Photographing Madikwe’s Wild Dogs

The Madikwe Game Reserve has got to be one of the best places in Africa where you can photograph the Africa Wild Dog in the wild.

In 1990 the IUCN listed the Wild Dog as Endangered and it has remained that way until today.  This from www.iucnredlist.org –  ”African Wild Dogs have disappeared from much of their former range. The species is virtually eradicated from West Africa, and greatly reduced in central Africa and north-east Africa.  The largest populations remain in southern Africa and the southern part of East Africa.  Population densities in well-studied areas suggest that between 3,000–5,500 free-ranging wild dogs remain in Africa (< 2,500 of these are mature individuals). Population size is continuing to decline as a result of ongoing conflict with human activities, infectious disease, habitat fragmentation.”

Quite sad to think that the most efficient predator in Africa will probably not be around for much longer and that is why a visit to the Madikwe Game Reserve is not complete without a sighting of these amazing animals.  The reserve in the North-West province of South Africa has become famous for it’s Wild Dog sightings.  So much so that the Wild Dog has become the unofficial ambassador of Madikwe.

Being out in the field everyday, I have had the pleasure and privilege of spending a lot of time photographing these amazing animals and have been able put together a growing portfolio of Wild Dog images.  On a side note, Madikwe can prove to be quite a challenging place to create ‘classic’ wildlife images mostly due to messy backgrounds.  This is not to say that getting great wildlife images is impossible.  On the contrary.  By thinking a bit, taking a second to assess the scene and plan your shots the photographic possibilities in Madikwe are amazing.  Sometime difficult but from extreme close ups and open grasslands to rolling hills and thick bush, Madikwe has it all.  More on this at a later stage.

Photographing theses very mobile animals can at the best of times present quite a challenge and to get good images you will need to be quick on the draw and know your equipment.  You don’t want to be fidgeting with your camera settings when these guys take off after a prey species such as impala.  Even if you are lucky enough to find the pack laying up in the thickets their multi-colored coats and dark faces make for some interesting exposures riddles.  Most of the time your camera will do an ok job of assessing the light int he scene but as I mentioned it in this post, it is all too easy to underexpose the animals face leaving you with dark eyes that blend into the face and a very lifeless image.  There are a lot of photographic tips and tricks that will help you in creating better Wild Dog images but will post those once I have finished work on the workshop notes.

A few weeks ago we set out to photograph the Wild Dogs of Madikwe and after a relatively short search found them on the eastern slope of a small hill.  Not being able to get up the rocky slope we decided to sit and wait for the pack to get active, something that normally happens late afternoon.  As we sat waiting, the late afternoon sun was shining straight into our faces but we had no other choice but to wait for the pack to start moving.  Every now and then one of the dogs would get up, walk around and throw themselves down on the ground again.  Even though, on this particular afternoon, we were hoping for some action shots this gave us the perfect opportunity to shoot some different Wild Dog images.  The grassy slopes of the hill combined with the serious backlighting made for some challenging shooting conditions but as long as you stay photographically open minded out in the field you will be able to get some good images.

Being slightly lower than the dog, I was able to get this shot as it moved along the hill.  Even though you can barely make out the detail on the dog’s dark coat there is no mistaking the species.  The tufts of grass initially seemed like quite a distracting element but it actually works quite well in placing the animal in it’s natural environment.  When I shot this image the sun was still quite high leaving not only a nice bit of rim-lighting around the Wild Dog but also a pretty washed out background.  Still worked out well though!

This image was taken about an hour later as the dogs were starting to regroup.  The sun was no just above the hill leaving me holding my cap to try and block the low incoming sun rays from hitting my lens.  The exposure on this one was a bit easier as the background was not as washed out as earlier leaving much richer colors all round but still some nice rim lighting around the animals.  If anything I would have liked the dog on the left to have turned his head slightly to the right so that both sets of ears were the same but, for me, the white flash of the tail makes up for it.  Quite a simple image that some people might not even attempt to shoot but a true representation of Wild Dogs – in the wild.

For a whole lot more Wild Dog images click here and if you want to read up more on the full account of the Wild Dog’s red list status on the ICUN website click here.

If you are keen to come to Madikwe to photograph the Wild Dogs let me know as I have a few photographic safaris planned for later this year.

Bye 4 now!

Gerry