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August 11-23, 2025 - Accepting applications
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Join us in Brazil’s Pantanal for an exciting adventure filled with great wildlife photography opportunities, including the Pantanal’s signature jaguars hunting caiman and capybaras.
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Jaguars probably put the Pantanal in your bucket list – and for good reason. In most places, jaguars are elusive – you only know they are there by finding tracks, scat, or a bit of hair now and then. But, in the Pantanal, their primary prey (caimans and capybara) like to come out of the water in the middle of the day to sun. That is such a great opportunity for the hunting jaguar that they frequent river and back channel banks when the sun is high – and some even hunt from within the river!
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In the last decade a group of these Jaguars have become habituated to humans in boats – finally creating the opportunity to pause nearby and photograph them as they hunt or rest in the shade.
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Don’t, for even a second, think our Pantanal Photography Adventure is about jaguars and nothing else! The caimans and capybara that keep the jaguars well-fed are abundant – and fun to photograph!
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The waters of the Pantanal are teeming with fish – and those fish support a healthy population of endangered Giant Otters!
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The shores and nearby branches are alive with birds that want to eat fish! We’ll seek five species of kingfishers and try to capture them making their classic dive/splash/fly, taking back to the air with a fish in their beaks!
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The largest flying bird of the Americas – the jabiru stork – is shy and hard to photograph most places – but can be quite approachable in the Pantanal.
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There are several raptors that dive and grasp fish and snails with their talons! We’ll find them sitting… watching… and maybe even diving!
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One of our favorites is the cocoi heron!
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The rufescent tiger heron is striking!
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But the agami heron takes the cake for beauty! And the length of its beak will astound you! |
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Cormorants and anhingas dive beneath the surface where they swim like snakes and catch fish! In fact, the word anhinga comes from the Brazilian Tupi tribal language – meaning snake bird or devil bird (or perhaps both).
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There are bright and colorful birds, too. Toucans and orioles, and yellow-billed cardinals will be easy to photograph from our land lodgings!
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And our guide keeps track of where to find hyacinth macaws, probably guarding nests!
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The Pantanal is a labyrinth of rivers and streams and connecting channels, probably created when the region sank and flowing water slowed and lost its sediment load… slowly filling the depression with layer after layer of flood bourn sediments and nutrients. The result is a vibrant landscape of savannahs and ponds and waterways edged with dense treescapes. And, filled with wildlife!
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Our Pantanal Photography Safari will start and end in Cuiabá, Brazil. We’ll journey from there into the Pantanal where our beginning and ending Pantanal lodging will be based in small nature-focused lodges. One of those lodges will take us on boat outings which will give us great photographic opportunities.
For our jaguar quests (from small boats) we will make our way to a floating hotel (a stationary deluxe houseboat). Daily boat outings, broken by lunch back at the hotel, will feature multiple small craft, where our photographers will be spread out so everyone has a good angle! It will be up to our very talented guide to chart a course that will maximize opportunities to photograph jaguars, while also giving us great windows to photograph otters, capybara, and a wealth of birds. |
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In 2025, we'll have six nights in small lodges, 4 nights on the floating hotel, and first and last nights in Cuiabá near the airport. All meals are included outside Cuiabá and breakfasts are covered in Cuiabá. Alcohol, soft drinks, and bottled water are at your own expense. Purified water for refills into your water bottles is provided. You will also be responsible for taking a taxi from the airport to and from the nearby hotel. And for tipping guides, boatmen and lodge staff.
Our group will be small. We will limit ourselves to 6 rooms – with only two of those rooms for singles – reflecting restrictions from the small lodging operators.
