Photo Tips

EQUIPMENT

Digital photography requires so much more kit as you need not only the camera and lenses, as you did before, but also laptops/storage devices, cards, batteries and their chargers and so it goes on. The facilities to charge all this equipment is not a problem in camp as we have constant 240V power available. If using a crop sensor camera, the extra magnification from the sensor crop factor is a pure bonus, and vital in wildlife photography as it is not always possible to get as close as we would wish. However, long telephoto lenses and crop sensors whilst useful, are not always needed. One of the great features of a Masai Mara safari is how close you can get to the wildlife whilst not disturbing their natural behaviour.

I am often asked which lens is ideal. As a general rule, a 100-400 zoom lens is the best single lens to have but, as with camera bodies, it depends on your resources. The lower the ‘f stop’ the better the lens as they allow more light in and can therefore cope with low light photography at dawn and dusk. I would always advise a lens of f4 as it is a good compromise and copes very well but won’t cost you too much. For animal portraits it is sometimes desirable to fill the frame with your subject, so the extra reach is a nice option for your photography. As I have said, we will work hard to get you in close, in the right place, and we will consider the light (the most important single factor), the foreground and background.

As a compromise you can push the magnification of the lens by using an extender which further magnifies the image, usually by a factor of x1.4 or x2. This will reduce your aperture by 1 or 2 stops respectively. I often hear people say that the sharpness suffers, but I don’t see that since, as with lenses, they too have improved tremendously. Just being able to have a quick look at the histogram, if you have time, allows you to make exposure adjustments to the next shot, and examine the picture for sharpness. Being able to have a more detailed look back in camp in the evening is a tremendous advantage to reflect on photos taken so far. It allows you to try for a re-shoot and invariably the next time the shot is better.

CAMERA SHUTTER

Wildlife photography is usually shot in aperture priority mode so that you can control the depth of field in an image.It is very important to keep an eye on your shutter speed as most of the time you will want a shutter speed of around 1/500th or preferably over 1/1000th to freeze action and motion. Shots can often be taken without steadying the camera resulting in camera shake even with high shutter speeds. To avoid this, I strongly recommend you use one of our bean bags and practice hand holding with good technique.

We all know how important light is. Being able to make ISO adjustments for each individual shot is probably one of the best improvements digital photography has brought to wildlife shooting. Being able to increase the ISO to achieve faster speeds is such an advantage and allows the camera to make the best use of what light is available. Using higher ISO settings does increase the noise in the image but modern cameras are reducing this to very acceptable levels. Keep the ISO as low as possible to maintain your desired shutter speed, lower ISO means better image quality.

I think it is worth mentioning that the lower the f-stop setting, the less the depth of field will be, i.e. the portion of the picture that will be in focus. When taking portraits the professionals often aim to blur the background, however if you take the picture placing the animal in its surrounding you could use up to f8, assuming you can still achieve a fast enough shutter speed. Scenic shots, as a guide, can be taken up to f11 to keep more in focus. I discuss this further below.

I think you may now be realising there is more to safari photography than first meets the eye! All I can say is that it does sound complicated on paper but when we get you out there it won’t be long before you start to understand the general rules, and after practicing, it will become second nature. I certainly will be guiding you along the way. If you try to use your digital SLR properly, I can promise your pictures will be far superior to those you take if you set your camera to Program or Auto mode - which is giving all control to your camera and is a poor compromise.

SETTING UP YOUR IMAGES

Let us leave the camera aside for a moment and consider the other factors that make a good picture. I have mentioned light and let us consider it in more detail. When the African sky is blue, the sun is harsh which can create a photograph of dense shadows or burnt out highlights. Rather than have the sun directly behind you, being off to one side will allow for some shadow and contrast to the scene. Back lighting is the most dramatic and most difficult lighting but can create a super effect. If back lit, ensuring focus and the right exposure is more challenging but the results are worth it.

In the heat of the day, especially out in the plains, there is a danger of fussy, untidy backgrounds or foregrounds and a lack of contrast. This is where a telephoto lens can help isolate the subject and remove these distractions. Let me just once again mention that a distracting background will spoil an otherwise super shot. Generally, you are spoilt for choice as each area and subject is so different. The fantastic trees in the Mara and the Ewaso Nyiro River in Samburu are just unbeatable.

I have tried to give a very potted summary of what you should expect from your camera, to help you decide on the type of camera and lens required, plus a few very basic pointers on the art of taking photographs. All modern cameras are now fully automated giving all the different shooting priorities, auto focusing, single or multi shots – the list is endless. Whilst I have tried to give you some idea of the complexities, can I just say not all the best images we see come from the high end professional gear, equipment is certainly not everything.