No9 Evening Drink

On yet another trip to the magical South Luangwa National Park in NE Zambia, we traditionally stopped off at one our our favourite places - Kasane in Botswana.

Kasane is the town which serves the tourist industry which visits the amazing Chobe River. Pre-planning our arrival at Kasane at about midday, we had time to check in, quickly dump all our gear, vehicle and camping trailer at our place of accommodation, and meet up with our pre-hired small boat to take us way past all the usual commercial boats, right up the Chobe River. Arriving at the furthest-most point that time would allow, we turned, checked the scene, grabbed a bunch of images and meandered back down the Chobe River as we had planned, with the golden afternoon sunshine at our backs, as scanned the banks, and water for likely subjects to photograph.

Arriving at a place which we know as the Calcium Deposits, which is a favourite area for elephants which come down to drink in the evening, and sometimes to self-medicate, using the calcium which they easily dig, and scoop up with their trunks. Calcium dust also covers those elephants with a layer of white dust, creating some amazing photographic opportunities.

We pulled our little boat onto the river bank, and watched hundreds of ellies come and go, as they seemed to not even notice us, passing within meters of our tiny boat.

A little later we moved down the river a little to the lower side of the Calcium Deposits, so we could take advantage of the last rays of afternoon sun catching the ellies in some awesome silhouette positions.... It was a case of "Shooting the light" rather than trying to find detail in our subjects, and certainly it produced some spectacular images...