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Marion Vicenta Payr - Travel Photography & Storytelling, Wien (2026)

08/06/2026

Three days on a small spit of Baltic coastline at . (Advertisement)

Since years I’ve been wanting to visit the famous environmental photography festival at Zingst and I‘m so happy I finally made it!

Horizonte Zingst is one of those festivals that’s hard to describe because it entails so much.

But here goes an attempt: it’s an outdoor photography festival on a peninsula in northern Germany, built entirely around nature, people and their environment, and the stories images can tell about the world we share and live in.

Over three days I cycled between open-air exhibitions, wandered a national park on the lookout for wildlife, watched a multimedia show about the last wild paradises on earth, attended photography talks and workshops and ended each evening on the beach watching hundreds of photographs projected into the dark with the Baltic behind me. 🌊

One of the most memorable moments? A conversation with curator about the festivals concept and about the 20th anniversary edition coming in 2027—and trust me, that’s one you’ll want to be at!

Save the date:
🗓️May 28–June 6, 2027
📍 Zingst, Germany

A full blog post is coming to thetravelblog.at later this year with everything you need to know — the exhibitions, the workshops, the talks, and why the anniversary edition from deserves a spot on your calendar.

Thanks to and for making this trip possible (and for hosting such a wonderful festival). I’ll be back soon!

05/06/2026

Calling all female photographers! ✨
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I‘m thrilled to share the line-up of my webinars and workshops that are part of this year’s edition of Nikon Female Facets—Nikon’s mentoring initiative dedicated to empowering women in photography.

From next week all the way through to October, there’s different sessions for every stage of your photography journey. 🌿📷

🦁 Webinars (free, 90 min)

🌿 Expedition Borneo – Wildlife Photography at the Other End of the World
Storytelling, technique & ethics in one of the world’s most complex ecosystems
🗓️June 8 | 6:30–8:00 PM
💶 For free (still spots available)

🌍 A Woman in the Wild: What Africa Taught Me
On courage, intuition, and the power of mindful photography
🗓️ June 10 | 6:30–8:00 PM
💶 For free (still spots available)

🎓 Online Workshops (2.5 hrs)

📖 Storytelling in Travel Photography – From Image to Story
The art of the photo series — bringing depth and narrative to your photography
🗓️ July 20 | 6:00–8:30 PM
💶 FULLY BOOKED

✂️ The Art of Selection: Editing & Sequencing
From image overload to compelling reportage — curate, edit & sequence your work
🗓️ July 22 | 6:00–8:30 PM
💶 FULLY BOOKED

🏫 Exclusive In-Person Workshop
📸 Nikon Female Facets Exclusive Workshop
A full day dedicated to your craft at the Nikon School in Düsseldorf
🗓️ October 22 | 9:00 AM–4:00 PM
📍 Nikon School, Düsseldorf
💶 €490 (1 spot available)

👉 Register now directly at nikon.de!
And don’t forget — there’s also an exciting photo contest open to female photographers 🏆

🇩🇪 Please note: All sessions are held in German and are open to female photographers only.

17/05/2026

NEW TRAVEL GUIDE: Kafue National Park, Zambia 🇿🇲

📍Save this post for all the insights into Zambia’s oldest and largest National Park.

In Kafue you still get a sense of remoteness that is hard to come by in today’s world.

Why to go?
As one of the largest parks in Africa-roughly the size of Slovenia—its scale and remoteness are its greatest assets, offering a staggering diversity of habitats and true wilderness experience.

What to expect
Because it remains largely under-the-radar and vast, you can go for days without seeing another soul, providing a sense of solitude and authentic discovery that is increasingly rare anywhere in Africa.

Range of Activities
With the Kafue river and its tributaries the park otters excellent boating next to traditional game and night drives and Zambia’s famous, expertly guided walking safaris. Kafue is a lot about tracking, reading signs of the bush and a sense of unparalleled wilderness.

Excellent guides
In a place as remote and vast as Kafue the guides are the most important part of the safari experience. A lot of your time here will be spent tracking animals and exploring the immensity of the park. The guides here are among the best in the industry with decades of experience among them.

When to visit
Large parts of the park remain inaccessible during the rainy season, so the main season runs from June to October, when it’s dry in Zambia. May is the start of the season in the Musekese sector, which allows for shoulder season rates, while Busanga Plains only opens in June for a very short season.

Busanga Plains
In the very North of Kafue lies Busanga Plains: For half the year, it is an inaccessible floodplain, only to emerge as a vast, shimmering mosaic of golden grass and misty lagoons as the water recedes in June. There’s massive herds of antelopes and ungulates and some of Zambia’s most impressive lions also call Busanga home.

