Ndumo Game Reserve: KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Our workshops in northern KwaZulu-Natal are held in conjunction with Thompsons Africa and take place at Ndumo Game Reserve, a wildlife sanctuary managed by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and perhaps one of the region's best-kept secrets. The highlight of Ndumo is without doubt the spectacular nYamithi Pan, a large pan surrounded by huge fever trees where giraffe, white and black rhino, zebra, nyala, impala and warthog (amongst others) regularly come down to drink. The bird life too is also amazing and all this makes getting stunning images almost a dead cert.

Accommodation is in comfortable 2 bed chalets and our workshop is held in the central dining area/conference facility. The camp is small so it is entirely possible that workshop participants book out the entire place, which means in effect that we have the whole game reserve to ourselves! We are transported around the reserve in 4X4 game drive vehicles by Thompsons' experienced guides and every effort is made to ensure that each person has a ‘window' seat. E arly mornings, late afternoons and early evenings will be spent shooting images, during which we deal with working a subject, anticipating animal behaviour, keeping the camera steady, lens choice and effects, camera features such as motion, blur and fill flash.

The workshop is aimed at beginners and intermediate photographers so it is ideal for couples where one partner is perhaps more advanced than the other. The workshop begins on a Thursday afternoon when we get settled into camp and make sure that computers are set up properly with the correct software (instruction will be in Photoshop Elements 5 and Fast Stone Image Viewer and we‘ll have trial versions of these programs on hand).

Time permitting we'll get in a late afternoon shoot and then an introductory talk that will include a slide show. The workshop will run for a full day on Friday and Saturday and a half-day on Sunday. The cost of R6 250-00 p.p. (price subject to change) includes accommodation, food and game drives in the park, comprehensive course notes, a copy of one of our coffee table books and a certificate of completion of the workshop. Not included are drinks, transport to Ndumo Game Reserve and gratuities.

Equipment required is as follows:

1. A SLR Digital Camera preferably with removable lenses (a fixed lens camera will work but will limit what we can do to a certain degree). An advanced point and shoot camera will be fine for beginners, but it should have a fairly long lens, as we will be doing wildlife photography (e.g. Canon G7, G9 or S3, Nikon P3, P4 or something similar)
2. Zoom lenses – the selection is broad but at least 2 zoom lenses are recommended, one wide angle and one medium to long telephoto, which should preferably have some form of image stabilization.
3. A flashgun.
4. A sturdy tripod.
5. A laptop computer with either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements loaded on to it. This is essential. Instruction will be in Photoshop Elements 5. It is recommended that you have some form of backup medium - DVD's or a portable hard drive.  We will have copies of Photoshop for sale at the workshop  and also free versions various other programs with us to load onto your computer.
6. A memory card reader or computer cables to connect your camera to your laptop.
7. The charger for your camera/s.
8. Memory Card/s.
9. The manual(s) for your camera(s).

Please email us at info@africaimagery.com for more details about the photographic workshops or if you would like to be placed on our mailing list.