Last year I was asked by an incredible family to join them on their amazing adventure to Africa to… (ready for this?) … take photos for them!  It was truly a dream come true, beyond my wildest imagination.  We spent 2 weeks in the most amazing places in Africa:  Sabi Sabi Earth Lodge (in NE South Africa) and Singita Pamushana (in Zimbabwe), then went cage diving with Great White Sharks in Mossel Bay, and capped the trip off celebrating the New Year in Cape Town!

Please take a peek into this amazing expedition I was most fortunate to be a part of.  This is the first of four blog posts in which I’ll display some of my favorite photos from Africa.

Sabi Sabi was the most perfect place to begin our time in Africa.  The lodge had the most incredible people taking care of us, and our safari trips every morning and evening were so chock full of the most perfect animal observations, we wondered if we were on a movie set and the animal trainers were cued for our jeep to come by so they could let their animals out with perfect timing.  😉  At one point during our first evening safari, we became surrounded by a herd of elephants, and I could not have been happier!  Elephants have always been my favorite animal and seeing them up close in the wild like this made me feel like I could pack up right then and there and head home a satisfied customer!  Then one afternoon we were able to get up close and personal with some rescued elephants that acted like puppy dogs; it was absolutely amazing!  Then came the leopards, and the zebras, and the perfect golden sunsets, and the rhinoceroses, and watching an actual lion hunt!  Thankfully for us, the two lionesses were unsuccessful hunting their prey (the antelope), but it was really something special to witness such a wild event.  The baboons swimming in the river was another insane thing to come upon during our safari drives.  Our guide said he has truly never seen baboons swimming before, so we all felt incredibly lucky to watch what fun they were having!  4 wheeling through the wilderness was another fun adventure, and then on our last night in Sabi Sabi, we happened upon 3 lions sleeping under a tree (very “Lion King” to me).  The universe was on my side, and my camera lined up for the most perfect photo op I could have asked for as the lions woke up, yawning, and started to pose for me.  I kid you not.  Thank you, lions, for making my photography dreams come true!

(All photos are © Colleen Putman Photography.  Please do not save or reproduce any of these photos without written permission from the owner).