Where to stay
Kafue National Park is so massive that you can be completely alone in parts like Musekese-where there’s no other camps.

Find out more in the slides of this post!

14/05/2026

Touchdown in Lusaka, Zambia 🇿🇲

Yesterday I arrived and—although a bit brain dead from the long journey—I couldn’t stop myself from taking a few photos at the lodge.

Let’s call it the warm-up for the safari to come 😅

And even though they’re not on Instagram, I will not hold it against them: Wild Dogs Lodge is such a lovely place to stay in Lusaka. If you ever find yourself here, say Hi to the house cat Nairobi (who I didn’t photograph yet).

Tomorrow we’re off to the bush, so you won’t hear from me for a bit. Stay turned for more!

11/05/2026

FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS, this is for you:
2026 is here! 📷
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Six years and counting… ♥️
Since the launch in 2021 thousands of female photographers have joined Nikon Female Facets, the female photo contest and women’s mentorship program by .

Tens of thousands of images were carefully reviewed, selected, seen & felt—by female photographers and jurors alike.

It’s fair to say Nikon Female Facets has grown into one of my most favorite projects on the calendar—and I’m glad that it’s back again this year with the sixth edition.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a hobby photographer or professional, you can enter your photos free of charge until the 28th of September 2026 in the following categories:

• Architecture & Street
• Landscape & Travel
• Macro & Still Life
• People & Portrait
• Animals & Wildlife
• Sports & Action

All the entries will be showcased on the Nikon website and the prizes are incredible as well:
🥇 1st place in each category: Nikon gear worth € 2,500
🥈2nd place in each category: Nikon gear worth € 500
🥉3rd place in each category: Nikon gear worth € 500

Additionally we introduced 2 special awards last year, that grew into new favorites—so they will also be awarded in this edition:
🏆„Best perspective“ from all categories: wins Nikon gear worth € 2,500
🏆 „Young perspective“ from all entries of photographers below 25 years old: wins Nikon gear worth € 2,500

All the details about the photo contest and mentoring program can be found on the website!

And if you’re active on Facebook you can also join the „Nikon Female Facets“ Facebook Group for personal tips from & the mentors.

We are truly excited about this opportunity for female photographers and can’t wait to see all your entries to the photo contest.

From us, the 6 mentors:

evang

06/05/2026

Safari under the winterthorns ✨🇿🇲

At the bank of the Zambezi River in the Lower Zambezi National Park, Kutali Camp sits in the shade of a canopy of ancient Acacia winterthorn trees, capturing the essence of what a safari used to be.

Think bucket showers and open air bathrooms and elephants casually munching right next to you while you brush your teeth (or sit on the toilet for that matter 😉).

The camp’s location is a magnet for the park’s legendary elephants, but also a perfect entryway to the more elusive predators.

Kutali offers perfect access to some of the most game-rich sectors of the park, putting us right in the center of the action. This area is a true stronghold for the Lower Zambezi’s famous predators; the density of leopards here is staggering, and it’s one of the best places in the valley to track wild dogs.

I always love how Kutali makes you feel like a part of nature in the best way possible.

The Kutali experience entails:

✨ Pure bush soul: Sleeping under canvas in a stylishly simple seasonal camp, where luxury is defined by being immersed in nature.

🐘 Elephant encounters: The elephants of the Lower Zambezi love coming into the camp (and sometimes they even stand on their hind legs to reach the high branches).

🐆 Predator Territory: Prime access to a high-density wilderness where leopard sightings are common and wild dogs roam the floodplains.

It’s just us, the forest, and the wild heart of the Zambezi—and I can’t wait to be back here soon! 🇿🇲🐘

05/05/2026

Zambia, or where the transfer is part of the show ✨🐘

Whenever I stay at Lower Zambezi National Park I always try to turn the transfers into this: A little adventure!

That day we took the boat instead of the vehicles to transfer upstream from Kutali to Chula camp and encountered a small group of male elephants on an island in the Zambezi River.

Slowly we made our way towards them.

They mustered us on our boats and decided to—join us in the water! This came completely unexpected.

We had anticipated that they would either keep on munching grass on the island or simply ignore us and walk off, but no. Something about us and our little boat intrigued them.

All three made their way into the river and started practicing mating rituals right next to our boat. Needless to say we arrived in camp a little later than expected while we enjoyed this incredible dance in the water.

I can’t wait to be back soon! T-8 days before the Zambia adventure of 2026 kicks off with my group.

