Living Luangwa - Patrick Bentley's Blog

Livingstone exhibition

Patrick Bentley — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:57:42 +0000

I was in Livingstone last weekend setting up an exhibition which will be at the Royal Livingstone hotel until the 7th of July. It will then move to the Zambezi Sun hotel until the 31st of July so if you are in town be sure to pop in and take a look.

It was full moon while I was down there so I took the opportunity to photograph Victoria Falls at night. The falls are still very full for this time of year which means that there is a huge amount of spray in the air – bad for camera gear but great for lunar rainbows. The lights in the photograph are on the Zimbabwean side.

Victoria falls by moonlight

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

Lodge Photography

Patrick Bentley — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:57:01 +0000

A large amount of my time in the last month has been taken up photographing lodges – I photographed 9 different camps in the Valley including 2 of my favourites – Luwi bushcamp (Norman Carr Safaris) and Chindeni (The Bushcamp Company). It was quite frustrating to be stuck in the camps and hear reports coming in from the game-drives of incredible wildlife sightings! Here are a few shots from the thousands that I took on this trip.

Honeymoon Chalet - Luwi Bushcamp

Dinner on the sandy Luwi riverbed

Breakfast at Luwi Bushcamp

Champagne at sunset - Kakuli camp

Chindeni chalet

Chindeni dawn

Breakfast on the deck - Chindeni

Dinner table - Chindeni

Chindeni deck at dusk

Honeymoon chalet and Milky Way - Chindeni

Sundowners in the Kapamba river

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

Soaring with eagles!

Patrick Bentley — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:36:32 +0000

It has been a very long time since my last post – the last couple months have been non-stop for me but finally I have some time to do a little blogging. I headed down to Wilderness in South Africa at the beginning of May to do a paragliding course. I have a very exciting project in the pipeline which involves lots of flying and photography – more details of this in the months to come. Here are a couple shots of my first few flights courtesy of my excellent instructor Jan at Cloudbase paragliding. It was a fabulous experience and I can’t wait to return.

A few more..

Patrick Bentley — Wed, 05 May 2010 07:48:28 +0000

Elephant eye

Zebra stallion

Lion cub

Kudu bulls

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

Black and white

Patrick Bentley — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:35:49 +0000

I am currently working on a portfolio of black and white photographs that will feature in an exhibition later this year. A few images:

Elephant herd

Tree climbing lion

Old buffalo bulls

Lion eye

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

End of the rains

Patrick Bentley — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:47:31 +0000

The sky is clear and there is a definite chill in the air today which means the dry season is on its way – it always amazes me just how quickly the safari season comes around again each year. The rains are a quieter time for me in terms of actual photography and I spend an huge amount of my time sitting in front of a computer. I am really looking forward to getting back into the bush and behind the camera again..

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

The river

Patrick Bentley — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:37:57 +0000

The Luangwa river in flood is something to behold. The sky meets with the river and creates the most incredible vistas of cloud and colour. The dry season is approaching now and soon the river will be back to its sandy safari-season state. A few images while it lasts…

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

Safari testimonial

Patrick Bentley — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:52:15 +0000

Xavier Ortega recently sent me a testimonial with some fabulous photographs that he took on a safari with me last year at Lion Camp. Here it is.

“After carrying out wildlife photo safaris in Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia and Botswana I wanted to know South Luangwa in Zambia and thanks to Patrick has been the best safari. He is an excellent and very experienced guide who knows the place very well. He is able to interpret the sounds of the forest to find the animals.

Thanks to Patrick I improved a lot in my photographs. We were alone with the animals and Patrick always placed us in the best position. Lion Camp is a magical place with plenty of animals. Night drives were a very good experience with many sightings of leopards. It is also a paradise for birds. I realize a dream, taking photos from an aircraft, following the animals from the air, this adds to the safari a plus of emotion.  The lodge is super and very intimate. Every night we look at the pictures and talk about photography and wildlife.

I highly recommend a photographic safari with Patrick and I will be joining him again on my next safari in 2011.”

Here are just a few of the images that Xavier took on his safari last year:

Lilac breasted roller

Lioness

Leopard at night

Elephants from the air

Running Puku

If you are interested in joining me on one of my safaris in the Luangwa in 2010 please click here

Aerial images

Patrick Bentley — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:08:34 +0000

Despite the bad weather John and I had a wonderful week getting up into the air in his microlight whenever we could. A few shots..

Elephant family

Buffalo mud bath

Flying with Bateleur eagles is always exhilarating – they are extremely fast and almost impossible to photograph so I’m quite pleased with the image below.

Bateleur eagle

Apart from the photography we have been tracking lions using the radio collars fitted by the Luangwa Valley Carnivore Monitoring Program. We found a group of four males and a female feeding on a buffalo in the Nsefu sector. It seems the collared lions in the Lion Camp area have moved inland away from the river to avoid the flooding as there was no sign of them. We have also done a few flights further north looking for poachers – John quite often finds poacher’s camps and meat-drying racks in the rains but thankfully there is no sign of them this year.

Male Lion following a game trail

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

Kudu Bull

Patrick Bentley — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:16:51 +0000

Kudu Bull