Meet The Pro: Walter Aaron

In this episode of the Pangolin Podcast, host Toby Jermyn welcomes Botswana-born wildlife photographer and Pangolin photo host, Walter Aaron. Growing up in the heart of the Okavango Delta, Walter’s lifelong connection to nature led him to become a safari guide, where he discovered a deep passion for capturing the incredible wildlife around him. Today, he is a resident photo host in the Chobe, where he mentors the next generation of Batswana photographers.

Connect with Walter:
https://www.instagram.com/waltersphotography22/

The Pangolin Podcast was produced and edited by Bella Falk: https://www.passportandpixels.com

View a gallery of the images discussed in this episode:
https://pangolin.smugmug.com/SmugMug-Website/Pangolin-Podcast/Walter-Aaron

In this episode, Walter shares the stories behind four of his favorite personal photographs and one image by a fellow photographer that he deeply admires. He also discusses his love for low-angle photography—sometimes even touching his camera to the water to get the perfect shot—and what it’s like being a homegrown photo host in one of the world’s premier wildlife destinations.

GUEST IMAGE
Charl Stols
https://www.instagram.com/charl_stols/
https://www.facebook.com/CharlStolsNaturePhotography/

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction to the Pangolin Podcast
• 01:02 Guest Introduction: Walter Aaron
• 03:01 Choosing the Perfect Wildlife Photos
• 04:17 The First Image: Leopard Cub in Chobe
• 09:30 The Second Image: Low-Angle African Jacana
• 15:02 The Third Image: Wide-Angle Lions in the Okavango Delta
• 20:15 The Fourth Image: Buffalo vs Crocodile
• 25:20 Advice for Aspiring Wildlife Photographers
• 28:45 Mentoring the Next Generation in Botswana
• 32:10 The Final Image: A Photo Walter Admired
• 35:50 Conclusion

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We are Pangolin Wildlife Photography, based in the Chobe, Northern Botswana. When we are not making videos for our channel, we host our guests and clients from all over the world on our Wildlife Photography safaris throughout Botswana and the rest of Africa—and sometimes beyond!

Learn More about our safaris here: https://link.pangolinphoto.com/BZ-Safaris

Chapters

• 4:17:00 1st Image: Leopard Cub in Chobe
• 9:30:00 2nd Image: Low-Angle African Jacana
• 15:02:00 3rd Image: Wide-Angle Lions in the Okavango Delta
• 20:15:00 4th Image: Buffalo vs Crocodile
• 32:10:00 Guest Image - Charl Stols

Transcript

Pangolin Podcast: Guest Walter Aaron

Toby: Hello and welcome to another brand-new episode of the Pangolin Podcast. I’m your host, Toby Jermyn. Thank you very much for joining me. In each episode, I invite a professional wildlife photographer to imagine themselves in a remote location. Along with their camera gear, they’re allowed to bring five photographs to hang on the wall of their humble dwelling. Four of these must be their own, and the final image is one they admire by another photographer.

If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see the images as we talk. For audio listeners on other platforms, there's a link in the description below.

Walter: I fell in love with shooting from a lower angle—to a point that I even sometimes put my camera just below the water, a few centimeters down. At some point, I even touch the water just to protect my camera so it doesn’t drown. I'm just trying to get to that perfect position.

Toby: My guest today has been around animals all his life. He is Botswana born and raised and grew up in the Okavango Delta. It was only natural that he became a safari guide. It was through this that he also developed his passion for photography and capturing the incredible wildlife he saw every day.

He came across Pangolin Photo Safaris while working in the Chobe, and one day he walked into the hotel with his CV and asked for a job. Fast forward four years, he's now one of our resident Pangolin Photo Hosts—not only welcoming guests but also mentoring our three new interns who will soon become Botswana's next generation of pro wildlife photographers. He is, of course, Pangolin Photo Host, Walter Aaron. Hello, Walter. How are you?

Walter: Hi Toby. I'm very well. Thank you so much for having me here. What an honour.

Toby: It's an absolute pleasure. I'm glad you could make time. It’s still the busy safari season at the moment, isn't it? How busy have you been this year?

Walter: Oh, wow. We've been running up and down with the trips. I just dropped off one of my previous groups right before I had to be here to start the podcast.

