Photography Gear to take for an African Safari

 

My first workshop in eastern Africa with Journey to Africa is in the books and I wanted to write a follow up article about what gear to bring having spent almost two weeks in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area.

For my last workshop I packed up everything but the kitchen sink and brought almost the entire camera gear cabinet just to see what I would use, and not use. Surprisingly, I didn’t get a chance to use most of the gear that I brought with me.

So…. Here are my suggestions for gear to bring with you on a safari…

Two camera bodies… I brought a Nikon D7000 crop sensor camera and Nikon D600 full frame camera bodies. The D7000 crop sensor had the 150-500mm lens on the body the whole time and the full frame camera had both the wide angle and the 70-200mm lens on it depending on what I was photographing.

I attached a battery grip for D7000 for extended battery life and to give me an extra frame per second. It also eliminates the need to open your camera up when you are out in the field. Even close to the rainy season it can get dusty when out on safari.

I brought 6 Nikon EN EL15 batteries, 3 for each camera. Sometimes you will have power and other times the lodges conserve power and you may not get a chance to fully charge your batteries. Having extra battery power will ensure you have at least two days of shooting power.

Bring two battery chargers, a small power bar and international power converter. A power bar will allow you to charge two batteries and still be able to work and edit on your laptop. At some lodges, Ndutu for example, there are central charging areas where everyone plugs in the batteries to charge… so mark your batteries as I have seen these central charging areas packed with laptops, and battery chargers before bedtime.

You will easily go through 16gig of memory a day. You are constantly shooting animals and landscapes. I brought 6 - 16gig Sandisk Extreme PRO memory cards and 6 - 8gig Sandisk Extreme PRO memory cards. It offered redundancy and gave me enough memory if I needed it. Expect to take between 800 to 1200 photos a day while on safari. It may sound like a lot, but when you are shooting moving animals you can easy take 20 to 30 images in a few minutes.

Laptop and an external hard drive will give you two copies of your images… save one to your laptop and one to your external drive to ensure you have a backup.

Bring a tripod. I brought a Monfrotto 290 series tripod with pano head. (When travelling I put into my duffle bag that was checked)

Apex mini bean bag is a must. It stabilizes your camera on top of the vehicle when you are looking out the hatch. Some guides will have small homemade bean bags… a life saver for those that come that are not prepared.

External flash and flash extender. While there are minimal opportunities to shoot at night, having that flash illuminates animals in shade and will give you the reach you need to take better exposed photos when animals are not sitting in optimal light.

Bring camera straps for your camera. I brought black rapid camera straps for both my bodies.

Make sure you bring wired or remote control for cameras as there is fantastic opportunities for low light photography.

It is always a good idea to bring rain cover for my camera and lenses
 

Bring a wide angle lens, a medium length lens and a longer telephoto lens. I brought the following:
Sigma 12-24mm f4.5-5.6 for landscape photos - used extensively
Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 for walking around and landscape photos - rarely used
Sigma 70-200 f2.8 for close animals and portrait photos - used extensively
Sigma 150-500 f5.6-6.3 for the safari drives - used extensively

How to travel with your gear... I have both a roller bag and a large back pack. Both would work fine. The roller bag makes travelling easier and the back pack is easier when out on safari.

I hope that helps you in making your gear suggestions for your trip of a lifetime to Africa… or any other global destination.

Please check out my workshops at www.photographerslounge.net

Species Spotlight - Kori Bustard

Kori Bustard in the middle of a mating call.

The Kori Bustard is cryptically colored, being mostly grey and brown in color, finely patterned with black and white coloring. The ventral plumage is more boldly colored, with white, black and buff. The crest on its head is blackish in coloration, with less black on the female's crest. A black collar at the base of the hind-neck extends onto the sides of the breast. The feathers around the neck are loose, giving the appearance of a thick neck. The belly is white and the tail has broad bands of brownish-gray and white coloration. The head is large and the yellow legs are relatively long. Females are similar in plumage but are much smaller, often weighing 2-3 times less than the male. The juvenile is similar in appearance to the female, but are browner with more spotting on the mantle.

The male Kori Bustard is 120 to 150 cm (3.9 to 4.9 ft), stands 71–120 cm (2.33–3.9 ft) tall and have a wingspan about 230 to 275 cm (7.5 to 9.02 ft). On average, male birds weigh between 10.9–16 kg (24–35 lb), averaging 13.5 kg (30 lb) but exceptional birds may weigh up to 20 kg (44 lb). Reports of outsized specimens weighing 23 kg (51 lb), 34 kg (75 lb) and even 40 kg (88 lb) have been reported, but none of these giant sizes have been verified and some may be from unreliable sources. Among bustards, only male Great Bustards achieve similarly high weights, making the male Kori and Great not only the two largest bustards, but also arguably the heaviest living flying animals. The female Kori Bustard weighs an average of 4.8 to 6.1 kg (11 to 13 lb), with a range of 4.3 to 6.6 kg (9.5 to 15 lb). Female length is from 80 to 120 cm (2.6 to 3.9 ft) and they usually stand less than 60 cm (2.0 ft) tall and have a wingspan of less than 220 cm (7.2 ft). The wing chord can measure from 58.5 to 83 cm (23.0 to 33 in), the tail measures from 30–45 cm (12–18 in), the culmen from 7 to 12.5 cm (2.8 to 4.9 in) and the tarsus from 16 to 24.5 cm (6.3 to 9.6 in). Body size is generally greater in the populations of southern Africa and body mass can vary based upon rain conditions.

Behavior

Kori Bustards spend most of their time on the ground, though can forage occasionally in low bushes and trees. Being a large and heavy bird, it avoids flying if possible. This bustard is a watchful and wary bird. Their behavior varies however, and they are usually very shy, running or crouching at the first sign of danger; at other times they can be completely fearless of humans. This large bird has a loud, booming mating call which is often uttered just before dawn and can be heard from far away. Locally, they are regularly found with bee-eaters riding on their backs as they stride through the grass. The bee-eaters make the most of their walking perch by hawking insects from the bustard's back that are disturbed by

The male's mating call a deep, resonant woum-woum-woum-woum (Ginn et al. 1989) or oom-oom-oom (Sinclair & Ryan 2003) or wum, wum, wum, wum, wummm . This call ends with the bill snapping which is only audible at close range. They also utter a ca-caa-ca, repeated several times for up to 10 minutes. This call carries long distances. Outside of the breeding display, Kori Bustards are often silent. A high alarm call, generally uttered by females, is sometimes heard. They utter a deep vum on takeoff.

Information from Wikipedia