Tips For Photographers Headed on a Photo Safari

Photo courtesy of Rick Sammon (www.ricksammon.com)

You’re booked, you’re prepared, and you’re excited… just do not forget to bring your sense of adventure!!!!

Going on safari in Africa is not like going to a zoo. This is the real deal! The animals that you will see are primal in ever sense of the word. They are living their lives in the wild and driven by the need to eat, rest, procreate and exist, and you are trying to find them to capture them in their native habit through your lens.

That means sometimes you don’t see much for a while. It also means, sometimes you come around a tree, and standing right in front of you is an sixteen foot tall giraffe which is so big that as it walks past you, you can actually look up and see the underside of it’s stomach. Or you round a bend and find yourself in the midst of a herd of African Buffalo who are a little ornery because a lion just tried to attack them. Or an even more awe inspiring sight is a small herd of 100,000 wildebeest sits there in front of you… yes, I said a small herd of a 100,000. There are over a million of Wildebeest, Zebra and other species that roam the plains of the Serengeti in an annual migration… smaller herds of 50,000 or 100,000 are quite frequent if you are going there to see this migration. But that’s the beauty of being on safari; you never know what you’re going to experience, or when it’s going to happen.

There is also a different pace to life in Africa. Neither the animals, nor the people are in a rush. Life moves in a more tranquil fashion, a pace more in harmony with nature that somehow fits the scenery. This is a good thing, although to some type A personalities who get frustrated when the line at Tim Horton’s coffee shop takes more then four minutes to get through may find this frustrating, there is one little trick that I have learned from the two times I have been there! At any time during your experience when you start to feel a little out of sorts, take a long deep breath, look around, and think to yourself “I’m in bloody Africa! How cool is this?”

Then just sit back and marvel at the sights and sounds that surround you.

If you have ever wanted to go on an African Safari, check out our African Safari in 2013 to Tanzania with Rick Sammon. http://www.photographers-lounge.com/photo-tours/our-2013-photo-tours/tanzania-photo-tour

Or, if you want to start planning for 2014, check out our three workshops we are running to Tanzania and Namibia with Denise Ippolito. http://www.photographers-lounge.com/photo-tours/our-2014-photo-tours