It’s just gone dark. We are watching a lion shake off the lazy slumbers of a hot afternoon while adjusting our camera settings in the hope of some shots of him looking predatory under the spotlight. Dinner will have to wait. This is too good an opportunity to pass up. Our guide gives us a short burst of light to illuminate our subject when the lion begins to stir. We are more than ready.

In our mind’s eye an image is forming – a piercing gaze, a proud head, a golden mane and then nothing but nothing except the darkness and the endless mystery of night. In the stillness of the moment it’s as if we are wishing these photographs into being. Then suddenly the lion lifts his head and stares straight past us into the distance. For a few seconds the guide directs the beam on him. His head is burnished like gold and then ‘click’ our week-long photo safari on Zimanga private game reserve is off to a ‘roaring’ start…

…And it doesn’t really slow down much after that as we divide our days between busy game drives and hide sessions including rewarding stays in each of the two overnight hides. We’re up early each day to see the sun rise, and we stay out long enough after the sun has set each afternoon to capture any crepuscular action before enjoying a well-earned, three course dinner and some sleep, back at our sole-use hillside homestead on the reserve.

For some in the group even the short period in the middle of the day, set aside for R&R on the sundeck, or a quick snooze in the room, is eschewed for further photography. There’s plenty to point a camera at for those who want to keep clicking, from the colourful birdlife flitting around the lodge, the antics of numerous warthog families drinking at the little pond, the sunbathing skinks and lizards, the buzzing insect-life on the newly-opened aloe spikes in the small garden, the cheeky elephant that stops by to dip his trunk in our swimming pool, the small, bright green bush-snake that slithers by and the giraffes that wander past interrupting our chats over lunch. It’s wildlife photography 24/7 on Zimanga and we’re lapping it up.

Special photos come when you work the margins of the light on Zimanga and we put a premium on finding as many of these opportunities as we can when we do game drives. Like the morning we heard some zebra alarm-calling up in one corner of the reserve around sun-up. What had spooked them? We drove off road to take a closer look and suddenly found ourselves face to face with two beautiful, and well-fed, male cheetahs. They looked stunning as they walked over the ridge; front-lit in the warm morning light. But the best pictures would be the back-lit ones we got by fully working the possibilities. It turned out the ridge was in fact the wall of a small, dried-up dam and we were able to drive around and right into to its crater to photograph wonderful silhouettes of the two boys’ sinuous shapes shot against the light and from below.

Among the many other game drive highlights a handful stand out in the memory, including one productive and entertaining afternoon photographing a group of elephant bulls playfighting and splashing in the large dam. Or the moment some of our group finally laid eyes, and lenses, on the Zimanga lion pride’s solitary, little lion cub, missing in action for some 10 days previously, as he ventured out from a bush where he’d been resting to put in an all too brief appearance for our waiting cameras.

The long spell of dry weather on the reserve this year was our best friend all week. Apart from a short, sharp shower during one of the night-hide sessions (fortunately it didn’t put paid to the photography there) the fine conditions ensured all the hides performed well. This included the small bird hide which we struggled with a bit last year when there was an unseasonal amount of water on the reserve.

There were notable performances at the Mkhombe bird hide from a good number of colourful and photogenic species such as comical crested barbets, pretty acacia pied barbets and characterful kurichane thrushes – to name just three. Pied kingfishers were ever-present at the lagoon hide sessions, allowing us repeat chances to perfect our action photography whether they were in fast flight, hovering, diving or simply displaying to each other on a perch.

The beautiful setting, and set-up, of this low-level hide gave us lots of opportunities for great bird portraits with a pleasing background and foreground wash of colour. The hidden sandbars, placed to encourage smaller species, such as crakes and pied wagtails to wade and bathe closer to our lenses worked brilliantly and gave the rare chance to frame these birds at eye level.

Other bird highlights at the hides included one wonderful and extended session with a gangly, woolly-necked stork who was struggling to catch a frog at the Umgodi night hide one morning. It was a treat to follow with a camera as he fought to keep a hold on the still wriggling victim. His frustrated attempt to grab his meal looked just someone making a bad stab at using chopsticks for the first time.

Then there were the night hide sessions which always come with high expectations on Zimanga. On this trip highlights included a group of a dozen giraffes visiting the Tamboti hide late in the afternoon. They arrived out of nowhere and were immediately filling our frames as their heads waved and bowed while drinking. It’s mind-blowing to see them up close from such a low level and was a fascinating challenge making compositions of these towering beasts. Warthogs are more common visitors to the two night hides, but usually pop by during daylight hours. On this visit to the reserve we had our first in the ‘blue-hour’. The eerie mood at dusk provided us with an unusual take and wonderful lighting conditions for novel shots of a much-photographed subject.

We were also lucky enough to get zebra drinking at night for the first time in a while. Zebra are not common night hide visitors in the dark, like giraffe they can be shy in approaching, but they’re  one of the most stunning animals to see and photograph at night. The resulting images are always impressively graphic. Other night-time cameo roles worth a mention were spotted hyena, nyala and kudu. Big and burly Cape buffalo, regulars at the night hides when it’s dry, captivate too. Who can resist photographing their brooding, muscular hulks made even more powerful by their proximity to your lens, that wonderful low-angle and all that darkness?

Before we sign off we want to give a huge thanks to our excellent guide-driver, and no mean wildlife photographer himself, Hendri Venter. It was great to be back working with you on the reserve again, Hendri. Thanks as always to the Senekal family. We run to keep up with owner-photographer Charl’s visions for the reserve and are already looking forward to trying out the next developments with baited breath. Thanks also to Charl’s wife Mariska who smoothly handles our bookings each year. Lots of applause too for the Doornhoek staff, who now feel like family, and always look after us all so well. One day soon we will simply refuse to leave the lodge at the end of a stay and take up permanent residence there.

Finally a ton of  thank-yous to our guests for mucking in and making everything fun: that’s you MC1 for the infectious enthusiasm, you were a ‘wowser’ and the sweets went down well too, to MC2 our resident bug expert for never putting your camera down, to MS & RS for being the first photography couple to solve the domestic difficulties of competing as avid married shooters (which we know only too well) by splitting between video and stills, to SW, onboard birder and expert night hide window cleaner and, last but not least, to RC for the laid back Aussie charm and a wit as dry as the Outback.