Toby: Oh, there we go! So you're just in time. Wave goodbye to the guests and then zoom straight into the YouTube studio: "I have to go, I'm on the podcast!"

Walter: Oh, yes!

Toby: So Walter, can you believe it? It's been four years, probably almost five years, hasn't it?

Walter: Oh, time flies, huh?

Toby: Doesn't it just? And you don't seem to age, which is really annoying. Everybody ages apart from Walter. Walter still looks young.

Walter: Thank you so much. I age wisely.

Toby: "I age wisely"—that’s the secret, isn't it? So, I've invited you on the podcast and the premise is that you had to go and choose four images from your bulging portfolio. Your portfolio is getting quite big now. How difficult or easy was it to choose these four images?

Walter: Oh my goodness, that was a really terrifying moment for me. Just thinking of choosing only four! You could have asked for 100 or maybe 200, because it was really challenging to select these four.

Toby: Well, I'm really glad that you have. We are very delighted that you are moving into the Senior Photo Host realm. You now have three interns or understudies you're working with. How are they doing?

Walter: Well, they're doing pretty good. They are learning a lot from us and they're looking forward to becoming Senior Photo Hosts themselves in the future.

Toby: Excellent. It's a wonderful thing that we are able to find this talent in Botswana, nurture it, and prove that Botswana is up there. Next thing we need is a winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year from Botswana. Is that going to be you, Walter?

Walter: Possible. I'm looking forward to that.

Toby: Don't say "possible," Walter. You have to say, "Absolutely! It will be!"

Walter: Yes, absolutely. That’s the spirit.

Toby: Okay Walter, we're going to start with your first image, which is a beautiful image to start with. Can you please tell the viewers and the listeners a little bit about this photo?

Walter: Well, this is an image of a leopard cub in the beautiful greenery of the wet season. He happens to be looking up into the sky. We thought he was looking at the sky, but he was actually looking up into a tree. It’s very interesting to get a cat’s eye just popping like that. For me, it’s all about the eyes of these cats.

Toby: Absolutely. Do you know what he was looking at? Was there a bird or a monkey up there?

Walter: It was a very interesting sighting. We started with a very quiet game drive in the Chobe National Park. We were just beating about the bush, then around the corner, we saw a few vehicles parked in one spot. We noticed they were looking at an adult leopard.

As we came to a stop, it disappeared behind the bushes. Those five vehicles left, so we decided just to wait. Suddenly, it came out and started moving around until it came to some nearby bushes. We saw movement from a tree, and boom—the leopard baby came out. It sat nicely in the short grass. It was a season with very tall grass elsewhere; if he had moved in the opposite direction, we wouldn't have seen him. But he stayed right where we could take some beautiful shots.

Toby: It's really lovely. How far away were you? The angle looks quite low, but obviously, you're in a game viewer.

Walter: Amazingly, it came to the left side of the vehicle, less than 10 meters from our car. It just decided to be there. Because we didn't expect to see the leopard cub—we were looking for the adult—we didn't include the tree in the frame. We went for portrait shots to get those beautiful eyes. When you zoom into those eyes, you can even see the reflection of the tree.

We wondered why he kept looking up, so we looked up as well. Boom—there was a baby impala kill up in the tree where the mother had secured it. He kept looking up to make sure his meal didn’t fall. You know how leopards are; they kill something, but bigger predators like lions or hyenas can steal it. To secure their food, they have to drag it up a tall tree so they can eat without any problems.

Toby: Excellent. What I love is that this is a perfect example of being patient while all the other vehicles left. They went, "Okay, we've seen it, tick the box, let’s go." What made you want to hang around? What went through your mind?

Walter: The first leopard we saw disappeared behind the bushes before we could even take a picture. We decided to just wait and see if it came back out. About five minutes after the others left, it finally appeared. The cub didn’t come out immediately because leopards are elusive and protective of their babies. They’ll keep them safe from any threats, including vehicles with roaring engines. Because we switched off the car and remained quiet, the cub eventually realized we were just one of those "friendly metal things" they see every day.

Toby: Do you think they saw the logo? They saw "Pangolin" and went, "Ah, these guys are okay, let’s pose for them."

