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Photography tips for your African Safari

Tips for Safari Photography

The following are some tips for clients who are keen to return from their African Safari with some note-worthy photographs. It is not aimed at the very keen photographer who's taken out a second mortgage to feed his photographic obsession, and nor am I going to give more than broad recommendations on what equipment to take on safari.

It is based on my experiences of numerous game drives mainly in Southern Africa. However I have enlisted the much greater photographic skills of Neil Whyte of  Savanna Game Lodge in the Sabi Sands, who is an experienced ranger and keen photographer for many years. He has edited my comments below and added some more tips of his own.

Note: I refer to the ranger as a him as this is the case in 90% of the times but please be aware that ‘he' stands for he or she with no preference.

BEFORE YOU GO
Consider taking two cameras between two of you: one ‘point and shoot' or one camera with a wide angle lens, and one camera with its zoom lens already mounted. A safari is a bumpy, often dusty, experience and things happen in the blink of an eye. You don't want to have to change lenses on the go and risk missing the action – more on that in ‘Nature of the Game Drive'. Plus a smaller camera is best on a game walk…

Ideally your camera bag should be big enough to hold your camera with its zoom lens mounted (including hood if possible) so that it's protected when not in use, but ready to go…

Spare Memory Card or card reader so that you can download images. You would be amazed how quickly a memory card can get full. You always take more photos on a game drive than you expect, and I recommend taking them at maximum resolution (as you never know when you will be lucky or skilled enough, to take that killer shot.)

Battery Charger and adaptor for the country you are travelling to. Nearly every camp in Southern Africa has some capacity to charge camera batteries even if it is basic bush camp in the middle of the Okavango.  However if most of your safari is in remote areas, then I recommend taking a spare battery as well, just in case, as power shortages can happen...

Bean bag to steady your camera (readily available at camera shops in South Africa if you want to purchase them here)

Binoculars – not a camera item but worth reminding you about, preferably one per person but at least one to share between to people. (So for a family of five for example, I recommend at least three pairs.)

If you are a keen photographer/bringing a long lens (400mm upwards) I would also recommend a monopod or a clamp which can be fixed onto the seat back or vehicle door. The jury is still out on which is better in our Southern African safari context so see ‘Nature of Game Drive below'.

Know your equipment – if it is a new camera, play around with it at home before your safari so that you know how to do the basics eg. compensate for low light conditions, how to blur the background to focus on the animal.

If you are a keen photographer, ask your tour operator to request a ranger who is either a keen photographer himself, or at least understands the needs of the photographer. This may not always be possible given ranger leave schedules etc but certainly increases the likelihood.

NATURE OF THE GAME DRIVE

If this is your first safari, it is worth discussing the nature of the game drive and how it affects your photograpy. Generally in Southern Africa, all safari vehicles are open sided. (In East Africa they are usually closed vehicles with the opportunity to stand up and look out of the roof.) Though overall this is fantastic for game-viewing – you have a greater sense of being in the bush and greater visibility, it does have a photographic impact as there are no obvious ways to use a bean bag to steady/support your camera. The sides are metal railings rather than fixed doors and there is not enough space for a tripod. Some of the Botswanan and Zambian camps have adapted their vehicles to provide camera resting places, complete with bean bags, but this is not always the case. Thus generally we recommend a monopod or possibly a window mount.

The drive can be dusty, or you might even have rain, so camera equipment needs to be protected. Many game reserves allow off road driving to get close to a special sighting and so it can be bumpy. However at other times the terrain may not allow you to get close to the game and that's when your zoom lens comes into its own.

Animals change their behaviour in the blink of an eye, so you have to be ready to act quickly and also to make compositional decisions quickly.

Finally game drives take place in the early morning and late afternoon. Thus it is highly likely that you will be operating in sub-optimal light conditions for part of the game drive. Experiment ahead of time with ways to compensate for this (fast lens, changing ISO levels, bringing a beanbag to steady the camera). Similarly at the end of the morning game drive, the light may be so bright as to make most images too washed out without the use of filters or other compensation.

PRIVATE VEHICLE?

Most private lodge safari vehicles take up to 10 people with one person sitting next to the driver, and three rows of seats each taking up to 3 people. In practise most game drives depart with only 7 or 8 people but be aware that you might not always get a ‘window seat'. Many of the more exclusive camps limit the number of people on any game drive to 6 people to ensure a window seat for all so it's worth checking on that...

