Carrie Zeller Photography

Buffalo Hills Game Reserve and Addo Elephant National Park!

2008-02-08T05:32:00.001-08:00

Hello,
I have just returned from Buffalo Hills Game Reserve and Addo Elephant National Park. Both of these incredible places are located along the Garden Route of the Eastern Cape in South Africa!
Buffalo Hills game reserve is a unique place that is about a 6 hour drive up the coast from Cape Town. There are no predators on this reserve only browsers and grazers. It is more of a stress free environment for these animals. There is plenty of space for them to roam about their business but they do not have to fight for their lives on a daily basis. White Rhino, Cape Buffalo, Burchell's Zebra, Bontebok, Wildebeest, Impala are some of the animals that we spotted at this reserve.
We saw a herd of about 25 Cape Buffalo which is one of the "Big Five" animals in Africa. Cape Buffalo can be very unpredictable and aggressive as it is the second most dangerous animal in Africa. They live in a matriarchal structure. The females are the dominant in the groups, what she says goes for what the herd does. The photo I took to the right is of the matriarch in the herd that we spotted. She definitely looks and acts her part...there was no messing around with her that's for sure! The photo below is of the matriarch and her baby.

This photo with the male impala chasing the female was taken at Buffalo Hills as well. Our game ranger explained how the female was trying to leave the males herd and go onto another one but the male picked up on it and chased her back into his herd. I was very lucky as they came running from a distance, circled around our land rover and ran back to where they came from. she is running for her life!!!
After Buffalo Hills I went onto Addo Elephant National Park which is another 4 hour drive further up the coast! This park is about 300,000 acres and it's expanding all the time as the elephants are growing in numbers. There are an estimated 370 elephants, 380 Cape Buffalo, 15 black rhino, hundreds of kudu and about 6 lions. There are several other animals as well. I was really impressed with how well run this park is. We went to three different water holes and the elephants were dunking each other in the water, communicating with each other, they overall seemed very happy and comfortable. People are very respectful and keep their distance so the elephants are not threatened by any vehicles. They will walk right up next to your vehicle and pass through. The smallest baby I saw was about 3 months old as shown in the photo with her mom. We watched them for hours...elephants are very active and move around a lot as they only sleep about 4 hours in a day taking small resting breaks....I absolutely just loved this park!

For the month of Feb I am staying local, I will be taking photos at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Table Mountain and Lions Head they are all located in Cape Town. If anyone has any questions about prints and sizes please contact me through e-mail carrie@zellerphotography.com
thanks and I will be in touch!

Okavango Delta Botswana!!!

2008-01-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone!

I have just returned from The Okavango Delta located in the north western corner of Botswana. The Okavango Delta is a combination of lagoons, channels and overgrown islands teaming with wildlife. It is largest inland delta in the world which is in the shape of an open hand as seen in the map to your right.

I stayed in three unique places that are all located within the Delta. Sandibe Safari Lodge, Xugana Island Lodge and Nxabega Safari Camp. Flying into the Delta was insane! From the four seated charter plane we could see herds of elephants playing in water holes, hippos swimming and several impala...it was unbelievable!

My first destination was at the Sandibe Safari Lodge. I stayed in 1 of the 8 beautiful cottages that they have. The cottages are tucked away in a forest full of wild palms and fig trees located right on one of the permanent channels of the Delta. At night I could here hippos grazing around the cottage and lions roaring from a distance...it was thrilling!

Tsobe was my game ranger at Sandibe, he was born and raised in Botswana. He is very educated about the wildlife and the land and made it a successful trip as we saw Lion, Leopard, Giraffe, Zebra, Wildebeest, Elephant, Vervet Monkeys....several birds. The list could go on and on!

The second place I stayed at Xugana Lodge is located north of Chief's Island on a separate island. The highlight at this lodge was seeing the hippo pools. They took us out on a 45 minute boat ride from the lodge to reach some of the best hippo pools in Africa! We spent about 10 minutes at each pool as you have to leave before the hippos get agitated. Hippos are the most dangerous animal and Africa, they are very territorial if they are bothered with a situation they will definitely come after you. We went to five different pools with at least 15 hippos in each pool, to be honest I felt a little on edge and nervous in this situation but of course it was totally worth it and I would definitely do it again!!!

