I am excited... I am finally going back to the "
In April of 2013 Rick Sammon, www.ricksammon.com and myself will be leading a workshop in But before we even get there, being prepared to get the shot is imperative... For the next 4 days I am going to write about how to make sure you are prepared for your next photo safari!
Let’s start with camera gear… EVERYONE likes to discuss cameras and lenses. J
Cameras
Having two
bodies gives you piece of mind, and also a way to combat dust getting on the
image sensor. It can be incredibly dusty in Africa ,
and you really don’t want to change lenses under those conditions.
On my workshops
I suggest to photographers to bring along two or three bodies. One is attached
to a long lens (typically a 500mm of 600mm), and another to a medium long zoom
lens (such as a 50-200 or 100-400) or a wide angle lens for scenery and
landscape shots. With that set up, you never need to change lenses in the
middle of a game drive.
Lenses
You can sometimes be close enough
to nearly any animal to touch it. And yet there is inevitably an interesting
shot that requires a lens just a bit longer than what you have. For every time
where there is a lion lying in the shade of your vehicle, there are ten times the
frequency when the animal is doing something very interesting farther away.
Even landscapes in Africa tend to call for a wider focal length than you
would normally use. As an example, the Serengeti with a backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro are sometimes best shot between 200mm
and 400mm to isolate elements of the huge mountain and stunning foregrounds. I do
bring a zoom such as a 12-60mm f2.8 for my Olympus body, and will use it
sometimes, but much less often than I would for landscapes back home in North America .
Lens speed is also an issue. Today
most DSLR cameras have excellent noise properties at ISO 400, and are now still
quite good at ISO settings as high as 1600 and higher. While in many types of
photography that has taken some of the pressure off having fast lenses, this
tends not to apply to safari photography. Here’s why… most safaris start before
sunrise, and end after sundown. The extreme low light always corresponds to the
peak time periods for animal behaviour. As a result, there will always
be shots that you miss because there isn’t enough light, no matter how fast the
lens or how high the ISO can go. The rule of thumb then is… the faster the
lens, the fewer the shots you miss. It’s really that simple.
If you have ever wanted to go on
an African Safari, check out our African Safari in 2013 to Tanzania
Or, if you want to start planning for
2014, check out our three workshops we are running to Tanzania and Namibia
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