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2024
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Taking Control in the Mirrorless Era
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Three days of classroom and field time with migrating waterfowl, bald eagles, and macro opportunities. You'll learn how to take control of your mirrorless camera - and take advantage of new developments in the digital darkroom - to yield images that closely match your intentions in the field! Embrace manual - it's easier that the auto modes - and easier than ever in the mirrorless era!. |
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2025 |
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Three days of classroom and field time with migrating waterfowl, bald eagles, and macro opportunities. You'll learn how to take control of your mirrorless camera - and take advantage of new developments in the digital darkroom - to yield images that closely match your intentions in the field! Embrace manual - it's easier that the auto modes - and easier than ever in the mirrorless era. |
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So many birds! Such good photography opportunities. So little physical effort required. Forty percent of the planet's hummingbirds are found in Ecuador. Thirty-seven percent of the tanagers (which don't show up in the Old World at all). Conservation has teamed up with landowners to protect natural cloudforest habitats - and the result is birds sitting on branches predictably in a way you can photograph them. Did we mention Cock-of-the-rock? Or mountain tourcan? Small group so secure your space before it is gone! |
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Borneo! Rainforests. Orangutans. Gibbons. Pygmy elephants. Proboscis monkeys. 420 species of birds, including amazing hornbills and kingfishers, brightly colored little birds. Carnivorous plants. Sun bears. The list goes on and on. We've built an itinerary that takes you into the canopy, on trails by foot, on rivers by boat, and out on night safari. This is not an adventure you want to miss! |
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Join us in Brazil's Pantanal for a wild adventure that features both jaguars and an amazing array of birds, reptiles, and mammals. The Pantanal is the only place in the world where one can reliably find and photograph jaguars - as they are nocturnal hunters everywhere else. The birds here are fantastic - this is one of our favorite places to photograph flying birds (we can help you build your skills). Add in close-up encounters with giant river otters and so much more. Join us for this wild adventure! |
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The Great Migration encounters the Mara River in Tanzania's northern Serengeti. 2-3 million wildebeest and 400-500,00 zebras want to cross the Mara - often high with boiling rapids and hosting giant Nile crocodiles looking to feast! We've design the ultimate photography adventure to put you in a number of right places at the right times - to capture images of the trauma, the terror, the attacks, and the heartening stories of wildebeest succeeding at crossing the river to greener pastures. Are you coming? |
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Turkey sits at a geographical crossroads, which means that, over history, many cultures have passed through Turkey, each leaving a distinct imprint on the culture and the archaeological record. Let's explore some of the great archaeological wonders - while putting ourselves in great positions make exciting art with cameras. Mosques, Fairy Chimneys, Ephasus, Istanbul, Aphrodisia, Pergamum, Assos and so much more. |
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2026 |
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To sit quietly in a bamboo thicket with a gorilla family, interacting with eye contact, observing, and making compelling images is truly a life changing experience. Venture out into the wilds of Rwanda with a small group to experience photographic encounters with wild gorillas, chimpanzees, colobus monkeys, golden monkeys, and much, much more. Fitness level is necessary to accomplish this adventure. Dates are tentative until we secure permits. |
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Timed to meet the great migration in the Serengeti, our safari takes you to some of the great parks and protected areas in northern Tanzania in search of lions, zebras, giraffes, cheetah, hyenas... Of all our itineraries, anywhere in the world, this one has the best reviews - and is a real life-changing experience! If you'll only be making one photography foray into sub-Saharan Africa in your life - this is the trip! |
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Join us in 2026 as we'll explore favorite haunts and add new landings and vistas. Giant tortoises, flightless frigates, 3 kinds of boobies, land and marine iguanas, sea lions and fur seals, flamingos, and the northernmost penguin in the world. The list goes on and on! Exciting landscapes. So much to learn about geology, biology, and evolution.Truly an inspiring experience - ties the Serengeti in client feedback as the "most life-changing" experience of their lives. |
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Join a small group of photographers as we fly in float planes and tundra planes out into the wilderness of the Katmai Peninsula - in search of great bear photography opportunities. We'll go where the bears are actively catching salmon, including Brooks Falls, and other locations drawing off the Bristol Bay watershed which has the largest salmon runs in the world. Plan to be close to bears - to have great vistas from planes - and to marvel at the vast expanse of wilderness. Group size limited - secure your space. |
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Turkey sits at a geographical crossroads, which means that, over history, many cultures have passed through Turkey, each leaving a distinct imprint on the culture and the archaeological record. Let's explore some of the great archaeological wonders - while putting ourselves in great positions make exciting art with cameras. Mosques, Fairy Chimneys, Ephasus, Istanbul, Aphrodisia, Pergamum, Assos and so much more. |
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