down one of the many small, flat water, tributaries to the larger Cuiaba River, when Nick Fucci (sitting directly behind me)….whispered with excitement….”Cat……… straight ahead near the water’s edge” Man I loved to hear those words! Sure enough, 200 yards ahead, near the water’s edge, sat the most magnificent of new world cats….the Jaguar. Unlike our cat from the previous afternoon, we were able to get very close to this Jaguar and spent the entire morning watching and photographing her as she hunted for Caiman along the river’s edge. At one point she positioned herself for an attack on a 5 foot Caiman sunning itself on the river bank. With tail twitching, we waited for nearly 20 minutes for the rush and attack we were all sure was inevitable……what an exciting 20 minutes. I had my 70-200mm ready to capture the rush and attack when the Caiman caught sight of what was going down and made a quick move for the water……safe! If you would of told me three years ago that is would be possible to sit in a boat and watch a wild Jaguar stock and possibly attack a Caiman from a distance of 15 meters……I would have called you CRAZY! But here we were….doing just that. Because of our radios, we were able to call our friends in the other two boats…..so all of us were able to witness these great events of the morning.

After lunch we headed back out into the rivers and quickly came across our second Jaguar for the day. Upon looking at the pictures later, I was able to determine that this second cat was actually the Jaguar we saw the previous day….our first Jaguar of the trip! This cat proved to be very relaxed and we had an amazing session of viewing and photography that took us all the way into the night. When we returned to the lodge that night, we were told that no less than 7 Jaguars had been seen by people that one day! What an amazing place….when can I go back?

I’ll be leading two of these Pantanal trips next year because of the high demand and interest. Before I even sent out this posting, both trips are nearly full! So if you are interested please contact me as soon as possible. Dates for the 2011 trips are Pantanal #1 July 30-Aug. 8th and Pantanal #2 Aug. 9-18th.

See our Tours and Workshop page for the latest information on our next wildlife photography tour to Brazil!

I know I sound like a broken record when I say we had another amazing trip to Botswana this year… but it’s true! This is the reason I keep doing the same trip at the same time every year.

We had a great group of 8 participants for this year’s safari and as usual started our adventure off in Kwara camp in the Okavango Delta. We spent our days at Kwara with several groups of lions: Old one eye’s group of adult females with one exuberant juvenile, the two beautiful male coalition known as the “Splash Boys”, and a large coalition of 5 males (this group has 7 males in the entire coalition)accompanying a female lioness nearing estrus.

Throughout our time at Kwara, we kept running into these groups of lions and spending a great deal of time watching and photographing them. A standout moment of lion time involved the “Splash Boys” (two male lion coalition)… Let me start by saying these two male lions were some of the most beautiful specimens of male lion that I have ever seen. Both had pristine faces without the usual scars and scrapes that are generally found on male’s faces. One also had a dark mane while the other a beautiful light mane. Ok back to the moment… the boys were hanging out underneath some large bushes in a relatively open area near the lodge, while a group of Giraffes slowly made their way across the grasslands and neared their position. Among this group of 5 to 6 Giraffes nearing the lions was one young animal. As we watched from about 100 meters away, the two splash boys sprang from their cover and chased the Giraffes for nearly 200 meters with their sites on the young animal in the group. The young Giraffe was too fast for the eager lions however and the boys ended their impressive sprint hungrier that when they started. One doesn’t often get the chance to see big male lions put on a show of speed and agility like the one we witnessed.

Kwara was also good to us with other cats… Cheetah and leopard! We spent a morning with the coalition of three male Cheetahs before they lost us in the mopane woodland and we were also treated to three different Leopard sighting… not bad for our first four days on safari.

Welcome to Botswana!

I believe this is my eighth year running this same Costa Rica trip and once again my group comes away with great experiences and hard drives full of wonderful tropical images. Since I do not shoot much on these “workshops” and spend my time instead helping my crew get good photos, I thought I would include mostly participant photos in this years “recent trips” page. I tried to pick a variety of images that I thought the viewers would like and would also give people a good idea of the sights and images that one in likely to encounter on this workshop.

I was fortunate to have a really exceptional group of participants on this workshop and hope you enjoy their images. One person’s work I wasn’t able to include because she works mainly with black and white film photography. Besides our typical good luck with wildlife this year, we all were treated to a wonderful sighting of a Whale Shark in the Gulfo Dulce during our boat/river cruise. The Osa is well know for congregations of these huge sharks (ours was about 20 feet), but I had never seen one before… so a real treat for everyone!

Cheers,

Roy