| Wildlife photography Wildlife photography is a profession but the good quality of today's equipment makes excellent results possible for anyone. The choice of the correct camera equipment and film will determine the quality of your photographs. A good SLR camera with telephoto lens is necessary for good photography of birds and animals. A zoom lens can be extremely useful on safari and the minimum recommended size is 200mm. Most of your photos will probably be taken on an 80-200mm lens. Consideration should be given before traveling with any lens bigger than 400 mm as most interesting shots are taken using hand-held equipment. The new high-resolution digital cameras are outstanding and give great quality images. The advantage of digital photography is that you get instant feedback and adjustments can be made in the field to your techniques to ensure that your photographs are of high quality. If you are interested in wildlife photography East Africa safari will be a perfect destination you would not want to miss, because of it’s diverse photographic opportunities. Ecological Wilderness Adventures makes photo safaris to fulfill special requests from professional photographers and photographic associations.
Patience, time and luck
To build a collection of interesting and varied wildlife photos takes time, patience and luck many of the best wildlife moments happen unexpectedly and pass in seconds. You may spend some hours waiting to get a nice shot or driving around to find the best place or action.
The keys to good wildlife pictures is however to get close to the animal, to find an interesting viewpoint with a nice direction of light and a harmonious background. Your professional safari guides will always work hard to get into the best positions photography Light of the golden hours
The best wildlife shots are invariably taken in the "golden hours" just after dawn and before dusk. A nice side light often gives better depth in the picture than a front-on light, and back lightning (when the sun is at the horizon) can be very atmospheric.
Find an interesting composition
Because the camera's focusing screen is in the center of the frame, consider recomposing the picture after focusing. This will bring more life into the picture since a central object often looks very static.
Aim to have the main point of interest positioned away from the center of the camera frame and avoid elements in the background that conflict with the main subject.
Focus on the animal eye
You will learn how close you can get to a certain animal before it takes off, and this will help you select the right lens and set your zoom at the appropriate focal length before approaching the animal of target.
A good advice is to focus on the animal's eyes everything else can be out of focus, but if the eyes are not sharp the photograph is uninteresting.
We recommend a focal length of 300mm for wildlife photography to obtain a satisfactory magnification of animals and allow frame filling portraits.
Birds are more difficult to photograph than mammals. Mostly small, they often rest high up in trees, rarely sit still and fly off at slightest disturbance. A 300mm lens is adequate for larger birds, but you will need a focal length of 500mm to fill the camera frame.
Shutter speed freeze the motion
Shutter priority is excellent for shooting action. When you want to freeze motion, select the highest shutter speed permittable with the available light and let the camera take care of the aperture setting.
With a long lens you will need a fast shutter speeds to prevent camera shake or blurring if the animal moves (which is a common problem when cameras are used on automatic). A good advice is to select a shutter speed the same or higher than the focal length of the lens.
If you are using zoom lenses at their maximum focal length (210mm, 300mm) in early morning or afternoons (when animals are most active), you will need to use the appropriate fast shutter speeds (1/250, 1/500 second) and your maximum aperture will be around f5.6 to f8. Be prepared to use 400 ISO film as these times and switch to your standard film when light is brighter.
Aperture to play with depth of field
If you are trying to emphasize depth of field in your shot, opt for aperture priority Large apertures (low f-stops) reduce the depth of field a useful trick for enhancing portrait shot by throwing the back ground out of focus. However, if you are shooting a scene where you want everything in focus, such as thousand of wildebeest on a vast plain, select a small aperture (high -stop) Protect your camera equipment (!)
The sand and dust that you have on safari are deadly enemies of your photographic equipment and often unavoidable so Digital SLR users should bring a enough cleaning materials to able to clean your cameras whilst on safari. You must therefore be extra protective of your equipment and film, we advice you to bring along big zip lock bags so that you can keep your camera equipments away from sand, dust and water. |
