In February and March 2011 Nick Rains will be conducting two photographic workshops at an exclusive luxury safari camp right on the shores of the Okavango Delta waterways.

Unlike may other photography tours to Africa you will be will be spending the entire time in one place so you can settle in, truly get to know the location, learn how different times of day changes the look of a place, and, best of all, not waste valuable time travelling from one hotel to the next. There will be ample opportunity to move around the area, both on the water and on land - during the day as well as at night.

Nick will not only accompany you on location but will also be conducting a series of seminars covering all aspects of digital imaging so you will not only get to visit an amazing destination for photography, but you will also learn more about the subtleties of digital imaging than you ever thought possible.

Highlights

Ample One-on-One opportunities to discuss your specific photographic needs with an experienced pro photographer.

Daily workshop sessions with Nick Rains, editor of Better Digital Camera magazine covering topics such as:

- Introduction to digital imaging

- Essence of landscape photography

- Tips & Tricks for wildlife photography

- Shooting techniques

- Digital image handling and processing

Plus:

○ Explore the Okavango Delta by mokoro (dugout canoe) and power boat.

○ Morning and afternoon game drives in open 4x4 vehicles with tracker/guide system for an enhanced game viewing experience.

○ Both day and night game drives.

○ Exclusive use of 10 bed luxury safari camp in the heart of the Okavango Delta, northern Botswana.

○ 175,000 hectare private concession area to explore.

○ An all inclusive price - all your accommodation, meals, charter flights, game viewing activities, drinks and laundry are all included in the price.

○ Specialist Africa tour guide - Patrick Brakspear from African Encounter.

Details

Intimate Camps, in Private Areas, with Personal Service - Vintage Africa.

Little Kwara Camp is situated in a tree-lined island on the edge of the permanent waters of the world renowned Okavango Delta in Botswana, part of an enormous private concession area that shares a common boundary with the Moremi Game Reserve.

Hidden amongst trees, access is by air via the remote Kwara airstrip. Little Kwara Camp is a luxury safari camp with spacious tents, elevated into the tree canopy on wooden decks each with its own private veranda. Each tent has it’s own en suite facilities comprising bathroom with bath and an inside/outside shower. This is an ideal camp for exclusive use by small special interest groups.

Little Kwara Camp offers all the following activities - mokoro trips year round, double deck boat cruises, island walks as well as game drives both off road and at night. A system of a guides and a tracker per vehicle ensures the highest standards of game viewing in a private concession area of 175 000 ha (almost half a million acres!).

The ability to operate off road and at night is critical in order to see the vast array of mammal species that are active both during the daytime, and at night. These include leopard, lion, wild dog, hyena and smaller predators plus giraffe, zebra, elephant, buffalo and many antelope species. The presence of permanent water at Little Kwara ensures excellent year-round game viewing. The permanent water also ensures that mokoro trips (dugout canoes) can take place in shallow water throughout the year. Little Kwara is one of a handful of camps able to make this claim of being a wet and dry camp all year around.

The spectacular scenery with scattered herds of plains game and the ever-attendant predators helps to enhance your safari. Due to the labyrinth of waterways, islands, seasonal flood plains and bush, Little Kwara is always interesting and varied.

The activity options are endless. On land our specially designed open 4x4 vehicles, together with a tracker/guide combination, ensures spectacular wildlife viewing all year round. On water, you have the choice of a motorised boat or to slip silently through the waterways on a traditional mokoro (dugout canoe).

The Okavango Delta is a 1.6 million hectare wilderness of water, reeds, trees and flood plains in the middle of the Kalahari – the largest block of sand on earth. The Delta is world renowned for its biodiversity and wildlife – a must see on any African safari.

Our photographic workshop will combine lectures and presentations with intensive photography in the field. We will leave camp very early each morning to take advantage of the best light and only return for brunch in the late morning. We will go out again mid-afternoon and stay out until well after dark, giving us the opportunity to photograph some nocturnal wildlife activities.

Dates:

Workshop One - 28 February to 5 March 2011

Workshop Two - 5 to 10 March 2011.

Price: AUD$4750 per person sharing ex Maun, Botswana.

Includes: all accommodation, meals, activities (including use of private vehicles and driver/guides), drinks, laundry, Park fees and flights to/from Maun to Little Kwara.

