If you want to capture spectacular wildlife and nature photographs on your African wildlife and gorilla safari, your chances of achieving this will increase significantly if you do follow these wildlife photography tips.
Research your destination before your departure to increase the anticipation of your safari! And it will put you in the right mood for what you’ll see when out on your game drive. Read books about wild animals and study their behaviour. Allowing some time for this will mean you develop an emotional relationship that will be reflected in your pictures.
Taking an early drive will give the perfect photos. Many animals are active most at night and in the early morning hours. Once the sun is higher in the sky and it gets warmer, the show is over: the animals are looking for where to rest in a shady spot. In addition to that, light is much more suitable at this time of day.
You need to practice the features of your camera before you go for the safari. Good animal photos show a special moment. To capture this, you need to react quickly. Therefore, practicing beforehand is essential!
If you are photographing animals, you need to choose the focus point manually. If the eyes in a photograph are in focus, the viewer will perceive the picture to be sharp, even if other parts of the image have significant blurring. If the eyes are out of focus, the photo is perceived as “fuzzy” and ill-advised by everyone! Therefore, pay attention of the eyes of your subject and use them as your focus point.
A successful animal photo should show the environment as well. It’s much better if an animal shows a natural behaviour. Good images tell a story and a 70-200mm lens is ideal to capture them. Using a 100-400mm telephoto lens can be used for animal portraits but for photographing small birds it is usually not enough. For this, 600mm or even more is better.
A good photo should involve the emotions of the animals. This is a good thing! Nevertheless, you should think about how many pictures you shoot and want.
Photograph through the car window. When animals are in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle, photos look much better if you try to photograph at eye level. Images that are shot from the car roof, literally act in this case “from above”.
Use a beanbag or a tripod to avoid camera shake and blurred images. Only shoot out of hand only when it using these isn’t possible and make sure your camera is set on a sufficiently fast shutter speed. The good old photographer rule of thumb “1 higher focal length” is a guiding principle: For example, at 400mm focal length choose a speed of 1/400s or faster.
Check your images on your computer on site. On a larger display, there’s more chance you’ll discover image errors, giving you an opportunity to correct them before the next game drive.
Choose your vehicle position carefully and stay at a promising place longer. Coordinate with your ranger and trust in his experience. Those who move the safari vehicle back and forth continuously end up seeing less than those who patiently wait in a great spot.