Dominic Cruz is a wildlife photographer who works under the name Askari Wildlife Photography, and whose pictures are mostly dark. A lion mid-roar on black. An elephant in sepia, walking straight at the lens. A leopard that seems to have decided the night belongs to it. In Jan-2023 his Big Five set was one of the better things on @iheartsafaris, and in Oct-2026 he gave us the run of his images again. So here are seven of them, and where each was taken.
Updated 20-Oct-2026
We should say up front what this profile is not. Dom has not yet sent us the usual three lines of biography, and we are not in the habit of inventing them. What follows is the pictures, his own captions, and the reserves where he made them. The pictures turn out to be quite enough.
Seven photographs, and where they were taken
The Mkuze male, Zuka Private Game Reserve
Photograph Dominic Cruz Askari Wildlife Photography Zuka Private Game Reserve
Dom’s caption for this one reads “one of the Mkuze males blowing off steam after a vigorous mating session”, which is about as much detail as anyone needs. Everything but the head and mane has gone to black, so the roar does all the work, and even in a still frame you can more or less hear it. Lions do not whisper.
An elephant in sepia, Kruger National Park
Photograph Dominic Cruz Askari Wildlife Photography Kruger National Park
Low angle, dust underfoot, tusks catching what little light there is. The bull is walking towards the camera with his ears out, which is not the same as a charge, but is not an invitation either. Dom captioned the original with a line from Peter Matthiessen rather than anything of his own, which tells you something about Dom.
A leopard after dark, Makhasa
Photograph Dominic Cruz Askari Wildlife Photography Makhasa Private Game Lodge
Most night-drive leopard pictures are a spotlight fighting the dark and losing. This one lets the dark win. A single side light picks out one ear, one eye and the rosettes on a shoulder, and the rest of the animal is simply absent. It is the frame we chose for the cover of our Instagram set, and we would choose it again.
Two cheetahs at Mavela, Manyoni Private Game Reserve
Photograph Dominic Cruz Askari Wildlife Photography Mavela Game Lodge Manyoni Private Game Reserve
The only colour frame in the set until the end, and the only one with two animals in it. Two cheetahs pressed head to shoulder in late light at Mavela, one of them moving fast enough to blur. Manyoni is the reserve behind our own Mavela Game Lodge feature, if you want to know what the place is like from the vehicle rather than through a lens.
The martial eagle, Kruger
Photograph Dominic Cruz Askari Wildlife Photography Kruger National Park
Head-on, wings folded, pale eyes level with the camera. Dom’s caption says the martial eagle is “capable of spotting prey up to 6km away, before employing a deep dive from overhead”, and the bird in this picture looks fully prepared to prove it. The spotted breast against a plain grey ground reads more like a studio portrait than a game drive, which is rather the point of his style.
First light, Kruger: a tawny eagle
Photograph Dominic Cruz Askari Wildlife Photography Kruger National Park
Tawny eagles are everywhere in Kruger, perched on the dead branch you drove past without looking. Dom’s caption has this one “bathed in the early morning sunrise, rested and ready for the days hunt”, and the sunrise has caught only the crown and nape, leaving the rest of the bird in shadow. Anyone who has tried to photograph a bird of prey before coffee will appreciate how much patience is sitting in this frame.
Here’s looking at you: a leopard at MalaMala
Photograph Dominic Cruz Askari Wildlife Photography MalaMala Game Reserve
The set ends in daylight and in colour. A leopard draped over the fork of a tree at MalaMala, head hanging upside down, one eye half open in the direction of the vehicle. Dom’s caption notes it was taken “on our last visit” to the reserve, and the leopard appears not to have minded the visit much at all.
Where to see more, and where to buy a print
The feed is @askari_wild_life on Instagram. The road, meaning the drives between the reserves rather than the animals at the end of them, lives on his second account, @thedirtroaddiary_. Prints are sold through Living Canvas, where the dark backgrounds make rather more sense on a wall than on a phone.
All seven ran as a carousel on @iheartsafaris on 13-Oct-2026 under the title “Dominic Cruz, After Dark”. This page is the longer version, with the locations spelled out.
Planning a safari with cats in mind?
Five of the seven frames above are cats, and four of the five reserves are in places you can book. If leopards and lions are the point of the trip, tell us so on the Plan a Safari page and we will steer you towards the reserves that deliver them reliably rather than occasionally. And if it is the photographers you came for, the series continues with Villiers Steyn, The Safari Expert and Nili Gudhka, aka The Jungle Chic.
Images Credit: Dominic Cruz, Askari Wildlife Photography. Used with the photographer’s permission, Oct-2026.