01/05/2026

NEW TRAVEL GUIDE:
Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia 🇿🇲

📍Save this guide for your next Zambia trip!

Since my first visit here in 2019 I’ve been back multiple times and the park never ceases to amaze me from the moment I step off the bush plane. The open plains with views of the escarpment, the mystical Winterthorn forest, the magic morning light, the density of leopards, abundance of elephants, the variety of activities. There’s truly nothing to be missed here ✨

🐆 What to expect

Expect a stay defined by authenticity. A classic African safari with the rhythm dictated by nature, the river and the sun. Most camps are located directly on the banks of the Zambezi, so you’ll fall asleep to the sounds of grunting hippos and elephants might come to visit you in camp.

🛶 Range of Activities

Next to the stunning landscape and density of wildlife, the diversity of activities is one of the main reasons to visit this park. There’s not too many places where you can do game drives, night drives, walking safaris, canoe and boat safaris–all in the same area.

🗓️ When to visit

The main season runs from June to October, when it’s dry in Zambia. Personally I love to visit in the quiet shoulder season (April, May) for lower prices and stunning emerald green landscapes. November is a good option too for low season rates and ultra dry (but hot) weather.

⛺️Where to stay

Since the park is relatively undeveloped and focused on exclusive, low-impact tourism, there’s only two handful of camps inside the park–but at a great range from ultra luxury lodges to authentic bush camps to choose from.

Personally I love authentic bush camps like the ones from . Both Kutali and Chula island Camp are located in prime areas of the park and offer comfortable tents with ensuite open-air bathrooms. Think having your bucket shower next to elephants.

🛩️ How to get there

There are two primary airstrips that serve the Lower Zambezi National Park–Jeki and Royal Airstrip. Proflight Zambia is the primary commercial airline, that offers flights from Lusaka, Livingstone and Mfuwe (South Luangwa), but there’s also the option of charter flights.

30/04/2026

This was the first Earth Month without Jane Goodall here to guide us 🌍

Jane spent her life giving a voice to nature and inspiring hope. And now, we have to be that voice.

I’m humbled to be a part of .impact’s ‚The Nature of Hope‘—a global print fundraiser dedicated to Jane’s legacy.

My contribution is this image titled ‚Flora & Fauna.‘ I captured two young mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. They were holding on to a branch with one hand, while collecting drinking water with their other hand.

To me, this image represents the beautiful, but fragile balance that exists everywhere on our planet. And that Jane spent her life fighting for. It’s my love letter to a world she taught us to see with our hearts.

The print sale is now open on https://vitalimpacts.org and proceeds support Jane’s Roots & Shoots program ().

If you live in Austria like myself you can also support with their incredible program, with just 8 Euros per month you can help to continue Jane’s vision. You can find more info on https://janegoodall.at/aktiv-werden/bejane.

Let’s keep her hope alive, together.

Video:

28/04/2026

The most tranquil safari activity:
Canoe riding on the Discovery channel, Zambia 🇿🇲

A specialty in the Lower Zambezi National Park are the canoe rides in the side channels of the Zambezi river.

There is something deeply spiritual about drifting down the waterways, nothing but the dip of the paddle and the soft whoosh of water to be heard ✨

The added magic of a canoe safari is also the perspective. You aren’t looking down from a vehicle; you are at eye level with the wildlife—be it monitor lizards at the riverside, elephants crossing the channels or hippos surfacing nearby.

While it feels effortless, it’s not just casual row.

To guide these waters, professionals undergo rigorous training. The canoe guide’s job is to read the river and the mood of the wildlife, especially the resident hippos—and this requires the highest level of guiding grades in Zambia. And Zambia is famous in the safari world for having some of the most rigorous guiding standards on the continent!

To become a Level 1 Guide in Zambia, it typically takes about seven years of intense preparation. This includes years of apprenticeship, hundreds of hours out in the field, and mastery of animal behavior.

So you know you’re in safe hands when out canoeing here!

📸 What to Bring:

• Your Camera: Don’t be afraid to bring your gear! These canoes are designed for stability, and since there is no water sitting in the bottom of the boat, your electronics stay dry.

• The Essentials: The Zambian sun is no joke. You definitely need a hat, plenty of sunscreen and a bottle of water.

I can’t wait to be back! No engines, no noise, just the sound of the river and the African bush breathing 🙌🏼

Marion Vicenta Payr - Travel Photography & Storytelling

08/06/2026

05/06/2026

17/05/2026

14/05/2026

11/05/2026

06/05/2026

05/05/2026

01/05/2026

30/04/2026

28/04/2026

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