Wildlife Photography Blog: Magnificent leopard at Indlovu River Lodge

Posted on Fri November 11, 2016.

Wildlife Photography Blog

This magnificent shot was taken by Marietjie Steenkamp. Wildlife photography in Africa is surely one of the biggest thrills there is – especially when encountering a magnificent leopard like this one.  The leopard – One of Africa’s Big Five animals – is definitely a highlight to see when on a game drive. This beautiful cat is elusive, silent and lives in dense river areas.

The chances of seeing a leopard are best in the early morning and late afternoon. They tend to sleep in trees or under thick bush. If you want to see a leopard in action then look for the bush signs – watch their prey and follow their line of sight.

If you are doing a self-drive safari then ideally you will need a long lens. Since you cannot drive off-road, anything in the 400mm-600mm range will be good.

If you go on a guided safari in game reserves like the Karongwe Private Game Reserve where Indlovu River Lodge is situated, the guides, in most cases, drive very close to the subjects.  They know the bush and the behaviour of the animals and can interpret danger signs extremely well.  Now the ideal lens would be an 80mm-400mm, a 100mm-400mm or a 50mm-500mm.

Leopards are active mainly from sunset to sunrise so a camera with low-light capabilities would be a big advantage.

Indlovu River Lodge specialises in Photographic Safaris, mainly focusing on our sunken photography hides.  We do however also take our guests on guided game drive vehicles, fully equipped to enable high quality wildife photography, producing stunning images like the one above.

For more information on the Photographic Safari Packages at Indlovu, click here.

For more information about our next Photographic Course, contact Louisa at

Lodge: +27 (0) 15 383 9918 or on email: [email protected]