The last place I stayed was at Nxabega Safari Camp which I absolutely loved! I stayed in an elevated canvas tent that seemed like living in a tree house. The most memorable moment at this lodge was when we followed a pride of lions hunt a full grown giraffe. It was about 6:30pm and a lightning storm was coming on. We watched the lioness chase the giraffe down as the other lions followed but they were unsuccessful in their hunt, again we were all amazed! Botswana is a magical place and I definitely plan on returning.

My mom arrived safely in Cape Town on January 2nd! Today we made a trip down to Simon's Town where the adorable African Peguins are located. We are looking forward to visitng the winelands and all along the eastern cape! Thanks for reading and I hope all is well!

Safaris at Sossusvlie, Phinda and Kirkman's Kamp!

2007-12-11T04:24:00.005-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I have just returned from an incredible 11 day safari! There are three safari camps I visited on my expedition. Sossusvlie Mountain Lodge in Namibia, Phinda Mountain Lodge and Kirkman's Kamp in South Africa.

My first destination at Sossusvlie Mountain Lodge is in the Namib Desert. It is known as one of the oldest, driest and most pristine deserts on Earth. It is the largest private nature reserve in Southern Africa where you can experience seeing the highest sand dunes in the world!
When I first arrived I was so captivated by the beauty it was so quiet it was eerie. The colors of the desert are vibrant orange, yellow and pinks that just went on and on forever it was unbelievable! The first morning we drove through and saw all of the famous sand dunes and ended at Sossusvlie where we hiked the sand dunes barefoot to Deadvlie. We were the first people to arrive and I was lucky enough to take some great shots with the bare desert.

I went on several game drives with my Game Ranger Vitalis we saw the following game.
Mountain Zebra, Oryx, Springbok, Baboon, Leppet Faced vulture, Giraffe, Ostrich, Bat eared fox and we were lucky enough to see a Leopard it is very rare in this area!

My second destination was at Phinda Mountain Lodge another private game reserve. Phinda means "the return" in Zulu, they relocated all of the animals back to this area that were previously kicked out or killed by people. Now the animals are back to their natural habitat and they are protected at this game reserve hence "the return." ....awesome and a success! The landscape is a made up of grassland, wetland, mountain ranges, rivers this was definitely the bush!

We went out on game drives every morning from 4:30am-9:30am and every evening from 5pm-8:30pm. One day my game ranger and I went out for the entire day and we had the best cheetah sighting ever. It was a mom with her 4 cubs. They were climbing trees, fighting off warthogs, chasing kudu it was amazing! Andrew (game ranger) said that he had never seen them so active for such a long period of time. I think I got lucky again! We saw several elephant, lions, white and black rhino, impala, burchell's zebra, nyala, warthogs, cape buffalo. There is over 800 species of bird in South Africa so there was a new bird every time we saw one, crazy!

The last destination was at Kirkman's Kamp in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve located on the southwestern corner of Kruger National Park. Here we saw the Big Five Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant, Cape Buffalo! My favorite experience at this reserve was our leopard sighting. Malcom (game ranger) and I saw him all three days I was visiting. Once you find something you stick with it or you might not see it again. Malcom witnessed this leopard trying to fight off four lioness's for a kill the week before I arrived and the leopard was clawed in the eye. One of his eyes is green and his injured eye is blue. My favorite photos of this entire trip were of this leopard. He had many battle wounds and he was beautiful.

The safari company I am using is called CCAfrica (conservation corporation Africa) www.ccafrica.com their focus is all about the care of the land, wildlife and people. A portion of what guests pay goes towards this focus.

I will be leaving for Botswana on the Dec. 20th, thanks for reading I will be in touch!

Zeller Photography Update

2007-11-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I have arrived safely in Africa and I am looking forward to building a new body of work during my stay here! I am going to base myself in Cape Town, South Africa and plan to go on safaris in Botswana and Namibia to take authentic photographs of the beautiful wildlife in their natural habitat!

I want to thank everyone who made it to the Sawdust Festival this past summer it was truly an amazing experience. If you are interested in seeing my work it will be up at the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles from Dec. 5th through the 15th, please reference the flyer below.

If you have any questions please contact me through e-mail at carrie@zellerphotography.com

Thank you again and I will be in touch!