Walter: Yeah! It was amazing. We stayed with this cub for about three hours and had the whole sighting to ourselves.

Toby: That’s it. In the green season, there are far fewer vehicles. I don’t know why people don’t want to come at that time of year, but that’s their loss. You were with guests; they must have been delighted.

Walter: Oh, absolutely. To see a leopard is lucky, but to spot more than one is double luck. They were amazed by our patience and thankful we got "two leopards for the price of one" after the other guests left.

Toby: Walter, obviously the big advantage you have over most other photographers is your guiding background. Where did you start guiding in Botswana?

Walter: Amazingly, I grew up in the Delta, but my guiding started in Chobe. I’m a family man with two boys, and I wanted to be able to go to work and come back home to my boys and my wife. In the Delta back then, there was no communication. You’d go for three months and only get one month back home. That didn’t suit me, so I chose Chobe.

Toby: Your two boys are a little bit older now. That means you’re doing a bit more traveling with our clients down to the Delta and other places, right?

Walter: Most definitely. The first is 13 and the second is 6. When I go for trips now, it’s usually for two weeks, which is perfectly fine.

Toby: Not enough time for them to get in trouble!

Walter: Oh no, the six-year-old is the troublesome one! He needs me around.

Toby: Brilliant. And tell me about the day you walked into the hotel to ask for a job. Who did you meet?

Walter: I met Ndibo, who is the HR, and Dan Jenner, the manager at the time. I said, "Hello, can I please see Guts?" They asked why, and I said I wanted a position in the company but I wanted to speak with him directly.

Toby: You wanted to speak to the boss!

Walter: I had my CV, but I didn’t want to just leave it with them. I wanted to speak with Guts directly so I could explain myself better than a CV can.

Toby: That's a good lesson for everybody—cut out the middle management and go straight to the boss! Guts is my business partner who runs the operations in Botswana. We’re so glad you took that step and insisted on speaking to him. Well done. Let’s move on to the second image. Walter, what is going on here?

Walter: This is an image of a buffalo and a crocodile fighting. I call the buffalo the "widow maker" versus the "silent killer" of the freshwater.

Toby: This sounds like a wrestling match! "The Widow Maker takes on the Silent Killer!"

Walter: You know how it is. Buffaloes are very furious animals. On this day, we were on an afternoon boat cruise. We noticed a crocodile planning to leave the channel to move to another one in the distance. When the buffalo saw that movement, he took his chance. Buffaloes know their enemies.

I don't know what happened previously—maybe that crocodile tried to bite him when he was swimming—but he followed the crocodile and started attacking from behind. The croc turned around trying to bite back. Crocodiles have the most deadly bite force; it would cause serious damage if it grabbed the buffalo's ear or nose. You can see the buffalo dodging the strike and aiming his horns to stop the crocodile.

Toby: It’s a unique moment. I’ve seen a young buffalo taken by a crocodile while swimming, and it’s an awful thing to see. There might be some history there where this buffalo decided it was revenge time. But it’s a weird fight—a crocodile reaching up and a buffalo reaching down. What did you tell your guests?

Walter: I told them it was revenge. Buffaloes have hot tempers. They’ll attack lions, hyenas, or humans if they feel threatened. Since he had the croc on land where it’s less powerful, he decided to make his impact.

Toby: How did it end?

Walter: The crocodile just wanted to get to the next channel, not fight a buffalo on land. The buffalo made several attempts, but eventually, they just went their separate ways. It was too risky for both.

Toby: This was taken from the boat, wasn't it? Do you have a preference between the boats and the game drives?

Walter: I love being on the boats. All animals rely on the Chobe River, so they all come down to you. In summertime, you see thousands of elephants. The river is my choice.

Toby: What is it about the boat that guests enjoy so much?

Walter: You can move so quietly. In a car, you have the engine sound, but on the boat, you can just drift closer at that perfect eye-level position every photographer wants.

Toby: It’s funny—we spend all this money on amazing chairs and gimbals, and as soon as we find a subject, everyone sits on the floor to get low! Okay, we’re going to take a little break, and when we come back, we’ll talk about Walter's third image.

(Part 2)

Toby: Welcome back to part two. Walter, tell us about this third image. What are we seeing here?