Excludes: international airfares, visas and travel insurance.

Deposit: A non refundable deposit of $1,425 will be required to secure your place at the workshop, with the balance being due 60 days prior to departure. At the time of booking you will also be asked to sign our Booking Terms & Conditions. As usual, prices are subject to confirmation on booking.

Workshop size:

For maximum one-to-one tuition opportunities and the best possible photographic experience, each workshop is restricted to a maximum of only 8 people. Be sure to secure your place early.

Want to see more of Africa..

Why not see a bit more of Africa before or after the workshop? Perhaps add-on a few days at the mighty Victoria Falls, a few days in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (a great contrast to the Okavango Delta), or perhaps Cape Town and Kruger National Park in South Africa. Contact African Encounter to discuss the many options.

Airfares:

A number of airlines (Qantas, V Australia, SAA, and Singapore Airlines) fly from Australia to South Africa. We are certainly able to assist with booking your international airfares, alternatively you are most welcome to book your own flights using frequent flyer points or your own travel agent.

Single Travelers:

Single travelers are most welcome. However, we do encourage single travelers to share where ever possible due to the limited number of rooms at Little Kwara Camp. Should you not wish to share then a single supplement of $1,155 would apply.

Contact Details

Please contact Patrick or Elaine on 1800 100 670 or send us an email (address below).

African Encounter

Tel: (02) 6582 5082

Fax: (02) 6582 6834

Mobile: 0439434011

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.africanencounter.com

Travel Agents Licence No. 2TA5644

Christian Fletcher and myself have today announced a new workshop, this time near Noosa on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Bookings have already been made after we did a private pre-release to our existing clients on Friday so if you want to take your photography to the next level and are looking for inspiration in your work, jump in quickly as we are limiting the number of places in this workshop to only twelve.

See more details about the Queensland Photography Workshop here.

Christian Fletcher and I will be presenting another of our intensive photography workshops in October. This time we will be holding it in near Noosa on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, about 90 mins drive north of Brisbane at the wonderful Eumarella Shores.

The Bunker Bay workshop we held in January was very well received and we got a lot of excellent feedback (see these posts). Christian and I have wanted to do a Queensland workshop for a while and were looking for a suitable venue. Whilst at one of my camera club talks I was told about this great place on the shores of Lake Weyba, just south of Noosa. I went up there to see if it could work and it was great. There is a lovely amongst-the-trees ambience and the conference building looks right out over the lake. It's quiet and peaceful, surrounded by acres of paperbark trees and the secluded cottages are very comfortable - perfect for an intensive photography workshop. You can see images of Eumarella Shores retreat here.

A full itinerary of the two days can be downloaded here.

Christian has posted about it here : Christian Fletcher Blog

The cost is $995 and includes Friday night drinks and nibbles, Saturday night barbeque dinner, morning tea, full lunch and afternoon tea on both days. Accommodation is self contained so you can self-cater for other meals if you like.

There is an accommodation deal going at the Lake Retreat - $260 per person for Friday and Saturday nights, $349 for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Book through Eumarella Shores 07 5449 1738 and quote "Nick Rains" with the enquiry to get these rates.

Sign Up for this Workshop

Terms and Conditions - click here for full details

Comments from recent Bunker Bay Workshop :

"Rated individually both Nick Rains and Christian Fletcher are easily placed amongst the top six landscape photographers worldwide with immensely successful careers, and a magical ability to pre-visualise and turn the most ordinary of scenes into beautiful works of photographic art.

Now working together as a team enlightening, enthusing and empowering the next generation of photographers these two guys offer what is arguably the most comprehensive and valuable of learning experiences currently available worldwide.

From capture to process to print these two good-humoured wizards have undoubtedly now influenced my career and enabled me to take my own photography to a higher level that I’d long aspired towards but struggled to attain.

Thanks Guys!"

Dennis

South Africa

"Thank you Nick for an enjoyable weekend at the Bunker Bay workshop. My head is still spinning with all the information that you and Christian passed on to all of us, but I have learnt some very helpful hints over the weekend.

It is such a blessing that two photographers of your calibre, gave us all the opportunity to learn and feed off your experiences and techniques, and the way you and Christian explained subject matter was very clear and precise, but, that doesn’t mean I totally got everything you two said, but hey, that’s my fault not yours!!

