The Milky Way, Big Cats & Rhinos

By Sean Weekly

24 July 2023

Our inaugural Wildlife & Night Sky Photography tour to the private reserve of Zimanga was led by talented photographer Sean Weekly. Here Sean shares why this special location is a photographer's paradise.

Zimanga Private Game Reserve has always been on my wish list to visit as a photographic guide, and when I pitched the idea, an action-packed photography holiday was soon organised. I last visited Africa when I was 14 years old on a month-long expedition to Kenya, so of course, returning to the bush as a photography guide some 15 years on had a lot to live up to, and boy, did this trip deliver!

Black-backed jackal in Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa. Our inaugural trip was last year, and we soon headed out on our first game drive. If our first encounter was a sign of things to come, we were in for a treat! Not long into the drive, we were fortunate to have the most incredible leopard sighting in a low-lying dead tree. It was one of two cubs, around one-year-old and the cat was resting on a low branch at eye level. Our guide and ranger put us in the perfect position for some fantastic close-up portraits of its head - the positioning could not have been better! From that moment on, I knew we were in for an incredible trip.

Leopard in Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa. The encounters just got better and better from there on in. We walked and laid down with a cheetah family, allowing us to take some extremely low-level images of the cats walking towards us and going about their day. We had some fantastic sightings of a lion family most days and had one particular morning where the whole pride walked towards us in the beautiful golden light of the morning sunrise. This was shortly followed by witnessing one of the lionesses kill a warthog to feed her two cubs, just a few metres from our vehicle. Other sightings included hippo, serval, Nile crocodile, white rhino, black rhino and Cape buffalo to name just a few.

In addition to game viewing by vehicle, Zimanga is also home to nine specialist photography hides. Each of the hides are designed for specific mammal and bird species. The one-way glass allows you to remain hidden from view, ensuring that species can approach the front of the hides completely undisturbed. One of my favourite hides, the Tamboti Overnight Hide, is located underground and offers ground-level views of a watering hole. The hide has everything you need, from a flushing toilet, running water, a full working kitchen, dining room, WiFi, bunk beds (with fresh bedding), comfortable computer chairs and Benro tripods with gimbals. I was in this particular hide for 17 hours and it felt effortless with all the comforts within.

Warthog at hide in Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa. The highlight from this hide was undoubtedly photographing the Milky Way with an elephant in the foreground, captured in the early hours of the morning. The photo quickly made it into various national newspapers on my return to the UK. It was a technically difficult image to obtain but certainly achievable with most cameras through utilising a double exposure and blending two images together. Spending time in the comfortable hides allows you to be more creative as you have time to experiment and try out new techniques.

Elephant and Milky Way in Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa. Needless to say, I'm very excited to be leading multiple trips to Zimanga over the coming years and I look forward to helping you to achieve similar results.