Walter: These are four lionesses standing on the horizon, staring down at the floodplains in Shinde, in the Delta. The grass was so long that we couldn't see anything at first. We heard baboons shouting and then suddenly saw these lions on top of a termite mound. Because the Delta is so flat, they used the mound to scan the horizon. Because we were low, we got that beautiful sky with the "cotton clouds" behind them.

Toby: It's true—you don't realize how flat Botswana is until you fly over it. These lionesses were likely looking for their next meal. Did they have cubs?

Walter: They had two cubs, and they were very hungry. One of them actually managed to stalk and kill a baboon in that tall grass. The dominant female claimed the kill, so everyone else had to back off. A baboon is just a snack for a lion, so the leader took it all.

Toby: That’s a hungry lion to go after a baboon! It’s also dangerous; a big male baboon can do real damage.

Walter: Exactly. They took them by surprise.

Toby: Do you think your guiding background helps you predict these moments for photographers?

Walter: Definitely. When you know animal behaviour, you can tell the guests to be ready. You can say, "Increase your shutter speed now because they are about to sprint."

Toby: You worked closely with Charl Stols. What were the big tips you learned from him?

Walter: Charl is amazing. I learned so much about shooting strategy. I love the way he shoots from the boat—sometimes I thought a crocodile would get him because he would extend his arms so far out just to get that low angle! I fell in love with that. Now I even put my camera just centimetres above the water.

Toby: Now you’re passing that on to the interns. Does that make you proud?

Walter: It makes me very proud. They love the way I shoot. Sometimes if I don’t pick up my camera, they don’t either, but as soon as I grab mine, they all go down low because they know something good is coming!

Toby: If you had one tip for a first-time safari photographer, what would it be?

Walter: Bring whatever camera you have. In Chobe, the animals are so friendly that you don't always need a massive lens. You might even use a 16-35mm "landscape" lens because they get so close. Expect the unexpected.

Toby: You see people reaching for their phones because the animals are too close for their big lenses! Let’s look at your fourth image.

Walter: This is a Jacana chick jumping between lily pads. We found this "Daddy Jacana" with his chicks in the Kasika Channel. He carries the chicks under his wings for protection. I went very low for this, extending my hands over the boat. I love the little water drop coming off his long claws. People call them "Jesus birds" because they look like they are walking on water.

Toby: Those chicks are tiny—maybe 15 centimetres tall. And they move fast! What settings were you using?

Walter: I was shooting at 1/2500th of a second to freeze the water droplets. I used an f/4 aperture to get that nice shallow depth of field so the chick stood out from the busy background.

Toby: Did you have animal eye tracking on?

Walter: Yes, it locks right on the eye, which is a lifesaver for such a small, fast subject.

Toby: If you want to see baby Jacanas, March and April is the time to come. Walter, you’ve been a wildlife guide and now a photo host. Do you ever find yourself talking too much about behaviour and forgetting the camera settings?

Walter: Sometimes the other guides say, "Walter, hang on, let us say something!" Because I know the behaviour, I’m quick to tell the guests what will happen next. I talk a lot on the boat about both settings and behaviour.

Toby: You're stealing the guides' jobs!

Toby: You're stealing their job! For those of you who haven't been to Botswana with us, whenever we go out on a game drive or boat cruise, we have the Photo Host and we have the Guide who's driving the boat or the vehicle. The realms of responsibility should be: Walter does the photography, the guide does the animal stuff. But obviously, Walter's now stealing the show most of the time!

Walter: The guide is sitting there like, "Okay, Walter’s got this." But you know, it’s all about teamwork. We work together to make sure the guests are in the right position at the right time. That’s the most important thing.

Toby: It really is. And having that "guide’s eye" combined with the "photographer’s eye" is what makes our hosts so special. Walter, it has been an absolute joy having you on the show today. Thank you for sharing these incredible images and the stories behind them.

Walter: Thank you so much, Toby. It was a pleasure to be here and to share my journey. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone out on the water soon.

Toby: Definitely. And for everyone watching or listening, if you want to see more of Walter’s work or join him on a safari, check out the links in the description. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more episodes of the Pangolin Podcast. We’ll see you next time!