On a game drive, you are likely to have a mix of keen photographers and general safari clients. The needs of these two groups differ. A photographer might be keen to spend an hour with one sighting whereas this will be far too long for the average safari participant who might be starting to think about going to the bush loo! The result is usually a happy medium but if you know you have specific interests, then it's worth considering a private vehicle. This is certainly more expensive but allows you to spend as long at a sighting as you wish.

WHERE TO SIT?

Generally we recommend either the front seat next to the ranger or the first row of seats behind the ranger. If the ranger is a keen photographer himself, the front seat may not be available (as his camera equipment is there!) However if it's available, the side door gives you a more stable base upon which to put your beanbag/camera. You are also at eye level with the game. But you lose the advantage of height. We recommend the first seat because you are higher and generally have good all round visibility but you are close enough to the ranger to ask questions and also for him to be aware that you are still taking pictures, so that you don't have to ask him to ‘hang on' whilst you take your last shot.

Don't be afraid to ask your ranger to move the vehicle slightly to get a better shot. A good ranger will generally position the vehicle for the best visibility and lighting for the whole vehicle. But you might need it slightly changed for your particular shot. They will be happy to oblige if it is safely possible to do.

PHOTO TIPS WHEN ON THE GAME DRIVE

Animals move quickly – sometimes you will only have a moment to take the shot before the leopard disappears into the distance so we recommend taking a couple of quick shots (the best you can) and then thinking about what you really want to capture - if the animal is still there. Aim to get a variety of shots – perhaps a portrait shot, a shot with the animal in context and perhaps a close-up of some interesting aspect – a horn or tusk or oxpecker on a mane.

Colours of the animals and lighting - You may be very excited by the elephant being so close to the vehicle but generally a grey elephant against a green bush background in bright light doesn't make for a great photo. Take a shot for ‘memory‘ and then think about how to make the image more exciting. Can you change the background? Is it worth waiting for the animal to actually DO something?

Background – if you are at a waterhole, can you wait at a point where the background and lighting is most attractive? Ask your ranger whether it's possible to move. If the background is likely to be green bush then consider blurring the background to focus only on the animal (by choosing a big aperture).

Patience – sometimes animals move (very fast) and sometimes they just lie there. It's ALWAYS worth waiting around for quite a while to see if the lion or the wild dog or the leopard will move. Your ranger will be a good judge of whether this is likely or not. One of my most exciting game drives was in the Moremi (Okavango Delta of Botswana) when we came across three lions sleeping under a tree. Other vehicles came and went with people taking quick photos. Our ranger spotted a herd of zebra in the distance coming closer and suggested we wait… just in case…  The reward for our patience was to see whole process of a lion kill from the first moment of awareness of the zebra's presence to the low silent stalking through the long grass to the final awful minutes of the kill. Other vehicles came back after the kill, but we were the only vehicle to see the whole experience and to capture it on camera.

Try to capture the animal doing something. Wait at the ready for the hippo to yawn or the giraffe to bend down tentatively to drink at the waterhole. You may not be lucky but it's always worth waiting for a while.

Rule of thirds – try to avoid the temptation to put your animal right in the centre of the shot. Divide up the image into nine parts (imagine four gridlines crisscrossing) and try to put the focal point at one of the four intersections of these gridlines.

If the animal is moving, try to leave space in your composition for the animal to ‘move into' so that the image retains the life and action of the original.

If there is lots of action, use continuous shooting so that you don't miss anything and then delete the ones you don't want.

If you are taking close-ups, select single focus and focus right on the eye to take the sharpest pictures possible. Multi-focus will take an average reading and so the tree in the background will be as much in focus as the hyena and often that's not what you want.

As the light gets brighter, be more selective about your shots. The strong African light will rob all but the most interesting of much of their appeal.

If you don't have a good zoom lens, don't be tempted into taking numerous shots of animals in the medium distance. You will end up with lots of blobs in front of green or brown bush!

Finally – from personal experience – take lots of photos as you experiment to get the best light, composition, action etc. but remember to be as active deleting the images as soon as possible. Either as you head back to the game lodge at the end of the drive or soon the next day. There is nothing worse than arriving home and having to review 25 images of zebra followed by 20 images of elephant and so on. Reduce the 25 zebra images down to 5 whilst on safari and then at home you can select the 1 or 2 really good ones – if you are lucky!

About the Author

We at Cedarberg African Travel are fortunate to draw on the breadth of expertise of two teams of talented consultants, in South Africa and the UK. Between these people, 17 in all, we've got plenty of first hand experience of our chosen lodges and trips, driving the roads, sleeping in the beds, watching the sunrise over a waterhole on the game drives…. It's tough!

 

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