Once again thank you for the weekend, full of fun, plenty of laughs an some great food at the resort."

Jamie Nicolaou

"Hey Nick, “I learnt so much and yet know so little”, I might coin that saying :-). I enjoyed the workshop very much , it had structure, flexibility, information and so many useful tips ( & was fun too) and I appreciated the time you took to help me with this new A900 beast. Your technical explanation on colour management and other matters even though it just touched the surface, made sense to a novice like myself. You and CF make an awesome team providing that rich, vibrant and talented mix.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was a pleasure to meet you in person."

cheers

Denis Hogan

Christian Fletcher and I will be presenting another of our intensive photography workshops in December. This time we will be holding it in Tasmania at the wonderful Freycinet Lodge.

The Bunker Bay workshop we held in January was very well received and we got a lot of excellent feedback (see these posts). Christian and I thought long and hard about where to hold a follow-up event and I knew that Freycinet Lodge would be perfect. It’s a terrific hotel, it’s on the coast and the wonderful Freycinet Peninsula is right on its doorstep. What’s not to like about that!

A full itinerary can be downloaded here.

Christian has posted about it here : Christian Fletcher Blog

The cost is $995 and includes morning teas, full lunch and afternoon tea on both days.

Sign Up for this Workshop

Terms and Conditions - click here for full details

Comments from recent Bunker Bay Workshop :

What an amazing 2 days. You and Christian work so well together. It was great watching you bounce ideas of each other. It was fantastic that two such amazingly talented photographers are willing to share so much. I was expecting a lot of shooting ideas and help and I certainly got that. But what I gained from the talks on Lightroom and Photoshop just blew me away. You both have so much enthusiasm and are able to pass on so much knowledge in a fun and very easy to listen to style. I was never overwhelmed by the immense amount of information you both gave. My brain is in a spin and I can’t wait to put it all into practice. The only complaint (a good one) is the shopping list has reach $1000 and is climbing. I can’t wait for all my goodies to arrive.

Please let me know if you and Christian are joining forces again. I bow to the masters and thank you so much.

Carol

Thank you Nick for an enjoyable weekend at the Bunker Bay workshop. My head is still spinning with all the information that you and Christian passed on to all of us, but I have learnt some very helpful hints over the weekend.

It is such a blessing that two photographers of your calibre, gave us all the opportunity to learn and feed off your experiences and techniques, and the way you and Christian explained subject matter was very clear and precise, but, that doesn’t mean I totally got everything you two said, but hey, that’s my fault not yours!!

Once again thank you for the weekend, full of fun, plenty of laughs an some great food at the resort.

Jamie Nicolaou

Hey Nick, “I learnt so much and yet know so little”, I might coin that saying :-). I enjoyed the workshop very much , it had structure, flexibility, information and so many useful tips ( & was fun too) and I appreciated the time you took to help me with this new A900 beast. Your technical explanation on colour management and other matters even though it just touched the surface, made sense to a novice like myself. You and CF make an awesome team providing that rich, vibrant and talented mix.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was a pleasure to meet you in person.

cheers

Denis Hogan

This is a private page for workshop participants to communicate with each other.

Over the weekend of Jan 30th CF and I conducted an intensive photo workshop at the Quay West Resort at Bunker Bay near Dunsborough, WA. We managed to get out for three shoots but the emphasis was on seminars and tutorials in the conference rooms.

I’d like to thank everyone who attended, our group turned out to be a great bunch with a full range of skills and experience from relative beginner through to a few guys who really knew their stuff. We even had one participant come all the way from South Africa to join us - thanks Dennis, we thoroughly enjoyed your company over the weekend.

Ric de Cuhna had this to say:

Thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable weekend Nick. From the onset it was very apparent that both you and Christian demonstrated a willingness to share all of your knowledge including very recently acquired techniques that you currently employ in your very own workflow. For two entire days together, you ensured that you answered every question from each member of the group and you were able to unravel what were previously difficult subjects to fathom with a methodological approach and the ability to connect with the audience.

Thank you for the very gratifying experience and I will be highly recommending any future workshops to my peers that you are a part of.

Nick Rains and Charlie Waite would like to thank all those who took part in our Kimberley Adventure. Everyone saw an improvement in their image making and were able to return home with some memorable (see below) pictures of this remote wilderness area of Western Australia.